Our cash grants are often used to provide immediate care for individual pets: Medical treatment, food, etc. But we encourage shelters to use the funds to improve their physical facilities in ways that will benefit countless pets for years to come.
Thanks to your donations and a generous gift from Mohawk Flooring, many shelters made these permanent improvements. Here are a few examples:
Upgrades to a Transport Van and Kennels
Misfits, Mutts and Meows in Crescent, Okla., upgraded its transport van and made repairs to its kennels and exercise yard.
The van upgrades include soundproofing insulation and circulating fans. These improvements “have allowed a safer, more comfortable place for the animals that are being transported to adoption events or into our rescue,” shelter president Joy Williams tells us. “The van is now easier to heat and cool and is much more soundproof. We are now capable of transporting eight dogs in individual cages, with cats in carriers on the floor.”
MM&M also purchased wood, connectors and welding supplies to repair donated Priefert kennels and a back exercise yard fence. With these supplies, shelter staff are building outdoor play runs to allow for deeper cleaning of the indoor dog runs. The runs will allow 22 dogs to play outside at one time while ensuring they are safely separated.
The van improvements are already making a difference. “This past weekend we had an adoption event in a town 45 minutes away,” Williams says. “We took six dogs and five cats. We were able to transport all our tables and fundraising items, as well as show cages, to the event. Of the pets we took, we had a pair of kitties adopted, Chips and Squeeker, and one dog named Scruffy. Having the capability to transport everything we need for our different events in one vehicle makes our day much easier.” Read the grant report.
Buying Dog Beds
Something as small as getting caged dogs up off the hard concrete floor can make a big difference. That’s why Doberman & Rottweiler Rescue in Paris, Ill., used our grant to purchase high-quality raised dog beds.
“We know these dog beds will help with the quality of life the dogs have while in our care,” rescue director Karen White tells us. “We get older, large-breed dogs in who have some hardship getting up off concrete floors, and this will help them feel better while in our care. The kennel staff love them due to the fact that they cut down on laundry costs, and in the time it saves them, they can play more with the dogs. We feel the dogs are much happier when off the floor and feel better. We are very pleased with the beds thus far and think they are a great addition to our facility.”
The beds are much appreciated by all the dogs at the rescue, including the doberman pictured here, “a starvation case we took in,” White says. “He was skin and bones when brought to our shelter from Animal Control. He had to gain 20 lbs. before the vet would neuter him. He is now in his new home doing wonderfully, and the new owner bought a bed for him like he had at our facility because he loved that bed. We all feel he had never had anything but the ground to sleep on and he loved the bed we provided him.”
The Rottweiler pictured, Tok, was also an abuse case. “He was terrified of people when we took him in,” White says. “We gave him a bed and for a couple of weeks he would crawl under it and hide, but with time he learned that no one was there to harm him and he started coming out of his shell and started lying on his bed and not under it!” Another dog, Ursula, a miniature pinscher, was a puppy-mill rescue who’d spent her entire life in a wire cage. She loved the bed and would crawl right under her blankets and fall asleep.
Says White, “We all feel the dogs had more in the short time they were with us than they did their entire life prior to coming to us.” Read the grant report.
Repairing Kennels to Save a Shelter
Carteret County Humane Society in Newport, N.C., used our grant funds to purchase supplies to repair concrete fixtures in the kennel area, as well as concrete sealant to be applied this fall.
The repairs were critically important. “Without these repairs we could possibly fail our state inspection and take the chance of being closed down,” shelter director Candace Christopherson tells us. “These repairs are very important to the shelter itself but also to the health of the animals. Large cracks in the foundation can lead to build-up of bacteria, which could cause illness. The repairs were in all three dog kennel buildings; thus they affect over 60 dogs on a daily basis.”
CCHS is the only shelter for its county, so if it hadn’t been able to make the needed repairs to its 29-year-old building, it could have closed down, which would have affected more than 3,000 animals a year. Pictured is Maggie, just one of the homeless pets the grant helped. Read the grant report.
Building a Lot Just for Puppies
Forgotten Angels Animal Rescue in Chuckey, Tenn., used the funds to build a puppy lot for new litters when they arrive at the shelter. With the grant money, staff purchased fencing and a gate, solar-powered outdoor lights, a new Weed Eater and a Gator wagon to help at feeding time.
“It helped us to have a safe place for puppies so they can have room to run and play,” shelter director Polly Rogers tells us. “This way the puppies are happier despite the shots and worming, etc. — all the mean stuff that puppies have to go through when they are taken away from Mom and getting ready to be adopted.” The lot is now on its fourth litter of puppies, so it’s helped 36 pups so far.
All the puppies love the yard, but one in particular who has benefited from it is a blind puppy (the white pup with black spots in the photo at right) who no longer has to stay in a crate. “She now knows where the fence is and runs and plays with her littermates,” Rogers says. Read the grant report.
