Pima Animal Care Center: Cat Castles Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Last August, the Petfinder Foundation generously granted us 4,500 Cat Castles, valued at $8,145.
This amazing donation has helped us save the lives of thousands of kittens and cats! Not only are we able to use the Cat Castles as enrichment items for our kenneled cats, they serve as carriers for our cats and kittens who are adopted, too. Because cardboard cat carriers are something we always have to purchase, this donation saved us a great deal of money that we were able to put toward our cats' critical medical care.
By saving our shelter from spending thousands of dollars on cardboard cat carriers, this grant helped us have more desperately needed funds available for pets in medical need. And no pet was more in need than Gracie, who came to us shot through with an arrow.
How many pets did this grant help?
By the time all the Cat Castles are used, they will have helped more than 4,500 cats!
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
In December 2014, a Good Samaritan found a horribly injured 2-year-old tabby wandering through her neighborhood. Knowing we were the only shelter in our community that could be counted on to take her in, she rushed Gracie to us. Our medical team performed immediate emergency surgery to remove the arrow, which had narrowly missed Gracie’s spine. After the surgery, we gave Gracie the pain medications and antibiotics she needed to heal, and we sent her to a foster home for further recovery. Still, we did not know if Gracie would make it, since her injuries were so significant.
Amazingly, Gracie survived her horrible ordeal and went on to be adopted by a fantastic woman named Kate. Kate tells us Gracie now lives a spoiled indoor life, and that she even sleeps on her bed at night!
Your donation of Cat Castles helped us have the funds we needed to treat and save Gracie — who is now aptly known as Lucky. Thank you so much, Petfinder Foundation, for all your amazing support of Pima County’s pets!
UPDATE JULY 2015: Gracie’s adopter writes, “The Petfinder Foundation helped a cat at Pima County Animal Care Center a few months back and featured her on your Success Stories. I thought you might like to see how she is today, looking very normal (fifth photo). She’s had a few issues — having to get a double root canal as the most severe. Apparently she broke off her canine teeth trying to get the arrow out of her back! Poor thing! But she’s healthy now and one of the sweetest animals I’ve ever had. Every night she either sleeps on me or right next to me, and is a total lap cat. Love her!!”
