Montgomery County Animal Care and Control: Grant Report

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

Nestle Purina's New Year New Home grant was to provide reduced-fee and fee-waived adoptions to members of the community.

The Nestle Purina New Year New Home grant provided Montgomery County Animal Care and Control with the means to find 22 dogs and cats new homes through fee-reduced and fee-waived adoptions. Many in our community have wanted to adopt but, due to cost, sometimes responsible pet owners have been unable to adopt, and the Nestle Purina Grant opened those doors to members of our community. Being a large military community, we also provided alternatives to our military Gold Star families by providing fee-waived adoptions to those tremendously brave families. We also provided fee-waived adoptions to our combat-wounded warriors and reduced-fee adoptions to all active-duty military members. Many of these animals found forever homes thanks to the tremendous generosity of Nestle Purina and the Petfinder Foundation.

How many pets did this grant help?

22

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

Our great story begins with Ginger. Ginger came to us as an unwanted puppy from her previous owner, who was just unable to care for Ginger any longer due to an unexpected move to a smaller apartment. Ginger required a great deal of exercise and attention, being a husky mix, and it was just unfair to allow her to be cramped in a small apartment all day long. Ginger struggled here at the shelter, as many pets do when they are separated from their owners. Ginger had begun to show signs of depression from not being able to run or have a great deal of human interaction as she was accustomed to. Enter the Larusch family. The family came to the shelter one day looking for an energetic younger dog who could be active with their 13-year-old daughter. They spent a great deal of time with Ginger and found an immediate connection. Their daughter loved to be outside playing and being active. They immediately fell in love and were excited to be able to take Ginger home. Ginger has spent the last few weeks running free in the family’s fenced-in yard, and going on long walks with the family and field trips to the park. We are so grateful that Ginger found her forever home.