Central Missouri Humane Society: Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The funding received from the Petfinder Foundation allowed us to waive/reduce adoption fees for several animals in our shelter. Kitten season started early at our shelter and we quickly became overwhelmed with the amount of adult cats and kittens in our care. We also had several dogs with mild behavior or medical issues who were having a more difficult time finding the right home. This grant allowed us to host an adoption promotion where fees were reduced for both adult cats and dogs at our shelter. Almost all of our foster homes were overwhelmed with kittens who were too young for adoption and the shelter was filled with adult cats looking for homes. This grant allowed us to reduce adoption fees to $20 for cats and just $50 for dogs! A few weeks later, many of our kittens were ready to be adopted and we held another adoption promotion and reduced fees again for all cats and kittens! Spay/neuter surgery, vaccinations, microchipping, FIV/FELV testing and preventatives were all included with the reduced adoption fee.
The grant helped us to place several animals into homes and raise awareness of our shelter and all of the animals in our care. During our first adoption promotion, we were able to place 13 animals into homes: seven cats and six dogs! During the first three days of our second adoption promotion, we were able to place 14 more cats and kittens! Not only did this grant help us place animals into homes, it also helped open up space in our shelter for more animals in need. Kitten season is overwhelming each year and being able to offer adoption promotions helped moved cats and kittens out of the shelter quickly and allowed us to take in more stray, abandoned and homeless animals. The adoption promotions also helped us increase general awareness for our shelter and helped us increase our network of foster homes. Every new foster home makes a huge difference for us, especially in the spring and summer months, when space is limited. Thank you, Petfinder Foundation!!
How many pets did this grant help?
54
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
In early April, a good Samaritan came to our door to relinquish a stray he had found wandering the streets (first photo). She was a beautiful tan-and-white pit bull mix who had terribly cropped ears and appeared to have been used for breeding. When no owner came forward to claim her, we evaluated her before placing her up for adoption. She passed her evaluation with flying colors! She had an incredibly sweet disposition and was very gentle and loving with everyone she met, dogs included. And she had the best butt-wiggle ever! Her incredibly sweet personality helped us come up with the perfect name for her: Cookie Dough! Cookie Dough was not only an amazing dog but a wonderful representative of her breed. A young couple came to the shelter to look at dogs and consider taking one home to join their family. They took a few dogs outside to play before a staff member suggested they meet Cookie Dough. They immediately fell in love with her! They had no other animals at home and would be able to give Cookie Dough all the love and attention she deserved. Our staff members were thrilled to see her find such a great home and several tears of joy were shed. The adopters took her home that afternoon and were so grateful to have found her!
