Pitiful Paws Rescue: Orvis Dog Enrichment Grant Report

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

The grant that we were awarded was used to build an adoption yard/play yard for our little facility. It is 75 feet long and 35 feet wide. We use this yard for potential adopters and pets to have a safe place for meet-and-greets.

This grant helped my organization so very much! This new adoption and play yard is AMAZING for meet-and-greets with potential adopters, a wonderful place to have one-on-one play time with each of our animals, as well as one-on-one and group training in a safe environment.

How many pets did this grant help?

This grant has helped over 30 animals so far.

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

Shelby is an English mastiff who came to us from a puppy mill after being bred over and over. She was part of a court case for months until finally her owners surrendered her and her unborn babies. She was severely emaciated and very sick. She had 11 babies but sadly within the next two weeks all of her babies passed away due to fading-puppy syndrome brought on by canine herpes. Shelby became very ill about a week after the puppies were born and had to have emergency surgery to save her life after having a severely infected uterus. She was very depressed without her babies now as well. She recovered slowly and was very shy with new people and other dogs.

This play yard has given her an amazing area for us to work with her, introduce her to new people and animals, as well as to work on training with her. She is so much larger than our other dogs and loves having the extra space to roam in our play yard! She has come a long way and every day she is making progress!