Great River Rescue: Capital Improvement Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The funds from the Petfinder Foundation were used to pay off a bank loan which was taken out to remodel our shelter. The remodel involved dividing up our large dog room into three spaces: a visitation room, an exam room, and a smaller dog-kennel room.
This grant helped tremendously. First, it alleviated the fundraising pressure to cover the full cost of the remodel, allowing us to focus on the quality care of the pets. The remodel, although not a huge project, made a lot of positive differences for us.
Our new visitation room not only makes the building more inviting to our guests, but safer. We now have extra space to facilitate visits, and we don't have to bring dogs through our lobby for every visit.
The exam room has also been a great addition. This dedicated space is quiet and contains all the medical supplies and equipment we need for intake exams.
Finally, we continue to be blessed to have a second dog-kennel room to split up dogs when they aren't comfortable in the larger room with some of the other dogs. The new dog-kennel room also enhances safety because we can easily lock that section so visitors can't view those dogs if we have any concerns.
How many pets did this grant help?
Difficult to say! It helps every animal that comes through our doors. We care for about 400 animals per year.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Rockie (first photo) and Wyatt (second photo) came to our shelter together from someone who was without a home. Both had been through a lot in the previous months, living out of a van. At first, Rockie and Wyatt were put together with the general population in our larger dog-kennel room. However, we noticed a lot of vocalization from them and other signs of anxiety and stress. We moved them to the newly renovated small dog-kennel room, where they immediately showed improvement with their behaviors. Both Rockie and Wyatt are vocalizing less and appear more comfortable in their surroundings. Neither dog has been adopted yet, but we know it is just a matter of time for them to find the right homes.
