Santa Ynez Valley Humane Society: All-Star Dog Rescue Celebration Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Dog-agility equipment, training treats, staff training and animal food
With $2,500 we were able to purchase some agility equipment to help enrich the lives of dogs within our care, and provide training for staff. In addition, we used some of the money to help increase our social media to increase our base of potential adopters.
How many pets did this grant help?
Over 150 dogs and over 150 cats
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Rocco: It didn’t take long for this big lug to steal the hearts of everyone who worked with him. This gentle giant was friendly and confident and loved everyone he met. Rocco came to us in August of 2015, and it took him a few months to find a potential home. Rocco was adopted in November of 2015. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as well as we had hoped. Rocco started displaying defensive/fearful behavior, which had his owners worried and concerned, so ultimately they decided it was best to return him to us.
Over the next few months, the staff members at SYV Humane Society worked around the clock to help Rocco with his newly developed insecurity towards strangers. Quickly, the staff had him out playing with old friends in the yards. The holidays came and went and still no home was found for Rocco. The New Year came and still no home for Rocco. As springtime rolled in, a young man came into our shelter just to meet our beloved Rocco. The staff members went over the issues that Rocco had in the past and what the staff members had done to help Rocco overcome these issues. Without hesitation, the young man wanted to take Rocco home with him. It was obvious that these two were a perfect match. So in April of this year, Rocco found his new forever home, where he lives with his dad and his new sister. The three of them are having a great time.
From time to time we get updates on Rocco and his new family and they couldn’t be happier to have him in their lives! That’s what we like to call a #happytail.
