Kind Keeper Animal Rescue: COVID-19 Operation Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
We used the money to purchase vaccines (DAPPV for puppies and FRVCP for kittens). We also purchased Nemex dewormer that is used for both puppies and kittens.
During Covid-19 we had an unprecedented influx of animals, especially kittens. Most of these animals were babies, found abandoned or stray, some just days and weeks old. We were fortunate that our community responded to our public call for fosters to help bottle-feed and care for these babies. With the influx of animals, that meant more immunizations and deworming, which is part of our core care protocol. The Petfinder Foundation Covid-19 grant helped to pay for the additional medications needed due to this influx of animals.
How many pets did this grant help?
During the month of May 2019, we took in 51 dogs and cats and adopted out 41. During the month of May 2020, we took in 92 animals and adopted out 106. This is all with the same amount of space, but we did increase our foster-care program, which helped us accommodate the additional animals.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
We had so many litters of kittens coming into the shelter during this time, many loaded with worms and having eye and/or respiratory issues. The “G” litter (first photo) had a total of five such kittens. Gandolf (second photo), Geeta, Geisha, Gypsy, and Giggles all needed some special TLC to get them healthy. This included several rounds of deworming and antibiotic eye drops, as well as oral antibiotics to clear up their respiratory and eye issues. Ultimately, they were all adopted into loving homes. One adopter came several times a week to hold and cuddle her kitten until he was ready to go home with her.
Selva and Salsa (fourth photo) were part of our “S” litter of puppies during May. Within a couple days of entering the shelter, one of them tested positive for parvovirus. The entire litter was placed in isolation and on our parvo-care protocol. All survived and ultimately were able to go to their forever homes. Selva was a positive puppy and she was adopted together with her sister Salsa. What helped these puppies was that they received their initial vaccinations on the day they entered the shelter. They subsequently received another round of vaccinations after medical clearance and prior to going home.
Pandora, a pit bull mix (fifth photo), came to the shelter severely emaciated, with several puppies. She was also heartworm-positive. Grant money was used for immunizations for Pandora and her puppies. We raised funds separately to fund her heartworm treatment. Ultimately, all her puppies — Papaya, Player, and Pricilla (sixth photo) — were adopted and Pandora finally went home early August!
