After one year as Executive Director of Pets Alive Westchester, I am leaving to take on the role of Executive Director of Pets Alive Puerto Rico. It’s a bittersweet transition for me.

While I look forward to the new challenge in Puerto Rico, I look around and see so much still to be done in Westchester.
Mostly I see the faces of the animals. I have come to love each and every one of them, and leaving them is very difficult. But I know I am leaving them in capable hands. Jenessa Taylor, the new Executive Director, is able to step into this role without missing a beat. She comes to PAW from Pets Alive Middletown, where she was the Executive Administrator working right alongside the President of the Board and Executive Director at Middletown. Jen has extensive knowledge and experience in handling the day to day operation as well as in keeping the long term goals on track. She knows that the top priority is to get these animals into loving homes and to ensure that their lives are enriched while they are still here. The staff at Pets Alive Westchester is a strong group of committed, capable, caring, compassionate people. Led by Jenessa, they will not only accomplish the goals already set forth, but with your support, they will take Pets Alive Westchester to places not yet imagined!

So go ahead – RING OUT THE OLD!

It has been such an honor working with you to lead this organization over the past year, and to be able to play a small part in helping to improve the lives of the animals at Pets Alive Westchester. Thank you all for being a part of PAW, and for all your support and encouragement.

Always remember that none of this can happen without you, so please give generously in 2012 of your time, your money and most of all your love. Thank you for loving the animals. Your love worked miracles in 2011. There are more miracles to come in 2012.

RING IN THE NEW!

Love,

Joy XOXOXO

I am very proud to tell you about some of the accomplishments that your support made possible in 2011. What a year it has been!

ADOPTIONS

In 2011, PAW found homes for more than 1,000 animals – hundreds of them were seniors who had been here for many years.

ENRICHMENT

For those dogs and cats who remain in our care, we implemented some wonderful programs to enrich their lives.

• The “Senior Foster Program” asks people to commit to a dog or cat for the rest of its life. Pets Alive Westchester pays all the medical expenses. Currently 6 senior dogs and 1 senior cat are in this program.
• The “Senior Weekend Getaway” program allows volunteers to bring a senior dog home for an overnight or weekend stay. 5 dogs regularly “getaway”.
• The “Train to Adopt Program” consists of dedicated volunteers who meet with the staff trainer on a weekly basis and learn training techniques to help make dogs more adoptable.
• The “K9 Basics” training classes graduated 82 students. We know that when a new adopter attends training classes with their dog, the likelihood is greatly reduced that the dog will be returned
• “Doggie Play Groups” bring dogs together in the play yard for fun and exercise. Dozens of dogs who were labeled “dog-aggressive” have been reevaluated and now participate in play groups after years of being deprived of any interaction with other dogs!
• FIV cats are now showcased in their own new room right off the lobby, and volunteers are encouraged to visit and socialize with them.
• Sam, a dog once labeled severely aggressive has been rehabilitated. He now lives happily in the office, loves everyone, and is training to become a licensed therapy dog.
• The renovation and beautification of the cat rooms is almost complete and will provide more comfy sleeping areas and nooks and crannies for hiding”

MEDICAL

With so many senior animals, the ability to provide medical care onsite is a top priority. The new medical suite, outfitted with state of the art equipment, meets that need.

• There is a large treatment room for first aid, dentals, and surgery prep, and a separate operating room where surgeries are performed.
• The new cat infirmary is almost complete, and will provide our feline furries with a spacious and clean place to recuperate from illness, injury or surgery.
• The medical team consists of staff veterinarian Christina Nutini, DVM and two vet assistants, and is overseen by Dr. Christopher Puzio, owner of Rockland veterinary. I am so proud to be able to say that everyone on the medical team embraces the Pets Alive no-kill philosophy and is committed to providing the highest quality medical care in a loving and compassionate manner.
• Early 2012 will bring a renovated dog infirmary, and in the second half of the year PAW will begin offering low cost spay/neuter to the community.

FACILITIES MAINTENANCE

• The installation of the new HVAC system is underway and expected to be completed any day now. With winter upon us, and with the memories of getting through last winter without reliable heat still fresh in our mind, this costly project could not be postponed any longer. New boilers, duct work, air handlers, controls, and a special filtering system for the medical areas will result in a safe, healthy and cozy indoor environment year round.
• The lobby has been redecorated and now has a clean and spacious look, and our logo graces the entryway – all thanks to Diana who had a vision to help Pets Alive Westchester and a mission to complete her Girl Scout Gold Award project.
• A dream came true just a few weeks ago when a donor agreed to sponsor a beautiful new sign for the outside of the building to show all the world that we are Pets Alive Westchester!

Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education. Please consider making a donation to help us.

The dogs that arrived were some of the nicest dogs we have ever taken in. Happy, excited, friendly and grateful to be here. It was interesting to us because these dogs that had never lived in a home, had some of the best home “manners” of any we had seen.  Almost all of them seemed to be house trained when we adopted them to families.  We assume it is because they have always gone outside, so eliminating there was natural to them, having lived outside their whole lives.  They also didn’t “take off” when the door or gate was opened.  Most of them stayed right there at the house or in the yard.  They had found a home, and no longer did they seem to want to wander or run.  They were happy, and fed, and loved.

They were all also good with other dogs!  Having lived their lives on the beach with a pack of dogs, they had adapted well to communal living and sharing space and food.  Wonderfully social dogs.  They were also almost all small to medium size which is highly adoptable.

We were pulling in dogs that had miserable lives, no vetting, no care, no affection or love – and they turned out to be some of the best and most highly adoptable dogs we had ever encountered.  We not only felt we NEEDED to save more – we WANTED to!  We worked more and more closely with this organization but ultimately they closed down and asked us to take over their mission. We met about it, and it was 100% unanimous.  We had to help.  We had to continue saving the dogs that were in such desperate need.

And so we continued to save dogs remotely, but this wasn’t an ideal arrangement.  The expense for vetting and boarding was astronomical.  Marisol and Rob Thomas are members of our board, and Marisol is a proud Puerto Rican. She has a fire in her heart for the dogs of the island.  She and Rob wanted us to do everything possible to help. So Rob and Marisol, through their Sidewalk Angels Foundation, have donated $250,000 to set the wheels in motion, and we embarked on a mission to build a sanctuary in Puerto Rico.

For a year we hit obstacle after obstacle in achieving our dream.  We had promises made to us, and land chosen and every time one thing or another happened to keep us from getting it accomplished. It seemed to be going on forever and the impact we could have was very much stunted. We were pulling dogs in tiny amounts, a little here, a little there.  This just isn’t how we do things at Pets Alive.

Finally, in frustration we stopped dealing with the groups who were helping us, we took every dog we had in boarding back to Pets Alive, and we flew down there to take matters in our own hands. Within a few days we found a gorgeous piece of property in Utuado and we closed on it last month.

Six secluded acres overlooking the mountains and lakes. Centrally located to major airports. Stunningly gorgeous property with paths that cut through the vegetation where we will build our enclosures for the dogs. The house is also beautiful. A warm and welcoming place for our supporters to come and spend a “rescue vacation”, volunteering at the sanctuary, helping to pull dogs from the streets & beaches, and transporting them stateside at the end of their stay.

It is also perfect because it is far enough from the general population and cities that we can not worry about neighbors complaining about barking dogs, or number of dogs.  It is in an agricultural area so our neighbors are cows and goats and other “farms”.  It is on the edge of a mountain so our views are spectacular, but more importantly no one can build on that side, so we know we will always have this seclusion and privacy and also we can easily protect our dogs from anyone who might intend them harm.  This would be a real issue if we built in a more populated area.

The location is perfect also because Dead Dog Beach will NOT be our only focus.  Indeed we feel the issue at Dead Dog Beach is too small for what we want to accomplish.  Harnessing ourselves to fixing things in just one site is not the way Pets Alive does things.  Many other rescues are already focused there, including Chrissy, who used to work with Pets Alive but has now started her own rescue.  She continues to do wonderful work for the dogs at that beach. We feel though that we can conquer Dead Dog Beach and much, MUCH more.  We are centrally located so that we can have an impact EVERYWHERE on the island.  Not JUST at that one beach, but on ALL the beaches.  And the cities.  Why focus only at the beach?  Dogs roam the streets and parking lots everywhere! They are in just as much danger and in just as much need of rescue.  We intend to help them too.

We also like this location because it gives us a peaceful place to bring people, to have meetings, to network and to work with other groups to solve the problem in Puerto Rico.  It is truly an ethereal sanctuary location that brings you such peace and beauty and harmony when you walk it’s trails, that we know we will inspire others to work with us on helping animals in Puerto Rico.  A “retreat” so-to-speak. A holy place. A place to save lives.  A place to fix the wrongs that have been beset upon these innocent animals.

In January, we will officially launch Pets Alive Puerto Rico and begin in  earnest, our mission there.  Rescuing animals, educating the public, providing a SAFE haven for animals and offering help to people who need it.  No more will dogs be abused, discarded and harmed.  We will see to it.

That isn’t all.  Rob & Marisol have committed to getting other celebrities to help us spread the word.  We will pepper the radio stations, billboards, and television commercials with our message “YOU are all they have”.  We will have class groups come to our sanctuary and experience first hand empathy and kindness toward animals and we will start a Humane Education campaign.

We will offer free spaying and neutering and medical assistance to those that want to keep their animals.  Too long the choice for animal loving Puerto Ricans has been to pay money they don’t have to keep their pets, or abandon them somewhere because they can not afford to get them help.  We will end that practice and we will extend our hand to all the people and animals – and offer them help.  If they wish to be kind to their pets, then we will see to it that they have that option.  That they finally, for once HAVE options.

Our biggest challenge right now is funding.  We were able to purchase the land and property thanks to Mari & Rob, but there is NO money right now to actually BEGIN operation.  We desperately need your support.  Please make an ongoing donation to help us with this life saving mission.  Please consider a monthly sponsorship or a major donation to help us for this first critical year.

Our second biggest hurdle is transportation of the animals to our NY sanctuaries. Currently it costs hundreds of dollars per crate for transport. We need to find a cheaper alternative. If you have ideas and suggestions to help us, let us know, leave comments here under this blog, or email us at info@petsalivepr.org – we are looking forward to hearing from you all, and we hope and pray that you will reach deep to help us in our fledging year. We need your support – because we CAN do this.  We WILL do this.  We never accept no, we never believe it isn’t possible.  Look how much we have accomplished in the past three years.  If you commit to helping us, we can go as far as we can all dream.

We are asking you to be a sponsor. A monthly sponsor. A donation of as little as $18 a month will go a long way and if you can afford to help us more for just this first year we would be forever grateful. The first year is the critical one, after that we will have fundraising in place, events and will have created a support network. It is this first year where we need your help.

BECOME A MONTHLY SPONSOR OR TO MAKE A ONE TIME DONATION!

Sponsorship Options

Lifeline Sponsor : $18.00USD – monthly Dog Sponsor : $35.00USD – monthly Bronze Paw Sponsor : $50.00USD – monthly Gold Paw Sponsor : $100.00USD – monthly Executive Gold Sponsor : $250.00USD – monthly

Help us. Support no kill.  Because YOU are all they have.

Zena! Pets Alive’s FIRST CGC certified dog! Wind them up, give them a little power, watch them – kill? You too can (and SHOULD) fight the status quo What happens to “evidence” dogs? In the interests of Tyson Kameron Jacobsen Youth Award & Memorial Garden Pets Alive Puerto Rico Update Questions, Doubts and Recrimination Pets Alive Westchester Update

Sanctuary animal updates:

Since my last update at the end of April we adopted out 359 dogs. We also adopted out 71 cats! That is more than the past TWO years put together for cats! Cats are finally getting noticed, and we’re really grateful for that. Please continue to recommend us as a place for people to adopt cats!

Noteworthy adoptions:

The stand out adoption of the past few months would no doubt be Bindi. Bindi is a dog that has lived at Pets Alive for five long years. There is so much about Bindi that has significance to Pets Alive. Bindi is largely the reason that Pets Alive still exists. At the time we received an email about her, Pets Alive was closing down. Best Friends had come here, saved the animals after the death of our founder, and they had decided to close the shelter down, not wanting to split their organization on both coasts. We were all devastated. We didn’t want to see one of the oldest and largest no-kills close, but we felt ill equipped to try to do this on our own. Matt and I had no such experience. We were both computer techs. Not animal rescuers! I was sitting at my desk, wondering what to do – risk it and fail and put animals lives in jeopardy? Take a chance and try to run and manage a sanctuary of this size, with almost NO money in the bank? It was definitely a cross roads. And then the email came in. A man had found Bindi by some train tracks in NJ. She was emaciated and terrified and had obviously been dumped there. He spent WEEKS gaining her trust and was finally able to catch her. But she did not get along with his dog and no shelter would accept her. She had too many issues at the time and she was a pit bull – we are all so full for this breed. And I sat at my desk and I looked at her picture for hours.

And made a decision.
Pets Alive would continue on.

Bindi would be accepted into our facility. And with that acceptance, Pets Alive was reborn and recreated – because there was NO GOING BACK NOW, we had just taken in a dog. It was scary and exciting at the same time. Could we do this? Maybe we could.

But alas, things did not go well for our Bindi. While she was quickly a staff and volunteer favorite, she wasn’t great with other dogs, and for many reasons her placement was more difficult than most. She was also the most destructive dog we had EVER seen here. She chewed through wooden fencing. She chewed through chain link fencing. She chewed through every bed and dog house she was given. She shredded any blanket or comforter she was provided with. Who would adopt such a dog? The boys ultimately built her a cement dog house. It was the only thing she didn’t reduce to rubble within minutes.

So while she got a ton of love and attention here, no one would take her home. Five years. Five years came and went and then we heard from Steve. Steve said he absolutely fell in love with her picture and description, and wanted to come and adopt her. We were hesitant. We never want to ruin a dogs chance of a home but we needed to tell him honestly her issues. Would it scare him away? We were all filled with trepidation when the day came for him to come and meet her. Would he love her? Would he give her a chance? Would he turn and RUN when we told him the truth of some of her issues?

Not Steve. He looked at her and said “This is my dog”. Then he filled out all her adoption paperwork and he and his son took her home.

As it happened they lived right near our adoption coordinator, Sue. Sue and Nikki would find all sorts of reasons to walk by the house, practically stalking the poor guy to catch a glimpse of our Bindi and see how she was doing. She would then call me and whisper “There is no torn up couch on the front sidewalk, looks like things might be going well.” And Steve says he didn’t really want to crate her when he went to work. He wanted her to have the house and we just figured he would come home to every single piece of furniture in splinters. But no. Guess what? In a home, Bindi is the most well behaved dog in the world. She hasn’t chewed up a single thing. She is house trained. She is well behaved. The first day Steve came home from work he actually had to WAKE HER UP sleeping in his arm chair in the living room.

He sends us pictures of her at family barbecues and on walks and playing in the yard. OUR Bindi.

No. HIS Bindi. Bindi is finally “home”. Good luck girl, we miss you and love you, and you will always be for me at least, a totem for Pets Alive. The dog that changed the future. Thanks for that. Be happy little alien. We love you.

LAST CALL FOR THE CALENDAR!

We can not accept any more entries for our calendar after November 14th. If you want your pet featured in the Pets Alive 2012 calendar, please click here to submit your text and photo (or to pre order a calendar). Thank you to Scott Bergmann for doing this year’s layout. The image to the right is a mockup of the calendar for this year and we think it looks FABULOUS! Please support our fund raising efforts. The calendar is such a fun way to do so!

Medical Building update – We have had to put the medical building on hold for the time being. We had too many dogs getting injured in our dilapidated kennel and were forced to make a decision. We decided to gut the entire inside of the kennel and redo it. It was a huge expense and we will have to do the outside sections of the kennel in the next year or two and the roof needs to be replaced but we had no choice. The kennel was over 35 years old and there was simply no more patching, duct tape or bandaids that we could use on it. We are looking at needing $50,000 though to redo the roof and that makes my stomach just sink. We also need to insulate the roof to help us keep heat in and I haven’t even looked into what that will cost. Well, we will keep making improvements here a little at time. We ARE considering a mobile unit though instead of the medical office for now. We may be able to buy a used one and then we can have it spend two days a week at our Pets Alive Westchester location, one day a week here and two days a week out in the community doing medical work and spay/neuters. So we are looking into that as a temporary fix. Stay tuned!

Puerto Rico Update:

There is so much to tell you about Puerto Rico that I will have to send it out in another update or risk make this far longer than it already is! I will give you a teaser though – we CLOSED on a home and property in Puerto Rico this month. A beautiful home, a beautiful piece of property on six acres. Our sanctuary is finally a reality. More to come on this! Stay tuned.

Farm Animal Updates:

Just an FYI that we finally had to let our precious senior horse, Glen go. We all still miss him terribly and his pasture seems so empty and sad to us all. He was a wonderful horse, and he gave the volunteers and staff here so much joy and pleasure. Ultimately he could no longer stand on his old and arthritic legs. When he could no longer get up on his own, we were forced to accept that it was time to let him go. We still grieve for this precious soul. Something came out of that loss though that really restores the spirit. Vera and Tom decided to build a memorial garden around the horse pastures. They built the absolute most beautiful cemetery and garden. I love it. On very stressful days I will go there and think of all the horses we have had here. Those we have helped, those that have gone on. There is a stone in the garden for every single equine soul that came through Pets Alive stables. It is comforting to know that our volunteers have such respect and devotion to them and that they will never be forgotten. If you come to visit you can see the cemetery/garden on the far side of the horse pastures across the street from the brick house. There is a path to it and we encourage you all to visit it, leave a stone for your own equine friend or just whisper a word or two.

Pets Alive also got a lot of farm intakes these past few months. Seems so many people are losing their homes and financially can’t afford animals any more that we are being called on time and again to help. It is very difficult for us to help farm animals as there is almost NO SUPPORT for them financially. Very few grants, very little public support. One horses costs about $450 a month to care for and we only have two horses sponsors (at just $85 a month). So financially the farm animals are a huge drain on our finances and resources. We encourage and ask for your help in supporting them. They are far more expensive than cats and dogs and they are far more desperate as so few places will reach out to help them.

Our latest farm additions are two female goats (Bella and Luna), a female pig (Delilah) and a mini-horse named Darby. They are all super friendly, love attention and seem pretty happy to be here. They all live together too, which is very cute to see. The picture to the right is of the new mini horse, Darby, meeting Moonray for the first time.

Medical Updates or Issues: (written by Janet)

We won’t cover all the medical issues this time since it has been so long since we last did an update but some of the particularly interesting or memorable issues Janet has compiled below:

About two weeks ago, our adoption coordinator called me frantically on my day off because Eddie, our incredibly handsome American Staffordshire terrier was stumbling and falling over. I had looked at Eddie the day before and he looked completely normal! With these sudden onset of symptoms I became really concerned. I couldn’t be sure if Eddie had experienced a seizure, a vestibular issue, or even had bloat (he is a very large chested dog which is a pre-disposing factor). Juan quickly got Eddie down to our vet! Eddie was NOT a well behaved patient at all and gave Dr. Hewlett and Juan quite the work out. Blood work came back the next day and looked normal. An ear culture showed a small amount of yeast but not much (and definitely not enough to cause such symptoms). He was diagnosed with geriatric vestibular disease. For those who are unfamiliar with the disease, this disorder is more common in older dogs (thus the term geriatric) but can occur in middle aged dogs. For some unknown reason, dogs can suddenly develop vestibular disease. It usually lasts between a couple days and three weeks. A few dogs can have residual signs beyond this time, such as a head tilt. Generally the dog appears normal until symptoms appear out of nowhere. Then there is a sudden loss of balance and many afflicted dogs may not be able to stand up. Dogs may become nauseous and have rhythmic eye movement. During this time, the dog may need to be hand fed as the motor skills needed to eat/drink from a bowl are lacking. There is unfortunately no known treatment, yet almost all dogs will recover. Eddie is doing very well overall. In my opinion he has a mild form of this disease. He has continued to have a good appetite and is able to eat and drink on his own. He is still slightly unbalanced, but even that symptom has improved. At this point, we are simply trying to keep him calm so he is less likely to lose his footing.

Cam, the famous ‘Cam’elot (as I like to call him) has also been experiencing some problems. Starting several weeks ago, staff noticed that he was limping in the morning. Cam has been treated in previous years for tick borne diseases, so we quickly took blood to check, but results were negative. We then noticed upon further investigation that he had a small pea-sized growth between the webbing of his hind toes. His limp seemed to diminish and antibiotics were started. Some dogs are prone to small cysts appearing in the webbing of their feet. A week or two later, ANOTHER growth appeared on his front foot. Our vet explained that although it would be very odd for these growths to be malignant, we couldn’t be certain without removal and biopsy. BUT Cam would need to wear an e-collar and stay inside the kennel. Anyone who is familiar with Cam knows that an e-collar and kennel setting may cause a mental ‘disruption’ for this sensitive soul. So the vet gave us the option of switching antibiotics and trying a longer course of treatment. Luckily Cam does not seem overly bothered by these growths. No one has noticed any licking. At this point, the growths are still present and surgical removal looks like the next step. Hopefully we can figure out how to recover him with the least amount of stress.

Holly our gorgeous Chow mix is now fully recovered from her Heartworm treatment. It took several months of treatment (and recovery time) but Holly is finally all finished and ready for her forever home! Holly has spent many months being an office dog and thus is VERY nicely housetrained as a result (Bonus!).

Bella one of our elderly friendly felines has been caught in the act of inappropriate urination. She was found urinating down the side of a tower and other furniture in her room. Although inappropriate urination may be a behavioral issue (and one of the most common reason cats are turned into shelters in the first place) there could be an underlying medical issue. If Bella has any sort of urinary tract infection, it could present itself with urinating in unusual areas as well as increased frequency of urination. We are trying to retrieve a urine sample for analysis (which can be a little tricky especially in a shelter setting). We will then know for sure whether or not a course of antibiotics is necessary. Bella is eating and acting normal otherwise.

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers:

Pets Alive Catsino Night Fundraiser

Try your luck! With your good hand this event could be a purr-fect win for more than just the animals!

Hors D’ Oeuvres – Drinks – Blackjack- Roulette- Poker – Fabulous Auctions- 50/50 Raffle- Amazing Prizes and more!

Also featuring mystical
illusions and magic by Chris Dare

Saturday, November 12th, 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM at the Sky View Rehabilitation & Health Care, 1280 Albany Post Road, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520 (overlooking the Hudson River. Click to see). Tickets must be purchased in advance.

One ticket $75.00 Two tickets (save!) $125.00

Pets Alive gratefully acknowledges the generosity of event hosts & sponsors
Sky View & Waterview Hills Rehabilitation & Healthcare.

Please consider being a sponsor for this event:

Click for sponsorship details

• Host a Pets Alive Party – You’ve all heard of Mary Kay, Pampered Chef parties, tupperware parties and various wine and food parties? Well we are making it possible for you to host a Pets Alive Party! We are setting a goal to save the lives of 100 animals this holiday season. With YOUR help, we can do it! Share your passion for rescue with your friends! Click here for details!
• Howl-O-Ween Party – Saturday, November 5th, 1-3 PM - Get those canine costumes & come on over to the Sanctuary. OK, humans can get dressed up too. $5 entrance fee per dog, humans of ALL ages are FREE!! There will be lots of fun & prizes! Enter our Costume parade & 50/50 Raffle along with other contests like the Best Doggie Costume or Best Duo (Dog & Owner) to name a few! There will be refreshments & goodies for everyone! (Held at Pets Alive)
• Monthly Pets Alive Tour – Saturday, November 5th – No need to make a reservation, just be here by 11:00 AM! We request a donation of $10 for tours ($5 for kids), but tours are always free for our members! If you opt to become a member after the tour, your tour donations will be applied to your new membership! Please be aware that tours are indoor and outdoor, rain or shine. Tour starts at the front of the Brick House…please be sure to wear appropriate footwear! We’ve changed the start time for the tour to 11:00 AM so anyone interested can attend volunteer orientation immediately following at noon.
• PetSmart Adoption Event – Saturday, November 12th, 11-3pm- Pets Alive will have adoptable Dogs & Cats at the Middletown store location. Come on down and meet our furry friends. You may just find your new companion.
• PetCo Adoption Event – Sunday, November 13th, 11-3pm – Pets Alive will have adoptable Cats & Dogs at the Middletown store location. Stop on in and meet our furry friends.
• Agway Adoption Event (in Pinebush, NY) – Saturday, November 19th, 11-3pm – Pets Alive will have adoptable four legged friends. Dogs & Cats looking for their fur-ever homes. Will it be with you?

Thank You!

Thank you HERTZ! The Hertz Corporation helps Pets Alive!
The Hertz Corporation, a proud partner of Pets Alive, donated 2 huge passenger vans and a GORGEOUS pickup truck! They are also committed to continuing to work with us in a long term partnership! Thank you Hertz! We are deeply indebted to you. We ask our members to take the time to go to the Hertz Facebook page and thank them for this. Use Hertz for any of your rental needs!

SUPPORT THE BUSINESSES THAT SUPPORT US!

Hertz Savings: Save up to 15% every time you rent with Hertz using your discount CDP# 1927220 when you reserve. Use it in addition to a special deal and save even more.
facebook.com/hertz: Check it out and say “thanks” for their support!

Discount Card: Print it out, put it in your wallet and be sure to use it every time you rent.

Volunteer of the Month:

We are going to start to feature special volunteers that go above and beyond in helping Pets Alive. This month we have chosen Erin Guilshan. Erin was a volunteer at Pets Alive with her family and would suggest volunteering to many of her co-workers at the company she worked for – Hertz. Many did follow through and started volunteering here, and also adopting animals from us!

One of the senior directors started volunteering here regularly with his daughter and he and Erin decided they wanted to do more. Erin developed a great plan for how Hertz could help Pets Alive and Glenn took it to the next level. They asked Hertz to donate vehicles to us and support animal rescue! They worked tirelessly, Erin into the wee hours nightly compiling data, putting together power-point presentations and the HERTZ worldwide headquarters actually formed a Pets Alive team! Together their creative out of the box style of volunteering resulted in 2 passenger vans, and a pickup truck for Pets Alive and a tremendous amount of publicity for both organizations! But, it didn’t stop there…they created an adoption event for employees during business hours at the HERTZ worldwide headquarters which found homes for animals, raised money, collected tons of supplies and made us a lot of new friends. And if that wasn’t enough, Hertz employees will be coming for corporate volunteer days at the sanctuary! Erin and Glenn wanted to help big, and reached out because they realized they knew a company that could. Together they went for the stars and got ‘em!

Additionally, Erin made a huge difference in the life of Langston, a 10 yr old dog who was brought to the sanctuary from PAW where he had spent his entire life. Erin and her family spent time with Langston and this beautiful but sad boy came out of his tightly sealed shell and flourished. Erin and her family became advocates for Langston and created flyers, a Langston face book page, and emails to find Langston a loving home. Erin became Langston’s champion and was determined to find this boy a home- she would save his life. He must go home. They loved him, nurtured him and cheered his daily new discoveries. They fostered him as family after hurricane Irene until he was adopted! Erin and her family re-ignited Langston’s broken spirit and helped him go home. One rescue champion plus one dog = a 7 year long dream come true.

Thank you from the bottom of our furry hearts Erin and Glenn. You have moved mountains for our animals (one in particular), given support, beautiful vehicles and created new opportunities for us we could only have dreamed of. We love you.

Look in the mirror, it really is YOU that makes the difference for the animals. If you have a creative idea to help the animals at work, school or in your community, can volunteer your professional skills, special talents or know someone who knows someone please let us know at community@petsalive.com. We love great ideas!

Bambi needs a foster home:

Our sweet pittie mix, Bambi, has end stage cancer. No question, she is dying, however she is currently doing very well with little to no symptoms. This dog came to us from Pets Alvie Westchester. She lived there at the old Elmsford shelter, almost her entire life. Her entire life. She is now ten years old. And dying. Please, we are begging someone to foster her. We will pay ALL her bills and handle all her necessary medical care. We just don’t want her to die in a shelter with never having had a chance at living a life in a home, being loved, and having a life that every dog should know.

The problem is that Bambi is NOT great with other animals. If you have pets, she seems to be ok with some dogs, not with others, so it may be that she would need to be kept separate from them, at least when you left the house, and at meal times. We are not 100% confident in her abilities to live with another dog but she isn’t fiercely aggressive toward them either. If you have room in your home, and your heart, will you please consider giving this girl one shot at love?

Current Needs:

Right now we have some large “needs”. We REALLY need a new gator. Ours is on its last legs. We would also love a bobcat. In regards to people with expertise we need someone that can put a new roof on our kennel, insulate our current roof area, and/or rip down the ceiling in the kennel and redo it. I know. It is a bear of a job. If you have any time, or expertise in this area, we would really love the support and help. We can’t give them all homes right now, so we need to make their living environment as comfortable and safe as we can. Can you help?

Other needs right now is for amish style shed row barns. They are about $5000 each and we could use three of them. Yeah I know, I’m dreaming, but a girl can dream, right? If you don’t have $5000 just laying around, then maybe you can help with one of these items? 3-lb paper trays, dish detergent, paper towels, Libman wonder mopheads, used ink cartridges (we trade them in for credit), high efficiency laundry detergent, dog toys, Panacur dewormer (the
big bottles of equine liquid has been working well for us!), Advantixx or Frontline for dogs, Panacur Dewormer, Ivermectin, disinfectant wet wipes, and Slip leads. Thank you for your kind consideration on these items!

Of course our biggest need is consistent monthly income that we can count on. We’re not gonna lie, or sugar coat it. We NEED your help to survive. The city, town, state, government – none of them give us any money or help. We survive ENTIRELY because people like you read this, and believe in what we are doing and believe in no-kill. WANT to see no-kill, want to see an end to the inhumane slaughter of companion animals that come to shelters because they are down on their luck and they need help. The help they get in most shelters, is to be killed. We are determined to put an end to that. We work toward it every day. In four years we have helped convert many other shelters to no-kill. Please consider sponsoring a pet. Your monthly donation of just $18 (three cups of gourmet coffee) will help us to save the life of an animal every single month. Please consider taking this step. We need you, and more importantly THEY need you. When they come to a shelter, starving, cold, scared and hurt, we promise you – and we promise them – that we will extend our hand, pick them up, and help them. We will not walk them to a back room and kill them. Please help us. They deserve it. We need your support.

Social Networking- Find us on:

Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education. Please consider making a donation to help us.

This month has made me question my own rescue efforts and whether change can really be made. Really it has….

The Pets Alive annual ‘Furball’ was held last Saturday. The theme was ‘Can you feel the love tonight?’ and without sounding horribly cliché you really could. Hundreds of people joined together in their love of animals. It was humbling and incredible to witness. It gave me renewed determination to continue our work in PR.

A small glimmer of hope appeared on the horizon this week. For those who follow PAPR you know that we have a number of dogs in foster care. They had spent far too long in Dr Aguirre’s office and when I was in PR we built ¼ acre runs for these dogs at Iris’s house. I would like to take a moment to tell you all about Iris. Iris is an angel who appeared to me last year. I was transporting dogs back to NY and only had 5 crates to take. That left a spare place on my flight so I sent out a note to all the rescuers I know on the island. One of our biggest struggles as rescuers in Puerto Rico is getting dogs out of PR. They must have an escort on the plane and that can prove difficult to find. Somehow my email ended up in Iris’s hands and I received a call from her about a boxer she had rescued named Dio. Iris has been rescuing dogs her whole life with her own money. She finds wonderful homes for them in Puerto Rico. She had been struggling to find a great home for Dio.

Could I take him to Pets Alive she asked? With a heavy heart I explained that I could only transport dogs and I could not take any further rescues in. I could hear the heartbreak in her voice as she thanked me for what I was doing for the dogs of PR and that she would try and continue to find a home for Dio on the island. I felt terrible. So I called Kerry and asked if we had room at the inn for one more – a beautiful boxer who was neutered, healthy and up to date on shots. ‘Of course!’ said Kerry and I could hardly contain my excitement as I called Iris to tell her the good news. Dio and 5 others traveled with me on the night before Thanksgiving. It was a hideous journey. One flight got cancelled, and then the next one that American could put us all on got horribly delayed. We finally walked in the doors of Pets Alive at 6am on Thanksgiving morning. A wonderful family adopted Dio – he even has his own kids! That Thanksgiving Eve Iris and I became sisters and she has been helping PAPR ever since.

We have 18 dogs in foster care. Dogs that I have been promising their very own family…And this week I was told that they could finally come to Pets Alive! It is not something that I was expecting but that makes it all the more exciting! And scary. PAPR had certainly not planned for a large transport but we will make it happen – the dogs are coming in the next 2 weeks. It now costs us $175 PER DOG to send the dogs with American Airlines. And they are the cheapest. That’s in excess of $3000. So I again appeal to you, our loyal followers and supporters to help us bring these beautiful Angels to heaven on earth. They are so deserving and have waited patiently for so long. I am going to put up a chip-in on our website and I would encourage you to give whatever you can. If you would like to sponsor an individual dog and cover their airfare then even better! If you cannot donate $$$ then please consider air miles. We can fly ANY airline to GET to PR. We need to fly AA back as they transport dogs for us. Jet Blue is great because they don’t charge for baggage. And believe me I take a lot of baggage. I have a full rescue kit that I travel with and my wonderful vet, Dr Thomas LoBasso of Cobble Hill Animal Clinic in Brooklyn always send me with huge donations of heartworm and flea and tick medication. Plus I usually go a little crazy in the dog isles of Target before I leave to spoil our fur kids. They so deserve it.

I don’t know who said it but a picture definitely speaks a thousand words so I put this together for you all. You know who is coming and you can pick your favorite to sponsor : ) These dogs have been waiting for their ‘Someday’……… http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1AcuG7Rs2YtHWQ

On a very frustrating note, 5 dogs have been dumped at the beach : (
The first one looks in really bad shape.

With more than 140 senior dogs and more than 100 senior cats up for adoption at PAW, creativity is the key to getting those furries into the loving homes they deserve at this time of their life. Unlike other foster programs in which the foster parent commits to taking in an animal temporarily while a suitable adopter is found, the Senior Foster program at PAW asks foster parents to commit to the animal for the rest of the animal’s life. We understand that the potential cost of medical care is one of the main reasons many people reject the idea of adopting a senior pet. So Pets Alive Westchester provides the medical care for seniors in our program.

With your help, we can get these animals home. Committing to a senior is one of the most rewarding ways you will ever find to help an animal in need. It has been heartbreaking to come here, go through the records and see animals that came in as puppies, still here 14 years later. Absolutely gut wrenching. Seniors, especially those who have spent most of their life in the shelter, are extremely grateful for any amount of love and attention that is paid to them. They have outgrown most bad habits, and appreciate simple things such as great smells coming from the kitchen, leisurely walks in the evening, and a soft, cozy place to rest their old bones at the end of a long day. In return they will be a faithful companion to you and give you uncompromising love and devotion. Won’t you please consider providing a loving home for one of these deserving animals?

Dog Training and Enrichment

Pets Alive Westchester is committed to helping animals stay in loving homes. One of the best ways we have found to do this is to provide training help to dog owners who are going through difficult times with their pet. We know that there are simple solutions that will put an end to undesirable behaviors that all too often result in dogs being surrendered to shelters – such as housebreaking issues, inappropriate chewing or barking, separation anxiety, sibling rivalry, etc. PAW has a staff trainer who adopters are encouraged to contact with any and all questions regarding their dogs behavior. In addition, PAW has recently begun offering K9 Basics obedience dog training classes to help dog owners by providing them with a “tool box” of knowledge that will help them shape their dog into a model citizen. As a result of the simple, gentle and humane methods used, a deep and abiding bond is formed between the people and their pets, making it unlikely that these dogs will ever find themselves unwanted and in need of shelter. The classes are open to the public, so all dogs are welcome, and prices are kept low to encourage participation, and classes are held in the evening to encourage all members of the family to attend with their pet. For more information, please visit our website at petsalivewest.org

Surgical Suite

Exciting changes have been taking place in our medical department that will ensure that we are able to meet our commitment to provide excellent medical attention to all of the animals in our care. Dr. Richard Demmerle (Doc) joined the staff full-time in February. Doc brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in shelter medicine. This change has already resulted in increased and better care for the animals. But we are not stopping there! Along with the staff changes, we will soon have a long overdue renovation of the medical suite, including an upgrade of all equipment, funded by two anonymous donors. Quality staff and quality equipment = quality care and better quality of life for our animals. They all very much need and deserve this!

Additionally, all these animals now get regular examinations and medical attention. Holly, a dog who suffers from megaesophagus, needed a special, custom made chair in order to eat and keep her food down. This was an expensive item, but we knew it had to be provided to provide Holly the best quality of care. We also knew we couldn’t afford the purchase. We didn’t give up. We appealed to our members and immediately two volunteers stepped up to cover the cost of this chair. Holly can now eat properly, keep her food down and as a result feels better, looks better and is finally putting on weight!

Summer Dog Camp

Many of the senior dogs at Pets Alive Westchester have been here for more than ten years – some for their entire adult lives! That means best case scenario, they have been living in a very narrow concrete kennel run all that time. There are hundreds of these runs at Pets Alive Westchester, rows and rows of damp, narrow kennel runs. One can’t help but wish for something better for these dogs. Especially the dogs who are not doing well because of the dampness, or those who just need more stimulation than this environment can provide.

Anyone who has been to the Pets Alive sanctuary in Middletown can’t help but wish that the dogs at Pets Alive Westchester could experience Camp Tyler – even just for a few months of the year! At Camp Tyler, dogs live in spacious outdoor runs in the open air. There is a lot to keep them occupied. They can watch squirrels and birds, even the occasional deer, horses and goats! They can lay in the sun or hang out in their igloo. In the summer they swim in their little pools. All the comings and goings at the sanctuary are in view – from cars entering the driveway to people entering the front door of the adoptions building. Just about every dog gets walked at least once a day on a beautiful quarter mile trail in the surrounding woods. And almost every dog is eventually matched up with a buddy – even dogs that you would never think could possibly share a run with another dog.

It isn’t possible to send every Pets Alive Westchester dog to Camp Tyler for the summer. Your help is needed to raise funds to build more dog runs in Camp Tyler so that we can send more of our very special dogs who are not doing well in the the kennel environment. We know that the dogs will benefit from all Camp Tyler has to offer. So far five dogs have been moved to Camp Tyler and the change has been miraculous. Dogs that were spinning in their runs, aggressive at their gates, or had skin issues, are all walking around at Camp Tyler with tails wagging. Children are now even walking these dogs. This change in environment has been an amazing boost to the mental and emotional needs of these dogs. But Middletown is out of space. They have found room to build seven more runs there. We could send seven more of our “legacy” dogs up there if we could raise the money for these additional runs. Please visit our website at petsalivewest.org where we have a chip in running. We need to raise the money to build these additional runs so our dogs that need it most can experience summer camp. We are literally begging you to help us to help them.

This picture is of one of the Pets Alive youth volunteers, Nikki, loving on Bambi. A dog that is at Camp Tyler from Pets Alive Westchester. Please help make this happen for more of the PAW dogs.

Goals

Pets Alive comes to Westchester. By now you have probably heard the story. Years of mismanagement, poor record keeping, and unlimited intake of animals by the Elmsford Animal Shelter had resulted in a situation that was no longer manageable. Unable to continue, those in charge threw up their hands, contacted Pets Alive, and asked them to save not only the animals, but the failing shelter as well.

The part of the story you may not know is that Pets Alive makes a GIANT impact in the animal welfare arena, but it is actually a tiny organization in terms of budget and space when compared to the old Elmsford Animal Shelter. So we knew that we would not be able to help the Elmsford Animal Shelter financially, and also would not be able to take-in the more than 1000 animals who were in desperate need of our help. All we really did know is that we had seen the animals and we could not and would not turn away. This first year has been an uphill battle. There have been setbacks – the roof leaks, there is no insulation, so the building uses fuel oil at an unbelievable rate, the heating system gave out on one of the coldest nights of the year. By some miracle, we were able to limp through the winter, but the odds of getting one more season out of it are slim to none.

But despite all this and because of your support, we are winning the battle to save the animals here. Hundreds of animals have been placed into loving homes or with other no-kill rescue organizations who are committed to finding them homes. The lobby is spacious and clean. No animals are living in cages.

The rabbits live in large hutches. They are lovingly tended to daily by staff and volunteers, It is not unusual to see a rabbit hanging out on the couch in the lobby with one of our rabbit volunteers. The cats live in 10 rooms, with plenty of space. They have fabulous furniture with lots of nooks and crannies to hang out or hide in. The cat staff is loving and attentive and takes time every day to play and brush and love the cats. Cat volunteers can be seen daily hanging out and brushing their favorite cats. There is a lot of love in this place. It is everywhere.

In the kennels, the quality of life is improving for the dogs on a daily basis. Fabulous volunteers and staff ensure that every dog is walked and that every dog knows how much they are loved. Dozens and dozens of kongs are stuffed and passed out daily. The kongs keep the dogs busy and are helping those dogs who suffer from boredom. We wish we had a kong for EVERY dog. Our staff trainer has instituted a Train to Adopt (TTA) program whereby staff and volunteers are being taught how to interact with the dogs in ways that teach the dogs desirable behaviors and make them more attractive to potential adopters. The program has made a noticeable difference. When you walk through the kennels, you will no longer see and hear the customary frantic jumping and barking of typical shelter dogs. Instead you will see dozens of pairs of eyes watching you expectantly, tails wagging. They are patient. They are hopeful. They are waiting. Waiting for you. Waiting to go home. It’s time, and they are ready.

We humans, on the other hand, still have much work to do. We need to attract more donors, supporters, and sponsors in order to carry out our mission to save these animals.

• 
  We will be ramping up our Humane Education program in an effort to reach the children of the community to tell them about the work we do and the no kill movement in general. We will teach young people how treat animals with kindness, compassion and respect, and instill in them empathy for animals. The children are the future of the no kill movement, , and we will encourage them and give them ideas about how they can change the world.
• Over the next few months you will see an increase in Community Outreach events. Getting our name and our message out into the community is crucial to our future survival, since we depend 100 percent of the generosity of the community to carry out our mission!
• We will expand our dog training programs to offer a variety of courses – everything from help with behavioral problems, to basic obedience, to rally and fun agility in an effort to keep more dogs in their homes. We know that people who work on maintaining and improving their relationship with their dog are far less likely to surrender a dog to a shelter.
• You will see an increase in offsite adoption events. Getting our beautiful animals out in front of the public will increase their odds of getting adopted. Since the first of the year, 186 animals have been adopted, including 50 seniors. We need to increase this number until every single one of our “legacy” animals has gone home.
• We have set aside a limited number of runs so that we can take in animals from all over the county, state, nation and the world who need our help. We know that someone coming in to adopt one of our sweet, 60 pound seniors is not likely to change their mind and choose a small, young dog instead. And we also know that the small young dogs help to attract people to our shelter. Those people will become adopters, donors, volunteers, sponsors and supporters. And the circle continues. Until every animal goes home.
• Later this year or early next we will open our medical clinic to begin offering low cost spay/neuter to the animals of this community. We know that the single most important thing individuals can do to keep unwanted animals out of shelters is to spay and neuter their own animals. We need to make it affordable for everyone to do so.

But the bottom line is this: It all starts and it ends with you. We cannot do it without you! We need you! Please continue to help us help the animals.

We are on a critical rescue mission to get these animals “home” and to save this location. Together with our upstate location we will continue on as a force for no kill. If you believe in no kill and you want to see the end of the slaughtering of our companion animals in shelters across this nation, then you need to step up and let your voice be heard.

We all hope that we can change things enough to be unemployed some day.

Please consider sponsoring a pet. Your monthly donation of just $18 (three cups of gourmet coffee) will help us to save the life of an animal every single month. Please consider taking this step. We need you, and more importantly THEY need you. When they come to a shelter, starving, cold, scared and hurt, we promise you – and we promise them – that we will extend our hand, pick them up, and help them. We will not walk them to a back room and kill them. Please help us. They deserve it. We need your support.

Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education. Please consider making a donation to help us.

I arrived in PR mid-March to search for land for Pets Alive Puerto Rico and received an exciting phone call from my good friend, fellow rescuer and all around angel, Iris.  The First Lady of Puerto Rico had heard about my rescue work over here from Iris’s husband, who works directly with the Governor of Puerto Rico.  I was invited for an audience at her office to discuss plans for Pets Alive Puerto Rico.  After running out and buying a frock (I didn’t pack anything apart from shorts and t-shirts – good dog rescuing gear!) I went to La Fortaleza, The Governor of Puerto Rico’s Mansion.

We had a great meeting and came away not only with the support of the Office of the First Lady but the Governor’s office too!  It was more than we could have hoped for and a fantastic start to my trip.  They were even offering to help us with land!

We still had 12 dogs in the office of the Pets Alive Puerto Rico Vet, Dr Aguirre and I was very keen to get them moved as soon as possible.  Some of our dogs had been there since September undergoing treatment.  One such darling is Champ who I rescued from Dead Dog Beach in Mid September.  He was a teeny tiny little thing who was clinging to life by a thread.  He screamed when I picked him up – his little body was ravaged by malnutrition, mange and parasites.

This picture is Champ on the day of his rescue. Champ needed a lot of work.  Not only was he starving but he was very frightened too.  Over the course of the next few months I rescued many more like Champ as we cleared up Dead Dog Beach.  Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Vixen; 4 adorable siblings, Bella, Tito, Remco, Sunny, Ash, Angelito and Sarni.

We had rescued a litter of puppies off Dead Dog Beach in November that unfortunately had distemper.  Sadly, none of them made it and the infection spread to the other dogs we had in the vet’s office.  Our amazing vet, Dr Aguirre worked incredibly hard to save our dogs and we did lose some and that was beyond heartbreaking.

Twelve dogs survived and have been undergoing intense treatment since November.  They all look beautiful – the picture of health but they cannot at this time travel to Pets Alive.  So we desperately needed a place for them.  We were incredibly lucky that the wonderful Iris stepped up and agreed to foster all 12 of our dogs!   So we spent Easter weekend building a series of runs at her house so we could move everyone there.  It was back breaking work in 85’ heat but so, so worth it.

The dogs were so happy to out in the fresh air and to be able to run and play freely.  The joy on their faces was just the greatest gift that I could have received and a lot of tears were shed as I watched them all having so much fun.

We shipped 5 dogs to Pets Alive; Jumpy, Oreo, Luke, Gordon and Sparky.  All saved from Dead Dog Beach on New Year’s Day.   Gordon, Jumpy and Oreo have already found their forever homes!

I started viewing land and we are incredibly excited about a plot in Rio Grande on the East Coast of PR.  Kerry flew out to see the site and she is beyond excited!  We still have some land surveys and negotiations to complete but Pets Alive Puerto Rico is fast becoming a reality!

Kerry and I rescued a dog from the car park of Walgreen’s whilst we were buying food to feed other dogs (the irony!) and we named him Scruffy.  He is undergoing treatment with Dr Aguirre and he will travel just as soon as he is healthy enough.  I found a teeny tiny chocolate pup at a gas station in Yabucoa and named her Cadbury.  Kerry escorted Cadbury home (or maybe it was the other way round?) and she was adopted this week.

I had a particularly heartbreaking episode whilst in PR.  I received a call from Sandra, our wonderful volunteer who had been called about a Mummy and puppies at a school.  They were not safe there and so we ventured out on a Saturday morning to rescue them.  We found the puppies immediately but no sign of Mum.  It turns out she had ventured down the road to find food and was taking a nap under the bleachers on the baseball field.  I named her Goldie and she was a beautiful dog – very obviously someone’s pet that had been thrown away when she became pregnant.  Only about 12 months old herself she was an incredible mother to her 8 babies.  We took Goldie and her pups to another rescue group who had agreed to help us with her care.  About a week later Goldie began to show signs of distemper.  We wound up losing her and her babies who were also distemper positive.  I only knew her for a week but this dog made a profound impact on me.  An angel who sat in front of me wagging her tail and kissing away my tears. Goldie has made me even more determined to make permanent change for the dogs of Puerto Rico.

If you would like to watch a video slideshow I made of my recent trip to PR please take a look at this (Goldie is the dog at the end):

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1AcuG7Rs2YtHHQ

We are Pets Alive Puerto Rico – get ready to watch us roar.

The Fur Ball is a fabulous formal evening celebrating the animals that have been saved by Pets Alive.

There are cocktails, dinner, music, dancing, silent auctions, and our annual Awards presentation. Please join us in making our largest annual fundraisers for the animals, a huge success! This is the event that helps fund us for the entire year. PLEASE support this event!

The 2011 Pets Alive Hudson Valley Fur Ball Gala
Friday, June 17th,
From 7pm – 11pm,
Falkirk Estate & Country Club, Central Valley, NY

Everyone can be a part of supporting the Fur Ball, even if you can’t attend!

• Show your support as a Fur Ball sponsor and gain recognition at the event and beyond.
• Include your special personal message, or place an advertisement in the event program
• Come to the party! Guest list reservations $125 p.p.
• Volunteer to work on the committee that puts this event on each year! Please help by emailing community@petsalive.com

Together we will make the Hudson Valley Fur Ball a success for the animals!

You can also attend the Westchester Fur Ball!

Pets Alive Westchester Fur Ball, Saturday, June 11th, Mount Kisco, NY.
For additional information, or questions, contact community@petsalive.com

Sanctuary animal updates:

Since my last update on February 23rd, the following dogs were adopted: Rufus, Sassy, Celine, Princess, Buffy, Spot, Elmo, Roxy, Scooby, Jake, Selma, Sandy, Ted, Yogi, Sam, Rookie, Grizz, Tonka, Yukon, Polly Anna, Chauncey, Dara, Charlie Girl, Larry, Mallory, Betty Jo, Brenda, Shelly, Belinda, Sage, Jess, Buddy, Butch, Bethany, Bishop, Bear Cub, Shania, Max, Bambi, Mallory, Javier, Theodore, Dublin, Bunny, Jonah, Glacier, Duncan, Elle, Reese, Jelly Bean, Buddy & Cadbury, Sophie & Lavender, Pogo & Razzy, Lucky & Sammy, Bobey, Bear, Jenny, Enzo, Moose, Rocky (Larry), Sweetie, Peep, Josh, Taffy, Timber, Griffin, Snoopy, Stephen, King, Homer, Gentry, Gentle Ben, Buster, and Elvis.

This month we had an awesome adoption day. On April 2 EVERY adoption was a double! There were four adoption appointments for dogs and one for cats and every family took home TWO animals! Five appointments resulted in ten animals going home. What a great day. If you have a SINGLE pet, please consider a playmate for him or her. Long days without you can really result in behavior or aggression issues. A playmate and companion often alleviate those issues. There are so many animals in need. Hope you consider a friend for yours!

The following cats were also adopted: Ramos, Black Gold, Tootles, Miss Priss, Frankie, Archie, Sharon, Leslie, Roberta, Buddy, Angie, Molly, Sasha, Sasha2, Mitzy, Panda, Rabbit, Steve, Tommy Kitty and Nina!

Noteworthy adoptions:

The stand out adoptions of the past few months would have to be Bunker, Lucky & Sammy, and cat Sheba!

Bunker was a dog that arrived here from Ohio almost three years ago. He was actually adopted out four times but each time was returned. Each person said the same thing – he was absolutely a PERFECT dog in every way but he was too protective in the home when strangers came (although one time he was returned for being too energetic). Bunker had only three legs so we were thinking maybe he thought one of those strangers took his leg and he was trying to get it back! But it was a difficult problem for us to fix here because he didn’t exhibit this behavior until he was in the home for a number of weeks and he never showed any sort of protectiveness here. So we would prepare adopters and they would understand and try but in the end, Bunker just wanted to make sure no one was going to come and take his family from him. It was very sad. Enter Liz. Liz is a person that comes all the way from NYC every single week to volunteer here. She had a special relationship with Bunker but she also had cats and Bunker was a cat-hater. The staff started working with Bunker every day on getting him used to cats, by bringing him to the cat department and having him make short visits with lots of treats. Eventually Bunker started to get better. Liz was dejected every time she left here without him and decided it was time to take him home. Well. She did. And he is still there now, and working out great. He waited three years to find his home and now he has. Thank you Liz! Good luck Bunker!

Lucky and Sammy were abandoned at the CACC by their family who no longer wanted them. Lucky was 14 years old and Sammy was 12. We didn’t know they had come in as a pair and Pets Alive pulled Sammy (pulled means “arranged to take into our sanctuary”). The CACC contacted us and asked if we could please consider taking them both because they were both scheduled to be euthanized and were very bonded and loving with each other. Oh my! We had no idea! Of course we said yes and they both came here. Well it is difficult enough to adopt ONE senior dog, never mind TWO that need to go TOGETHER. Ouch. But we didn’t think about it, we knew we had to take them both and amazingly, less than two weeks later, they were BOTH adopted together to a WONDERFUL home. Some days I can’t even believe how much good there is in the world. Just look at that picture. It really touches me. They REALLY love each other. They deserve to live. They ALL do.

Sheba was six years old when she was abandoned at the CACC. She was brought to Pets Alive almost TEN years ago and had no interest from adopters. We were worried that she was never going to find a home. But miracles DO happen! She was recently adopted by one of our volunteers! Thanks Becky. We are so glad she is with you.

Intakes:

We took in the following dogs: 5 from Puerto Rico, 6 from Kentucky, 9 from Ohio, 29 from Georgia, 4 from the CACC, 4 from North Carolina, 9 from South Carolina, 2 from Maryland, 3 owner surrenders, and 3 dogs from Turkey. Yes. TURKEY. The country. I know. Don’t ask. Well. OK. Ask. Someone asked, we said yes. In Turkey, animals are not considered pets. An exchange student was there for some time and was helping these dogs. When it was time to come home she felt she could not leave them. She asked if we could help. So we said yes. They may have travelled the furthest of any of the dogs we have ever taken in. They are absolutely beautiful and two have already been adopted! The last one still here is Camelot. Gorgeous and wonderful. Come and adopt him!

In addition to all of those dogs, we also took in seven cats from local surrenders, or local rescues, and twelve cats from our Elmsford location (still trying to help get our numbers down there).

Don’t forget to check out the Pets Alive Blog. Does anyone CARE? More on Chesterfield S.C. Pets Alive Sponsorship Drive What has happened to compassion in our shelters? Westchester’s largest No-Kill Shelter Counting on New Team Pets Alive Gets Grant to Vaccinate Dogs for Influenza

Puerto Rico – Things are really coming together for us in Puerto Rico. The government there has decided to strongly support us in building a sanctuary and is working with us to lease us or give us land to build it on. They are also helping us gain non-profit status there and helping us with some grants and other things. It has been a whirlwind and Chrissy has been away from her home and family to be there for the past few months to make it all happen. We will keep you posted on our progress!

Elmsford – Pets Alive Westchester – Amazing things have been happening at Pets Alive Westchester. Recently a dog that came into that shelter as an 8 month old pup was adopted. He was 14 now. How terribly sad that prior management of this facility felt it was ok to warehouse animals for life like this. It breaks our heart, but Joy has been doing an absolutely amazing job as executive director there and the staff is really onboard for changing things. They also adopted out a 16 year old cat this week. It is astonishing how quickly positive things are happening there. Your help is very welcome! You can visit their website at: petsalivewest.org

Tours – Pets Alive is now offering tours of the sanctuary. The first Saturday of every month is “Guided Tour Day”. You will be given a tour by one of the administrators of Pets Alive, be able to ask questions and find out more about our organization, our foundation and our mission. No reservation is needed. Just be at Pets Alive by 10:45. The tour starts at 11! Tours are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. These fees can be applied to a Pets Alive Membership at the end of the tour.

Pet Chow Pantry – Our Pet Chow Pantry is now working with the Office for Aging (OFA). We are hoping to get dog and cat food (and litter) with the food deliveries that are made to people that are homebound, or financially in need. If THEY need help, then their animals likely do too! Toni from OFA has been wonderful and is even working with us on a Senior For Seniors Program, to help get senior pets into senior homes! We are absolutely thrilled at this development. What a win for animals and seniors!

Sponsorship Drive – Our monthly pet sponsors are truly our partners in rescue and the lifeline for Pets Alive. With an urgent need to replace lost lifelines from the challenging economy, we launched a sponsorship drive and set a goal of 100 new monthly sponsors. Friends and partners in rescue from far and wide stepped up and headed the call to action! Thank you to our 76 new monthly pet sponsors. Thank you to ALL of our monthly pet sponsors. You truly are the lifeline for Pets Alive. Learn more about becoming a monthly pet sponsor.

Medical Updates or Issues: (written by Janet)

Fox our handsome Puerto Rican boy has been having some behavioral issues these past couple weeks. He finally finished his heartworm treatment but during the last few weeks of recovery Fox has become a different dog. He became very anxious and quick to snap at people. This was extremely different than the dog we all knew. We decided to send bloodwork out to the lab to check for any abnormalities, but his values were all normal. We ran the heartworm combination test again to make sure he wasn’t showing signs of a tick borne disease. But that test also came back negative. Our vet did note that Fox had some difficulty during his stay there and might be painful from that (although the timing did not seem appropriate). We currently have weaned him slowly off the steroids he was on during recovery and is now back in the general population of dogs. We are hoping that with regular handling (from seasoned handlers) as well as the cessation of steroids, Fox will resume his normal happy persona. It’s been heartbreaking to see such a sweet, vibrant dog loose his zest and happiness. We were also able to find Fox a kennel mate to help with his process.

Gentle Ben is a large boarder collie mix who not only was found out to be positive for Lyme disease, but also has heartworm! He has been on the medication to treat Lyme which by chance is also a part of the treatment plan for heartworm. Ben visited our vet two weeks ago for the first part of his treatment. While quietly recovering in an office at the sanctuary, Ben was found to be completely non-weight bearing on his left hind leg yesterday morning. Of course everyone was alarmed. We were not sure if he injured himself, although it seemed highly unlikely since he was completely normal when everyone left the night before. We ran another heartworm combination test. It still showed positive for Lyme (which we expected) but was still negative for the other two tick borne diseases. We slightly increased the doxycycline and placed him on some pain meds. This morning Gentle Ben was completely back to his normal self! He wanted to hop around, jump up on people and go for long walks. We still need to keep him rested, but it was nice to see Ben acting himself once again.

Cooper (previously known as Charlie) the lab beagle was returned months ago for severe behavior problems. The family who adopted him were very kind and patient, but in their busy home, Cooper would randomly attack people. They tried to work with him and consulted trainers, but after the safety of their children was at stake, they felt they had no feasible solution but to return him. Cooper was kept out of the kennel and became an office dog. Unfortunately, after a couple short weeks, Cooper became settled and his behavior was seen firsthand. The sad part is that 99% of the time Cooper is just a big calm lug of a dog. He’s quiet, kind of shy and not overly active. A foster situation became available with an experienced volunteer who had worked with a different lab beagle of similar behavior. His stay with that family did not last long either as Cooper attacked her adult son as he entered the room one night. Full blood panels and other tests had been done to rule out medical reasons for the behavior. Unfortunately, no one knows for sure what torture these beagles received in the lab they spent almost their entire lives. An appointment has been made to see a veterinary behaviorist Dr. Ellen Lindell. If medications are appropriate for his case, she would be the person to determine and monitor their effectiveness. We are all hopeful that Cooper can find the mental respite needed to prevent any future bursts of aggression and live a normal life. The life that was sadly stripped by becoming the victim of years of experimentation.

Heidi is a female black lab mix who is new to the sanctuary. Sadly, at nine years of age, Heidi spent her life since puppy hood with a woman who would use a dirty wet rag to “scrub” her genital area each time Heidi urinated. She also would rub Heidi’s bottom and caused severe secondary infections and inflammation. Her medical records show that as a result, Heidi has dealt with urinary tract infections for most of her adult life. Even the day she arrived at Pets Alive, Heidi started urinating pure blood. When we collected a sample to send out to the lab, the lab initially thought we had submitted a blood sample instead of a urine sample!! Heidi was also extremely depressed and couldn’t be bothered eating, not to mention take her medication. Initially we were forced to inject all her medications into her, but finally after an entire week of coaxing, Heidi started to cooperate. She settled down and you could see the life coming back into her eyes. She now eagerly wants to walk the trail and likes to eat once again! We will retest her urine in a couple weeks to make sure she is healing properly.

Sophie is a beautiful female mixed breed from Turkey. A kind woman saved her along with two other terrier mixes due to their society not holding any value to animals. Sophie had been battling mange for almost a year, and had a myriad of other health issues when she arrived. Her ears were infected and there was a laceration near her eye that was pus filled. In addition to being badly in need of a dental, she had several lumps along her body and her nails were extremely overgrown. I thought for sure she was going to be an ongoing case for us. We began treating her mange and infections. Once she was more stable, we planned to have her lumps removed and biopsied and her teeth cleaned. But within a week of her arrival, a magnificent couple came to see her. They had seen her story and wanted to adopt her due to all her medical needs! Even knowing that there is a chance that the lumps (once biopsied) would be malignant in nature, the couple said that at least Sophie will have the family she deserves for whatever time she has left. We couldn’t ask for more!

Farm Animal Updates:

This month we wound up with a squirrel baby! His mom was killed in the road and he was too young to care for himself. The pic makes him look a lot bigger than he actually was. He was really cute. Janet took care of him until we were able to find a wildlife rehabber to take over his care. He was so much fun to play with and visit with! It is the unexpected animal care that comes through here sometimes that makes things more interesting!

Thank you to all the new volunteers that have been coming to help with our farm animals. They have been doing a wonderful job grooming and socializing the horses. Murphy used to be so shy that we could rarely catch him for medical care or the farrier. Now thanks to all this extra grooming and attention he is actually approaching us for attention! He has especially taken a liking to a young volunteer, Gina, who has been coming almost every weekend with her dad. Thanks Gina!

Foxy is another horse that has been very shy since she returned to the sanctuary, but as staff and volunteers continue to give her treats and pay attention to her she is becoming more friendly. It’s important to be able to handle all of the farm animals so that they can be vetted or have their feet cared for when the farrier visits. By spending time with the farm animals, volunteers play an important role in the socialization process.

Glen made it through the long winter and is in great spirits. He races to the gate for his food and will whinny and throw his head around if the feed buckets aren’t filled fast enough for him. Mid-morning he likes to take a nap in his lovely deep bed of shavings and his goat buddies can often be found resting beside him. We are really thrilled that this old man continues to thrive. Thank you to Vera for all the very extra special love and care that she bestows upon him.

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers

• Pine Island Farmers Market! April 30th: Pets Alive will have a table at the Pine Island Farmers Market in the main barn. The W. Rogowski Farm is located at 329 Glenwood Rd, Pine Island, NY in the heart of the black dirt region of Orange County, NY. Come out and support Pets Alive from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
• Saturday April 30th Beacon Barks! Literally!
  11am – 3pm (rain date is May 1st)

  Pets Alive is participating in the Beacon Barks Event. Beacon Barks celebrates the role animal shelters and animal rescue groups play in our community through this Animal Shelter Appreciation Day.

• PetSmart Adoption Events April 30th & May 1: Pets Alive will have animals for adoption at PetSmart in both Middletown and Harriman locations from 11-3!
• Dogs in Danger Walkathon – May 15! We will have a booth there and are inviting all our supporters to come down and walk in the walk-a-thon! To register please go here – and please register early. If not enough people register for the event, they may have to cancel!
• Pets Alive Annual Yard Sale! May 21-22 at Pets Alive. Vendors wanted! Vendor booths at our sale (which attract hundreds of people each year) are just $25 plus a donation of one item. Contact community@petsalive.com to become a vendor, or becky@petsalive.com with any other questions. Our yard sale has a huge selection of clothes, books, toys, sporting equipment, household items, holiday items, bake goods, raffles, and 50/50s. This is a rain or shine event. Donations: Can be dropped off during normal operating hours at the kennel office until May 15th. Please NO FURNITURE – we do not have the means to store large bulky items. Please mark all bags and boxes “yard sale”.

Oreo’s Law

Oreo’s Law is picking up tremendous support. Not only in New York where it is being introduced again but three other states have now introduced a version as well. So that we are all on the same page a new organization has been started called Rescue 50. It is to put forth an Oreo’s Law in all 50 states. The name has been changed to CAPA – Companion Animal Protection Act and it all started right here folks, and thanks to one poor dog that lost her life senselessly. Thank you Oreo for showing us the way. To read more about Rescue 50 or CAPA you can click here.

Thank You!

Special thanks to the Aquino Charitable Foundation for a large donation to cover the cost of us renovating our grooming room! Thank you Cheryl!

Thank you to Rhiannon, Brynn and Joanie who with their friends, made handmade beds for all of our animals.

The Magic Bus Ribbon Cutting Extravaganza was a BLAST! Thank you to everyone who came out on April 2nd for the special event to kick off the 1st season of the Magic Bus! The Magic Bus rolled up to the sanctuary beeping its horn and busted through a ribbon to greet cheering crowds of friends, children and animal welfare advocates. Off came 4 rescued dogs who found their way into the sanctuary and on went all the children and families for a special bus ride! Everyone joined Kerry for a very special behind the scenes at Pets Alive VIP tour and tons of snacks and goodies! The magic bus is a colorful 20 passenger bus that will be used to transport volunteers and animals to offsite events, and for animal transport during rescue missions.

Cat staff sends out thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers who have been helping with socializing our shy and frightened cats. Tige came in extremely feral and is now close to being a lap cat! The shy kittens are also doing great and volunteers also stepped up to help with the daily cleaning of the rooms. THANK YOU CAT VOLUNTEERS!

Thank you to the STARBUCKS teams from Kingston, Poughkeepsie, New Paltz and Middletown for spending a very rainy day at Pets Alive for their Earth Day Give Back project. They spent the day touring the facility, grooming the dog trails, tirelessly taking inventory of the supplies, cleaning the cat house and horse stable and smiled all day long! A VERY SPECIAL thank you to VINNY from Starbucks Middletown, NY for always loving and supporting us in any and every creative way possible. Vinny has opened many doors for Pets Alive and we are eternally grateful, please visit Vinny for your coffee.

If you would like to arrange for a group or corporate volunteer day at Pets Alive, or a special group tour, please contact community@petsalive.com.

Current Needs:

Our biggest need right now is for someone that can help us gut and redo the grooming room. The walls and ceiling need to be replaced, the grooming tub replaced, everything painted, new lighting hung, a window put into the wall – it is a lot of work, but we’re hoping someone out there will step up. Please consider helping us with this project.

We also raised the money to get some landscaping done around the sanctuary. Do you have a green thumb and a talent for landscaping? PLEASE contact us and help us beautify the sanctuary!

Our admin room (Jen’s office) really needs to be painted. If anyone is willing to paint that office for us, we would greatly appreciate it. For any of these projects please contact us at info@petsalive.com. Thank you for your consideration.

Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education. Please consider making a donation to help us.

ELMSFORD, N.Y. – Pets Alive Westchester is proud to announce the appointment of Joy Sarnelli-Carson, Executive Director, and John Sibley, Director of Operations. With hundreds of animals waiting for homes, Sarnelli-Carson and Sibley are facing significant financial hurdles in the effort to keep the doors open on this 81 year old organization.   Sarnelli-Carson and Sibley are up to the challenge, and are expected to bring monumental changes that will breathe new life into to the struggling shelter.

With their focus squarely on the needs of the animals in their care, Sarnelli-Carson and Sibley will implement solid plans for fundraising to secure the future of the organization.  Their plans also include programs to broaden the reach of adoption promotions for their highly adoptable pets, plus a senior pet foster Program to help some of their aging residents find loving, forever homes.

Pets Alive Westchester, a sister organization to Pets Alive Animal Sanctuary in Middletown, NY, took over the failing Elmsford Animal Shelter in June of 2010.  At that time, the shelter was bleeding red ink and about to close its doors.  The Elmsford Animal Shelter had a reputation of being unfriendly to the community and had such stringent adoption policies that very few animals were adopted.  The sad result of those misguided policies is that there are currently animals that have spent many years at the shelter – many have been at the shelter for more than ten years!

John Sibley and Joy Sarnelli – Carson

Since Pets Alive stepped in, tremendous opportunity for the animals has been realized.  Adoptions have increased over 50 times, the volunteer program has blossomed, and the social media followers are in the thousands.  Sarnelli-Carson and Sibley have demonstrated that they plan to carry that momentum forward and build on it.

“We have 250 dogs and 300 cats in our care at the moment.  Many of them have spent their entire lives here. To their credit, they are still loving and hopeful.  Each one deserves to have their own people who love them, their own warm bed to sleep in at night. They need to go home.  That’s our job, to find the best homes for these animals,” said Joy Sarnelli-Carson.

Sarnelli-Carson brings much needed operational strategies and tremendous vision to Pets Alive Westchester.  With over 10 years of animal welfare experience, Sarnelli-Carson serves on the board of directors of Pets Alive and was the volunteer and community outreach coordinator at the Middletown   N.Y. sanctuary until her recent appointment.  She was instrumental in creating and managing a broad range of programs, and helped to develop the organizational infrastructure to position Pets Alive for growth.  As a result, Pets Alive was ready when Elmsford Animal Shelter needed help.

Sibley has a breadth of rescue experience and dedication so unlike most others that he was the natural first choice for such an important project.  Sibley brings 10 solid years of experience in animal welfare to champion for the animals at Pets Alive Westchester.  Sibley has been a vital part of the Pets Alive organization since 2007 and has seamlessly and consistently managed critical projects with the animals. His years of experience working directly with dogs for Best Friends Animal Society, and serving as a key partner in multiple mass rescues, means that the animals have the right guy on their side.  “The animals here are incredible.  Their eyes just light up when they see you come to them.  Even the animals that have been here for years – they still trust. We need to work as hard as possible to get them home.” John Sibley.

Sarnelli-Carson and Sibley are a strong team with an unwavering commitment to the future of no-kill, to the animals in their care, and to the animals in the community.  They are currently outfitting a surgical suite which will save the organization tens of thousands of dollars in veterinarian bills each year.   “We look forward to opening the surgical suite to not only care for our animals, but to offer low cost spay/neuter to the community.   This spay/neuter program will help to advance no-kill by dramatically reducing the number of animals entering the shelter system each year”, said Sarnelli-Carson.

How You Can Help:

The team is aggressively working to raise the funds to cover reserves for medical supplies.  They are also in need of animal sponsors to help to cover the cost of daily care and feeding of the animals.  To sponsor an animal, or to adopt, donate or volunteer, please visit www.petsalivewest.org.

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About Pets Alive Westchester, Elmsford New York:

Pets Alive Westchester is a no-kill animal shelter located in Elmsford NY.  The mission of Pets Alive Westchester is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education.

Founded in 1931 and one of the oldest no-kill organizations in the United States, Pets Alive Westchester cares for dogs, cats and rabbits at the sanctuary in Elmsford, NY.  A non-profit (301c3) charity operating solely on individual donations, Pets Alive Westchester receives no funding from city or state.  Generous support from our members makes possible all that we do. Pets Alive Westchester is a proud member of the Pets Alive family.  Pets Alive is recognized locally, nationwide and around the world, as a leader in developing alliances to end the killing of adoptable animals and promoting the humane treatment of animals.

Since my last update in November, the following dogs were adopted: Patriot, Daphne, Goldie, Princess, Nikita, Kiana, Dixie, Adam, Zip, Bear, Kelsey, Einstein, Eddie, Indiana, Waylon, Chowder, Zamba, Murphy, Georgia, Roscoe, Harley, Cherokee, Princess, Kimmie, Tyler, Buster, Sheree, Blossom, Bozo, Tyler, Twinkie, Kelsey, Chelsea, Gardenia, Rosanna, Elf, Mistletoe, Lilly, Sugarplum, Silverbell, Klondike, Romeo, Butters, Blizzard, Maximillion, Zeus, Dio, Lillie, Frosty, Daniel, Luna, Woody, Jupiter, Willie, Mona Lisa, Rose, Otis, Posh, Buddy, Jade, Joshua, Scruffy, Winston, Clarence, Holly, Charlie Chaplin, Ivy, Maggie, Coco, Chuck, Dusty, Blake, Luna, Gracie, Petunia, Tyson, Roxy, Goldie, Samantha, Duke, Boston, Daisy, Shadow, Dixie, Bartey, Foster, Harper, Charlie Brown, Shorty, Lulu, Sonny, Fluffy, Littleman & Princess (together!), Katie, Sunny, Wilford, Walter, Wilbert, Marley, Abel, Holly, Jada, Olive, Pea, Suzy, Chico, Willow, Honey, Stuart Noble, Parsley, Isis, Annie, Jack, Kitsche, Moonie and Red (together), Honey, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pickles, Onyx, Noble, Duncan, Jenna, and Rufus.

The following cats were adopted: Vivian, Ventura, Gigi, Tootles, Angie, Momma, Spunky, Splish, Chloe, Blizzard, Cuddles, Garcia, Beauford, Victoria, Sammy, Indigo, Spazzy, Buffy, Abby, Spanky, Cici, Splash, Ness, BeBe, Spooky, Mimi, Rami, Boots, Sheba, Lucy, Pinwheel, Tiger, Sharon, Chloe2, Boychek, Ramos, Miss Priss, Angie, Tootles, Black Gold, Sasha, Leslie, Buddy, Roberta and Frankie.

Noteworthy adoptions:

The stand out adoptions of the past few months would be Stuart Noble, Moonie & Red, and Sheba.

Stuart Noble had lived on the end of a chain for 15 years. His name was originally “Stupid”. Imagine being tied to a dog house and left outside for 15 years of your life and being called Stupid. It broke our heart. We brought him here, he was adopted, and now he will spend his twilight years living inside where he is warm, has had a name change and is well loved. It has touched our hearts a great deal that his new family appear to love him so much. We are really grateful to them for welcoming him home.

Moonie and Red (pictured above) have been almost a year. Red is blind and Moonie was her “seeing-eye” dog. He took very good care of her, and she depended on him a great deal. He would walk next to her on unfamiliar paths, so that their shoulders touched and she would know the way. He would nudge her to her food bowl, before going to eat his own food. He would help her into her dog igloo when it was chilly, and see her settled, before he settled himself. They had both been abandoned in a parking lot. They were a difficult adoption because Red was a special needs dog, both are seniors, both are large dogs, and they needed to be adopted together. Ouch. It took a long time but they finally found their perfect home this week, and even have kids with which to play! We are so happy for them both, and grateful to the family that saw their worth!

Sheba was a cat that was dumped at the CACC in NYC when she was 10 years old. She was brought to Pets Alive in 2005 and has lived here ever since, with very little interest from adopters. She was a staff favorite though and lived a life of luxury in the kitchen. The first to be decorated and dressed up for the holidays, the official “greeter” to everyone, and she could often be seen in Dale’s arms, being danced around the kitchen. Now at 16 years young, she has found a home! Sheba was taken home by a volunteer that has known, loved and cared for her for a long time (thank you Becky T!). We are going to miss her, but glad to see that she finally has a wonderful home.

Intakes:

Since my last update we took in the following dogs: 5 from an Arkansas puppy mill rescue, 3 from an Arkansas hoarder rescue, 4 from North Carolina, 21 from the NYC ACC, 10 from South Carolina, 2 from Kentucky, 8 from local shelters, and 7 owner surrenders. All shelters we pulled from were kill shelters and the dogs were already scheduled for euthanasia when we requested them.

We actually took in cats too! Thanks to our huge Feline Cat Adoption specials we ran last month, it enabled us to help other cats! We took in 24 cats, all local surrenders, pulled from the NYC CACC, or brought here from our Elmsford location.

Announcing the Kameron Jacobsen Youth Award:

This year Pets Alive introduces a new annual award. We are calling it the Kameron Jacobsen Youth Award.

Kameron was a wonderful, sweet, kind, 14 year old boy. His spirit was gentle, giving, and generous. He was a huge animal lover. He lost his life as the result of some of his contemporaries who bullied him relentlessly.

Kameron’s death was a shock to everyone, and a huge blow to our community. The brutality of the events leading to Kameron’s death is a call to action to all of the parents that support us. Pets Alive has decided to honor Kameron and the Jacobsen family by publicly recognizing kids that act as examples for other young people – exhibiting kindness toward animals and selflessness in helping those animals that need our help. Just as importantly, that same empathy and kindness toward people and especially peers. These people, like Kameron, are the young men and women that other people should look up to.

To Wanda and the Jacobsen’s – we cannot express our grief and outrage over your tremendous loss and we hope that by recognizing the youth in the community that exemplify the qualities that make Kameron so special we can somehow bring solace and comfort to your broken hearts, and that other children Kameron’s age will understand the horror of what transpired and learn from this terrible and unnecessary tragedy.

Medical Building update – We are still plodding along with our medical building. We have raised just about all the funds we need, and now it is a matter of getting all the proper permits. The place we were originally going to put it would not work for various reasons, so now the plan is to put it across the street from the barn. This will eat up one of the horse pastures but it is the most level ground, and it appears to be the best place for parking, water, well, and electrical requirements. We are hoping to get all the permits quickly and be ready to break ground as soon as the thaw comes, but that may be overly optimistic. One GREAT thing though is that we don’t have to pay for an architect! One of our most frequent, well known, and well loved volunteers (and an adopter!) is an architect! She has drawn up all the plans – they are really gorgeous! She is completely fabulous to us and doing it for free. THANK YOU CECELIA! Next update I will probably include a link to the floor plans, although right now we are still working all of that out.

Don’t forget to check out the Pets Alive Blog. Best Friends turns their back on NY – AGAIN A note to shelter directors – CHOOSE LIFE Crazy letters we get… “Dear Cam…” Happy Holidays from Pets Alive The story of Annie How do you know when it is time for euthanasia

Puerto Rico – The new website went live at petsalivepr.org and we are starting to raise funds and get sponsors for some of the dogs. If you are planning a trip to Puerto Rico, please contact us to help us bring dogs back. Commercial airlines will only allow us to take back six dogs at a time so we are always looking for people to attach some dogs to their tickets. We will cover all expenses and meet the dogs at the airport. We are still looking for land to build our facility and get the actual “sanctuary” part off the ground. Chrissy will be heading there next week to focus on this part of the project. Once we have the property we can really kick this off!

Elmsford – Pets Alive Westchester – Now under new management, we have great people in place managing the Elmsford location. Joy Sarnelli Carson has taken over as Director, John Sibley has taken over as Operations, and Ken Carson has stepped in to handle adoptions. It’s not an easy task. Hundreds of animals are awaiting homes and we are struggling financially to keep the doors open. Joy and John are focused on the needs of the animals, adoptions, and meeting the financial needs to care for them. With Marcy’s help, they are implementing plans for fundraising to secure the future of Elmsford, and will institute programs to broaden the reach of adoption promotions, and also start foster networks. It is really starting to come around already. Volunteering has picked up and we are actively seeking adopters, donors and doing offsite events. We still need a lot of help, but things are really starting to finally turn around and we all feel very positive and confident that we can save Elmsford. Your help is very welcome! You can visit their website at: petsalivewest.org

Corvette Raffle
Pets Alive is not running this raffle, but the people that are will be splitting the proceeds between us and another non-profit. Tickets are just $50 and only 2500 tickets will be sold. You have a 1 in 2500 chance of owning this amazing car. The visor is even autographed by Rob Thomas!

Medical Updates or Issues: (written by Janet)

Pets Alive is generally fortunate enough to be able to keep wide spreading illnesses at bay. And luckily in the rare instances when extremely virulent pathogens are brought onto the property, we have typically been able to contain the sickness to those particular individuals.

This past month, we faced a big challenge when a couple of sickly dogs caused rampant illness amongst our kennel. Basically each and every dog was afflicted in some capacity. Fluffy, a beautiful collie mix, fell the most ill. She was febrile, severely congested, and was not responding to nebulization. The hardest and most difficult part was getting her medication into her. Fluffy lost her appetite early on and no matter what we tried, we could not stimulate her to eat. Therefore getting oral medication into her was a major issue. Worse, as she fell more ill, she became behaviorally unmanageable. Force feeding could not be accomplished since she would begin growling and snapping at the mere site of one of our staff members. (We knew she must have felt miserable since this was not her normal personality in the least!)

After all other medical attempts failed, we finally took her to a local veterinary hospital with special isolation wards (and 24 hour medical care). I worried that we could possibly lose Fluffy if a feeding tube wasn’t surgically inserted. Fluffy spent over a week in their isolation ward. The doctors were just about to place a feeding tube (as a last resort), when she FINALLY started showing interest in food! Slowly her appetite increased and she was ingesting all of her oral medications!!! (The IV medications available were limited in comparison to the wide array of oral antibiotics available to treat her infection). By the time Fluffy was able to be discharged, she was back to her sweet loving personality! In fact, she had a wonderful family that was eagerly awaiting her discharge. We are all so thankful that Fluffy not only made a FULL recovery, but was welcomed by a wonderfully loving family with open arms. We couldn’t ask for a better ending!

Gabrielle was also one of the dogs who became very sick during this time period. She quickly became lethargic and febrile. She had extremely purulent nasal discharge and she stopped eating. The difference with our success treating Gabrielle versus Fluffy on the premises was that Gabrielle stayed her same adorable gentle self EVEN when she was at her most sick. We were able to give her sub-q fluids and medications with ease. We even set her up with a nebulizer in her run. Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better patient! Even with a 104.1 fever, she was trying to give us kisses! Gabrielle is long since fully recovered and just waiting to have as happy of an ending as Fluffy. And boy does she deserve it!

Around this same time, Scrappy the handsome pitty boy, was not feeling himself. With the wide array of volunteers who know just how special Scrappy is, there were many worried folks out there. Luckily Scrappy’s illness was fairly short lived. With some pain meds and antibiotics, he perked up within a couple days and was right back to being the mayor of the kennel.

Andy, one of our other studly black pit bulls had been doing wonderfully since his arrival from the horrible West Virginia hoarding situation this past March. But with the stagnation of winter and indoor kennel life, Andy has actually starting losing some of his hair again! He is back on medication and special baths, for which we are already seeing some improvement. Hopefully the coming of spring and warm weather (or better yet a forever home) will bring about the decrease of stress needed to fully recover from this bug!

Fox our lively adorable fox terrier mix from Puerto Rico is finally in treatment for heartworm. We knew that Fox needed treatment but typical upper respiratory infections, and then the widespread kennel disease forced us to delay treatment. He has gotten the first set of injections and is recovering nicely thus far. Fox is due for a second set of injections (as well as another month of rest) and is already scheduled for the first week in March. Fingers crossed that Fox’s treatment continues to run as smoothly as these first weeks have gone. He is an absolute gem of a dog and by the middle of April, should be heartworm free!

Suzy, sweet little Suzy, is a genuinely precious middle aged Cocker Spaniel who arrived from the city. Not only did she arrive with the notorious upper respiratory infection that the CACC likes to harbor, but she had three large masses growing from her mammary region. The largest was the size of a large grapefruit and was nearly dragging on the ground. Our vet was concerned not only due to the fact that two of these masses were in the mammary chain, BUT acknowledged the great discomfort Suzy must have been experiencing from the shear size and weight of the largest mass. They were kind enough to fit her in immediately for a chest x-ray to see if there were any signs of cancer in her lungs. Thankfully they did not see any. They then slated her for lump removal that next day so they could ease the discomfort of carrying the extra enormous weight of that mass as soon as possible.

Suzy’s surgery was long and intense, but she came through well. A drain had to be placed to make sure her surgery sites were able to release the resulting tissue fluid and not become infected. But by the day after her procedure, Suzy was full of energy! She did not want to sit back and waste another day! Even with her upper respiratory infection compounding her recovery, she was quite the trooper. Her incisions were healing quite nicely and her infection was basically gone when a sweet woman named Mary saw Suzy’s photo. By that point, the biopsies of Suzy’s lumps were in. Unfortunately just as everyone expected the two smaller lumps did turn out to be malignant in nature (the largest lump was fatty and benign). With that being said, her lungs luckily looked clear and our vet was hopeful that all of the masses were removed in their entirety, therefore decreasing the chances of spreading. But no one knows for sure how long Suzy has. The only thing we can be certain of is that Suzy has a zest for life and now has quite the loving home in which to flourish in. Each day is a gift and I’m certain she is living life to the fullest. We are all so grateful to Mary (Suzy’s mom) for opening her heart to this beautiful soul, and to some large donations from supporters to cover her surgery.

Farm Animal Updates:

If you are a regular around here, then you know our senior horse, Glen. Many of you noticed Glen’s eye deteriorating over the past year. We kept close watch on it and as long as it was not causing him pain, we decided to leave it be, even though he could no longer see from it. Eventually though it became quite painful and the vet said we had no choice but to remove it. We were all worried about this 38 year old horse and how he would do with such a massive surgery but it was really no big deal at all! It went shockingly smooth, the eye was removed, he STOOD for the entire surgery (was numbed) and didn’t fight or cause any problem. He was a complete sweetheart and after the surgery he recovered super quickly and is back out with his goat friends again. Whew. What a sigh of relief. We love this big old skinny guy and we definitely weren’t ready to let him go yet.

Speaking of the goats. OH MY! THEY ARE FAT FAT FAT! Wait, that is not politically correct. Ok, our goats are ummm, let’s see…’super fluffy”? Or maybe “thin challenged”? This tough winter with almost no exercise and just hanging around the food, has caused them to pack on some unhealthy pounds. Will you please consider coming down and walking them? They can walk with our regular slip leads as long as you keep the brown one (McTavish McGoat) in front of the black one (Goatie McGoat), or Goatie one won’t go. Thank you for exercising our goats! They need it too.

We were also involved in a farm animal rescue. Another hoarder situation. We wound up taking 6 mini horses from the situation, and it was like pure joy had been infused into Pets Alive. No one could go down the driveway without stopping to see them, play with them or coo to them. They were the most delightful animals. Sadly, AND happily we had them only for a short time. Four were adopted by one family and the other two went together to another family. It was bittersweet to see them go, and we miss their cuteness around here, but are so glad that their lives have been turned around.

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers

The 35th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be held in the Village of Goshen on Sunday, March 13th at 2 p.m. Past Parades have had overwhelming attendance and 20,000+ spectators are expected this year. We will have our float and be marching in the parade! Come join us, and wear your Pets Alive t-shirt!

Lucky Charms St. Patrick’s Party and Adoption Event is happening at the Sanctuary Thursday March 17th through Monday March 21st. We’ve found your lucky charm. Just so happens it is furry, cute & here waiting for you! During this special event, all adopting families that come wearing green will receive a special FREE GIFT! Take home your “Furry Lucky Charm” and you will be entered into our special Lucky Charms Raffle. Come on over & “Get Lucky” at this St. Patrick’s Adoption Event.

The Magic Bus Ribbon Cutting Extravaganza! Join us Saturday, April 2 from 11:30-2 as we kick off the first season of BUS MAGIC with a big party! Take a ride on the Magic Bus! We will have VIP Sanctuary tours, music, food and fun. This is an event that you definitely cannot miss, so get on the bus!

Show your support with every purchase you make!

As one of our valued supporters, you are invited to apply for our special Visa Platinum credit card
through Capital One Card Lab Connect. Use the custom card designs (you can even upload a picture of your own pet, or children!) to show your support and your rewards will be automatically donated to our organization!

Oreo’s Law

Oreo’s Law has been reintroduced in the New York State Legislature. Thankfully, this year Alley Cat Allies has stood up for the animals and unequivocally embraced Oreo’s Law, calling killing when the animals have a place to go the ultimate form of “animal cruelty.” We agree. The wording has been changed this year to cover some of the worries about it that people had expressed last year. You can read the full legislation here.
You can also go to www.YesonOreosLaw.com to learn more.

Other

Special thanks to Natura Pet Food. These guys truly make an excellent product – Innova, California Naturals, Evo, etc. The food is excellent, the quality is excellent, and we have recently come to find that the people are good hearted and generous as well. They sponsored our booth so we could have a presence at the NJ Pet Expo this month and then they donated ALL the proceeds from THEIR booth to Pets Alive. Over $4000. The staff are all kind and happy people as well. They were really a treat to work with and we are planning on doing more with them in the future. Be sure to check out their line of animal food. I highly recommend it.

Thank you once again this year to the O&R payment processing department! Every year they collect funds and items for us from their department and bring it all over to us. The nicest folk there and we appreciate this effort on our behalf.

Thank you to the folks at Rockstar Energy Drink! They donated another cargo van to us from their retired fleet (now we have one at Elmsford and Middletown locations!) and I can not tell you how many times we have already used it. Mostly recently to go all the way to Vermont to transport 13 animals. The cargo vans are probably the most often used item at either facility. We so desperately needed something like this and we’re really grateful for this donation. Thank you Rockstar!

Special appreciation and thanks also to Scott and Candee Bergmann. Scott is a professional photographer who does exceptional work. He has been doing a lot of photos for us, donating the use of all of them, putting together wall hangings, gifts, videos, and he did all the pics for this years’s calendar that were sold as a fundraiser. It was a lot of work, and he and his wife are so so kind and so gracious. We really appreciate their support of Pets Alive. Speaking of the calendar we absolutely must thank Lizer and Sandy from the Epic Company. They run and manage a lot of nursing homes and rehab centers and this year bought a Pets Alive calendar to give away as a gift to all their residents. That huge purchase, and their connections to an excellent printer, made this one of our best fund raisers thus far.

Current Needs:

Our biggest need right now is CAT VOLUNTEERS! We have MANY dog volunteers but we really need some committed cat volunteers. Our staff for cats is part time, and they have a great deal of work. Would you be willing to come and clean one of the cat rooms, even once a week or once a month? Cleaning the cat rooms entails scooping litter pans, cleaning the floors, replacing the bedding, etc. It is about 30-60 minutes of work per room and we’d need you here by no later than 11 (9:30 would be even better!). Please consider helping us. We really need you! More importantly, the cats really need you!

Other needs right now is for 3-lb paper trays, paper towels, Libman wonder mopheads, used ink cartridges (we trade them in for credit), High Efficiency laundry detergent, dog toys, Panacur dewormer (the
big bottles of equine liquid has been working well for us!), Advantixx or Frontline for dogs, Panacur Dewormer, Ivermectin, disinfectant wet wipes, and Slip leads. Thank you for your kind consideration on these items!

Of course our biggest need is consistent monthly income that we can count on. We’re not gonna lie, or sugar coat it. We NEED your help to survive. The city, town, state, government – none of them give us any money or help. We survive ENTIRELY because people like you read this, and believe in what we are doing and believe in no-kill. WANT to see no-kill, want to see an end to the inhumane slaughter of companion animals that come to shelters because they are down on their luck and they need help. The help they get in most shelters, is to be killed. We are determined to put an end to that. We work toward it every day. In four years we have helped convert many other shelters to no-kill.

Please consider sponsoring a pet. Your monthly donation of just $18 (three cups of gourmet coffee) will help us to save the life of an animal every single month. Please consider taking this step. We need you, and more importantly THEY need you. When they come to a shelter, starving, cold, scared and hurt, we promise you – and we promise them – that we will extend our hand, pick them up, and help them. We will not walk them to a back room and kill them. Please help us. They deserve it. We need your support.

Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education. Please consider making a donation to help us.