NorCal German Shepherd Rescue dba ShepHeroes: Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The $1,000 grant was used to support Molly's adoption. She was our senior gal who had been with us for 14 months and the grant provided the impetus for her to get adopted. Her adopters have already used $388.65 of the grant for vet visits to support the flare-up of her anal fistulas following her annual vaccinations.
This grant allowed Molly's foster family, who had cared for her for 14 months, to say yes to adopting Molly. With three adopted shepherds in their home already, the $1,000 grant was just the right incentive, a small financial cushion for Molly's veterinary and food expenses, to allow Molly to join their pack permanently as their fourth shepherd.
How many pets did this grant help?
One
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
The $1,000 grant was just the right incentive for Molly’s foster family to take the leap to become her forever family on Nov. 29, 2019. Molly is now part of a four-shepherd family that is continuing her care seamlessly. And with the flareup of her fistulas in December, the availability of grant funds for her vet care has been a blessing. Thank you!
Molly’s story is a long one, with multiple rescue organizations coming to her aid in early October 2018 after her long days at the shelter. Molly was rescued from Yolo County Animal Shelter on Oct. 8, 2018, her euthanasia date, by Wonder Dog Rescue with our commitment to dedicate a ShepHeroes foster home in which she could heal and be
adopted. The pull occurred after multiple extensions of her euthanasia date by Animal Control.
As a rescue incorporated in the summer of 2018, with our first adoption day held in September 2018, we felt that we could care for Molly and rely on Wonder Dog’s long-standing position in the community to find her a forever family. However, by the end of 2018, due to Wonder Dog’s smaller dog-adopter base and lack of interest in Molly through Wonder Dog’s outreach, it was agreed that ShepHeroes should take ownership of Molly and manage her care directly.
Molly arrived in rescue as a severely neglected 9-year-old white shepherd with raw, untreated anal fistulas and skin and ear infections with embedded foxtails. Molly has been in her adopter’s home as their foster dog since the day of her pull. After six months of ongoing vet care, her chronic anal fistulas and dry-eye condition got under control, with a medical plan moving forward to minimize flareups.
Molly gained 20-plus pounds to reach her optimal weight via a limited-ingredient diet, has nightly care with ointment for her dry eyes and a prescription cream required on her bum to keep the fistulas from flaring up. Her bum has to be cleaned nightly prior to the cream application. Her bum will always be discolored, which contributed to the lack of follow-through by all the potential adopters she met, including a veterinarian who had expressed interest in her. Molly also has crummy-looking teeth from a lifetime of lack of care, and has a permanent head tilt that had been a deterrent to adoption.
Prior to her adoption, Molly attended 14 out of 16 of our adoption and outreach events, stretching from Sacramento to San Jose, and met other interested and approved adopters at meetings outside of our events.
She had courtesy posts by Muttville Senior Dog Rescue and Bay Area German Shepherd Rescue websites and was featured regularly by Bay Area German Shepherd Rescue on their Facebook and Twitter accounts in addition to our own social-media accounts. Molly had also been part of our outreach to other senior-dog organizations and to the White German Shepherd Rescue organization based in Arizona who pull from Southern California shelters. Thulani Senior German Shepherd Rescue had declined her for their program.
