City of Emporia Animal Shelter: Cat Chow Building Better Lives Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The money was used for adoption fees and spays and neuters that are required to be done at the time of adoption if the cat is not already altered.

We were able to find good, forever homes for several cats who would not have otherwise been adopted due to the adoption fee and the requirement of spaying and neutering.

How many pets did this grant help?

Seven so far, and we have $600 remaining. Our adoption fee is only $20 and several cats were already altered.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Faith, a little 6-month-old female kitten, was adopted on Feb. 14, 2015 by a woman who had recently lost one of her very loved cats. Faith was adopted to give Chloe, an older cat, a new friend since she had lost her old friend. Petfinder Foundation grant money was used to spay Faith and was greatly appreciated as she would not have been adopted at this time otherwise. As it turned out, Faith was a little rambunctious for the older cat and Faith now has a new friend named Kinsie, another adorable kitten. Grant money will be paying for Kinsie’s spay later this week.

On March 9, a young girl came into the shelter and was looking for a kitten. They had lost their cat a while back and thought it was time to give a kitten a new home. This was a family of 10 who loved animals. Well, the daughter fell in love with two. Her mother said they could only have one. They were offered the grant money for the adoption fees and neuters but she still said only one. Evan (first photo), now Blue, was decided upon and Arbie (second photo) remained behind, although the mother said the grant money would allow them to come back for him later. Several days later, Arbie had been selected to go to an out of town no-kill rescue; I called her to let her know and she told me they were coming to get him the next day. I offered her the grant money to neuter him and she politely declined and said someone else might need it.

These four cats could not have found better homes to grow up in. I believe they will have great lives and will be very much loved. Thank you for helping cats and kittens everywhere.