St. Francis Animal Rescue of Venice: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report

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

Our shelter suffered significant wind and water damage as a result of Hurricane Ian. Three of the rooms in our shelter sustained water damage, which required that the rooms be gutted and repaired.

Two of these rooms were our intake room, where cats first entering our shelter are housed while they await veterinarian assessment and care, and a special-needs room called the "old infirmary," where our senior and medically fragile cats live while awaiting adoption.

The Petfinder Foundation Disaster Grant was instrumental in helping us repair the damaged rooms so that our cats could safely be returned to them.

How many pets did this grant help?

We accept approximately 350-400 cats each year, and all start out in our intake room. Our "old infirmary" room typically houses 15 senior and special-needs cats full-time.

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

Precious (first photo) is a senior diabetic cat who lived in the “old infirmary.” She required twice-daily insulin injections and a special diet. She was able to roam freely in this room.

After Hurricane Ian damaged our shelter, Precious was moved to another area of the shelter, where she was required to be caged because of her dietary limitations.

Once the “old infirmary” was repaired, Precious was returned to the room and on Nov. 2, 2022, found her forever home and left the shelter.