Pets Bring Joy: Kia Pet Adoption Grant Report

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

We are grateful to have received a 2023 Kia Pet Adoption Grant in the amount of $2,500, which has supported fee-reduced adoptions for many of our animals this year.

Our regular adoption fee for individual cats is set at $175, which is already far below the amount we spend on an average cat to prepare them for adoption. With the Petfinder Foundation's and Kia's generous grant, we were able to reduce our adoption fee to $80 for many of our senior and/or special-needs animals, encouraging their adoption into loving, permanent homes.

Thanks to this grant, we have already enabled 25 fee-reduced adoptions this year. We will be able to fund an additional six before the end of the calendar year with the remaining funds from the Petfinder Foundation/Kia grant. Thanks to this, we are able to free up valuable space in our foster homes in order to bring in new cats in this unprecedented time of need.

How many pets did this grant help?

31

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

When we submitted our application several months ago, we told you about two of our longtime cats: Simone and Tori, a mother-and-daughter pair who had been in our care since October 2021.

Simone and Tori were rescued from a rural area of Virginia. They were quirky cats who did not like handling, but they enjoyed being around people and other cats. Because of their behavioral quirks, they needed a home with a patient and savvy cat lover, as they weren’t suited to families with children or dogs, or any really busy home.

Because of how long they had been with us, we had Simone and Tori in mind when we applied for this grant, and as soon as we received your generous funds, we promptly announced a reduction on their adoption fees on Facebook and on their Petfinder page.

Thanks to this funding, Simone and Tori are finally home! We succeeded in placing them in a perfect family with one of our longtime fosters, someone who works with many of our cats (Simone and Tori are very happy in feline company) and has ample experience dealing with cats who display semi-feral behavior like this pair. We are so happy that they are finally home!