Whitman County Humane Society, Inc.: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report

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

Staff wages and transportation to travel to Malden, WA, after a recent fire destroyed the town. Staff brought supplies, shared resources, performed visual exams, and caught and took in cats in need of medical treatment. Leftover funds were used for the care of the cats that were taken from Malden.

With this grant, we were able to close the shelter and send a team to Malden for the day to catch as many cats as we could! Without this financial boost, we would not be able to afford to close operations and dedicate manpower to this very important work.

How many pets did this grant help?

We took in four cats during our trip, but we provided food, water, and visual exams to more than 20 cats and kittens.

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

We went to Malden on a mission. We had been told that there was a feral kitten, whom they called Chase (first and second photos), who would not let anybody catch him. Many tried, and one person was even bitten in the process. Chase was badly burned. When he walked, it sounded like someone was walking on dead, dry leaves. This was well over a week after the fire and we knew that time was running out for him as infection set in. Thankfully, we caught him and one of the technicians who treated him fostered him and eventually adopted him. He has some permanent damage, but is living a happy, healthy, and spoiled life with his new family!