Providence Animal Center: COVID-19 Operation Grant Report

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

The grant funds were used to help cover the costs associated with staffing the center and providing care for the animals who were either behaviorally or medically unprepared to enter foster care during the COVID-19 shutdowns, when we were forced to temporarily close our doors to the public.

Foster homes were a lifeline during the initial COVID-19 closure of the center, when conditions were not safe for the full staff or the public. Foster homes are oftentimes the best place for a pet to find stress relief or to recover from an injury or illness. However, some pets require more care and attention than others and are either ineligible for foster care or more difficult to place in an available foster home. This grant helped fund the staffing and provide the care for the animals housed in our Shelter Health Department who were not able to be placed into foster care at a time when it was most needed.

How many pets did this grant help?

When this grant was received, there were six animals housed in our Shelter Health Department.

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

Lucky Man is a senior mixed breed who was rescued from a local high-risk animal-control facility on May 9, 2020. He came into the Center in rough shape and it was discovered that he was vision-impaired and deaf, badly needed a dental cleaning, and was struggling to control his bladder. The stress of an unfamiliar environment was compounding his age-related issues while he was being cared for in the Shelter Health Department.

Grant funds were received from the Petfinder Foundation on May 23, 2020. Lucky received treatment and was then placed in a foster home on May 30, 2020. A home environment allowed his personality to start to shine through and Lucky was adopted on July 22, 2020.

His new family had this update to share: “Lucky settled in quickly. The first day, there was a lot of pacing and walking around. He is a perimeter dog so we had to block off paths where he could potentially get stuck behind the couch — which he did twice. He is funny, loving and, after a few days of our taking him for walks, loves walking around the block. He doesn’t like riding in the car and will vocalize his feelings on the ride (or maybe he is a backseat driver and knows a better route).

“He had his wellness exam on Wednesday and our vet said he is doing well for his age (they thought he might be around 14). We have him on some arthritis medication, which is helping him move better, and we are starting him on some dementia medication to help him with potty-training and periodic bouts of confusion.

“All in all, we think we hit the jackpot with him. He follows us around and is now walking at a faster pace on our walks. He make it up and down the two half steps into and out of the living room. He is seeking affection and ear scratches and even started to be very interested in what we are eating, which is a new behavior that we are happy to see. We even found that he can hear a bit because a sneeze woke him the other day.”