Midwest Rescue of Illinois, Inc.: Purina ONE Adoption Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The grant money was used as agreed to offset adoption fees ($250 for dogs over 6 months of age).
The grant helped our organization and the pets in our care by facilitating adoptions for older dogs. In all three instances, the adopted dogs are seniors and will require more veterinary care. The adoptive owners have earmarked the funds that would be spent on their adoption fees as veterinary funds for their pets.
How many pets did this grant help?
We have adopted out another three dogs (in addition to the three dogs we reported last quarter) which will meet the requirements of this grant. This quarter we have adopted out Bourbon (first photo; formerly known as Berlin/Balto), Ivy (second photo) and Sprout (third photo).
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
This is the happy tail that Bourbon’s mom wrote: Sometimes there’s such a hole in your heart when you lose a furbaby, you feel like you’ll never love another with your whole heart! Well that’s what our family went through when we lost our Whiskey boy in October 2014. We knew it was going to be a long time before we would bounce back! We believe in rescue work and have always adopted; we even attempted fostering our female, Sedona, but failed miserably when she and Whiskey had a love connection. He was our glue in our pack of four (two cats and two dogs).
I made a deal with AJ that we would foster until we found “our boy.” When we had the opportunity to step up and help Mojo, it was in Whiskey’s memory. Then came along Jett! Both of them were always meant to be members of other families, and thankfully both of those families were in our network so I get to see them pretty regularly. We love those boys and are humbled that we got to be a part of their journey to happily ever after!
Then came along Balto (his CACC name) and changed EVERYTHING! We were on vacation in June when, on a Wednesday afternoon, I saw his post on CACC’s FB page, showed AJ and, just like before, his answer was simple: “Let’s go get him.” Obviously we had to wait until we returned home. That Friday, Balto’s status switched to URGENT and he needed immediate rescue. Frantically, I worked with the Midwest Rescue of Illinois directors and two dedicated CACC volunteers to put together a game plan, and we met and brought him home on Sunday.
Something immediately felt so very different this time. As the following weeks unraveled and we slowly fell in love while he was in isolation in our house (we have a finished/super-comfy basement where we isolate new dogs for a few weeks while they recover from the canine flu). The true test was his meet-and-greet with Sedona and our old tomcat, Bubba. Nothing but puppy kisses all around! Even Bubba leans in for his sniffs and kisses! It’s as if a long-lost friend returned!
In Whiskey’s memory, we are welcoming his little brother from another mother into our family and have named him BOURBON! Our path started out with heartache, but in the end we have made some great friends, helped two incredible dogs and found “our boy”!
