Thanks to a Petfinder Foundation grant, the Michigan Humane Society has purchased a new rescue van to save abused and injured animals in the beleaguered city.
“This generous gift from the Petfinder Foundation will travel thousands of miles each year to rescue animals in need,” says MHS’s Interim President and CEO, David A. Williams. “The Petfinder Foundation will help us save the very lives we may then re-home using the most widely recognized website that has placed millions of animals, Petfinder.com. We are grateful for such a great partner. The support is vital and very much appreciated.”
At this Detroit home, Flutter fell from the second-floor porch onto the concrete patio below.
The $40,000 grant, part of our SNAP-X Detroit project, will mean more help for abused and injured animals like Flutter, a puppy rescued after falling from a second-floor porch.
Flutter’s owner called the MHS Rescue Department the day after the 4-month-old German shepherd mix fell off the porch.
Once at the shelter, it was clear that Flutter was in terrible pain and could not put weight on either of her front legs. X-rays confirmed that she had broken both legs.
Vets outfitted her with two pretty pink casts, and she went into a foster home — with Stacey Bean, the rescue driver who’d saved her! A few months later, after Flutter had made a full recovery, her story was featured on the local news, and she was immediately adopted by Esther Martinez, who’d already adopted two dogs from MHS. “She was just adorable, and I loved her from the moment I saw her,” Martinez told MHS. Watch a video on Flutter’s adoption.
Our SNAP-X Detroit grant program continues to save the lives of the city’s most at-risk pets. As part of the effort, we gave a $10,000 grant to All About Animals Rescue, which operates in some of Detroit’s lowest-income zip codes.
AAAR forges relationships with area pet owners — many of whom keep their dogs outside — providing pet food, veterinary care and supplies such as collars and straw to improve the dogs’ quality of life, all while educating the owners in an effort to get them to bring their pets indoors. If they refuse, AAAR offers to rehome the dogs.
Spenser was one such outside dog. AAAR founder Amber Sitko tells us Spenser’s story in pictures:
The handsome boy on the couch is Spenser. He used to be known as Scarface. His owner disappeared and the owners’ roommates allowed Spenser to stay, but life didn’t get any better for him.
This is where Spenser lived. The roommates weren’t so interested in feeding Spenser, so he had daily rescue visits until a foster home could be found.
Finally, AAAR found Spenser a loving foster home, where he had a playmate! Sadly, he also tested positive for heartworm.
Spencer’s foster mom agreed to continue fostering him until after treatment. During that time, she fell in love with him and decided to adopt him! He tested negative last month too, so all good things with Spencer!
Edgar was left in a garbage can to die. MHS cruelty investigators saved his life.
One sad result of Detroit’s bankruptcy has been that animal cruelty victims are more vulnerable than ever. With massive cuts to Animal Control, the city agency is unable to respond to many of the calls it receives, and animal shelters and rescue groups are scrambling to fill in the gaps.
As part of our SNAP-X program to help Detroit’s pets, the Petfinder Foundation has given a cash grant of $40,000 to the Michigan Humane Society to purchase a second animal-rescue vehicle, meaning MHS will be able to help more pets like Edgar, who was left in a garbage can after prolonged and severe neglect.
On March 9, a passerby walking his dog heard whimpering coming from a trash can and discovered the dog. The man called MHS, and when its cruelty investigators arrived on the scene they found the 4-year-old Maltese mix in the garbage can, the handle of a plastic bag twisted around his neck.
Rescuers rushed the dog to MHS’s Detroit Center for Animal Care, where vets saw that he was covered with severe urine burns — meaning he’d probably been confined in a small space for a long time before he was finally discarded like trash.
Today, the dog, who has been named Edgar, is in a loving foster home and improving every day. The MHS Cruelty Investigation Department is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for his deplorable treatment.
Helping More Pets Like Edgar
Our $40,000 grant funds a fully-equipped animal-rescue vehicle that will enable MHS workers to get even more pets like Edgar out of abusive situations. The organization’s Marta Diffen explains why it’s so desperately needed:
“With Detroit Animal Control hobbled by a variety of factors, our cruelty calls have increased by 26% since 2011 and our rescue calls are up nearly 30%. Our miles driven are up 12%. We expect this trend to continue while the city goes through bankruptcy.
“A new van is paramount to meeting this increasing demand. With Detroit Animal Control not responding to calls regarding stray animals, we are dispatching drivers and rescuing animals from the streets multiple times a day. The wear and tear on the rescue vans is where we are seeing the biggest challenge. Increased miles and carrying more animals is resulting in significant wear to the vehicles and the kenneling equipment.”
UPDATE – April 9, 2014: Today, exactly one month after Edgar’s rescue, the Michigan Humane Society posted the photo of him at right on its Facebook page and reported, “Edgar, the Maltese mix who was found in a trash can, is recovering well in foster with MHS cruelty investigator Mark Ramos. Look how cozy he looks on his bed!” We love Edgar’s adorable underbite.
UPDATE – April 16, 2014: Edgar went to his forever home today! Adopter Cindy Nelson-Pouget told MHS, “Something was just pulling at my heart, saying, ‘You need to go get this dog.'” Check out Edgar and his new mom in the video below. Congratulations, Edgar and Cindy!
The economic downturn has been devastating for residents of Detroit, and their pets. While residents have struggled to stay afloat — or fled the city altogether — animal control services have been drastically cut in the wake of the city’s declaration of bankruptcy in July 2013.
Thanks to our SNAP-X program, founded by animal advocate Fabiola Beracasa, a generous donation from Animal Planet’s R.O.A.R. campaign, and donors like you, we’re working to help these vulnerable pets.
With Detroit Animal Control no longer adopting out pets to the public, homeless pets are dependent on the private shelters and rescue groups that pull from the shelter. We’ve given sizable cash grants to two of them: All About Animals Rescue and Michigan Humane Society.
Mona on the day AAAR volunteers met her
All About Animals Rescue (AAAR) not only finds new homes for pets in need — it also operates the largest high-quality, high-volume, low-cost to no-cost spay/neuter and vet care operation in Michigan. AAAR has spayed or neutered more than 80,000 cats and dogs and provides free health screenings, low-cost vaccines and preventative care to more than 50,000 Detroit-area pets each year.
AAR’s volunteers also pound the pavement year-round, working with residents of some of Detroit’s lowest-income zip codes to help people keep their pets, bring chained pets into their homes and generally improve their pets’ quality of life.
The group’s founder and president, Amber Sitko, tells us about two of the dogs helped by our grant:
Mona (left) and Junior were grateful for food, water, real collars and basic veterinary care.
“At an outreach event, we met a homeless man living in a filthy camper shell on a vacant lot. It didn’t take long to realize that he had a mental illness and a drinking problem. He had found Mona and Junior wandering the streets and was afraid someone would use them as bait dogs, so he said he chained them up on his lot.
Mona greets an AAAR volunteer.
“Somewhere along the line, Junior was lucky enough to get a dog house. Mona had part of a wood box. Not having adequate shelter and being chained is bad enough, but he would forget to feed them and said he didn’t really have the money to get them food anyway. When he remembered, he said he’d share some of his food.
“Our first order of business was getting them watered/fed, real collars on them so chains weren’t rubbing against their necks, better shelter, and a vet call.
“It didn’t take long for Mona and Junior to find a rescue visit the highlight of their day.
“It took longer to get them to a place where they could run free and just be dogs. But they’re finally safe and happier than they’ve ever been before.”
Junior and Mona today (pictured at right with AAAR Detroit team leader Kristen Huston): safe, happy and healthy
UPDATE: Sitko tells us, “Mona was adopted by a great guy who owns a tattoo shop. She will be going to the shop with him as soon as she’s more confident around strangers.” Junior is safely in the care of another rescue group.
Life in a cage is stressful for shelter cats, and stress can lead to health and behavior problems that keep cats from being adopted. So we have grant programs designed to ease cats’ anxiety — both in the shelter and as they transition into their new adoptive homes.
The Stretch and Scratch attaches to the cage wall so it doesn’t take up living space.
We grant adoption groups Stretch & Scratch cat scratchers and ACES Humaniac Cat Castles cat carriers/habitats. Both go in cats’ cages and enable them to engage in instinctive behaviors there (scratching, hiding and resting on higher ground). And both go home with the cats when they’re adopted so they have something familiar in their new surroundings.
As part of the Cats R Cool program in partnership with The Animal Rescue Site and GreaterGood.org, we’ve granted out 33,780 Cat Castles to 66 adoption groups and 40,000 Stretch & Scratch cat scratchers to 107 organizations.
Both grants have been huge hits. As Wendy Mirrotto, executive director of Kitten Krazy, Inc., in Medina, Ohio, tells us: “I LOVE these Stretch and Scratch Cat Scratchers! The cats love them, too! They are purrfect for any cage and give the cats somewhere to stretch and scratch — a very important function for a cat.”
The scratchers are especially helpful for cats who are isolated as they recover from illness or surgery, including Henrietta, who was found frozen to a pipe and had to have a leg amputated due to frostbite; Bea, who arrived at the shelter covered in burns and stab wounds; and Roadie, whose eye was dislodged from its socket and had to be surgically removed.
Luna at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in Tucson enjoys her Cat Castle.
The scratchers also help cats adjust to foster and forever homes — and can even curb unwanted behaviors there. “One of our adopters complained about [her new] kitten scratching furniture,” says Feline Finish Line Rescue president Catherine McCulloch. “I gave her two scratchers and told her to tie them on the table legs. She said the kitten loved them and started to leave other items alone.”
The Cat Castles likewise help cats both in shelters and at home. Inside their cages, the Castles give the cats a place to hide as well as an elevated vantage point (via a “turret” on top of the box) where they can view their surroundings while feeling secure.
“These boxes are vital to the enrichment and stimulation of the cats we are caring for while they are waiting for their forever homes,” says Humane Society of Southern Arizona Associate Director of Development Morgan Rost. “The boxes/perches will remain with the cat or cats — if a bonded pair — through the duration of their time at the HSSA and will go home with each cat at the time of their adoption.”
Thanks to donors like you, shelter cats like Luna (right) can rest easy while waiting for their forever families.
Symba was our little man. He had his own “big boy” attitude. We had him from a puppy and I always took him to work with me at the insurance agency and the customers just loved him. He had a curly tail that everyone just loved to try and uncurl. He recently learned the “kissy, kissy dance,” as we called it. He would sit down and twirl around and give you kisses. Symba and Emma were best buddies and she, as well as the whole family, are lost without him around. He loved to run and fetch a ball and just go for a walk with you or cuddle in your lap. Symba will be missed and was very much loved by all who met him.–Robin Spencer-Laurie
Thank you for the opportunity to tell you about my little girl, whom I miss everyday. She was 16 years old when I lost her. She was born in a puppy mill and resided there for a year and a half. She never learned to be a puppy. Those things were beyond her and though I tried, she never really got it. She was my confidant, the keeper of my secrets, my everything. She had a compadre named Kash. He passed away at the age of 5 after being stepped on by a 90-lb. lab. He lived 10 days after the accident. He was my first heartbreak. I had him from the age of 5 weeks.
Ruby started going down hill within in months after he passed. The vet diagnosed her with diabetes. She lived a year after the initial diagnosis. Her liver swelled to the size of a football and was as hard as one too. It was squeezing out her other organs, and pushing her diaphragm up and blocked her lungs. She had to lay over the edge of the couch to open herself up to breath. Towards the end, she started panting from panic. She had this fear in her eyes that pleaded, “Mommy, help me.”
After several sleepless nights, we made a trip to the vet with not bringing her home with me as an option. Well, after we got there, that was my only option. I could not bear to watch her suffer. We (Ruby and I) had a long talk at the vet’s office and we shed many tears together as she gave me her permission to let her go.
She fell asleep in my arms, and we came home together, where we buried her under the Japanese Weeping Cherry Tree, on the opposite side from Kash. They are both together waiting on me on the Rainbow Bridge. She was always so thankful to me for giving her a home where she eventually ruled the roost: my husband, Kash, and always me. I cannot tell you how badly she is missed, but I still feel her here at times. It may be just a look in the eyes of an abandoned dog, a lost or hurt dog. Her heart will always be with me. I am actually looking for another Dachshund, around two years old — male or female, it doesn’t matter. I have a male 2-year-old Dachshund named Opie; he’s a piebald and he needs a buddy. He loves kids, cats and other dogs. Rubisue was one of a kind. She was mine and I was hers. Thank you for letting me tell you about her. She truly was the joy of my life.–Debbie Mullins
I adopted Rue from a local rescue in Anchorage, Alaska, where he had been returned twice. Rue was about two years old had been abused and neglected and was very shy and afraid of humans. After a couple days of hiding under the bed, he finally was coaxed out for a meal of tuna and dog kibble (he loved tuna more than anything).
Within a few weeks he started to trust and loved to come along for runs, hikes, and car rides. For a 25-pound pup he was fearless, loved to climb mountains, and even chased a moose! We think he was a Westie mix, but with his long legs, he was more of a sprinter, and wow could he run, run, run!
When I moved to Washington 11 years ago, Rue was already 16 and we worried about how to get him safely from Anchorage to Seattle. My vet said driving him would be best, so we took to the road for a three-day, 2,300-mile trip. Rue loved the drive and got to stay in hotels along the way; he thought he was a rock star.
Two years later, and a despite enjoying the less-extreme weather in Washington, Rue started to decline, had multiple seizures, and stopped eating; the vet mentioned that he was a very old dog at 18 and it was probably time to let him go. That was over eight years ago and this past year I decided I was ready to adopt again. I wish I had not waited so long; having my new rescue, Buck, has been such a joy and being part of a dog community again is so rewarding.–Joanne Landry
Check out a special guest post from recording artist Malea McGuinness — then learn how you can help animals while treating yourself this holiday season!
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”―Mahatma Gandhi
This quote was relevant when it was first said and is just as relevant now. We are evolving, but perhaps not as quickly as we could be.
Animals have always had a deep place in my heart, even during times in my life when I was unable to have pets. Maybe in some ways I have identified with rescue animals because I myself needed to be rescued early in my life.
When I made my transition from Broadway actress to singer/songwriter, I started volunteering at The Amanda Foundation, a rescue group in Los Angeles. This is really where I was exposed to all the animals who came in from shelters, puppy mills, dog fighting, etc. I learned how important it was to spay and neuter, as The Amanda Foundation was one of the first rescues I knew of to have its own spay/neuter truck. I also learned about the importance of tagging and microchipping your pets. [Learn more about why Petfinder believes all pets should wear collars and tags.] I also learned that one person can make a difference, and I was so fulfilled seeing animals go off to their forever homes, knowing that, in a small way, we volunteers had helped them on their way.
When I became busier with my touring schedule, I started working with different animal foundations and societies around the country. My experiences showed me that I could best help by raising money and awareness for this cause, by doing my music and being an animal advocate.
My latest song, “Give,” has to do with the season of giving. It reminds me of this time of year five years ago, when a dog named Oscar came into The Amanda Foundation just as we were closing, right before everyone was going home for the holidays. He was 10 years old, a Pit Bull mix with a brindle coat, and his owners didn’t want him anymore — he was too old for them, they said. He was crying and I tried to console him by taking some warm blankets out of the dryer and wrapping him up and putting him in my lap. We just hung out there in his kennel until I had to go home. I adopted Oscar a few months later. He had a special talent: He could make anyone — even the most vehement anti-dog person — a dog lover.
There’s so much to be grateful for this holiday season — it’s been an eventful year for me, giving birth to my daughter Grace a few months ago. We as humans have the power to help so many who need our help. I wrote this song, “Give,” while on my “Save A Life Adopt A Pet” tour last year. While traveling across the country I had the pleasure of meeting many inspiring people who give whatever they can to help animals. And like I say in the song, “We’re all in this together.”
–Malea McGuinness
Want an extra way to help pets? Download Malea McGuinness’s song “Give” below and she’ll donate $1 per download to the Petfinder Foundation through Dec. 30, 2013.
One of the easiest ways to help pets in need this holiday season is to donate to the Petfinder Foundation to help homeless pets like Brandy (pictured). Here are 10 reasons to give:
1. It’s a great gift for your favorite pet-lover.Donate in honor of a loved one and we’ll send her or him a beautiful holiday card with a personal letter announcing your gift.
2. You’ll get a free calendar. Gift $50 or more and we’ll send you a certificate redeemable for a free personalized 12-month calendar from Shutterfly.com!
3. You can memorialize a beloved pet. Give in memory of a pet and you can send us a photo and some remembrances to post to our Pet Memorial Wall.
4. Your gift will help the pets in the greatest need. We offer aid to shelters and rescue groups during times of crisis or disaster. Recently, we helped the survivors of a deadly shelter break-in and a shelter that was hit by a schoolbus.
5. Our partners help your donation go further. Each year since 2012, our friends at Orvis have matched your donations up to $30,000. We’re also able to help thousands of pets in need thanks to cash and product grants from our partners at the Animal Rescue Site, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, John Paul Pet, Bissell, Petco, Wahl, KONG, Thundershirt and more.
6. We help pets put their best faces forward. We teach shelter staff and volunteers skills that help pets find homes. Our One Picture Saves a Life program, in which we train shelter workers to take professional-quality pet photos to post online, has saved countless pets like Brandy (read Brandy’s story here).
7. Your donation will go toward pets, not fundraising. Over 90% of every dollar we spend goes toward programs that help homeless pets — not toward advertising or other fundraising or administrative expenses. Check out our blog post, “When You Give to Us, Where Does Your Money Go?”, for more info.
8. We have good grades! We have the highest possible ratings from the top independent charity watchdog groups: Charity Navigator, GuideStar and the Better Business Bureau. And we post all our financial documents to our website. Visit our Financials section if you’d like to learn more.
9. We won’t sell your contact information. You know how after you give to some charities, you immediately start getting phone calls and junk mail from dozens of similar organizations, all asking for money? That won’t happen when you give to us. You can read our privacy policy here.
10. You can meet the pets your donation is helping. We ask the shelters and rescue groups we help to tell the stories of the pets whose lives are impacted by our grants. You can read these stories in the adoption groups’ own words, and see pictures of the pets, in our Success Stories section.
However you decide to help homeless pets, all of us at the Petfinder Foundation would like to wish you and your (two- and four-legged) family a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year!
We adopted Sweet when she was already 13 years old. When we took her to the vet that first time, we did not think the prognosis for her would be good. It was obvious from her appearance that she had been neglected for some time. To our surprise, our vet said that he felt she still had life in her. We had her for three years and she showed us what a fighter she was. We believe they were very happy years for her. They certainly were for us. She lived up to her name — Sweet, She was the sweetest and toughest dog we ever knew and we miss her and love her.–Donna
He was a particularly sensitive, loving, playful companion and we miss him terribly. He was our prince and shall live forever in our hearts and minds. We still have another rescue (Sam) who was distraught at losing his buddy so we adopted another guy who at 4 is still a wild guy (Alfie), but quite adorable and learning quickly. He passed obedience training with flying colors and will soon start agility school as a means of helping him burn off some energy. I am confident that we will always have at least one dog, but understand there will never be another Willie: He will always own a big part of Susan’s, Sam’s and my heart.–Carol Ashley
Looking for a heartwarming holiday story that celebrates the power of pets to change our lives? Check out Home for Christmas: A Golden Christmas 3. Donate $50 or more and we’ll send you a DVD copy of this heartwarming story about love, loss, hope … and how a puppy can turn even the most unlikely Scrooge into a true believer. (You can also buy the movie here.)
The DVD’s distributor, Gaiam, is a proud supporter of the Petfinder Foundation’s work on behalf of homeless pets across North America. We are so grateful to Gaiam for their generosity.
Betsy was a collie mix; she looked like she was part collie, part golden retriever with other breeds mixed in. She was born in March 2005 in North Carolina and she and her brother were rescued from a shelter when they were very young.
I started looking for a dog about that time; I’d had cats for over 20 years but had not had a dog as an adult. I wanted a puppy whom I could raise and be with for many years, through her adulthood and old age. I was kind of looking for a collie-type dog since that is what we had growing up, a mutt who needed a home. A friend at work told me about Petfinder.com, where I found Chicklet, soon to be named Betsy.
When Betsy was three months old, the rescue group brought her and a bunch of other dogs up to a rest stop in Carlisle, PA, just south of Harrisburg, and I made the three-hour drive to get her. After I paid the balance of her adoption fee, the rescue person put little Betsy into my arms and I had a dog, a little ball of fluff who just wanted to sit on my lap. I drove the whole way home with her on my lap, then sat on the porch and carried her around the house. She must have been tired and stressed out from the long ride. She slept a lot, then started looking around. Later in the day she helped me plant flowers by digging a hole and she found some sticks to chew and pull. I had prepared a place for her with a bed, toys and water, but she was only interested in following me around.
Betsy on the couch
She grew. I’d had in mind a medium-sized dog, but Betsy had big paws and grew into them, to be about 50 lbs. She was light brown, with some white on her chest, paws and rump and some black on her tail. She was very energetic and a very picky eater and was always thin. But she loved treats and the bones I made for her once a week. She had long fur with curly tendrils around her ears, a long collie nose, and one of her ears sometimes flopped over.
I took her most places with me: to the grocery store, visiting friends and relatives, for ice cream, to dog classes at Petco. She liked to sit in the front seat and look out the window. In the grocery store parking lot, people would laugh at seeing her sitting in the driver’s seat staring straight ahead, as if she were driving. She liked to walk in her wading pool and would swim or walk in the water in ponds and streams. She liked to walk and sometimes sit in the mud; once she almost got stuck in quicksand. I tried to train her to sit in the canoe with me, but she kept jumping in the water and swimming alongside.
She liked to sleep on the couch and on the bed. She got along well with the cats and liked to play with their toys sometimes. She loved their laser toy and would go crazy chasing it. And she really liked their cat food.
Betsy with her Frisbee
She liked to play with sticks and balls, especially fetch, and she liked to tear her toys apart and find the squeaker. But her favorite toy was a Frisbee. She was obsessed; she would play for hours and hours, bringing the Frisbee back and dropping it at someone’s feet; if they didn’t respond, she would nudge it with her nose and stare at it fixedly. She brought Frisbees to anyone who was around and took them for walks and in the car. I kept buying new ones as they were chewed up or disappeared and found a few Frisbees in the yard or field after she died.
We went for walks every day in the field and pasture behind my house. She wasn’t interested in the horses but did get sprayed by skunks a few times. Sometimes we would go for longer hikes in local parks; longer hikes tired her out and she slept a lot the next day, giving me a rest from being continually bumped with a Frisbee. We went camping and hiking in the Adirondack Park in New York; she seemed to enjoy seeing new places and things. Of course she always brought her Frisbee. She was a sweet dog, never ran off anywhere, and everybody always liked her.–Teresa
This holiday season, order custom cards and gifts AND help save the lives of homeless pets, thanks to our partnership with Shutterfly.com. Just visit our new Shutterfly homepage and start shopping — 10% of your purchase price will be donated to the Petfinder Foundation to help us help pets in need.
You can customize any card or gift with photos that feature your pets, but Shutterfly also has some designs that highlight the special role our furry family members play in our lives. Here are our favorites (click on any of the photos below and, if you order prints, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to the Petfinder Foundation).
Shelby’s profile pic after HSSA staff attended our workshop
Our One Picture Saves a Life program, which includes photography training and camera and photo-editing software grants, is helping shelter pets find homes, one photo at a time. A great example is Shelby, a senior gal who found herself at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in Tucson.
The shelter’s public relations coordinator (and One Picture Saves a Life workshop attendee), Sara Gromley, tells us Shelby’s story:
“Shelby is just one of the hundreds of pets you’ve helped at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, thanks to the One Picture Saves a Life program. As a 10-year-old stray Shepherd mix with age-related ailments (including a heart murmur and worn teeth) as well as slight separation anxiety, Shelby had a very difficult time finding a home.
“She waited at the shelter for a month without any interest from potential adopters. Then I took a photo capturing her sweet demeanor and warm personality. The photo received more than 7,000 views on Facebook, was sent to our media partners, and captured the attention of a very nice lady who came in to meet Shelby. It was love at first sight! Now Shelby is enjoying the cozy retirement she’s always deserved — all thanks to a single picture.
“We’re so grateful for the One Picture Saves a Life program. I never considered myself a photographer, but I receive weekly compliments from adopters who came in specifically because of photos they came across. The impact this program is making for shelters across the country is nothing short of astounding!”
The Humane Society of Independence County in Batesville, Ark., snagged a $1,000 as a regional winner in last year’s Animal Rescue Site Shelter+ Challenge. The shelter’s Sue Augustus sends us this report:
“Thank you so very much for all that you do to help those of us in animal rescue try to make a difference. A special thanks to The Animal Rescue Site for their generous support of these contests over the past several years! What a great way to increase support from all our communities, AND make a difference in so many pet’s lives!
I am attaching a couple of pictures of some of our more recent challenging and successful adoptions. Both stories are so very heartwarming and truly let us know that we can make a difference!
Arbor came to our shelter in June 2011 along with her three sisters, Zinfandel, Fluff and Miller. They had been found abandoned way out in the country and were quite wild and unsocialized. It took many volunteers many months to get these sweet girls to a point where they were adoptable. All found wonderful loving homes except for Arbor.
Arbor continued to flourish in our shelter, but just never find her forever family. Then, in December, Zinfandel’s family (they had renamed her Blanche) contacted us and said they were wanting to adopt Arbor and reunite her with her sister. Oh what a happy day for everyone at our shelter, and for the two sisters! Arbor is seen in this picture, snuggled up with her sister Blanche.
The comments from their family: “The sisters are happy to be together! They love running and playing in the backyard. They snuggle when they sleep. Arbor (who will remain Arbor because she knows her name and that’s what we’ve called her for the last eight months!) is so very different from Blanche. Much more people-oriented, braver, and sillier! She loves to play! Thank you for allowing us to bring these two beautiful girls into our lives!”
We just LOVED this Happy Tail!
Shades came to us in June 2009 with his sister, Flicker. They had been fostered for a short period of time before we could get them into our shelter. They were about four months old. Flicker found her home after living at our shelter for almost a year and a half, but Shades had to wait. He was one of our longest residents, but in November of 2012 a miracle walked in. David and Tina took their time in deciding on their new best friend and trucking companion. Shades ultimately was adopted by David and Tina, and he immediately took to the highways with them in their 18-wheeler, traveling back and forth from Arkansas to California!
For the next several weeks, pictures were posted of Shades on his “Excellent Adventure” on our Facebook page. What a most wonderful and heartwarming story for all our staff, volunteers and supporters!
