Forget Me Not Animal Shelter: All-Star Dog Rescue Celebration Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The grant was used as partial funding for Forget Me Not Animal Shelter's Sammi Fund for Senior Dogs program. This program transfers in senior dogs from other shelters and rescues and provides necessary medical care before finding each dog a new adoptive home.
The Cause for Paws funding has also been matched by private donations to the Sammi Fund.
Senior dogs' medical expenses are typically dramatically larger than normal, leaving them with few options in many other shelters. Forget Me Not has used the Cause for Paws grant to provide geriatric blood screenings, dental work (often extensive), tumor removal, biopsies, medications, and other needed care to 10 senior dogs transferred in from other shelters and rescues that could not afford their medical care. Nine of those dogs have been adopted; the last is currently listed for adoption. Our eleventh Sammi Fund dog is scheduled to transfer in at the end of this week!
How many pets did this grant help?
Ten so far
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
One of the most urgent transfers helped by the Cause for Paws grant were Chiquita, an 8-year-old female mini Aussie, who arrived with pyometra (an infection in the uterus) and mammary tumors, and also in need of dental work. She was a former breeding dog who had been poorly socialized and suffered from neglect. After we had her spayed and had her mammary tumors and dental issues taken care of, she was adopted into a loving and nurturing home, where she blossomed into a delightful and happy girl. We have included her before photo (first photo), when she first arrived at the shelter and was afraid to leave her travel crate, and an after photo of her (second photo), with her new brother, asking for a treat from mom.
Another was Kira, a 12-year-old female Standard Poodle whose prior owners had thought she had a thyroid condition causing her to lose most of her hair, but when the medicine they were given didn’t work, they gave up and she went untreated for years. Kira ended up in a rescue in a neighboring county, which asked Forget Me Not to transfer her into our Sammi Fund program. When we had Kira’s geriatric panel run, it showed her thyroid was just fine — and probably always has been. She had a large mole removed, and biopsy showed the mole was benign, but the atrophy of the sebaceous glands and hair follicles in the surrounding skin pointed to the real problem for Kira’s hair loss: She suffers from sebaceous adenitis, a hereditary autoimmune condition, and went 12 years without treatment or relief. Kira also had 18 teeth removed! She went to her new adoptive home in mid-July, and her new person is enjoying pampering Kira with appropriate lotions and treatments to make her crusty, scaly skin softer and less itchy. We have included a photo of her at the shelter (third photo), and one of her being picked up by her new mom (fourth photo).
The medical expenses for senior dogs like Chiquita and Kira are their biggest obstacle to finding joy for their remaining years; the Cause for Paws grant has given these girls, and several other seniors, the opportunity to live the rest of their years in love and comfort.
