Motley Zoo Animal Rescue: Orvis Dog Enrichment Grant Report

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

See below.

See below.

How many pets did this grant help?

Three

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

We had a birthday party for Sweetie (http://bit.ly/2LbtGuw), a dog who had been in our care for two years. She is a special-needs dog who really isn’t terribly difficult, but her neurological deficit and micro hepatic liver shunts have been obstacles that have caused people to overlook her. We celebrated her birthday at our dog daycare with fosters, friends and volunteers, hoping that this would not foreshadow her celebrating her third birthday without a forever home. We had a TV crew there and she was featured on QFox13 as the pet of the week!

As a result of the TV coverage of her sponsored party, we received many applications for her, although none were fully prepared to adopt her in the end. As it turned out, love was right under our noses, which we discovered when a foster (who’d been relatively inactive for the past few years) agreed to sit her for the weekend when her regular foster went out of town. It was an instant connection between her and the foster’s dog (whom she’d also adopted from us)! For two years they had seen each other from afar, but it was never considered until she was in that foster’s arms. This is one of our most heartfelt adoption stories to date, and we are so grateful to Orvis and the Petfinder Foundation for the opportunity.

We also used the grant funds to take care of some of the grooming needs of another dog (since adopted) and we are still planning a party for another dog, Whitney Houston, a blind critical-care case who is not yet listed for adoption. This will be another group celebration with TV coverage when she’s ready, and will hopefully result in her eventual adoption! We are so grateful for the opportunities this grant has provided our animals — thank you!