—————-

This was an email I sent to Joy, the Director of Pets Alive Westchester:

We got a called in complaint today.
A woman adopted a dog from you yesterday and the paperwork says it is a basset hound but she is POSITIVE it is a Rottweiler.
She is very upset that you gave her a rottweiler instead of a basset hound so she wants to bring this one back and exchange it for a basset hound.
She doesn’t “want no wottweiler”.
So please stop giving away rottweilers and trying to dress them up as basset hounds.
It is very unseemly for our organization.

Joy’s response:
Three of us pee’d our pants when I read this out loud. Do you know who called (we dressed up a lot of rotties as bassets yesterday – just want to make sure who the smarty pants is that complained so we can be prepared to grovel appropriately.)

I would like you all to know that we have since made it policy that Westchester is no longer permitted to dress up Wott-While-Ers as Basset Hounds and we deeply apologize to all of you that we have done this to in the past.  You may come and exchange your dogs.

—————-

hy I haven’t received XXXX’s birth certificate with all of his papers.
Can you tell me when you will send me his birth certificate?

Dear XXX, I’m sorry but dogs do not come with birth certificates.
All the information and medical sheets you received list the dogs age.

ok I’m sorry for saying birth certificate but how do i know when he was born.

—————-

This one is more sad than anything.  But it fits in the “crazy” department for sure.  We get a lot of requests to take in animals for behavior problems. Aggression. Inappropriate elimination. Separation anxiety. Doesn’t get along with the other animals.  Many are valid reasons that an animal may not be able to stay in a home.  But I think this one takes the case.  I mean THIS woman has SERIOUS SERIOUS SERIOUS reasons that her cat MUST GO now!  Please note that she has managed with these terrible issues for NINE YEARS.  Oiy. (The red highlights are mine).

I am writing to ask whether or not you accept surrenders. If so, I am wondering what the process is. If you need more information, here is a brief description of my problem:

My husband and I adopted two cats 9 years ago, and the behavior of one of the cats had so frustrated us that we cannot handle having her as a pet anymore. She is not mean or aggressive, but she enjoys eating paper, eating the other cat’s food, waking us up a half and hour before we need to get up (regardless of what time it is-if we establish a routine she adjusts). She is so sweet and affectionate sometimes, and it breaks my heart to let her go during those moments or sincere companionship. Honestly though, I am a a crossroads because I don’t know what else to do with her- those moments do not outweigh the frustration she brings us. I feel like I can’t adopt her out to a someone I know because I know I will get her back, and I am worried to adopt her out to a stranger because her behaviors, while only goofy and not violent, are so annoying that they could lead to abuse or worse.

—————-

In this next case, we had a purebred dog at our Westchester location and we had an inquiry from a rescue for that breed.  Now before just handing over any dog in our facility to ANY rescue, we of course check them out.  We have a short form we ask them to fill out which enables us to follow up and learn about their organization. Here is Joy’s letter to the woman, asking her for that information. The woman’s response is below.

Hi, we are so grateful that you have reached out to us in regards to XXXXX.  Before turning a dog over to your organization we would need to see proof of your 501c3 status, and we have a form that rescue organizations are required to submit that tells us a little about the organization and provides contact information about its officers. In addition, the organization needs to sign a statement promising to adhere to our no kill policy.

Thanks for your reply. We are 501-c-3, incorporated in NY, but unless a volunteer is willing to fill out the form, I am “formed” out and won’t fill out forms anymore.

Well. Our bad!  Guess we should just meet her at the gas station at the corner and put the dog in her trunk!  Giggle.  Sigh. Let’s move on.

—————-

Hi, I stopped by to donate some cats to your organization the other day but was told that I had to fill out paperwork and submit a surrender request to do so. Are you people crazy?  I have cats. I am making a donation of them to you. You make money on selling these cats to people. I’m not asking for any money for them I was willing to donate them to you so that you could make your bucks. Forget it now.  I don’t have time for paperwork and everything else.  Either take the cats or don’t but don’t harass the shit out of me to fill out unnecessary paperwork when I’m trying to do something good for your organization. I will donate them somewhere else.  Someplace that doesn’t harass people.

Yes. You do that sir.  Thank you.

—————-

Yes, I did return the dog to your organization. When I adopted the dog it was already 7 months old. Yet I took it home and it peed in my house.  Just walked in and pissed all over the wall. I mean what the hell. I didn’t pay some adoption fee to get a dog that wasn’t trained not to piss all over walls. What are you doing down there if you’re not teaching the dogs this stuff. I don’t know how you adopt any dogs at all if this is how you do it.  I’m certainly not keeping a dog that walks into the house and the first thing he does is piss. So I want my money back.  You got your dog back, give me my money back. Don’t make me have to sue you. I will.

Yes. You do that sir.  Thank you.

—————-

Hi, I have been taking care of cats for years. My kids kept saying I should FIX them but I don’t think that is a natural thing for an animal. Usually I just keep them in separate rooms.  All the boys in one place and girls in another but somehow they still keep having babies. I won’t fix them. it isn’t right. So it seems now that I have 49 cats and my landlord wants to to find some place to put them.  Please let me know when you can come and pick them up.  You’ll have to sign an agreement not to fix them. I don’t like that and it is unnatural.  Thanks.  You can call me at XXX-XXXX before you come to get them as i will want to look you all in the eye first.

—————-

This one came in the mail. Hand written. You’ll see why.

Dear Pets Alive, Heloo!!!!!!!  I have a problem. I have flocks of birds. Ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys etc that I absolutely love and adore but yesterday the code enforcer stopped by and said I have to get rid of them. I think this is some sort of family vendetta since I want a divorce from my paranoid, alcoholic, abusive husband and I suspect he knows these people. I don’t eat my birds and I don’t even eat their eggs, since they are fertile. I believe in letting them all live naturally. If you take them you can not eat them, or eat their eggs. If there are other sanctuaries that can help me can you contact them for me, as I am unable to get online for the past 2-3 weeks because of severe computer problems and my phone hasn’t been working right. I suspect my husband of tampering with it as it is acting “funny” and so has my laptop. Something is VERY “wrong” here. It seems I am being purposely “thwarted” from finding proper homes for my flocks and something is definitely “awry”. You shouldn’t write to me as family members have been making my mail “disappear” from the mailbox before the lady comes to pick it up and I’m very sure that is illegal and I will need to check into that for sure.”.

We don’t really do birds here, so I probably couldn’t help anyway but I’m unsure how to get in touch with someone that I can’t call, email or mail.  Hmm.

—————-

Thank goodness there are also a multitude of really awesome letters.  Like the next two. Thank you guys for balancing it out!

Hi- We had the pleasure of visiting your amazing facility today to check on a dog that we found wandering the road over the weekend. After being turned away by every shelter (and the animal control officer was off, and the poilice couldn’t help us)- we were told by a friend to look into Pets Alive. We took Ellie in the next morning, and she was welcomed with open arms by your wonderful staff. We decided to go out and purchase some items that you were in need of, and we brought them over this morning. We were pleasantly surprised to see Ellie in the office as happy as can be. She was actually smiling, and we knew without a doubt that she was in the best hands imaginable, and right where she was meant to be.
We spoke to some of your staff about volunteering, and they kindly gave my 7 year old son a cat orientation. We will be back next weekend to finish the rest. Aside from that- we asked what else we can do to help. We were blown away by the level of care these animals are all receiving, by the compassionate and extremely passionate staff and volunteers that we met, and the fact that we didn’t leave there feeling sick to our stomachs that these poor animals are lonely or suffering. This is an amazing place, doing amazing things, and we want to help in any way we can. One of your volunteers mentioned that you are doing some renovations to a barn, and adding indoor dog kennels. She said you would be looking for some outside laborers. I don’t know if this helps at all; but my husband owns his own drywall company, and if there comes a time that you need sheetrock or spackling done- he will donate his time and materials. We also heard that you are in need of some volunteers to help with adoption events/ fundraisers, and we would love to be a part of that as well. I am a stay at home mom- so I have some time if there is anything I can do from home to help, too.
I know that you are extremely busy, and I’m sorry that I took up some of your time to read this. I just wanted to let you know how touched we were after leaving there, and offer our services to some way thank you for all of the wonderful things you are doing for the animals we share our world with.
Please feel free to call or write if you need anything. Take care, Andrea G

Thanks Andrea.  But it is YOU who were the heroes. For picking this dog up off the street, not looking the other way and staying determined to get her to a safe place. You could have taken the easy way out.  You didn’t.  Thank you for saving her.

—————-

The Fur Ball was an incredible fantastic night! All of the hard work by everyone showed brilliantly!!! I hope it was as successful on your side as it was on our side as attendees

And before the moment passes and mushy/gushy turns awkward, I wanted to thank you for being such an incredible voice. It’s not just the animals you speak for when you represent Pets Alive. You’ve shown the world how incredible women are in that they can take on the worst and hardest situations and turn them golden. You show the world children are indeed of value in the day to day and in the future that is to come. You’ve shown the world that it is far more masculine and macho for men to be kind and respectful and caring to senior dogs or newborn kittens. You put that all together under the umbrella of Pets Alive and it adds up to a huge statement. I think sometimes that gets overlooked when we are focused on the animals and yet it is so important.

When the days seem to have endless mountains to climb, please always remember there are those of us who believe in you and all you do. Some days we’ll be the pebbles that need to be stepped on when you are climbing and other days we’ll be the ropes & pulley’s to help you climb. We’re not fly-by-night fans and we won’t go poof! and disappear. Face it: we love ya & you’re stuck with us.

You’re always in my heart,  See ya soon!
xoxox
Sandi

Damnit.  Now you made me cry.
I needed that.  Big. Thanks for the reminder not to let the crazies get to us.

Let’s call letter one “I don’t medically care for my animals, so I now realize you’re not going to adopt to me, so I am going to make that about YOU and not about me“.  Hmm.  A little long for a title.  Maybe I need to wordsmith that a little?  OK, let’s go.

In this situation, someone filled out their application to adopt a dog. Our adoption person checked it out and was calling their vet for a follow-up. The vet had no record of them bringing their animals in for care, shots, or treatment for more than five years.  Well, heck, we don’t reject them – we ask!  There might be a good reason.

Hi Scott~
We spoke with your vet’s office & they do not have you on record as coming
in since 2005.  Have you taken your cat to a different clinic perhaps?
Let me know.  Thanks!

Pretty simple, right? Nothing insulting there.  Nothing accusatory. Maybe he has a few vets he uses. Maybe he moved. OK, here is his response.  Ready? Crazy hat firmly in place?  Ok, let’s go. (I am going to leave in all the grammar errors, please note this is how it came in).

No! whats with the 20 questions? Are you people playing some kind of sick game w/me? Are puppies available or Not? Do you often try to frustrate people into saying: forget it? If you don’t want to find a good home for your puppies just say so. Whats next, you want to see my tax records? I belive your process probably gets a lot of animals killed when perfectly good homes are available. And while i’m thinking of it: I was silly to think you were legit when you never even told me how much this was going to cost. I went against my better judgement to fill out this application at the request of my family members, Thanks for proving me right that you people are control freaks and are illigitimate. Petsalive is a farse-you dont care about animals, you only care about your control over those animals. Good job Ms.Kelly-You’ve frustrated a potential good home for an animal.  BTW:Your ignorance of our military family offends me and I will be sure to spread the word about your organization throughout the military community. Also consider this my ‘Legal Request’ that you: please delete any of my information and remove me from any of your call lists or data base.

Giggle.  OK, I don’t even know where to start. Let’s start at the top. 20 questions?  Yes. We do ask some questions on our application to see if you are a good home for our pets and also that they are a good match for YOU! And YES Scott.  We DO try to frustrate people into NOT adopting our animals, because really, it is all about getting you to see our pets, go online, fall in love, fill out an application just so we can cackle with laughter here and say “NO!” and keep them ALL for ourselves! HAHAHAHAHA.  You found us out. Darn. We try to keep this a well guarded secret.  It’s out now.

Darn it, you also found out we aren’t “legit” because we charge an adoption fee. GOSH DARN!  I wanted to keep it hidden that we pay $150 to get that dog spayed, and $25 to microchip her, and $20 to get her shots up to date and $75 to run blood and test for e-canis, lyme, heartworm and anaplasma,and $10 to treat for worms, and maybe there was some transport costs and oh she wants to eat EVERY DAY (can you believe it??) and maybe she had some other ailment we treated her for and we do have to pay staff and pay utility bills around here, but you found me out. We are here to rip you off and make millions off of people like you. Because walk around here – CLEARLY you can see we are SWIMMING in money!   Wait, I just had to brush some pesky hundred dollar bills off the keyboard.  Hate when they pile up like that.

Tell the military about us?  I’m not even sure where the heck THAT came from in his paragraphs of crazy.  That was an extra dose of crazy.  It doesn’t even say on his app he is military and if he did I’m not sure what difference it would really make to the application process (although maybe if he came here I’d thank him for his service to our country) but hey, sure, tell the whole military we wouldn’t approve you because your dog or cat has not seen a vet in at least 5 years.  Actually we never got to NOT approving you. Maybe we still would have, we weren’t able to get that far. But um….maybe you should also talk to some of the military that come to us, having to go overseas and have no place for their pets.  And we take them in and keep them and care for them and if ok we adopt them out, if not we hold them here and love on them until our military people can get back.  And if they don’t come back we take extra care to let someone know that this dog was loved by someone who gave his life for us.  OK, but yeah, go tell the military we suck.  Sigh.

OK, that is crazy letter number 1.  Let’s move on to the next.  This one I will call “Unreasonable to the Extreme and Not Guided by Reason or Sound Judgment“. Much more manageable of a title, yes?

OK, so everyone that adopts signs a contract and we go over the contract and explain the contract. We tell them that once the animal leaves we don’t cover any additional medical costs – AT ALL. We don’t guarantee their health or temperament.  We can tell you the dog NEVER bit anyone here (or we will tell you if he DID!), we can tell you that he lived with other dogs and liked other dogs, we can let you WATCH us cat test him and see that it all appears to go well but I can NOT  guarantee that he will never bite your kid, or that he will love YOUR dog or YOUR cat, or your neighbor.  We can’t.  I can only tell you what we know about him from our experiences with him. I also can tell you that we treat ANYTHING we see here for EVERY animal, and we always reveal anything we have found, treated him for, or are worried about in his future.  Full disclosure.  That is how we feel.  Why? Because we feel that is fair and honorable, and we want you to make your decision with your eyes wide open.  It doesn’t help us to lie to you and have the dog come back – DUH!  We will TELL you that the dog had a lump we removed or you should keep an eye on that ear because he is prone to infections, but I cant guarantee that we caught every nuance of every possible medical issue an animal could have now or IN THE FUTURE!
OK, so knowing that, let’s move on to Letter 2.

People adopted a dog I will call “Mr Q”. They emailed us this when they took him home (names have been changed to protect the crazy):

OK.  So far so good right?  What a nice email and great to know that all is ok. Then a MONTH – did I say a MONTH – yes a MONTH later we get a call.  Our admin takes the message and emails the staff:

Just got a call from Mr. Q’s owner. She is extremely upset and not happy with her Pets Alive experience. She feels that all dogs that leave Pets Alive must be sick, since they got a “sick dog”. They discovered Mr. Q  has bladder crystals a week ago and have incurred multiple vet bills as a result. She told me that we should be doing urinalysis on all dogs since her vet told her it’s a fairly simple test.  I attempted to nicely advise her that we are a shelter and that urinalysis is not a test we do here until we are presented with a medical issue. I told her we saw no medical issues with Mr. Q while he was here. She insisted I take the mandatory urinalysis issue to the director.

Second issue-she is very upset about Mr. Q’s behavior. Although he passed his cat test here, she says he is terrorizing her cat. She also says he is destroying their house. She says we told her he got along great with cats so she feels like we purposely lied to her. I advised her that he did pass his cat test here, which she WATCHED, but that we NEVER guarantee any temperament or behavior. At the end of the conversation she did tell me that they were leaning towards bringing Mr. Q back but hadn’t made up their minds.  I told her that if they want to bring him back to please contact us first so that we may set up an appt time for them to come in. She also then mentioned how much they love him….

Oiy? Should I start addressing the above or are you already with me here?  OK, let’s just skip addressing that – it is sort of self explanatory.  Now look at the nice note that Janet, our vet liaison sent her in response.

I was forwarded your email regarding Mr. Q and that fact that your vet has found out he has bladder stones.  Honestly, I was very shocked to hear this news.  Although it is not out the question, it is quite uncommon for such a young dog to have such issues.  We have hundreds of dogs walking through our doors each year, and only two have had similar problems in the last four years. Mr. Q is a great boy though, so of course our thoughts are with him as well as with you! MRS. A,, you are correct in stating that a urine test is overall a simple test.  But it would be completely impractical to test each animal that walks through our door.  Even when you bring your animal to your vet for their check up, notice that a urine test is not a ROUTINE measure.  ONLY if an animal is exhibiting symptoms would you then send out a urine sample for analysis.  Not only is that the typical protocol for pets in homes, but it the procedure here as well.  There have been numerous times where we have sent out a urine sample on an animal.  But it is not something you would do without suspicion or reason.  It is simply impractical as well as an unneeded added expensive.  We already put quite a bit of money into each and every animal.  Between spay/neuter, vaccines, deworming, heartworm/lyme testing, microchipping, flea/tick prevention, as well as heartworm prevention, rescuing dogs is an expensive endeavor.  Adoption fees only help to offset some of these costs.

As much as we all feel bad that Mr. Q is one of the rare dogs experiencing crystals/stones at his young age, it truly would be impractical for us to perform urinalysis on every dog.  We will continue to give additional medical care to those who symptomatically warrant such. In addition, we hope that Mr. Q is doing better with your cat.  He is a sweet energetic dog, and your cat may not appreciate that vigor for life.  But generally the cats will come around to them after some time.

Now isn’t that a nice response?  I thought so and up until now MRS.A wasn’t a “crazy”. Just “odd”.  She only steps into the “realm of crazy” with her responses so far. But…ummmm…ready?  Crazy hats set on tight? OK, let’s go!

Hi Scott~
We spoke with your vet's office & they do not have you on record as coming
in since 2005.  Have you taken your cat to a different clinic perhaps?
Let me know.  Thanks!

Kerri
Pets Alive

Most of you know him.
Our Cam.

If you don’t know the story of Cam you can read my blogs about him here:

1st blog:  http://network.bestfriends.org/blogs/kerryclair11159/archive/2007/05/05/90226.aspx
2nd blog:  http://network.bestfriends.org/blogs/kerryclair11159/archive/2007/06/01/90211.aspx
3rd blog:   http://network.bestfriends.org/blogs/kerryclair11159/archive/2007/09/08/90218.aspx

We talk about him a lot and he is really special to the staff here and to the volunteers. He has been a catalyst for many changes here and many policies and he is just an all around great guy. I love him. If he hadn’t bitten my husband, he’d be living at my house now. Sigh. Oh well.

Anyway, as you know Cam is definitely one of our favorites. Staff love to dress him up for …well…I was going to say for Halloween, but then, that’s not true. They dress him up for any occasion, or any non occasion and they paint his toenails, and he gets boxes in the mail specifically for him (he LOVES to play with basketballs and they will show up now and again in the mail for him). So it wasn’t really a surprise to see a letter come in addressed to him…but ah…the contents. The contents were. I was going to summarize it but I think it might be best to let you read it yourself.

———————————————
Dear Cam,

Woof! |
My name is Jake.
I’m a 1½ year old border collie.

You don’t know me, but you helped save my life, and I want to tell you about how you did that and send you something to say thank you.

After my forever family adopted me in April they quickly realized that I was really, really scared of like, everything. Somebody in my past did bad things to me and I was especially terrified of strangers and people I didn’t trust… but instead of running away I would try to protect myself… humans call it fear aggression, I called it self defense in a world that hurt me too many times.

One night my family was crying so hard because they had been given the option to bring me back to the shelter, where I would have been put to sleep. They loved me so much but people said that keeping me meant lots of scary risks and no guarantees. That night, one of my humans found your profile on the Pets Alive website. She started crying again when she read about you, because you were just like me and your story really touched her. Knowing that your friends at Pets Alive were able to save you and win over your trust made her believe that maybe I could be saved too. She told the rest of our family about you, and Cam, you were a glimmer of hope on the darkest night of our lives.

You made them believe in me!! I guess it’s kind of obvious what they decided to do, since you know, I am typing this… well, sort of… I’m helping.  They promised me that success was the only solution and that they were going to learn how to help me become unbroken, no matter what.

My family says that I have completely changed their lives- that I’ve taught them how to love more than they ever thought was possible… that I’ve made them stronger and taught them so many things about life and love and never giving up. It’s been a lot of hard work for all of us, and we still have lots of work left to do, but I have learned how to trust my family completely and I’ve made so many new friends. And oh my goodness I LOVE life! I’m so happy now and I let my friends pet me and hug me and play with me and I’m so full of love that sometimes I give kisses! I even let them dress me up (shhhh don’t tell anybody, but I totally love it- I hear you like dressing up too! ). And I LOVE playing with basketballs, just like you! Basketballs are THE BEST TOYS EVER! The best.

Cam, you helped save my life and now I get to experience all of these wonderful things! I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so brave and not giving up. You are one of my heroes. I’m so glad that you have such wonderful friends in your life and I hope that one day you’ll find the perfect forever home! Dogs like us are really special and have so much love to give to the people who understand us, and we have so many things to teach the world. We help make the world a better place through the lives we touch and ultimately change. You changed my life from miles and miles away without even knowing it- that’s pretty special!

You and your family at Pets Alive inspired my family to never give up on me and I hope you all have a very merry Christmas/ happy holiday. I wanted to send you some treats but I didn’t know if they’d make it over the border (I hear there’s dogs with good noses that work there), and I was gonna send you a Kong, but they’re kinda hard to mail. So instead I’m sending you a Petsmart gift card, and the next time one of your friends is at Petsmart, they can use it to buy you a Kong (or something else super fun) and some of your favourite treats as a Christmas and a thank you present from me and my family- because you totally deserve it!!

Sending you happy tail wags and kisses!
And my family sends you lots of love!
Your friend,
Jakey

Enter Lori and her family, which included two other Airedales. We explained about Louise and how she was a bit needy at the moment and that she would take a lot of time to warm up.  Lori didn’t care. She packed up her family and her dogs and came down to meet Louise.  They adopted Louise, and they frequently post updates in our forum.  It has been amazing to watch, through pictures, the transformation in our girl.  I recently got this letter, with a donation check. We were very moved by it and I wanted to share it with you.  Thank you Lori for taking a chance with Louise and giving her the most wonderful home.

——————————————

Dear Kerry, Matt and Everyone at Pets Alive,

This past year has brought many firsts for Louise and myself.
My mom passed away on August 14, 2009 and one month later a friend posted Louise’s Petfinder ad on her Facebook page.

I had been thinking that I would like to adopt another Airedale but hadn’t been seriously looking. When I saw and read of Louise I knew that I wanted HER.
I read the ad to my husband and he said “fill out the application!”

Then we waited.
Waited to hear hear that she had arrived safely at Pets Alive.
Waited to hear that we were to be her forever family.
waited to hear that we could come and meet her.
Crossed our fingers and our toes that Abby and Emma would accept her.

Then it happened!
It just so happened to be the day before what would have been my mom’s 72nd birthday 10/5/09.

I was able to hold Louise in my arms and call her mine.

To have her with me throughout this  first year of birthday’s, holidays and Mother’s Day without my mom I have realized that I needed Louise just as much, if not more ,than she needed me.

My mom Pat, LOVED animals but especially cats and kittens. Please use this money in my mom’s memory toward something that is needed for them.

Thank you.
Thank ALL of you!

Love,
Lori, Louise, & Family

The first is from Evan W. I thought about re-typing it but I think other than removing his last name and address, I am posting the letter in entirety. Attached was a $500 check.

The second letter is from a person that mailed us last year too on her birthday. That is Lily Palmieri. Every year she has a birthday and asks all her friends to donate money to Pets Alive instead of giving her gifts. She collects them all, takes a picture of everyone and sends it to us. I’m always touched and honored that she chooses us and always very choked up when I read her sweet letter. You can click here to see her letter and picture from last year.

So this year she writes:

Dear Pets Alive,
Hi, It is Lily Palmieri again and I just turned 11. Last year when I turned 10, I had a birthday party and I had everyone donate money to Pets Alive instead of getting gifts. Last year I made $250 and this year I made $350. My friends kept giving me more money because they knew I was donating to Pets Alive again. I even told my parents about the Fur Ball on May 22 and they bought tickets because they knew it would give Pets Alive more money.

P.S. Here’s a picture of all my friends who helped out by donating money to Pets Alive.

All I can say is I’m so glad there are kids like you Lily and like you Evan. YOU keep up the good work. And stay with it. We need you for our future and it’s looking bright with kids like you at the helm.

Matt,

I received your letter last week and read about your current project – Pets Alive. A few weeks ago my daughter and a neighbor had a lemonade stand. They had decided that they wanted to donate their funds to help animals. After I received your letter I told the girls about your animal sanctuary .  They decided that this is where they wanted their funds donated.  So please accept the enclosed donation. Although it is a small sum of mone, they hope it can help.

Melissa H.

Funds raised by Casey H., Haley H., and Callie K.

————————————-

Since then the girls have been collecting empty bottles and cans and returning them, collecting all the money for Pets Alive as well.  While we don’t have a picture of the lemonade stand, we DO have a picture of the can collection in progress!  Thank you so much Casey, Haley and Callie!  It definitely HELPS!

They are REALLY great kids.  A few times I’ve mentioned special children that we have down here that have really impressed me.  These two fit into that category.  They are polite, courteous, sweet, generous, good natured and just a pleasure to be around.

You all know we’ve been trying to raise money for our fencing project – WHICH WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED FINALLY thanks to all of you (and should be starting that soon)….

Well I received the following letters from Liam and Tess along with a donation.  Money they had earned or saved up on their own.

They clearly wanted it to go toward the fencing project.

Take a look – I scanned their letters because they were just too cute and too sweet for me to try to explain or retype.  You need to see these for yourselves.

Is that not the sweetest letters?

And below are the envelopes they came in:

Thanks Honor for raising such wonderful, empathic kids….

The world needs more of them!
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Just got this great email from Honor (Liam and Tess’ mom):

Hi folks: I’ve been meaning to write to thank you all for making Liam (and Tess) feel so special. Liam was very proud of himself the day Matt offered to “hire” him (when he ran to close the gate of the dog yard after Mama foolishly let Sparky and Peanut loose–does anyone think that those two “wild men” were really going to go anywhere, by the way? Trying to save face for Mama…). And the applause for him that followed from the picnic table area thanks to Kerry sent him over the moon.

Honor

Hello,

I am writing to you on concerns of the transport that came up to Pets Alive on Saturday from Kentucky. A very thin mother cat with baby kittens coming from that shelter were supposed to come into our rescue but due to the very poor condition of the cat and the babies she was offered to stay there at Pets Alive because of her condition and fear of the babies passing due to being anemic because of the overwhelming amount of fleas. I am very upset of the condition the mother cat and kittens were in, and the other kitties we took into our rescue were nothing but skin and bones and of course flea ridden, thank goodness they all tested negative for fiv/felv but the condition of them other wise was appalling.

I am writing to you to let you know that I cannot express my appreciation on all what you do for all of these wonderful creatures, so many are in danger all over and it is you that give these poor creatures a second chance. I cannot express the wonderful experience all the staff showed us with this poor kitty, we just didnt know what to do, and all of your wonderful staff and volunteers all worked together on helping this mother cat with babies, I wish I could remember all of the names that were involved with this, because I would write each one a big thank you from us.

How is the mother with the babies doing, were they able to survive? The veterinarian care we paid for down there  was very substandard to say the least and we are so distraught over this but we feel our calling is to help this shelter.

Can you please keep me posted on them as I cannot sleep or rest knowing what happened to them, and we have to do some serious thinking of what to do with what shelters we can help with from now on, I know unfortunately none of us can save them all, but these poor helpless creatures need more people like all of us who care to speak up for the many in need. I hope like you all see one day that it takes a long time for anyone to find a animal in need of a home, and that no animals have to suffer and die needless deaths because of the ignorance of humans. I myself sometimes hate to call my self a human because of what goes on with the poor defenseless animals.

I am going to send you down a care package for kitties – they are my passion- and please keep us informed on the kitties mentioned above. We had no intentions of leaving a momma cat with babies behind on you, but the staff was so nice about the whole thing and offered to keep her due to her condition and her babies. I really want to know they made out and if any survived and how the remaining are doing, please if any survived can you keep me posted and please give them extra kiss and hugs from me, and tell them i did care for them as we did want to try to help them.

I am going to see what our rescue can do to support Pets Alive, if it is a care package once a month for kitties or something, I know it is a small thing we can do and nothing compares to what you and all your wonderful staff do everyday.

May God Bless You All,

Much appreciation always,
Sincerely,
Cathy
Saving Purrs One At A Time

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Dear Houma,

Today we celebrated  my 4th birthday with hats and cake!  My how my life suddenly changed.  Last year at this time I was sitting in a cage at the APL – a scary place.  As a “bully” breed some shelters won’t even put us up for adoption and we are euthanized before we are given a chance – even the pit puppies.  My mom helped with the Vick investigation and she saw firsthand the pain, torture and suffering the dogs endured at the hands of the ignorant, and irresponsible people.  After almost giving up on ever leaving the shelter – SHE PICKED ME!  I got to work with her and visit Veterans in the hospital while I work on my therapy certification.  Life at home is hte best! I sleep on the be, chew on toys, and have fields and pastures to play in.

The reason I am writing is that we don’t want you to give up.  it makes my mom sad to see you’re still waiting for a home. She does not understand why people keep passing you up and not giving you a chance.  If they only knew how kind and gentle we pits are.  If there wasn’t already five of us and no more room on the bed, you would be here celebrating with us.

Houma, we don’t want you to give up, so I am sending you my birthday money to buy bones and toys to cheer you up while you wait for your forever home.

DON’T GIVE UP HOUMA!

Your friend, Neela.

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Hi folks: This is a long shot–I know you guys are always full up with cats, but…..
The kids and I were away in NYC for a week and my nephew stayed at the house with Kip and Henry (Note: those are the dogs they adopted from us). While we were gone Matt (nephew) was driving along Shoddy Hollow Road and came across a dead cat in the road–with a kitten sitting next to it. He got out and moved the kitten off the road, and of course it returned to what was left of Mom. So he brought it home with him.

I found out when we got back yesterday and told him to put up some signs in Otisville, though the kitten was full of fleas and the Mom had no tags–probably not a pair anyone was looking for, but who knows?

Matt has taken the kitten back to my sister’s house but is not allowed to keep it (they have a load of animals already so my sister doesn’t want anymore. We are trying to find a place for it. My husband, the kids and I are all very allergic so we can’t take it. I’m not big on outside cats—too many cars on Derby Road, too many other nasty things could happen.

If you guys could consider taking it in that would be terrific. My sister is willing to cover the surrender fee, I think between all of us we could cover the neutering.

It is a young kitten, very playful. Eats solid food. Classic grey tiger type. We don’t know anything else about it. It hasn’t been vetted at all as of now. It has been bathed.
If you guys can’t help out, we fully understand. (And we promise not to dump it on your doorstep!) If not, do you know of any other no-kill cat groups that are fairly local that might be able to help?
Thanks for your time– The kids and I will probably be up there walking dogs tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

I wrote back:
Of course! Bring the little guy in as soon as you like. Staff is onsite by 8am. Janet can take a look when she gets in to make sure all is ok!
…and no surrender fee. You do a lot for us. Just bring the little guy in.

…and then THEY wrote back:

Hi Kerry: Just checked my email…thanks so much. We’ll come up later today–we have to wait for my nephew to come over (he is 19 and as such is so not a morning person!). I passed the good news on to my sister and she is sending along a donation anyway because she is well aware of the costs involved in taking care of even one small kitten. We’ll hope to see you later today, and thank you so much again.

OK, so there you have an example of the kind way to get a dog or a cat into a facility – VOLUNTEER there or donate there! Offer to try to help with expenses! Be polite! Do what YOU can first to try to help the animal!   OK, so on to letter number 2 from this week:

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Hi My name is xxxxx. I have a cat that I want to get rid of. The reason I need to give her up is that she is a horrible cat. I have tried breaking her bad habits but cant seem to do it . She goes in the garbage and she also steals food off the counter. She gets fed 3xs a day so there is no reason for this stupid behavior. When I origanally (sic) got her I was told she was a male. Next thing I know she is giving birth and spitting out kittens left and right.  No one wants her. I don’t blame them. She’s a pain in the ass and there is nothing good to say about her. I don’t feel it would be nice to lie about her bad habits. Let me know if you would be willing to take her. I can’t give any money for any fee though. She really isn’t worth it and I have other things I’d rather spend the money on anyway then this dumb cat. Also can you come and pick her up. It isn’t convenient for me to drive all the way over there, but let me know when you can come and I will make sure I am here to give her to you.

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So there you have it.
Who do I feel worse for?
Who should we help?
Should the cat suffer because her owner is a piece of garbage?
How would YOU decide if you could only take in ONE?
Not too easy, is it?