Rushville Animal Shelter: KONG Toys Grant Report

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

With new Kong toys, we were able to keep our dogs' minds stimulated. Many of the toys we had prior to receiving this award where beginning to crumble and had definitely been used outside of their expiration dates.

Like many facilities, our intake numbers continue to rise while our positive outcomes have begun to decline. We are seeing fewer and fewer adoptions even with reduced and waived adoption fees.

Keeping each dog mentally stimulated and happy is tasking with only four staffers. Making sure we can give them puzzles, Kongs, and new toys each day helps tremendously.

How many pets did this grant help?

275

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

Vencent was one of 26 dogs dumped between our county dog park and a neighboring county dog park. The dogs come in severely under-socialized and needed an extensive amount of work before we could process them for adoption.

Vencent came around quickly to staff but not anyone else. He was a mix of primarily husky, Akita, and pit, so his energy level was through the roof. He was beginning to mentally deteriorate after months in a kennel. He needed extensive exercise each day and something to constantly keep him busy in his kennel. Kongs were his favorite, and he loved them even more if they were frozen.

Thanks to our awarded Kongs, we were able to provide him much-needed enrichment and he was pulled by a rescue, which has since placed him in a home. Today, he is living his best life with his two husky brothers.