CritterhouseKC: Kia Pet Adoption Grant Report

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

The KIA grant funds removed one of the barriers associated with pet adoption: the fees. This grant allowed CritterhouseKC to provide adopters with free adoptions and forever homes to our dogs and cats posted on Petfinder. With a goal of 10 adoptions, these funds provided vital resources to allow CritterhouseKC to focus on matching our pets with the best families.

How many pets did this grant help?

10

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

Triumph (Baby T) came to us at 9 weeks old with his mama and nine surviving siblings. They spent their lives in a feeding trough and only had access to their mother’s milk. They were all emaciated and malnourished when they got to us.

Triumph was in the worst condition and had given up. He wouldn’t even attempt to eat and just wanted to sleep. We were spooning gruel into his mouth every two hours and forcing him to swallow it.

Finally, he began to eat on his own, but then came the fevers — random fevers for no discernible reason. He would do better, then get sick again. We refused to give up on him!

We tried many different treatments, but he was anemic, he was bloated, he had no energy, and he was dehydrated, and we treated every single thing as it came up, even taking him for an MRI! We finally thought he was healthy enough to be neutered, but his blood work told us he was anemic again and we started another round of treatment.

Finally, when he was 11 months old, we were able to neuter him and put him up for adoption. In June 2022, one day after his first birthday, Baby T met his forever Daddy!

After Baby T spent 10 months in foster care, CritterhouseKC was able to cover his adoption fees thanks to the KIA Adoption Grant, so Dad has plenty of money to spoil Baby T rotten! He’s earned it!