Greener Days Ahead Rescue: Kia Pet Adoption Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
With shelters in surrounding areas offering free adoptions, we were still able to attract adopters to our rural rescue with word of reduced fees combined with higher -quality services over the typical shelter experience.
We surpassed our goal by two so I'm extremely pleased in general as I set the goal at stretch with 40 already. Unexpectedly, we had two cats in there, even though we are not a cat rescue, so maybe that's what did it! Lol. One of the cat stories I'm sharing below.
Sometimes if the reduced fee didn't come up in conversation until we were signing them up, we would surprise them and, with the economy like it is, even though they were adopting, it brought people to happy tears. It gave us bonding moments with our adopters. I really enjoyed the flexibility it allowed me as the director: If I felt like it was needed as incentive or bonus for goodwill, it was plus.
Having the grant money allowed us focus our efforts on other fundraising initiatives for the medical side of our rescue.
How many pets did this grant help?
42
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Big Ben (first photo)! It’s not every day that someone adopts a 2.5-year-old, 130-lb. male dog. So this was a monumental day in many ways. Not only had he been here sneaking up on a year, but man, could he eat! With two heartworm pills and two flea-and-tick preventatives every month, he was high-maintenance and expensive to have in rescue!
Then a previous adopter called me and said give me the biggest BOOF you got. I got really excited that Big Ben would get a great home, but first I had to tell her to do her research! Owning an Anatolian shepherd is nothing like owning the German shepherd she was used to.
Two and a half weeks later, she came into the rescue and said, “I’m ready!” We talked some more, she meet Big Ben, did the paperwork, and it’s been a love story ever since!
GDAR is not a cat rescue, but somehow (I’m a sucker) we ended up with a small kitten during this adoption event. Mocha (second photo) was about 6 weeks old. We vetted her and had her tested for feline diseases right away because she had a weird little crick in neck, and she would turn in circles and lose her balance as if she had an ear infection or mites.
We found out her cerebral fluid sac wasn’t fully formed and she would likely always be little different. She too found a wonderful adopter who flew from Colorado to pick her up, and flew her back home first class!
And lastly, our most senior dog the grant helped was Poppins, a.k.a. Trench Mouth! Yikes! She couldn’t even eat regular kibble when she came in. She was 8 or 9 years old and she had almost $1,000 in dental care to get her ready for adoption: She had 16 teeth removed; her mouth had been so infected and her teeth covered in plaque buildup, you couldn’t even see them!
Being around so many big dogs here scared her so I’m very thankful for the grant because she was very costly and, although it only recouped $50 of her overspend, together I know it adds up!
