Lowe's Contribution AND a Big Push for Adoptions and Rescue of the Animals at the Shelter

Lowe's will be at JCAC on September 14th thru the 16th to do a mini upgrade on JCAC.

THE PROJECT!

Lowe's is going to insulate and drywall the storage area/garage on the back of the cat house. They will divide the large area into a main hallway and four rooms, two on each side. The rooms will be used for storage for the cleaning supplies, food, blankets/bedding etc.

They will be adding a six foot tall storage rack in the back of the building for all the traps, and kennels to keep them off the floor and protect them from the elements.

They are also replacing some doors and making other repairs needed in general in the cat house. They will try to replace the existing sink with one that has three wells instead if two. Hopefully they will replace the faucet also. There was no handle on it last time I was there.

In the dog house, they will do minor repairs. They will also build a roof over the outside kennels to protect the dogs from the elements. The outside kennels will also have small walls built in between each to help prevent or lessen cross contamination.

They will repair the rails to the trailer and stain or paint them. They will make a new sign or repair and paint the shelter sign. They will also fence the entire property. WOW this is so awesome.

IN ORDER TO DO MUCH OF THIS WORK, the shelter needs to be as empty as possible - especially the large dog runs. If a run is occupied, then it can't be rehabbed. In order to get as much out of Lowe's generousity as possible, it'd be great to get most of the dogs in the runs adopted or rescued. The cat and puppy cages are on wheels so they can be moved around away from the work. However there will be lots of noise and commotion that will make the already stressful shelter environment more stressful for the animals. So the push is on to get as many dogs and cats adopted or rescued before the work begins. Please if you can help by adopting or rescuing some animals it would be appreciated!

Shout Out to a foster for Mutts-N-Stuff!!!!

Last week owners surrendered four adult cats to JCAC. One, Lolo, a purebred Scottish Fold was only 2 y/o and spayed. A different owner, I believe, turned in a 6 y/o Maine Coon. Our info didn't say if she was spayed or not but she could have been. Then an owner turned in two 15 y/o cats due to allergies. Gaia, a friendly seal point Siamese and Tadra a really nice Torti. She was so sweet when I held her.

I always groan when people turn their older cats into JCAC. I hate to see any animal euthanized, but I really hate to see young, spayed/neutered, purebred or just really cool and nice cats euthanized. It's just craziness.

And right now there are so many cats and kittens in the rescues that normally pull from JCAC, that they are running specials trying to move them so they can save more. See http://www.stlpetrescue.com/.

I worried for Lolo - thinking of the last beautiful Himmie that was euthanized several months ago. Luckily C.A.R.E. stepped up for Lolo. I thought for sure the two 15 y/o cats were doomed. However one of the fosters for Mutts-N-Stuff stepped up and took the two seniors and the Maine Coon. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! And Gaia, pictured here, got adopted right away by someone who had just lost their elderly cat! What a great outcome.

Right now JCAC is again OVERFULL with kittens. Any help would be appreciated. The ventilation of the cat house at JCAC is not good and the unvaccinated usually end up with respitory infections. If anyone has any room, could you pull a few from JCAC?

http://www.flickr.com/groups/shelter_buddies/

It's All About Making Connections

Friday, at work, I looked at a training video that was being prepared about our company culture. I had been interviewed for it about my extracurricular activities on behalf of the animals at JCAC. It was a pretty long interview and they didn't use most of it. They did pick one part that was a story about a dog that had been adopted, but when it went to the JCAC vet they found it had heartworms. The old JCAC vet (they now have new vets) quoted the new owners a ridiculous amount to treat it that the adopters couldn't afford and they had to send it back to JCAC. That almost guaranteed certain death for this dog. I was able to call a vet with a rescue license and they pulled it and saved it. Just this little effort, making this connection, saved that dog's life.

Last night as I was falling asleep I remembered I saw Ivy that day at the STL Pet Rescue event at Gravois Bluffs. We looked at this beautiful chocolate pit mix that was kind of hefty and said, "Wow she kind of looks like Ivy." Her owner, a nice young man, said it is Ivy. All our jaws dropped. She looked so different. He said she gained 16 pounds! Her coat was beautiful and she was hefty. And of course, adding on the pounds makes us all look different ;-).

I remembered when I first saw her. It was fall 2009 at JCAC and starting to get cold. I was down there one day helping Adel, our angel, that volunteers much if not all of her free time at JCAC and at rescue adoption events. We were pulling all the dirty blankets out of the dog houses in the outside runs and replacing them. I'm fairly brave about getting into the runs with the dogs, but sometimes can wimp out. I looked at Ivy and she was really skinny but looked nice. When I got in the run with her she was nothing but smiles and wiggles. She didn't jump. She just wanted loving - lots of it. Adel and I talked about how great she was and how we needed to find a place for her. However it is always hard to find places for pitties.

Last summer I needed work done on my house and placed an ad on Craigslist. I received a response from a guy that said he could do the work for a reasonable price. As we got to talking we figured out that we went to the same highschool although a few years apart and knew some of the same people.

I had the Flickr photostream up one day on the computer while he was at my house working and I told him about what we do. He mentioned that he and his wife fostered dogs. His wife, Laura, monitors their e-mail so I sent her a link to our Flickr photoboard and explained how it worked and said if she was ever interested in fostering one of the JCAC dogs to let me know.

Fall came and we were trying hard to find a foster for an American Bulldog, Daisy, that was an already spayed, owner surrender. We were advertising on Craigslist for a foster and Laura saw it. She contacted me about it. It turned out Daisy wouldn't work out in their house because of their other pets, but instead she took Ivy!!! Unfortunately Ivy had heartworm and they ended up keeping her for quite a while as she got better. They loved her and considered keeping her, but in the end they let Ivy get adopted. They continue to save and foster dogs.

The picture is Ivy while she was at JCAC. I don't have an after picture. I wish I did so you could see the amazing difference.

In the end it is all about making connections, even if just in passing. You never know when and how someone might be able to help the animals.

The Week of 08/16 at JCAC

It was a humbling week at JCAC. From my count, 28 dogs were rescued Monday thru Friday. We were grateful for Thursday, which was to be euth day, when nine dogs were rescued and stayed euth day. However on Friday eight more were rescued. Two of them were hard cases. Axel who was an owner surrender pitbull or mix was a really sweet, low key guy with a little bit of a skin condition. He was number one on the euth list. He had $155.00 of sponsorship from the Shelter Buddies. One of our rescues that would pull him (it's hard to get rescues to pull pitties) couldn't find a foster for him. Then our buddies at Hope came through and pulled him!!! Also another tough case, now known as Humphrey, a beautiful all white boy was pulled. We think he might be an American Bulldog and Boxer mix. He acted odd in the shelter. With some people he was great and with others he seemed aggressive. We think he might be deaf. We worried and thought he was doomed for sure. However Jeri of Canines in Crisis came to the rescue!!! Thanks to all that made this awesome week happen.

Help Posting Your Adoptable Pets to the Internet

Pet Adoption Portal

I just found this interesting web site that your rescue organization or shelter may find helpful. Basically you upload your adoptable pets to it, and it submits them to all of the web sites advertising pets for adoption i.e. petfinder, adopt-a-pet, pets911 and more.

Things are Looking Up! . . . .sort of

Jefferson County Animal Control also known as JCAC has received some good news lately:

Lowe's - home improvement stores has committed to donating materials and labor for some improvements to the shelter.  They've already been there to decide what needs to be done and are supposed to come back in August/September to implement the improvements.

Mars/Pedigree - has indicated they are going to donate pet food to JCAC. 

Yay! Thanks to those who suggested JCAC for help from these companies.

On the downside there have been lots of strays and owner surrenders to JCAC and unfortunately we have only been marginally successful at getting them adopted or rescued.  All rescues and shelters are feeling the pressure of kitten and puppy season.