WE NEED YOUR VOTES!
With just a week or so left to vote, we are on track to win $20,000! We are in the top 100 favorite charities and need your Facebook vote to keep us there. We are number 72 right now. Please vote and keep us in the top 100. It means $20,000 to our organization!
Sanctuary animal updates:
Since the last update on May th, the following animals have been adopted: Truman, Stuart Noble, Piper, Larry, Brennan, Humphrey, Kasey, Paris,Reynolds, freckles, junior, kiki, Tyler, kit, gable, jilly, paulie, Freddy, Stuart(again), Bubba, Little Pearl, Johnny, akasha, Kendra, Princess, Celeste, Chewy, rayder, reba, Koda, Wilson, mayola, jet, iris, Zena, jed, Coley, Brutus, fuzzy, duke, Roy, Luke, Jake, boo, Lily, Max, dodger, Walt, Mufasa, McGruff, Scotty, Kenneth, Chewey (again), Nugget, Katie, Charity, Dixie, Rebel, Levi, Earnhardt, Bubba, Walker, Boudicca, Hartford, Angel, Surar, Remy,
Grace, Winston, Kenneth, Baxter, Gideon, Bella Mia, BoDiddley, Rommie, Lola, Chance, Rocky (shihtzu), Rocky (shep mix), Sweetheart, Aspen, Marley, Hobbles, Lacey, Bailey, Grover, Jack, Mystic, Teddy, Mek, Draco, Ellie Mae, Bono, Smokey. I really think I have missed some since it has been such a long time since my last update but that’s pretty close!
Seven cats also went home! Charlie, Star, Snuggle, Puff, Alice, Mack and Duffy!

The standout adoption this update is definitely Mufasa! The Evil Mufasa as we have called him for some time now was probably the most vicious and ornery dog to come to Pets Alive. He was 8 pounds of sheer terror and angst. People thought he was so cute and everyone wanted to adopt him. Three of them even tried and returned him the next day. We told people it would take at least two weeks before he stopped trying to bite you, but …still, he came back, all full of himself, and almost…proud that he outlasted another one. Giggle. We couldn’t stand it, it was so funny and so cute and he was such a holy terror. We even joked that the next time someone dared try to adopt him, that once they left we would shutter the windows, pack up and move and leave no forwarding address. Well, this time he was adopted – for good. His new mom has had him now for two months and he’s staying. She recently wrote this:
“He is soooo bonded to me … taking a while but slowly warming up to my husband and son … he really is a character … actually lets me brush him now … likes my vet … she took out his suture ….he loves his walks and has met my friends’s dogs and gets along well … good off site … having problems with people who come to visit … but hey … he IS a small dog and i keep him in a harness … he’ll assimilate on his own time … if i need to have a tension gate and he has a room all to himself … buzz on the street is that he hit the adoption lottery!!! sleeping next to me as i write this … taking him up to bed soon … hey … how many dogs can say they sleep in a king size temperpedic …. if anyone is coming down to The City more then welcome to stop in …”

General Updates:

As most of you know by now the Agricultural Committee voted to “table” Oreo’s Law until next session (January). This has all of us and the community outraged and we are taking steps to see that in January they push this bill into the next stage. We have started a PAC (Public Action Committee) and we are calling it Oreo’s PACk. We will also work much harder this time to lobby the people we need to. We definitely under estimated the big money behind opposing this bill and won’t make that mistake again. Plans are also underway to show the legislators that they work for us, and they are supposed to represent OUR interests and what we want. When 10,000 people email you and ask you not to table a bill, you need to take that seriously. They ignored us, ignored thousands of phone calls, and this can’t be accepted. We plan to make sure that four of those officials do not get re-elected this November. We will ask for your help in that soon. Stay tuned to our website and blogs. We will keep you posted.

We have written a couple of blogs about this issue, and you can read them here:
Being the change, & what we have accomplished in Paying it Forward.
Intakes:

In the past two months we have taken in the following dogs: 7 dogs from Georgia, 22 dogs from North Carolina, 12 dogs from West Virginia, 8 dogs from Arkansas, 5 local surrenders (or from local kill shelters), 6 from Kentucky, 12 dogs from Ohio, 1 dog from Puerto Rico, 21 from South Carolina. We also took in 22 cats from the local area.
Animal Updates or Issues:
Beauford—is a particularly special cat that we rescued in March from West Virginia. When Becky, one of our super-volunteers first laid eyes on Beauford, he had a large untreated abscess on the top of his head. After finally being treated for the abscess, he became lethargic and dehydrated. Bloodwork results showed that Beauford was positive for mycoplasma. The medication he was on seemed to help, BUT Beauford then developed a large scab on the back of his neck. Initially we presumed that he perhaps had earmites which were causing him to try and scratch his ears, therefore causing the scab. But over a week, the lesion grew to several inches. The area was surgically removed for biopsy (which came back normal) and we then switched medication. Luckily, he has not had any additional issues with his neck. Upon recheck bloodwork however, there was potential evidence that Beauford was positive for toxoplasmosis! To be completely certain he was not harboring anything, he continued to be isolated from all the other cats and treated with an entirely different antibiotic. After that month was complete, we sent off another blood sample which confused us all a bit more. One of his antibody values was higher this time than last time. Although there could possibly be a simple explanation, it could mean that Beauford may harbor some germs that could infect other cats even if he himself is asymptomatic. It was decided to err on the side of caution and continue to keep Beauford separated and adopt him out as an only cat. He is a wonderfully sweet loving kitty who would be a great addition to a family.
Natalia—is only of our original kitties. She is very unique female semi-feral. She does not have any teeth in her little old mouth (but she doe have claws so do not become complacent!). Natalia was diagnosed several years ago with inflammatory bowel disease. We crated her for several weeks and got her regulated with diet and medication. Her stool become solid. But she was miserable not running loose with her friends. We had a meeting with the cat staff and everyone was in agreement that her quality of life would be jeopardized if the only way of keeping her regulated was keeping her crated. So she has been loose with her friends every since. Every once and a while, she becomes a bit dehydrated and needs some fluids…at which point she generally bounces right back. Over the last two weeks we have given her fluids several times. She doesn’t appreciate being captured, but resigns herself and acts like a lady. You can tell she is feeling better as each time she is harder to get your hands on. She is a unique little old lady that still has a lot of spirit still left in her.
Biggie Smalls– our handsome long time resident wound up being rushed to the vet one Sunday after he was not able to get up that morning. He was a bit sore the day before but had undergone a lot of grooming and handling so we were simply monitoring to determine if he just overexerted himself. It turns out that Biggie Smalls was not only sore, but had lyme disease. He was placed on medication and cage rested for a few days. Before long he was back to his normal happy self and trying to convince every person walking passed his cage that he must go out for another walk. This week we took more blood to confirm that his thyroid medication is still at an appropriate level.
Roy—the big boned yellow lab from Puerto rico underwent cruciate surgery earlier this month. The surgery went very well although the joint was more chronic than what the doctor originally expected. But then came his recovery period. Being such a calm, gentle giant, everyone figured that Roy would be easy to keep quiet for his recovery. WRONG! Roy thought the best way to heal would be to try to run around like a puppy. He would lick his incision at the first chance yet destroy his e-collar while around his neck. We eventually tracked down a different type of device to help keep him from reaching his incision. And we purchased stock in sedatives! All jokes aside, we were all so thankful his orthopedic surgeon sent him home with a large quantity of acepromazine. Keeping him mildly sedated at times was the only way to keep him off his knee. Unbelievably though, a wonderful couple came in wanted to not only adopt Roy, BUT deal with his recovery. They fully understood his restrictions and were up for the challenge. Roy truly won the lottery when he went home with this family.
Rocky—the four year old shep mix came to us from a shelter from the mid west who refused to even put Rocky up for adoption at his prior rescue due to the buggy nature of his eyes! His eyes are indeed a little bit buggy, but not due to aggression. Now that he is in our care, he went to see a veterinary ophthalmologist. We were very concerned that he may have the onset of glaucoma. The great news is that although he does have an optical condition, it is a lesser problem. He was diagnosed with a disease called Pannus which is very typically seen in German shepherds. Rocky should be kept out of strong UV light (obviously he should not be an outdoor dog), and he will need to be on eye drops long term. But the ophthalmologist suspects that Rocky will regain even more of his vision back once he is regulated on these medications. Not only are we thrilled that Rocky should regain much of his vision, BUT Rocky also already went home to a wonderful family. What could be a better outcome than this?
Riley—the large female terrier mix from our West Virginia rescue gave us a bit of a scare. During her spay, the vet became concerned that her routine incision was bleeding a lot more than normal. They asked permission to run some coagulation tests which we of course agreed to. She came home later that same day and needed to be strictly monitored to make sure she was not experiencing any complications. Bloodwork results were back in the next morning and everything appeared normal. To be completely safe, the vet prescribed a course of medication, but Riley was back to her energetic sweet self by that next day. Those first 24 hours though had us quite worried.
Moose—big, sweet, HUGE, loving, GIGANTIC Moose…okay you get the picture. Moose is one of our newest additions from the south. He is a hound mix…but a 103 pound hound. Obviously not the normal size or girth for a hound. We were all very suspicious as to whether there was a medical reason to his large size. Blood tests immediately proved that his thyroid was extremely low. Moose in now on thyroid medication and will be retested in 2 months to check his levels. Hopefully Moose will not only slim down but have a lot more energy now.

Did you see our blog on
Feral cats – educating communities?
Horse & Farm Animal Update:

The horses are all still doing well and Glen is holding his own. He is still living with the goats, soon to be four as we will be letting the two little guys join the others. It is good for all of them. We did take in two new horses,they are in great shape and have very little issues. A rescuer wanted to move out of state and wanted to make sure these two guys were in safe hands before they did. He gave us a generous donation to make sure they were well cared for. Stop by and say hello to Josie and Ed! They are very bonded and very sweet and we will try to adopt them together.
We did have to remove the horns from the two older goats this month. We hated to do it actually, but one had the horns growing up and then going back down into his head and the other had only one horn and that one was looped around and starting to press on his eye. This happens often with goat horns and unfortunately the horns are very vascular and there is little you can do but remove them. They are both doing really well though and I look forward to their introduction to our “baby” goats who have grown in leaps and bounds!
We took in two more horses. We weren’t planning on taking in more horses at this time but the person wanting to surrender them was a fellow rescuer, looking to move across the country. he didn’t want to put them through transport like that, and wanted to make sure they went to a good, safe place. He offered us a donation to help us care for them for almost a year and so with all these issues combined we couldn’t refuse these two beautiful horses. Come and meet Josie and Ed. They are so sweet. At first they were very shy but now when they see volunteers and staff they come running up to the fence to greet them!
We also heard about this organization that accepts used halters – any kind – to try to help horses at the auctions. It is called “Halters For Horses”. Horses that come into the Unadilla auction without
halters are run through in groups and bought by the kill-buyers. If a horse has a halter they are lead through individually. This group puts halters on horses that are without to give them a fighting chance at auction! Please send halters to: Rosemary Farm Sanctuary 1646 Roses Brook Road South Kortright, NY 13482
Upcoming Events or Fundraisers
Saturday, July 24th is our Alumni Picnic! All dogs adopted from Pets Alive (&
their people) are invited back to the sanctuary for a party! It is a
HUGE event (AND FREE!) and WE NEED VOLUNTEER HELP to run it. Can you
help? If so email volunteer@petsalive.com, lots of tasks to do!
Pearls’ Page on WRWD
Thanks to WRWD and “Pearl”, a dog adopted from Pets Alive for featuring us on their website – on Pearl’s Page
– and helping to raise funds and awareness about us. Patty, Pearl’s person, is a staunch animal lover with a huge heart and great compassion for animals. They will be doing Pets Alive podcasts every
week. Stay tuned!
Thank you’s
First we would like to thank the Catskill Animal Sanctuary. When a hoarder went out of “business” this month, we accepted 18 of their goats into our facility. When they arrived they were in serious medical condition, something we were NOT told and were ill equipped to deal with. Kathy at CAS immediately stepped up and said “reroute the transport to us, we got it”. And so we did. And they took in all the goats and vetted them and cared for them. We can’t thank them enough for helping us with such a serious case, and so quickly and without a backward glance. We love CAS! Thank you guys.
We would also like you to support our Furball sponsors!
All the people on our Furball sponsor page helped us by sponsoring our biggest event of the year. Thank you to all of them and we encourage and ask you to support these organizations. Without them – we could not have had our event. Thank you.
We’d also like to thank everyone who came out to support the events and bought tickets (YOU are what keep us alive!!), all the volunteers who worked their BUTTS off at the Furball, John Heads for patching and fixing and transporting, all the volunteers who showed up to help with BeagleMania, everyone who helped with Charity and her puppies(especially Jan and the Bagley’s – love you guys), Linda F who is ALWAYS there for the animals, Carmine – same thing – we love you, our amazing yard sale divas (you guys are the BEST!), Sunnyskies for a donation of some generators and doing our much needed bird beak and nail trimming, everyone for your yard sale donations, Becky for always helping on Saturday’s with the adoptions, the other Becky for the photos and time you give us, James for coming every week to help at the cat house, Sonya who is amazing and worked all week to give Dale a break, Flannery Animal hospital for the BowlAThon (such fun guys! Thank you!), C&S Wholesale Grocers who approved us for a f $1,000 grant (thank you guys for all your support!), Marty and Lynette for donating a dish washer and trash compacter, Mark and Christine for fill to fill our old inground pool (YAY!), The Cat Open House volunteers, Sonya, Jim, Peg, and Shirley who helped sooo much, to Bonnie, Shirley and Alison who help at cats, to DAWG Members (and Tammie) for raising supplies and cash for us (thanks so much guys!), to Scott Bergman and Candee and Eric & Lydia for doing so many awesome photos for us, to Gil and Maria who come every week, to Chrissy for fighting the good fight (ALWAYS!), and to Altpoint Capital Partners for the donation of some amazing internet phones. We can’t even move forward without thanking Sky View for the donation of their pickup truck (which happens to also have a plow and salt spreader). We really needed that guys – thank you. I know this was congested as a thank you, and because it has been so long since my last update I know I have totally left out a whole bunch of things and I hope that you will forgive me and understand. You are all so appreciated and are what keep us going. Thank you so much.