Sanctuary animal updates:
Since my last update in November, the following dogs were adopted: Patriot, Daphne, Goldie, Princess, Nikita, Kiana, Dixie, Adam, Zip, Bear, Kelsey, Einstein, Eddie, Indiana, Waylon, Chowder, Zamba, Murphy, Georgia, Roscoe, Harley, Cherokee, Princess, Kimmie, Tyler, Buster, Sheree, Blossom, Bozo, Tyler, Twinkie, Kelsey, Chelsea, Gardenia, Rosanna, Elf, Mistletoe, Lilly, Sugarplum, Silverbell, Klondike, Romeo, Butters, Blizzard, Maximillion, Zeus, Dio, Lillie, Frosty, Daniel, Luna, Woody, Jupiter, Willie, Mona Lisa, Rose, Otis, Posh, Buddy, Jade, Joshua, Scruffy, Winston, Clarence, Holly, Charlie Chaplin, Ivy, Maggie, Coco, Chuck, Dusty, Blake, Luna, Gracie, Petunia, Tyson, Roxy, Goldie, Samantha, Duke, Boston, Daisy, Shadow, Dixie, Bartey, Foster, Harper, Charlie Brown, Shorty, Lulu, Sonny, Fluffy, Littleman & Princess (together!), Katie, Sunny, Wilford, Walter, Wilbert, Marley, Abel, Holly, Jada, Olive, Pea, Suzy, Chico, Willow, Honey, Stuart Noble, Parsley, Isis, Annie, Jack, Kitsche, Moonie and Red (together), Honey, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pickles, Onyx, Noble, Duncan, Jenna, and Rufus.
The following cats were adopted: Vivian, Ventura, Gigi, Tootles, Angie, Momma, Spunky, Splish, Chloe, Blizzard, Cuddles, Garcia, Beauford, Victoria, Sammy, Indigo, Spazzy, Buffy, Abby, Spanky, Cici, Splash, Ness, BeBe, Spooky, Mimi, Rami, Boots, Sheba, Lucy, Pinwheel, Tiger, Sharon, Chloe2, Boychek, Ramos, Miss Priss, Angie, Tootles, Black Gold, Sasha, Leslie, Buddy, Roberta and Frankie.
Noteworthy adoptions:
The stand out adoptions of the past few months would be Stuart Noble, Moonie & Red, and Sheba.
Stuart Noble had lived on the end of a chain for 15 years. His name was originally “Stupid”. Imagine being tied to a dog house and left outside for 15 years of your life and being called Stupid. It broke our heart. We brought him here, he was adopted, and now he will spend his twilight years living inside where he is warm, has had a name change and is well loved. It has touched our hearts a great deal that his new family appear to love him so much. We are really grateful to them for welcoming him home.

Moonie and Red (pictured above) have been almost a year. Red is blind and Moonie was her “seeing-eye” dog. He took very good care of her, and she depended on him a great deal. He would walk next to her on unfamiliar paths, so that their shoulders touched and she would know the way. He would nudge her to her food bowl, before going to eat his own food. He would help her into her dog igloo when it was chilly, and see her settled, before he settled himself. They had both been abandoned in a parking lot. They were a difficult adoption because Red was a special needs dog, both are seniors, both are large dogs, and they needed to be adopted together. Ouch. It took a long time but they finally found their perfect home this week, and even have kids with which to play! We are so happy for them both, and grateful to the family that saw their worth!
Sheba was a cat that was dumped at the CACC in NYC when she was 10 years old. She was brought to Pets Alive in 2005 and has lived here ever since, with very little interest from adopters. She was a staff favorite though and lived a life of luxury in the kitchen. The first to be decorated and dressed up for the holidays, the official “greeter” to everyone, and she could often be seen in Dale’s arms, being danced around the kitchen. Now at 16 years young, she has found a home! Sheba was taken home by a volunteer that has known, loved and cared for her for a long time (thank you Becky T!). We are going to miss her, but glad to see that she finally has a wonderful home.
Intakes:

Since my last update we took in the following dogs: 5 from an Arkansas puppy mill rescue, 3 from an Arkansas hoarder rescue, 4 from North Carolina, 21 from the NYC ACC, 10 from South Carolina, 2 from Kentucky, 8 from local shelters, and 7 owner surrenders. All shelters we pulled from were kill shelters and the dogs were already scheduled for euthanasia when we requested them.
We actually took in cats too! Thanks to our huge Feline Cat Adoption specials we ran last month, it enabled us to help other cats! We took in 24 cats, all local surrenders, pulled from the NYC CACC, or brought here from our Elmsford location.
Announcing the Kameron Jacobsen Youth Award:

This year Pets Alive introduces a new annual award. We are calling it the Kameron Jacobsen Youth Award.
Kameron was a wonderful, sweet, kind, 14 year old boy. His spirit was gentle, giving, and generous. He was a huge animal lover. He lost his life as the result of some of his contemporaries who bullied him relentlessly.
Kameron’s death was a shock to everyone, and a huge blow to our community. The brutality of the events leading to Kameron’s death is a call to action to all of the parents that support us. Pets Alive has decided to honor Kameron and the Jacobsen family by publicly recognizing kids that act as examples for other young people – exhibiting kindness toward animals and selflessness in helping those animals that need our help. Just as importantly, that same empathy and kindness toward people and especially peers. These people, like Kameron, are the young men and women that other people should look up to.
To Wanda and the Jacobsen’s – we cannot express our grief and outrage over your tremendous loss and we hope that by recognizing the youth in the community that exemplify the qualities that make Kameron so special we can somehow bring solace and comfort to your broken hearts, and that other children Kameron’s age will understand the horror of what transpired and learn from this terrible and unnecessary tragedy.
Medical Building update – We are still plodding along with our medical building. We have raised just about all the funds we need, and now it is a matter of getting all the proper permits. The place we were originally going to put it would not work for various reasons, so now the plan is to put it across the street from the barn. This will eat up one of the horse pastures but it is the most level ground, and it appears to be the best place for parking, water, well, and electrical requirements. We are hoping to get all the permits quickly and be ready to break ground as soon as the thaw comes, but that may be overly optimistic. One GREAT thing though is that we don’t have to pay for an architect! One of our most frequent, well known, and well loved volunteers (and an adopter!) is an architect! She has drawn up all the plans – they are really gorgeous! She is completely fabulous to us and doing it for free. THANK YOU CECELIA! Next update I will probably include a link to the floor plans, although right now we are still working all of that out.

Don’t forget to check out the Pets Alive Blog. Best Friends turns their back on NY – AGAIN A note to shelter directors – CHOOSE LIFE Crazy letters we get… “Dear Cam…” Happy Holidays from Pets Alive The story of Annie How do you know when it is time for euthanasia

Puerto Rico – The new website went live at petsalivepr.org and we are starting to raise funds and get sponsors for some of the dogs. If you are planning a trip to Puerto Rico, please contact us to help us bring dogs back. Commercial airlines will only allow us to take back six dogs at a time so we are always looking for people to attach some dogs to their tickets. We will cover all expenses and meet the dogs at the airport. We are still looking for land to build our facility and get the actual “sanctuary” part off the ground. Chrissy will be heading there next week to focus on this part of the project. Once we have the property we can really kick this off!
Elmsford – Pets Alive Westchester – Now under new management, we have great people in place managing the Elmsford location. Joy Sarnelli Carson has taken over as Director, John Sibley has taken over as Operations, and Ken Carson has stepped in to handle adoptions. It’s not an easy task. Hundreds of animals are awaiting homes and we are struggling financially to keep the doors open. Joy and John are focused on the needs of the animals, adoptions, and meeting the financial needs to care for them. With Marcy’s help, they are implementing plans for fundraising to secure the future of Elmsford, and will institute programs to broaden the reach of adoption promotions, and also start foster networks. It is really starting to come around already. Volunteering has picked up and we are actively seeking adopters, donors and doing offsite events. We still need a lot of help, but things are really starting to finally turn around and we all feel very positive and confident that we can save Elmsford. Your help is very welcome! You can visit their website at: petsalivewest.org
Corvette Raffle
Pets Alive is not running this raffle, but the people that are will be splitting the proceeds between us and another non-profit. Tickets are just $50 and only 2500 tickets will be sold. You have a 1 in 2500 chance of owning this amazing car. The visor is even autographed by Rob Thomas!
Medical Updates or Issues: (written by Janet)
Pets Alive is generally fortunate enough to be able to keep wide spreading illnesses at bay. And luckily in the rare instances when extremely virulent pathogens are brought onto the property, we have typically been able to contain the sickness to those particular individuals.
This past month, we faced a big challenge when a couple of sickly dogs caused rampant illness amongst our kennel. Basically each and every dog was afflicted in some capacity. Fluffy, a beautiful collie mix, fell the most ill. She was febrile, severely congested, and was not responding to nebulization. The hardest and most difficult part was getting her medication into her. Fluffy lost her appetite early on and no matter what we tried, we could not stimulate her to eat. Therefore getting oral medication into her was a major issue. Worse, as she fell more ill, she became behaviorally unmanageable. Force feeding could not be accomplished since she would begin growling and snapping at the mere site of one of our staff members. (We knew she must have felt miserable since this was not her normal personality in the least!)
After all other medical attempts failed, we finally took her to a local veterinary hospital with special isolation wards (and 24 hour medical care). I worried that we could possibly lose Fluffy if a feeding tube wasn’t surgically inserted. Fluffy spent over a week in their isolation ward. The doctors were just about to place a feeding tube (as a last resort), when she FINALLY started showing interest in food! Slowly her appetite increased and she was ingesting all of her oral medications!!! (The IV medications available were limited in comparison to the wide array of oral antibiotics available to treat her infection). By the time Fluffy was able to be discharged, she was back to her sweet loving personality! In fact, she had a wonderful family that was eagerly awaiting her discharge. We are all so thankful that Fluffy not only made a FULL recovery, but was welcomed by a wonderfully loving family with open arms. We couldn’t ask for a better ending!
Gabrielle was also one of the dogs who became very sick during this time period. She quickly became lethargic and febrile. She had extremely purulent nasal discharge and she stopped eating. The difference with our success treating Gabrielle versus Fluffy on the premises was that Gabrielle stayed her same adorable gentle self EVEN when she was at her most sick. We were able to give her sub-q fluids and medications with ease. We even set her up with a nebulizer in her run. Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better patient! Even with a 104.1 fever, she was trying to give us kisses! Gabrielle is long since fully recovered and just waiting to have as happy of an ending as Fluffy. And boy does she deserve it!
Around this same time, Scrappy the handsome pitty boy, was not feeling himself. With the wide array of volunteers who know just how special Scrappy is, there were many worried folks out there. Luckily Scrappy’s illness was fairly short lived. With some pain meds and antibiotics, he perked up within a couple days and was right back to being the mayor of the kennel.
Andy, one of our other studly black pit bulls had been doing wonderfully since his arrival from the horrible West Virginia hoarding situation this past March. But with the stagnation of winter and indoor kennel life, Andy has actually starting losing some of his hair again! He is back on medication and special baths, for which we are already seeing some improvement. Hopefully the coming of spring and warm weather (or better yet a forever home) will bring about the decrease of stress needed to fully recover from this bug!
Fox our lively adorable fox terrier mix from Puerto Rico is finally in treatment for heartworm. We knew that Fox needed treatment but typical upper respiratory infections, and then the widespread kennel disease forced us to delay treatment. He has gotten the first set of injections and is recovering nicely thus far. Fox is due for a second set of injections (as well as another month of rest) and is already scheduled for the first week in March. Fingers crossed that Fox’s treatment continues to run as smoothly as these first weeks have gone. He is an absolute gem of a dog and by the middle of April, should be heartworm free!
Suzy, sweet little Suzy, is a genuinely precious middle aged Cocker Spaniel who arrived from the city. Not only did she arrive with the notorious upper respiratory infection that the CACC likes to harbor, but she had three large masses growing from her mammary region. The largest was the size of a large grapefruit and was nearly dragging on the ground. Our vet was concerned not only due to the fact that two of these masses were in the mammary chain, BUT acknowledged the great discomfort Suzy must have been experiencing from the shear size and weight of the largest mass. They were kind enough to fit her in immediately for a chest x-ray to see if there were any signs of cancer in her lungs. Thankfully they did not see any. They then slated her for lump removal that next day so they could ease the discomfort of carrying the extra enormous weight of that mass as soon as possible.
Suzy’s surgery was long and intense, but she came through well. A drain had to be placed to make sure her surgery sites were able to release the resulting tissue fluid and not become infected. But by the day after her procedure, Suzy was full of energy! She did not want to sit back and waste another day! Even with her upper respiratory infection compounding her recovery, she was quite the trooper. Her incisions were healing quite nicely and her infection was basically gone when a sweet woman named Mary saw Suzy’s photo. By that point, the biopsies of Suzy’s lumps were in. Unfortunately just as everyone expected the two smaller lumps did turn out to be malignant in nature (the largest lump was fatty and benign). With that being said, her lungs luckily looked clear and our vet was hopeful that all of the masses were removed in their entirety, therefore decreasing the chances of spreading. But no one knows for sure how long Suzy has. The only thing we can be certain of is that Suzy has a zest for life and now has quite the loving home in which to flourish in. Each day is a gift and I’m certain she is living life to the fullest. We are all so grateful to Mary (Suzy’s mom) for opening her heart to this beautiful soul, and to some large donations from supporters to cover her surgery.
Farm Animal Updates:

If you are a regular around here, then you know our senior horse, Glen. Many of you noticed Glen’s eye deteriorating over the past year. We kept close watch on it and as long as it was not causing him pain, we decided to leave it be, even though he could no longer see from it. Eventually though it became quite painful and the vet said we had no choice but to remove it. We were all worried about this 38 year old horse and how he would do with such a massive surgery but it was really no big deal at all! It went shockingly smooth, the eye was removed, he STOOD for the entire surgery (was numbed) and didn’t fight or cause any problem. He was a complete sweetheart and after the surgery he recovered super quickly and is back out with his goat friends again. Whew. What a sigh of relief. We love this big old skinny guy and we definitely weren’t ready to let him go yet.
Speaking of the goats. OH MY! THEY ARE FAT FAT FAT! Wait, that is not politically correct. Ok, our goats are ummm, let’s see…’super fluffy”? Or maybe “thin challenged”? This tough winter with almost no exercise and just hanging around the food, has caused them to pack on some unhealthy pounds. Will you please consider coming down and walking them? They can walk with our regular slip leads as long as you keep the brown one (McTavish McGoat) in front of the black one (Goatie McGoat), or Goatie one won’t go. Thank you for exercising our goats! They need it too.
We were also involved in a farm animal rescue. Another hoarder situation. We wound up taking 6 mini horses from the situation, and it was like pure joy had been infused into Pets Alive. No one could go down the driveway without stopping to see them, play with them or coo to them. They were the most delightful animals. Sadly, AND happily we had them only for a short time. Four were adopted by one family and the other two went together to another family. It was bittersweet to see them go, and we miss their cuteness around here, but are so glad that their lives have been turned around.
Upcoming Events or Fundraisers
The 35th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be held in the Village of Goshen on Sunday, March 13th at 2 p.m. Past Parades have had overwhelming attendance and 20,000+ spectators are expected this year. We will have our float and be marching in the parade! Come join us, and wear your Pets Alive t-shirt!
Lucky Charms St. Patrick’s Party and Adoption Event is happening at the Sanctuary Thursday March 17th through Monday March 21st. We’ve found your lucky charm. Just so happens it is furry, cute & here waiting for you! During this special event, all adopting families that come wearing green will receive a special FREE GIFT! Take home your “Furry Lucky Charm” and you will be entered into our special Lucky Charms Raffle. Come on over & “Get Lucky” at this St. Patrick’s Adoption Event.
The Magic Bus Ribbon Cutting Extravaganza! Join us Saturday, April 2 from 11:30-2 as we kick off the first season of BUS MAGIC with a big party! Take a ride on the Magic Bus! We will have VIP Sanctuary tours, music, food and fun. This is an event that you definitely cannot miss, so get on the bus!
Show your support with every purchase you make!
As one of our valued supporters, you are invited to apply for our special Visa Platinum credit card
through Capital One Card Lab Connect. Use the custom card designs (you can even upload a picture of your own pet, or children!) to show your support and your rewards will be automatically donated to our organization!
Oreo’s Law
Oreo’s Law has been reintroduced in the New York State Legislature. Thankfully, this year Alley Cat Allies has stood up for the animals and unequivocally embraced Oreo’s Law, calling killing when the animals have a place to go the ultimate form of “animal cruelty.” We agree. The wording has been changed this year to cover some of the worries about it that people had expressed last year. You can read the full legislation here.
You can also go to www.YesonOreosLaw.com to learn more.

Other
Special thanks to Natura Pet Food. These guys truly make an excellent product – Innova, California Naturals, Evo, etc. The food is excellent, the quality is excellent, and we have recently come to find that the people are good hearted and generous as well. They sponsored our booth so we could have a presence at the NJ Pet Expo this month and then they donated ALL the proceeds from THEIR booth to Pets Alive. Over $4000. The staff are all kind and happy people as well. They were really a treat to work with and we are planning on doing more with them in the future. Be sure to check out their line of animal food. I highly recommend it.
Thank you once again this year to the O&R payment processing department! Every year they collect funds and items for us from their department and bring it all over to us. The nicest folk there and we appreciate this effort on our behalf.
Thank you to the folks at Rockstar Energy Drink! They donated another cargo van to us from their retired fleet (now we have one at Elmsford and Middletown locations!) and I can not tell you how many times we have already used it. Mostly recently to go all the way to Vermont to transport 13 animals. The cargo vans are probably the most often used item at either facility. We so desperately needed something like this and we’re really grateful for this donation. Thank you Rockstar!
Special appreciation and thanks also to Scott and Candee Bergmann. Scott is a professional photographer who does exceptional work. He has been doing a lot of photos for us, donating the use of all of them, putting together wall hangings, gifts, videos, and he did all the pics for this years’s calendar that were sold as a fundraiser. It was a lot of work, and he and his wife are so so kind and so gracious. We really appreciate their support of Pets Alive. Speaking of the calendar we absolutely must thank Lizer and Sandy from the Epic Company. They run and manage a lot of nursing homes and rehab centers and this year bought a Pets Alive calendar to give away as a gift to all their residents. That huge purchase, and their connections to an excellent printer, made this one of our best fund raisers thus far.
Current Needs:
Our biggest need right now is CAT VOLUNTEERS! We have MANY dog volunteers but we really need some committed cat volunteers. Our staff for cats is part time, and they have a great deal of work. Would you be willing to come and clean one of the cat rooms, even once a week or once a month? Cleaning the cat rooms entails scooping litter pans, cleaning the floors, replacing the bedding, etc. It is about 30-60 minutes of work per room and we’d need you here by no later than 11 (9:30 would be even better!). Please consider helping us. We really need you! More importantly, the cats really need you!
Other needs right now is for 3-lb paper trays, paper towels, Libman wonder mopheads, used ink cartridges (we trade them in for credit), High Efficiency laundry detergent, dog toys, Panacur dewormer (the
big bottles of equine liquid has been working well for us!), Advantixx or Frontline for dogs, Panacur Dewormer, Ivermectin, disinfectant wet wipes, and Slip leads. Thank you for your kind consideration on these items!
Of course our biggest need is consistent monthly income that we can count on. We’re not gonna lie, or sugar coat it. We NEED your help to survive. The city, town, state, government – none of them give us any money or help. We survive ENTIRELY because people like you read this, and believe in what we are doing and believe in no-kill. WANT to see no-kill, want to see an end to the inhumane slaughter of companion animals that come to shelters because they are down on their luck and they need help. The help they get in most shelters, is to be killed. We are determined to put an end to that. We work toward it every day. In four years we have helped convert many other shelters to no-kill.
Please consider sponsoring a pet. Your monthly donation of just $18 (three cups of gourmet coffee) will help us to save the life of an animal every single month. Please consider taking this step. We need you, and more importantly THEY need you. When they come to a shelter, starving, cold, scared and hurt, we promise you – and we promise them – that we will extend our hand, pick them up, and help them. We will not walk them to a back room and kill them. Please help us. They deserve it. We need your support.

Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education. Please consider making a donation to help us.