Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter: Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The grant funds were used to provide heartworm treatment for dogs in our shelter and to provide medical care to animals being transported out of the shelter to partner agencies for adoption.
The dogs that were provided with heartworm treatment using the grant funds were given a much better chance at being adopted. Heartworm treatment is expensive and when potential adopters learned that grant funds were covering the expense, it made adoption feasible. The animals transported to other agencies needed veterinary care to make the trip, and these grant funds allowed us to provide that.
How many pets did this grant help?
15 animals were directly impacted by this grant; however, because the grant was able to help provide positive outcomes for those 15 animals, another 15 animals were afforded space within our shelter.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Doodles came to our shelter in May 2015 as a young pup with a bright future. He was quickly adopted by a family who promised to provide shelter, food, medical care, love, etc. That promise wasn’t fulfilled, and Doodles was found running the streets in August 2018. He was underweight, had patches of fur missing with superficial wounds, and was undersocialized. Our veterinary team went to work on getting him well and our animal-care staff gave him extra attention. Our staff couldn’t help but feel as though we had failed him. After a few weeks of treatment and good nutrition, Doodles was feeling much better and was ready for adoption again — this time to the best home only.
But because Doodles wasn’t properly cared for over the last three years, he contracted heartworms, which made it more difficult to find a great home willing to take on the expensive burden of heartworm treatment. When the Petfinder Foundation Adoption Options in Action grant was awarded, Doodles’s heartworm treatment was an easy decision for staff. The shelter was filled to capacity when one of the shelter’s foster parents came in to offer assistance. She found Doodles and fell in love instantly. She officially adopted Doodles and he is currently undergoing heartworm treatment thanks to the generous grant funds from the Petfinder Foundation. The foster home also adopted a friend for Doodles (who is also being treated for heartworms using the Petfinder Foundation grant funds) so that he would have great company and never experience a day of sadness ever again.
