When I first heard about low or no cost adoption fees, I was completely and totallyagainst the idea.
I had heard rumors of some places doing this, and I just thought to myself that they were disreputable and didn’t care who adopted their animals.
Then I read about a seminar where it was encouraged for you to REDUCE adoption fees on senior dogs and cats, or pit bulls, or difficult to place dogs or cats, or dogs or cats with medical issues or those that had been with you a long time.
I read the seminar description and thought “ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Those dogs and cats are not worth any less in our eyes! Just because they are older or sick, or may be tougher to place, does that mean I want people adopting them BECAUSE they see a “discounted” animal? It seemed to imply that they are WORTH less or that we should devalue them in some way!
And so I attended the seminar, perhaps a bit smug and pompous in regards to my opinion about this, but also ready and wanting to be open minded and to listen to what was to be taught. Inwardly I had kind of already made up my mind that we wouldn’t be doing this at Pets Alive.
After the seminar…and after listening with a truly open mind, asking many questions, after reading the studies about this, and after speaking to many organizations that had done it…I was forced to admit that I was wrong. Very wrong.
The first one I spoke to in person about this was Bonnie Brown. Bonnie Brown used to work at the Best Friends Animal Society and then she went to Nevada Humane and wound up converting their very high kill facility into one that saves over 93% of all 15,000 animals they take in annually. Think about that. They are taking in over 42 animals EVERY SINGLE day, seven days a week, and saving almost ALL of them. And Bonnie supported free, low cost and reduced fee adoptions.
So I went to her and asked her why we would want to do this? I advised that the dregs of society must walk in to get a free cat or dog. And I explained all my reasons (listed above) for disagreeing with this. And she looked at me, and with no offense taken said “Do you have a good adoption team?”
Well, give me an opening to brag about my staff and I’ll talk your ear off. I went on and on about how caring they were, how professional, how much they loved our animals and how carefully they matched our animals to homes.And she softly said to me “Then why would you not trust them to place your animals in only GOOD homes?”
Well. Game. Set. Match. Point. Goal. Checkmate…….whatever the heck the saying is.
Hmm. Uh. Yeah.
That’s true.
If the people still have to fill out our adoption application, and they still have to go through our reference checks and our vet checks and possibly our home checks, and they have to come down to meet their new pet and spend time with us and we watch them interact with their potential new pet, and we talk to them, and maybe we see their current dog (if they have a dog they are required to bring that one down to meet their possible “additional” dog) and we see how that dog looks and is cared for and reacts to them….well then really – what do we care about how much we are charging them?
If WE can afford to let them go low cost, no cost, or reduced fees – then maybe, just maybe we will encourage a person in the market for a new pet to ADOPT and not BUY an animal at a pet shop or a breeder. To come to a shelter and save a life. Maybe if all across the nation we did this, we could put puppy mills out of business and force pet shops to have only shelter pets for “sale” at their stores. Perhaps this, along with all the other things we are doing to achieve no-kill, could finally help end the killing of so many millions of little defenseless lives in shelters across the United States.
Perhaps people that already have a pet and were not necessarily looking to get another might be encouraged to come down on adoption “free” days and take another pet home. Perhaps we can place MORE animals into good homes if it wasn’t hundreds of dollars to adopt one.
And studies show that people that do adopt and don’t pay a fee have NO DECREASE in the love or commitment they bestow upon that animal!
A survey of all 1,928 pet adopters from the fee-waived 2011 Matchmaker Adopt-athon compared caregiver characteristics and pet lifestyles between adopters who still had their pets 6 – 12 months after the event, and those who did not. A total of 57% (1,099) of adopters completed the survey, and a vast majority of those reported that the adopted pets were still in the home (93% of the dogs and 95% of the cats). Most pets lived predominantly indoors, slept in the family bed, and had been to a veterinarian – and a resounding 94% of all respondents declared a strong or very strong attachment to the pet, whether the pet was retained or not. The researchers concluded that successful adoptions do not require payment of a fee, and free adoption promotions may increase adoptions without compromising the quality of the animal’s life.
The ASPCA facility in NYC has an ONGOING program where all cats over 3 years old are adoption fee free! And they report no adverse stories, reports or high rate of returns for those cats.
So while on the surface this SOUNDS crazy, or scary, or nerve-wracking, it really isn’t. It is just another step to save millions more lives each year and take dogs and cats off of euthanasia tables and put them into the loving arm of families that will adore them.
And we will still check you out. We will still do our due diligence and you may still get turned away if you aren’t a good home, or we don’t feel you’ve shown responsibility to previously owned pets. How many can we adopt in 2 days? Let’s see! And if we adopt 50 or 100 in two days….then we can save another 50 or 100 that very night from a shelter that might kill them.
And so on June 1st and June 2nd, Pets Alive will be participating in the Maddie’s Pet Adoption Days, and will be open at all our locations from 9 am – 9 pm for you to come and adopt a dog or a cat and pay NO ADOPTION fee. We will be one of 5 states, 8 communities, 100 locations, with a total goal of finding homes for 5000 animals that weekend.
So spread the word. Help us reach our goals, help us find homes for all the animals in BOTH our sanctuaries. Let us come in on Monday morning to empty runs, and empty cat rooms. And then we’ll go and save some more.
By Joy Carson, Executive Director Pets Alive Puerto Rico
Look closely at this photo that we took at a busy parking lot in Utuado. Less than one day old, this tiny baby lays on the pavement, waiting for mama to return to the “den”. Like a metaphor for the problem of stray dogs in Puerto Rico, this newborn is hidden in plain sight, within view of dozens of people, but invisible to all but a few.
A shaded pavement is not a sufficient temperature to sustain the life of a newborn pup, even here in the tropics. If the chill doesn’t kill this baby, the torrential afternoon rains will. We wonder why mama chose such an inappropriate place for her den, and when she returns, we have our answer. Mama is just a baby herself, maybe 9-10 months old. She is skinny and full of mange. We look around for other hidden pups, but find none. We ask around in the stores, and are told that she delivered only one pup – not surprising given her age and physical condition. We have no doubt that without intervention her baby will be dead within hours.
Now try to imagine that YOU are a compassionate animal lover, as so many Puerto Ricans are. You come upon this baby, or you come upon any one of the thousands of pups or dogs in need here. Your heart breaks and you want to help, but you simply cannot take in even one more because you already have 5, 10, or 12 dogs at home that you picked up off the street (multiple dog households with high numbers of dogs is VERY common here). The rescue organizations are full (you’ve called them many times in the past), and you know if you call animal control the dog will be taken to a shelter and killed.
The images of the dogs you have seen but could not help are burned into your eyes. So you learn to look away, you pretend not to see. You close down a part of your heart so you can go on with each day. You pray for help for these precious creatures, and you think that’s all you can do.
But I am begging you to stop turning away. YOU CAN DO MORE, and if you care about animals, you MUST do more to help and to prevent unwanted animals – like this baby – from being born, suffering and dying in the streets.
HOW YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
SPAY/NEUTER YOUR OWN DOGS. It is the single most important thing YOU can do to help solve the problem of unwanted dogs on the street. And not just the females! If your males are not neutered, YOU are directly responsible for adding to the population of unwanted dogs on the street.
TALK TO YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS ABOUT SPAYING/NEUTERING THEIR DOGS, and consider helping them if they are not able to afford it or need help getting to the veterinarian.
Instead of feeding strays, save that money and spend it on spaying/neutering just one stray dog. One unspayed/unneutered dog and its offspring can produce THOUSANDS of unwanted dogs. By spaying/neutering just one stray, you prevent the suffering of countless dogs.
If you are not in Puerto Rico, or cannot bring in a stray for spay/neuter, then SPONSOR the spay/neuter of a STRAY dog.
SPONSOR the spay/neuter of an OWNED PET so we can continue to offer low cost services to families that want to spay/neuter their pets.
ADOPT A DOG FROM YOUR LOCAL SHELTER instead of buying a purebred dog. Please don’t buy a dog while wonderful and amazing dogs suffer and die in the streets.
TALK OPENLY ABOUT YOUR LOVE FOR ANIMALS, so others who feel the same way will know that they are not alone.
We need YOUR help now to change the world for the animals of Puerto Rico.
REOPEN YOUR EYES AND YOUR HEART, PUT ON YOUR BATTLE GEAR, and send email to info@petsalivepr.org to let us know how you will help.
IT ALL STARTS WITH YOU.
Please Consider a Donation
It costs just $80 to change the world for a stray dog. Your gift will provide spay/neuter, 2 vaccinations, a collar and ID tag, and medication for internal parasites, common skin ailments and flea/tick preventative.
For just $30, you can help sponsor one low cost spay/neuter for a pet owner who wants to be sure that their dog never adds to the population of unwanted dogs suffering on the streets.
If you are a pet owner, or if you want to spay/neuter a stray dog, we offer you a low cost option. For just $50, you can have your dog spayed/neutered, vaccinated and receive a collar and ID Tag. Please send email to info@petsalivepr.org for more information.
Are you wondering what happened to the newborn puppy in the parking lot?
Welcome to Pets Alive Puerto Rico Mrs. (Eliana) Empanada and your precious baby. We will take good care of you now. XO
At Pets Alive, we know that rescue and transport will NEVER solve the problem of unwanted dogs suffering in the streets – it is just a band-aid on a gaping wound. For every dog we take in, there are thousands more that suffer and die each day. That’s why we focus on spay/neuter – to solve this problem once and for all!
PLEASE SUPPORT US IN OUR SPAY/NEUTER EFFORTS TO SAVE COUNTLESS LIVES AND PREVENT THE SUFFERING OF UNWANTED DOGS ON THE STREETS.
By Erin Small-Guilshan, Shelter Manager Pets Alive Westchester
I have heard these words countless times by Pets Alive staff and volunteers, “This is why we do what we do”. We save lives. Give medical attention when it’s needed. Sit with the shy ones, snuggle with the animals craving attention and provide them with love. In turn, we get to see them thrive and it’s when we see them go to a home, that’s when we say, “This is why we do what we do.”
We do all we can to better the lives of animals by all means possible.
This is who we are. This is what we do.
This is the first picture of Mitsy that I saw when I was looking on the NYCACC (New York City Animal Care & Control) list for animals that we could potentially save this past week. She looks like any other healthy tabby cat. But it was in the next picture that what I saw shocked me.
We knew we HAD to get her to Pets Alive Westchester as soon as possible! She needed medical attention IMMEDIATELY and we could provide it for her. We could help her. There was no question about it. We were going to save this girl and get her eye taken care of as soon as possible. She had been at ACC for 3 days and who knows how long prior to her arrival that she had been suffering.
It was 7:20 pm. ACC closes at 7:00 pm. An email was immediately sent to ACC to tell them that we could get her the medical care she so desperately needed. I then tried to call hoping that maybe, just maybe someone would still be there. How could anyone just allow this poor girl to suffer? By the way it looked in the picture, her eye was about to rupture if it hadn’t already.
I called them and got their answering system. Here’s what I heard:
“Press 1 if you would like to adopt an animal.
Press 2 if you would like to surrender an animal.
Press 3 if you would like to report neglect or abuse of an animal”.
I could say a few things here about what I was thinking at the time, but I think I’ll save that for another day. I shook my head and hung up the phone realizing they were all gone for the day.
John Sibley does all of our transports from NYCACC. He had been working all week with me to help pull animals and transport them to Pets Alive West. John rushed to get Mitsy first thing in the morning and brought her to us where she received immediate medical attention. When he got to Pets Alive and we examined her, we could see that her eye had indeed ruptured at this point. Despite the discomfort she was in, she was alert and very affectionate.
Here’s what our plan is for Mitsy: We need to fight the infection in her eye. If we performed surgery immediately we would have risked her becoming septic. We also want the swelling to go down as much as possible prior to surgery. We need to be safe and look at all the factors. She is also a bit malnourished, and she should be as nutritionally sound as possible. She will be on antibiotics and eye drops to take away any pain for the next week. This will help reduce the swelling and will get rid of the infection prior to surgery. Her surgery is scheduled to be done on Thursday, 5/16 and we will be sure to update everyone on her progress on our Facebook page!
In the meantime, she is getting so much love and attention from the staff at Pets Alive West. She is an amazing girl with a great spirit about her! We have a lot of hope that she will do well in surgery, make a full recovery and be placed in a loving home. She deserves this.
A Chance at Life
We pulled 25 animals from ACC this past week. Monday through Thursday there was not a day that John wasn’t there to transport them. I went with him a couple of days since I had never been there before. I’m still very new at this shelter manager thing, but I do know that in the past it was fairly easy to be able to pull many animals very quickly as the ACC really needs to have as much space as they can for new intakes. I was SHOCKED at how difficult it was for us to pull any dogs. We must have requested up to 40 dogs that we wanted to save, and in four days time we were able to save just 4 dogs. They have now put in place an additional hold for animals to have time to be available for adoptions, which means they will be holding them there longer. I understand they would like to have an opportunity to adopt them out, but I’m wondering what will happen as their space fills and the animals get sicker and sicker. I think we all know the answer to that. The kill list will get larger and larger. This may not go the way that they have planned.
We were able to successfully pull 4 dogs, 10 cats, 11 kittens plus a momma cat had 4 kittens who were born at Pets Alive West yesterday.
4 of the kittens we took are bottle babies that are only four weeks old – one bottle baby was only a day old when we took her. It’s rare that a baby so young will live without the mother. Even feeding by a bottle, it’s just not the same as having the mother there to feed and nurture her the way a baby this young needs in order to survive, but we had to try. We immediately found a volunteer willing to take care of her. There are times when you wonder how it will all work out, and then you realize that it will, because if there is a will, there is a way. The pregnant mother cat had her kittens. What luck! We hoped that she would accept the bottle baby into her litter too. If she accepted her, we knew she’d survive for sure. She immediately accepted her into her litter of babies, and you can see it here.
Ginger
We were checking the urgent lists every night. On Wednesday we saw a cat named Ginger that had a leg injury with a bandage on it. The information on him said that his leg may need to be amputated. This could be a VERY costly expense. I continued to look at others but kept going back to him. I kept reading the short write up and thinking of the possible scenarios that could happen with his leg. We’d have to find an orthopedic surgeon if the leg had to be amputated. The ACC didn’t do an x-ray to see if it was broken or what the issue was, they simply wrapped it, took his picture and posted him to the internet. I decided that we couldn’t leave him like this. No one else pulled him. We needed to. Like many others, Ginger needed our help. Ginger was saved yesterday and brought to the Animal Hospital of White Plains immediately for an x-ray. The results were that he has a fractured leg, and no surgery is necessary. He also had an injury that wasn’t attended to on his paw, so at the hospital they flushed it out and treated the wound. They wrapped up his leg and he will be on light rest for up to 4 weeks. That was the best news we could have heard. We rescued this sweet 1 year old boy, got him treated and soon he will be adopted into a loving home.
That’s when you hear “This is why we do what we do.” We don’t give up. We won’t ever give up.
We could never have saved so many lives, could never have taken in animals that needed so much care this week without you. Your support is what enabled us to do this and enables us to keep doing it. You truly are the lifeline for these animals. Thank you for all you do to help support them so they can have the lives they deserve.
We want to keep doing this. We will keep doing this. We want to be able to continue to save animals with or without medical issues.
We can’t do this without you.
Please consider making a donation to the Critical Care Medical Fund today. Together we can be the difference between life and death.
I’ve been sitting on this letter for a couple of weeks waiting to see where the chips would fall. I had hoped that by letting the Port Jervis Humane Society have some time, that positive change could be made. Unfortunately a lot doesn’t seem to have changed for the better and I’m now sharing this information to once again try to force some change. I am sure you all remember our blogs about what we considered the heinous and tremendously inhumane conditions and cruelty at the Port Jervis Humane Society:
After we revealed the conditions there and posted those blogs, they posted on their FaceBook pages how everything was changing and my blogs were referring to an old regime (while even at the same time denying all the allegations) and that there was a new shelter manager now (Katrina) and we needed to “give her a chance” that she was going to change everything for the better.
So what positive changes has Katrina made since we wrote those blogs? Since our last blog they are down from 15 board members to 7, as multiple board members have walked away and resigned and will no longer work with the Port Jervis Humane Society. Katrina is currently faced with impending criminal charges, illegal activity, and the inhumane treatment of a dog at the time she killed it. At least according to a letter recently put out by Dr. Roeder. Read the rest of this entry »
OK, so this is funny. You all know about PETA by now, right?
There are literally hundreds of websites that point out how many animals they kill, how they don’t believe that any pit bulls coming into a shelter should be allowed to live, that all feral cats should be killed, and how they are anti no-kill – claiming that no kills shelters just hoard animals and the animals live in terrible conditions as a result. Sigh. Yawn.
If you’re new to all of this, you can look at some statistics. No lies. Not made up. They can be found on PETA’s own website, they don’t deny the truth. They claim all the animals they were called out to help couldn’t be saved. That there are no homes for them. Or that they were sick. or that they have behavior issues. Or a million other reasons that don’t make any sense to those of us doing it every single day.
Take a look at their published stats:
So why this blog? Well, recently they sent me an email – taking Pets Alive to task and explaining how WE could do things better. I actually fell off my chair I was laughing so hard. Really. Many of you might think it would make me mad, but I found it absolutely hysterical. The organization that is the KING OF KILLING is giving US an admonishment and an offer of help for how we could do things better. Giggle. C’mon. It’s hysterical. They then go on to tell us four principles to saving lives. Giggle again. Ok, not a giggle…a guffaw. I spewed coffee out of my nose.
I needed this. I really did. It has been a long few weeks and this is hysterical. I attached a screenshot of their email to us, below. (You can click for it to open to a larger size for easier legibility). I then cut and paste my response below the letter. Enjoy.
Dear Teresa,
Let me first correct some of your incorrect statements and clarify some items.
Items 2 through 4 of your letter, we already do and do so well that we are asked to teach others how to do them. As to item #1, let me teach you a little more about who we are.
First of all, Pets Alive is not affiliated with Pets Alive Austin, San Antonio, or any other Pets Alive organizations other than our three locations: Pets Alive Middletown, Pets Alive Westchester and Pets Alive Puerto Rico. We have been around for over 30 years.
Second of all, we are not a No Kill animal shelter. We are a No Kill animal SANCTUARY. Please take some time to understand the difference between a shelter and a sanctuary. At Pets Alive, we have an extensive behavior modification and rehabilitation program. We do not provide local animal control, nor do we do many public intakes. Rather, our goal is to be a resource for shelters that do not wish to murder the animals in their care. This is a “win-win.” Those shelters, when they run out of space or have a special needs animal, can contact us and we work with them to either place the animal or take the animal in here.
Last year for instance we saved the lives of 3,500 animals, including many animals that shelters would have killed without even trying to find them a home. Think about that: We saved 3,500 animals on a budget a fraction of PETA’s. Our revenues last year were about $850,000. At the same time, PETA took in about $35,000,000, took in less than 2,000, but killed almost nine out of 10 of them. By way of comparison, if we had your revenues, we could have saved 144,118 animals. How is it possible you could not even save 200? You claim they were all “unadoptable,” but many if not most of our animals are also classified as “unadoptable” and yet we saved them.
Over the years, this includes over 78 animals from a terrible situation in West Virginia. Some animals were dead; some were covered with mange; most needed critical emergency medical care. We saved every single one and every single one was adopted.
We also helped 120 beagles when the vivisectors that were cruelly and inhumanely testing on them went bankrupt. PETA would have likely killed every one of those poor souls, but Pets Alive didn’t. We took them in, worked with them, gave them love adopted out all 120 animals – not a single life lost and all are still happy in their forever homes.
When storms in Baton Rouge, LA, decimated the area leaving hundreds of animals homeless and the local shelters inundated, we took in over 140 of those animals and not a single one died–they are all living in loving homes and with families today.
Another time we took in 135 animals from a situation down in Arkansas. Many of those animals had no social skills at all and two were deemed aggressive. At least half of them had serious medical issues. We took them all in, vetted them and taught them the needed skills to be adopted. All are in homes today. Not a single life lost.
When the Animal Care & Control in NYC started mass killing kittens during kitten season we started our ITTY BITTY KITTY campaign and in two weeks we took in HUNDREDS of kittens and, you guessed it, we saved EVERY SINGLE ONE! All were scheduled to be killed by the pounds you celebrate, but all are now in homes today thanks to a No Kill sanctuary you vilify. When an elderly woman here in town died and left 50 cats behind, local animal control called us and together, with other organizations, we saved every single one of them.
When a puppy mill shut down leaving over 220 dogs behind, we moved in and once again saved every single one of them.
I would like to make you an offer. Allow my team to visit PETA and evaluate your protocols. Allow my team unfettered access to your “shelter” to evaluate the animals you kill. And allow my team to teach your team how to save, rather than end, the lives of animals. Together, we can make PETA what its members erroneously think it is: an organization filled with people who love animals. Because as it stands, you cannot torture the definition of the word “love” to encompass their mass slaughter. In the end, killing an animal is not an act of love. It is an act of violence. And it is time for PETA to end the violence it inflicts on animals.
P.S. To learn about our other programs and services, visit http://petsalive.com/programs.html.
You’ll see many programs we have in place, all dedicated to helping SAVE lives. Not end them.
Yeah.
I think they lost that battle.
::blowing on nails and rubbing chest::
Of course my initial response was just going to be “BITE ME”….and those of you that know me, or read my blogs, know that’s true, but as a friend says “This was a LEARNING experience”…and they needed a little education about what and who we are. They will of course have no response, nor will they take us up on our offer. Keep in mind that they sent cameras down here and video…and they came back with nothing.
In all their attacks on no-kill you also never see PETA mention that there are 100 no kill open admission shelters out there. Why don’t they ever bring them up? ENTIRE communities that take in every animal that come to their door and NEVER kill them. OVER a hundred and doubling every year. Isn’t it odd they never mention those at ALL?
OK, well I’ve had my laugh of the day. Come on at us PETA. We’ll spank you and send you on your way every time.
Filed in No-kill by kerry on Apr 08, 2013. There are 36 comments.
Our story from last week continues, once again from Becky Tegze, Pets Alive Cat Manager…
The hissing continues… our “broken” Links is still hissing but there is something just a little different – Links stretched out relaxing on his bed! Good morning Links! You just made my Monday! I continue my ritual of talking softly to him the entire time I’m in the room caring for him and all his friends, when it hits me he hasn’t scrunched back up and he ISN’T hissing at me – he’s watching me! He hasn’t moved but when I sneak a look at him I see his eye following me as I care for the other kitties. He is curious! Oh Links, I just want to kiss you. We are on our way to being friends.
Okay Links, brace yourself: today we are going to work on being touched. This is a big step for any cat not used to human contact and affection, especially an adult cat. Even kittens who are not handled, cuddled, played with or shown affection by humans at a very young age can fear human contact as they age.
As I dig into my back of tricks I once again am talking to Links, hoping beyond hope that maybe he understands me. The first trick up my sleeve is a dowel stick with a catnip sock toy stuck on the end of it. For anyone who hasn’t worked with a “broken” cat before let me explain – this little trick serves many purposes, it gives me the “scary” human a bit more distance so I’m not leaning over Links (which would be way too scary at this point for him), and it keeps me safe because I do not know how Links is going to react to first contact. He could react by being frozen in fear, it could be a hiss or it could be him showing his displeasure with his claws, his teeth or both – or he could just be totally unfazed.
This blog is the first in a series that we will be writing about how to socialize and help an unsocial or frightened cat. Written by Becky Tegze the Pets Alive Cat Manager. Becky has years of experience in socializing and assisting feral, semi feral, or frightened felines.
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Buckle up folks. This will be a journey full of bumps in the road, road blocks, pot holes, detours, ez-pass lanes and a few wrong turns. Come along with us, as we work to heal a cat named Links – both physically and emotionally. Links is what some refer to as a “broken” cat. A victim of animal hoarding.
In many cases the physical body is easier to heal then the emotional scars left behind on an animal rescued from a hoarding situation. Links was rescued along with 50 other cats from such a situation (to read about the rescue you can click here).
At the time of rescue Links was suffering from a horrible eye injury. So our first priority was his physical well-being. He went to the vet, had eye surgery and is recovering nicely. Now that his medical needs were being seen to, the long hard road of “fixing” our “broken” Links is ready to begin.
Tuesday morning I woke up knowing the real work on healing Links was about to begin. How will we “fix” Links? How can we help him to understand, we aren’t the enemy?
The first thing I notice about Links when I got in was that he was tense and trying hard to make himself as small as possible. He is a fairly large boy so this is not an easy task. Cat people know this as the old cat trick “if I can’t see you, you can’t see me”. Sorry Links, I see you there, there is no escaping me, I want to be your friend.
So as I clean and care for Links I talk softly and I reassure him that the worst is behind him. I tell him that he will never be cold or hungry again. I want so much to pick him up, and hold him, and just let him feel love, probably for the first time in his life – but I know my hugging or holding him or even just petting him would be too much for Links. Just me being in the room talking to him is terribly frightening for him. Sadly he sees me as the boogieman. Something to fear.
I will not be deterred. I pretend to ignore him, never really looking at him, just talking to him, even though he doesn’t understand a word I’m saying – and if he does he must think I’m a little crazy. “What is with this crazy lady? She is saying everything she does and why does she think stinky cat poop is so cute! – someone please come and save me.” So I spend the day in and out of his room “ignoring” him as much as I can, while telling him about my day and all the cute stinky cat poop I have come across in my normal day to day routine.
Now it is Thursday – and PROGRESS!!!! Links hissed at me today! Happy Thursday everyone! Links hissed at me. Really this is progress – I’m not joking! It means he is actually acknowledging me being in the room with him. I’m not the crazy cat lady I swear – stop laughing Kerry!
Seriously though Links hissing at me is a step forward for him, he has realized hiding isn’t going to make me go away so now he is trying another approach – the HISS. He is starting to show a reaction and I’ll take any type of reaction (over frozen in fear) when I am in the room. So hiss away Links, I’ve got tough skin, I can take it. I still want to be your friend. I can hiss too …but I won’t. I’ll just keep talking about how cute stinky cat poop can be.
Stay tuned for what happens next in the Journey of Links from a “Broken” cat to a “Fixed” cat. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve – baby food, catnip, and the big guns – TUNA. Links doesn’t know it now… but we WILL be friends.
Filed in Animal Rescue by kerry on Mar 14, 2013. There are 8 comments.
By Jenessa Taylor, Executive Director Pets Alive Westchester
We are so incredibly touched and grateful to all of you who have reached out to us in support of Cowboy. When Cowboy showed up on our doorstep there was never hesitation from our staff to bring him in from the cold, give him food and water and make him as comfortable as possible. When we discovered his injured leg there was no doubt that we would immediately get him the veterinary care he needed. But it was because of all of you who have so generously donated towards his care that we were able to financially afford Cowboy’s immediate surgery to correct his broken tibia and fibula. Cowboy is truly grateful to you all and says THANK YOU! (Just look at that face, how could anyone resist?) Read the rest of this entry »
Helping Hands and Paws:
It all started out with a phone call, as it usually does. An elderly woman in the hospital and all her cats being thrown outside by a family member. Cats everywhere. In trees. On the roof. In the garage. In the yard. In the street. Racing all around under foot. Well it turned out that the awesome folks at Mid Hudson Animal Aid had also received a call. We quickly touched base. How could we as TWO organizations better aid a situation where just one of us would be buried. Audrey, the shelter manager of Mid Hudson Animal Aid is a true pleasure to work with.
She compliments us well, because she always retains her cool and she can be polite to people even as we want to reach out and throttle them. In this case she immediately showed up with sidekick Arwen. At Pets Alive we just refer to them as the “Cat Ninja’s” because that is what they are. They are just super with cats…any kind. The terrified ones, the aggressive or feral ones, the young, the old – they are just really professionals and really know how to handle themselves and the cats.
So we met over at “the location” in Maybrook and it was quite a site. Best guess was 35-40 cats (as it turned out it was closer to 50!) Could we help?
Blog by Jenessa Taylor, Executive Director Pets Alive Westchester
In rescue you learn early on to never plan out your day because inevitably you will never get to even the first item on your list. Every day you are faced with a decision, a situation, an animal in need that requires your time and attention, and let’s face it – they are so much more worthy of that time and attention than your to-do list anyway. Today was certainly one of those days.
The caretakers arrive first thing in the morning and consistently take inventory of their surroundings as they arrive. It is their routine to make sure that things are as they were left the night before- and this morning something odd caught Anna’s (PAW Lead Cat Caregiver) eye. As she walked up to the front doors she noticed a half open back pack laying directly in front of the building and as she got closer she saw why. A small puppy was lying near the bag, cold and scared. No note, no explanation, no idea how long he had been waiting there alone. Just this tiny little puppy who readily accepted a loving embrace from Anna. She immediately scooped him up and brought him in from the cold, offered him fresh water and some food. She did a quick overall assessment and saw no obvious injuries, however when she attempted to set him down the staff quickly noted that he seemed unwilling or unable to put any weight on his back leg. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed in Animal Rescue by john on Feb 14, 2013. There are 14 comments.
Then I read about a seminar where it was encouraged for you to REDUCE adoption fees on senior dogs and cats, or pit bulls, or difficult to place dogs or cats, or dogs or cats with medical issues or those that had been with you a long time. 
So I went to her and asked her why we would want to do this? I advised that the dregs of society must walk in to get a free cat or dog. And I explained all my reasons (listed above) for disagreeing with this. And she looked at me, and with no offense taken said “Do you have a good adoption team?” 
So while on the surface this SOUNDS crazy, or scary, or nerve-wracking, it really isn’t. It is just another step to save millions more lives each year and take dogs and cats off of euthanasia tables and put them into the loving arm of families that will adore them.
This blog is the first in a series that we will be writing about how to socialize and help an unsocial or frightened cat. Written by Becky Tegze the Pets Alive Cat Manager. Becky has years of experience in socializing and assisting feral, semi feral, or frightened felines.
I will not be deterred. I pretend to ignore him, never really looking at him, just talking to him, even though he doesn’t understand a word I’m saying – and if he does he must think I’m a little crazy. “What is with this crazy lady? She is saying everything she does and why does she think stinky cat poop is so cute! – someone please come and save me.” So I spend the day in and out of his room “ignoring” him as much as I can, while telling him about my day and all the cute stinky cat poop I have come across in my normal day to day routine.
