Ellie Mae, Bono, Cassidy, Baby, Jupiter, Martha, Sabella, Prince Charming, Newton, Sophie, Lucky, Lexie, Aurora, Tyler, Bashful, Mouse, Doc, Charlie, Bruce, Ariel, James, Elmo, Barry, Sabella again, Justice, Founder, Bailey, Sleepy, Peaceful, Faith, Merlin, Jake, Bugsy, Friend, Belle, Oliver, Rex, Badger, Mack, Hildie, Rigby, Spooner, Grumpy, Taffy, Corey, Diesel, Elsie, Molly, Macouns, Danielle, Muffin, Lucy, Roxanne, Roxy, Patches, Ludo, Sesame, Aurora again, Sniffer, Foreman, Archie, Skid, Aragon, Arwyn, Eagle, Happy, Dopey, Sneezy, Spike, Norman, Freebie, Jeremiah, Bianca, Buddy, Corky, Bo Peep, Tracker, Sophie again, Noah, Sarah, Harvey, Belle, Independence, Gus, Jewel, Sadie, Aspen, BooBoo, Angelica, Bartholomew, Chloe, Bryan, Sprocket, Dexter, Jake, Squiggles, Snickle, Mate, Bono again, Lady, Tori, Gabriel, Cherish, Bonita, Milo, Fred, Blossom, Mo Mo, Emma, Betty, Tucker, Franklin, Tater, Pookie, April, August, Wrinkles, Jade, Stryker, Scout, Timber, Ellie Mae again, Laurel, Becky, Ebbie, Image, Princess, Tyler – plus another 32 beagles that we didn’t get in our system yet, so I don’t have their names to list here….but we adopted a total of 160 dogs. Wow. It sure has been a whirlwind!

We also adopted out five cats! Handsome, Delilah, Alex, Max, and Duffy went home, and two goats. So, all told, 167 animals went home in 43 days.

Intakes:

Since July fourth we took in 88 beagles (as you should all know about by now!), 1 dog from Maryland who had a shattered pelvis, 31 from S.C., 8 from VA, 5 from N.C., 2 from AK, 1 from GA, 1 from Puerto Rico, 1 from PA, 6 local surrenders, 4 cats from D.C. that were at the No-Kill Conference we went to and needed rescue, one local cat that was a stray and had severe burns on it’s body, four kittens that were motherless some very ill (one passed away), 5 kittens that were abandoned but saved by a kind local family, six local cats from another shelter, and an adult cat that was a stray and saved by a local family. This was a crazy month for cat intakes and I can’t even tell you how many we had to say no to. It’s awful. Please…spay and neuter your pets or if you see stray cats – pick them up, bring them somewhere to get fixed, or we’ll never see the end to this. Everyone has to step up and start to help these animals. Please consider being a person that will go that extra mile and make a difference. “Be the change you want to see.”

General Updates:

We had to say goodbye to Amanda, one of our very elderly cats. She had been sick on and off for some time and finally she stopped eating, went into organ failure and we had to let her go. It was a sad day for all of us as Amanda has been at Pets Alive longer than any of us, and we are both saddened by the loss of her and saddened that she would die HERE without a home. She was very much loved, however, and everyone misses her greatly.

We are extending our adoption hours! We are now going to be open seven days a week between 11-4 for adoptions and also on Tuesday and Thursday nights until 8 PM! Thanks to Sue Bagley for taking on the night and Sunday hours. Erica has also taken over adoptions onsite (and doing a great job!) and Kerri is focusing on handling all the intakes and is also going to help revamp and help manage adoptions at the Elmsford Shelter…so she is going to be really busy in the coming months. If you would like to volunteer to be an adoption assistant, please email adoptions@petsalive.com and we will put you to work!

Most of you know that Pets Alive has merged with the Elmsford Animal Shelter. They are now known as Pets Alive West. It will likely be a year or so before they are totally up to speed and doing intakes and adoptions but right now our focus is to help them place some of the animals there. Their numbers are overwhelming with almost 600 cats and 300 dogs, but once we get the numbers down, this facility will be a huge asset to Pets Alive for growth, expansion, fund raising and doing mass rescues and also mass rehab for dogs that need it. It will be a while before we are at that point but for now we’re working hard to train staff, adopt out the animals or find good placements for them. If you’re close to Elmsford and would like to volunteer there, feel free to check out their website petsalivewest.org and get more details!

Pets Alive has bought a bus! We are really excited about this purchase and the plan is to use it for mass rescues, offsite adoption events, and eventually when our medical building is built to transport animals to and from the facility for other no-kill rescues. This was really a much needed purchase and we can’t wait to get it wrapped. Err….until we looked at the price for that. Anyone know some animal-loving charitable people that also just HAPPEN to have a company that can do bus wrapping? If so please contact us and let us know so we can beg them to help us. Or if you’re a company and might be interested in sponsoring our bus we’re all ears and tails! Drop us a line!

Beaglemania has also completely wrapped up. Out of the 90 beagles we took here, we have three left that are still looking for homes. Please consider welcoming one of them into your home. They are the sweetest dogs, and most have been reported to be house broken and quiet. It has been a joy to be the instrument of their freedom and we look very forward to seeing them again at future alumni reunions. Click the image play a video slideshow of the beagle rescue!

This month the directors, Matt and Kerry attended the No-Kill Conference in Washington D.C. It was a huge success and we left feeling very excited for the future of no-kill in the U.S. as well as filled with great ideas for the future of Pets Alive and for Pets Alive West. We also made some great connections and met some wonderful (and influential) people. It was a great experience. You don’t have to be part of a rescue group to attend. Many people were not – just people wanting to make a difference and to learn HOW. We strongly urge youall to attend next year if you can. It is well worth the trip to met the leaders of no-kill and see how we can all change things in our own communities for the better.

If you haven’t been to Pets Alive recently, stop by. We have almost all our new fencing up. All the old dog runs have been ripped out and replaced with gorgeous new runs, each with an igloo (we’re a little short though on igloos), a doggie pool, kuranda beds and pea gravel. They are gorgeous. This new area will be called Camp Tyler and we’ll tell you more about that soon. New airlock fencing has also been installed and we are in the process of also installing new fencing in the play yard. It’s really looking good around here! Well. It WAS. Until we handed out a big bag of dog toys and SOME dogs decided to decorate their own runs. Hmmm.

Medical Updates or Issues: (Written by Janet)

Skipper–With beagle mania coming to a close, we have only three beagles left looking for their forever homes. One such beagle named “Skipper” came to us with a cherry eye. Cherry eye is simply a prolapse of the gland of the third eyelid. It is fairly common especially in certain breeds. Depending of the severity, it may be only a cosmetic issue. Skipper’s cherry eye is indeed purely cosmetic but to those who are unfamiliar, they initially think the worst. For people who are bothered by the appearance, there is a quick surgical procedure to tack the gland back down in place. Typically a vet would wait to perform the ‘tacking’ when and if the animal would need another anesthetic procedure performed (such as a dental). Skipper is very healthy and loving and waiting for that special family who doesn’t mind if he simply ‘looks’ a bit different.

Maggie—is another new acquisition. She is a middle-aged female pit bull who not only has heartworm and a heart murmur, but has two bad knees (and mange!). The girl just didn’t get any breaks in life. With all that is going on with her medically, we are restricted with what medication and procedures can be done. The good thing is that pain meds are keeping her apparently pain-free and she will be seeing our orthopedic surgeon to see if anything can be done surgically to repair her knee damage. She is such a docile dog, who is content to just rest quietly on her comforter in the kitchen.

Doc—our super sweet yet super hyper escape artist has done it again! About two weeks back Doc decided that his outdoor enclosure (which had a top on it) was not the place he wanted to be. So he SOMEHOW squeezed his body through the 4” by 6” openings of the roof! Luckily he loves people so much that he doesn’t wander far. But even when placed in an indoor kennel, he attempted to do the same and each time he would slightly injure himself. We had to place Doc in a cage in the grooming room (which surprisingly he didn’t mind). During Doc’s adventures he managed to rip off a few nails at their base! One was even still hanging and needed to be pulled off. After his wounds were cleaned and he was placed on antibiotics and pain meds, he rested calmly and comfortably in his cage. This past week though, we decided to try Doc outside again (cautiously!) by watching him during the day and bringing him back inside at night. This plan was working very well until a couple days back when we went to retrieve Doc for the night. As we stepped outside the kennel door, we could see Doc’s kennel in the distance, with Doc almost completely out the top! We went running!

By the time we got to him, he somehow shimmied across Rem’s enclosure and decided to drop into Leo’s run. For those that don’t know Leo, he is a caution dog! He is NOT friendly to other dogs. My stomach turned. Lucky for Doc, Leo was slowly investigating his new cagemate when Rem decided to engage Leo in a fence fight. The fight was enough of a distraction that we could grab Doc out without Doc (or any human) getting injured. So NOW Doc is residing back in the grooming room. Today (during the day with staff present) Doc was placed in a different outdoor run with a cagemate. We are all hoping that living with another dog will help limit his self-destructive tendencies. He is a wonderfully sweet dog, who simply has had it with living life at the shelter and really wants to find a family to love.

Charity—Our beautiful Momma dog who was saved in March from the West Virginia hoarding situation, is finally completely free of the ten puppies she gave birth to in May (in fact, the pups are now all in loving homes). She was the most terrific mother and was extremely self-sufficient, but when the pups were all completely weaned, poor Charity developed mastitis. She was painful and pus-ridden. She had a high fever and lacked her normal appetite. Luckily Jan, one of our wonderful volunteers, noticed the first signs of distress as she took Charity for an overnight. We were then able to quickly address her medical needs. Antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and expressing the pus-filled teats (for a few days) did the trick. Within two days, she was the normal bubbly Charity that the staff all loves. And now that she is no longer sick or nursing pups, she is friendly to everyone and not just the people she knows well.

Kiche—is a petite little mixed breed sweetheart who was brought back to Pets Alive as Kerry and Matt returned from the no-kill conference. She supposedly had a broken pelvis and that with strict cage rest (for four weeks) she should make a complete recovery. The thing we didn’t realize was just how dainty and adorable she was going to be! Honestly, for a dog to have to stay in a crate for that long, Kiche is very well behaved. She is housebroken and will whine when she needs to go out. We were able to track down copies of Kiche’s x-rays from Baltimore and send them to our orthopedic surgeon. He confirmed her diagnosis of a fractured pubis and stated that indeed a minimum of 4-6 weeks of STRICT cage rest, should allow Kiche to heal as needed. Now it’s simply a matter of ignoring that sad little beautiful face when she tries to convince you that she wants to hang out outside of her cage. But it’s for the best. And before long, she’ll be making some family very happy.

Romeo—is a handsome outgoing bassett hound that arrived from South Carolina last weekend. Not only did he arrive with common yeast-filled ears, but his eyes were extremely inflamed. We flushed out his eyes and placed him on some steroid drops. We also now have him on Benadryl to rule out allergies. Bassett hounds tend to be breed in which allergies are very common (both environmental and food-related). We may also switch his diet but in the mean time, we will continue to monitor the efficacy of the Benadryl.

Natalia—is our old semi-feral cat who has a personality all of her own. As stated in other updates, Natalia is one of our original cats, who has a history of inflammatory bowel disease. Recently while trying to get her diarrhea back under control (thanks to Marcy for making special home cooked diet!) we decided to have blood drawn and sent to the lab. We realized that Natalia is very old and has had a history of chronic ailments so we were not going to be entirely surprised to see certain values elevated. The results showed that one of her white blood cell levels are high, and her kidney values are starting to elevate. All in all though, the staff believes that she is looking improved (since her gut is becoming more normal). Who would feel well if they are experiencing chronic diarrhea? We administer sub-q fluids regularly which we will continue to do. There is no way to make Natalia a kitten again, but making her as comfortable as possible is what we are trying to do. She now lives in Marcy’s office with her best feline friend Murphy. This way not only can she receive the fluids she needs, but we can make certain she is eating her specific food.

Barnyard Updates:

Our two baby goats have been adopted! This is one of our secrets — bring the most adorable animals we have to a vet that has a weakness for that particular animal and VOILA! ADOPTED! This was our plan – I mean this is what accidentally happened – with Dr. Zgoda of Otterkill Animal Hospital. We know he LOVES goats and so we asked if he could neuter them for us. We had NO INTENTION of trying to get him to adopt them (wink). But, it was so weird! When they were ready to come back he thought he might keep them an extra few days to make sure they were ok, and then it turned out to be a few weeks and we all stayed very quiet and didn’t call or show up to pick them up and then we got this reluctant email from him that they had now fully ensconced themselves into his herd and he was totally smitten with them, so he needed to fill out our adoption paperwork. How odd! Oh well. Funny how that happened, isn’t it? But, well, however it happened our two baby goats are now adopted into a GREAT home with free medical care for the rest of their lives! Funny how things work out. (Good job Janet!!!!)

Cat Update:

This month we got a sad phone call and follow-up email. Some people had found a cat that was horribly burned around its neck. It was late at night so they called the 24 hour emergency vet and was told it would be $300 for the examination not counting additional costs. They could not afford it and so sent out a desperate plea to us and tried to make the cat as comfortable as they could for the rest of the night. Another reason why a medical center here that could help the public would be so beneficial to the community! When we met the cat we were to name Zeus, we were very saddened by the blistering and oozing burns on his neck.

He was rushed right down to Dr. Furman who advised these were chemical burns, but that Zeus would be just fine, once healed. They sedated him, debrided his wounded area and wrapped him up. He has turned out to be one of the nicest cats we’ve ever had. Full of affection and love and sweetness. Even though he was in a lot of pain he didn’t try to bite us or scratch us. He seemed to know we were trying to help. We’re really happy that he is doing so well and can’t wait to find him the wonderful home that he deserves.

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers

• Gold’s Gym Aug 21. Dog Walkers Warm-up – details to follow – just leave the date open!
• SUMMER SPRUCE UP DAY, Saturday August 21 beginning at 10am
• SINGLES MEET-UP for Pets Alive Volunteers, Sunday August 22 Noon to 3pm.
• Camp Tyler Dedication and Starfish Award, Sept 3, 11-3
• PetsMart National Adoption Weekend in Middletown, NY on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 10,11,&12
• Monroe Cheese Festival in Monroe, NY on Saturday September 11
• “Will Spay Pets” Benefit Car Show in Montgomery, NY on Sunday, September 12
• Authors After Dark Convention in Secaucus, NJ on Saturday September 18
• POOCHAPALOOZA (K104.7) in Montgomery, NY on Saturday, September 25
• Waterview Dog Show (Waterview Hills Rehabilitation and Nursing Center) in Purdy’s, NY on Sunday, September 26

Thank you’s

Thank you again to Scott Bergman Photography for some GREAT shots of our dogs. We really think that the pictures we have on Petfinder done by Scott and Becky and Lisa are the reason we get so many dogs adopted. Thank you guys!

We’d also like to thank the “Kids of Garth Road” in Scarsdale who made over $430 in two hours with their lemonade stand! They were amazing! It was over 100 degrees that day and they did a great job for us. Thanks kids!

We’d very much like to thank Mary and Bill for redoing our senior room. It is now the adoption room and we should be moving in sometime this weekend. It is the most gorgeous room at Pets Alive now with delicate blues and warm inviting whites. Thank you both so much for the tremendous effort you put into that! We LOVE it! Thanks to 4H Group Karyna,Victor, Maya, Carmin, & chaperones Terry, Roxann, and Jocelyn. The kids decorate boxes and get businesses to allow them in the community (Gold’s Gym & Heritage Feed – thank you!). Also thanks to Oak Grove Elementary School. Kayla, Julia, and Rodina chose Pets Alive to collect donations for, and even made it a competition between classrooms, the one who collected the most items was rewarded with a pizza party. These 3 girls dropped off all the donations including food, animal carriers and blankets as well as $143. Thank you Oak Grove! Thank you also to Evan W. and Lily P. You can read what they did for Pets Alive in our blog.

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.

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Sanctuary animal updates:

Since the last update on May th, the following animals have been adopted: Truman, Stuart Noble, Piper, Larry, Brennan, Humphrey, Kasey, Paris,Reynolds, freckles, junior, kiki, Tyler, kit, gable, jilly, paulie, Freddy, Stuart(again), Bubba, Little Pearl, Johnny, akasha, Kendra, Princess, Celeste, Chewy, rayder, reba, Koda, Wilson, mayola, jet, iris, Zena, jed, Coley, Brutus, fuzzy, duke, Roy, Luke, Jake, boo, Lily, Max, dodger, Walt, Mufasa, McGruff, Scotty, Kenneth, Chewey (again), Nugget, Katie, Charity, Dixie, Rebel, Levi, Earnhardt, Bubba, Walker, Boudicca, Hartford, Angel, Surar, Remy,
Grace, Winston, Kenneth, Baxter, Gideon, Bella Mia, BoDiddley, Rommie, Lola, Chance, Rocky (shihtzu), Rocky (shep mix), Sweetheart, Aspen, Marley, Hobbles, Lacey, Bailey, Grover, Jack, Mystic, Teddy, Mek, Draco, Ellie Mae, Bono, Smokey. I really think I have missed some since it has been such a long time since my last update but that’s pretty close!

Seven cats also went home! Charlie, Star, Snuggle, Puff, Alice, Mack and Duffy!

The standout adoption this update is definitely Mufasa! The Evil Mufasa as we have called him for some time now was probably the most vicious and ornery dog to come to Pets Alive. He was 8 pounds of sheer terror and angst. People thought he was so cute and everyone wanted to adopt him. Three of them even tried and returned him the next day. We told people it would take at least two weeks before he stopped trying to bite you, but …still, he came back, all full of himself, and almost…proud that he outlasted another one. Giggle. We couldn’t stand it, it was so funny and so cute and he was such a holy terror. We even joked that the next time someone dared try to adopt him, that once they left we would shutter the windows, pack up and move and leave no forwarding address. Well, this time he was adopted – for good. His new mom has had him now for two months and he’s staying. She recently wrote this:

“He is soooo bonded to me … taking a while but slowly warming up to my husband and son … he really is a character … actually lets me brush him now … likes my vet … she took out his suture ….he loves his walks and has met my friends’s dogs and gets along well … good off site … having problems with people who come to visit … but hey … he IS a small dog and i keep him in a harness … he’ll assimilate on his own time … if i need to have a tension gate and he has a room all to himself … buzz on the street is that he hit the adoption lottery!!! sleeping next to me as i write this … taking him up to bed soon … hey … how many dogs can say they sleep in a king size temperpedic …. if anyone is coming down to The City more then welcome to stop in …”

General Updates:

As most of you know by now the Agricultural Committee voted to “table” Oreo’s Law until next session (January). This has all of us and the community outraged and we are taking steps to see that in January they push this bill into the next stage. We have started a PAC (Public Action Committee) and we are calling it Oreo’s PACk. We will also work much harder this time to lobby the people we need to. We definitely under estimated the big money behind opposing this bill and won’t make that mistake again. Plans are also underway to show the legislators that they work for us, and they are supposed to represent OUR interests and what we want. When 10,000 people email you and ask you not to table a bill, you need to take that seriously. They ignored us, ignored thousands of phone calls, and this can’t be accepted. We plan to make sure that four of those officials do not get re-elected this November. We will ask for your help in that soon. Stay tuned to our website and blogs. We will keep you posted.

We have written a couple of blogs about this issue, and you can read them here:

Being the change, & what we have accomplished in Paying it Forward.

Intakes:

In the past two months we have taken in the following dogs: 7 dogs from Georgia, 22 dogs from North Carolina, 12 dogs from West Virginia, 8 dogs from Arkansas, 5 local surrenders (or from local kill shelters), 6 from Kentucky, 12 dogs from Ohio, 1 dog from Puerto Rico, 21 from South Carolina. We also took in 22 cats from the local area.

Animal Updates or Issues:

Beauford—is a particularly special cat that we rescued in March from West Virginia. When Becky, one of our super-volunteers first laid eyes on Beauford, he had a large untreated abscess on the top of his head. After finally being treated for the abscess, he became lethargic and dehydrated. Bloodwork results showed that Beauford was positive for mycoplasma. The medication he was on seemed to help, BUT Beauford then developed a large scab on the back of his neck. Initially we presumed that he perhaps had earmites which were causing him to try and scratch his ears, therefore causing the scab. But over a week, the lesion grew to several inches. The area was surgically removed for biopsy (which came back normal) and we then switched medication. Luckily, he has not had any additional issues with his neck. Upon recheck bloodwork however, there was potential evidence that Beauford was positive for toxoplasmosis! To be completely certain he was not harboring anything, he continued to be isolated from all the other cats and treated with an entirely different antibiotic. After that month was complete, we sent off another blood sample which confused us all a bit more. One of his antibody values was higher this time than last time. Although there could possibly be a simple explanation, it could mean that Beauford may harbor some germs that could infect other cats even if he himself is asymptomatic. It was decided to err on the side of caution and continue to keep Beauford separated and adopt him out as an only cat. He is a wonderfully sweet loving kitty who would be a great addition to a family.

Natalia—is only of our original kitties. She is very unique female semi-feral. She does not have any teeth in her little old mouth (but she doe have claws so do not become complacent!). Natalia was diagnosed several years ago with inflammatory bowel disease. We crated her for several weeks and got her regulated with diet and medication. Her stool become solid. But she was miserable not running loose with her friends. We had a meeting with the cat staff and everyone was in agreement that her quality of life would be jeopardized if the only way of keeping her regulated was keeping her crated. So she has been loose with her friends every since. Every once and a while, she becomes a bit dehydrated and needs some fluids…at which point she generally bounces right back. Over the last two weeks we have given her fluids several times. She doesn’t appreciate being captured, but resigns herself and acts like a lady. You can tell she is feeling better as each time she is harder to get your hands on. She is a unique little old lady that still has a lot of spirit still left in her.

Biggie Smalls– our handsome long time resident wound up being rushed to the vet one Sunday after he was not able to get up that morning. He was a bit sore the day before but had undergone a lot of grooming and handling so we were simply monitoring to determine if he just overexerted himself. It turns out that Biggie Smalls was not only sore, but had lyme disease. He was placed on medication and cage rested for a few days. Before long he was back to his normal happy self and trying to convince every person walking passed his cage that he must go out for another walk. This week we took more blood to confirm that his thyroid medication is still at an appropriate level.

Roy—the big boned yellow lab from Puerto rico underwent cruciate surgery earlier this month. The surgery went very well although the joint was more chronic than what the doctor originally expected. But then came his recovery period. Being such a calm, gentle giant, everyone figured that Roy would be easy to keep quiet for his recovery. WRONG! Roy thought the best way to heal would be to try to run around like a puppy. He would lick his incision at the first chance yet destroy his e-collar while around his neck. We eventually tracked down a different type of device to help keep him from reaching his incision. And we purchased stock in sedatives! All jokes aside, we were all so thankful his orthopedic surgeon sent him home with a large quantity of acepromazine. Keeping him mildly sedated at times was the only way to keep him off his knee. Unbelievably though, a wonderful couple came in wanted to not only adopt Roy, BUT deal with his recovery. They fully understood his restrictions and were up for the challenge. Roy truly won the lottery when he went home with this family.

Rocky—the four year old shep mix came to us from a shelter from the mid west who refused to even put Rocky up for adoption at his prior rescue due to the buggy nature of his eyes! His eyes are indeed a little bit buggy, but not due to aggression. Now that he is in our care, he went to see a veterinary ophthalmologist. We were very concerned that he may have the onset of glaucoma. The great news is that although he does have an optical condition, it is a lesser problem. He was diagnosed with a disease called Pannus which is very typically seen in German shepherds. Rocky should be kept out of strong UV light (obviously he should not be an outdoor dog), and he will need to be on eye drops long term. But the ophthalmologist suspects that Rocky will regain even more of his vision back once he is regulated on these medications. Not only are we thrilled that Rocky should regain much of his vision, BUT Rocky also already went home to a wonderful family. What could be a better outcome than this?

Riley—the large female terrier mix from our West Virginia rescue gave us a bit of a scare. During her spay, the vet became concerned that her routine incision was bleeding a lot more than normal. They asked permission to run some coagulation tests which we of course agreed to. She came home later that same day and needed to be strictly monitored to make sure she was not experiencing any complications. Bloodwork results were back in the next morning and everything appeared normal. To be completely safe, the vet prescribed a course of medication, but Riley was back to her energetic sweet self by that next day. Those first 24 hours though had us quite worried.

Moose—big, sweet, HUGE, loving, GIGANTIC Moose…okay you get the picture. Moose is one of our newest additions from the south. He is a hound mix…but a 103 pound hound. Obviously not the normal size or girth for a hound. We were all very suspicious as to whether there was a medical reason to his large size. Blood tests immediately proved that his thyroid was extremely low. Moose in now on thyroid medication and will be retested in 2 months to check his levels. Hopefully Moose will not only slim down but have a lot more energy now.

Did you see our blog on

Feral cats – educating communities?

Horse & Farm Animal Update:

The horses are all still doing well and Glen is holding his own. He is still living with the goats, soon to be four as we will be letting the two little guys join the others. It is good for all of them. We did take in two new horses,they are in great shape and have very little issues. A rescuer wanted to move out of state and wanted to make sure these two guys were in safe hands before they did. He gave us a generous donation to make sure they were well cared for. Stop by and say hello to Josie and Ed! They are very bonded and very sweet and we will try to adopt them together.

We did have to remove the horns from the two older goats this month. We hated to do it actually, but one had the horns growing up and then going back down into his head and the other had only one horn and that one was looped around and starting to press on his eye. This happens often with goat horns and unfortunately the horns are very vascular and there is little you can do but remove them. They are both doing really well though and I look forward to their introduction to our “baby” goats who have grown in leaps and bounds!

We took in two more horses. We weren’t planning on taking in more horses at this time but the person wanting to surrender them was a fellow rescuer, looking to move across the country. he didn’t want to put them through transport like that, and wanted to make sure they went to a good, safe place. He offered us a donation to help us care for them for almost a year and so with all these issues combined we couldn’t refuse these two beautiful horses. Come and meet Josie and Ed. They are so sweet. At first they were very shy but now when they see volunteers and staff they come running up to the fence to greet them!

We also heard about this organization that accepts used halters – any kind – to try to help horses at the auctions. It is called “Halters For Horses”. Horses that come into the Unadilla auction without
halters are run through in groups and bought by the kill-buyers. If a horse has a halter they are lead through individually. This group puts halters on horses that are without to give them a fighting chance at auction! Please send halters to: Rosemary Farm Sanctuary 1646 Roses Brook Road South Kortright, NY 13482

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers

Saturday, July 24th is our Alumni Picnic! All dogs adopted from Pets Alive (&
their people) are invited back to the sanctuary for a party! It is a
HUGE event (AND FREE!) and WE NEED VOLUNTEER HELP to run it. Can you
help? If so email volunteer@petsalive.com, lots of tasks to do!

Pearls’ Page on WRWD

Thanks to WRWD and “Pearl”, a dog adopted from Pets Alive for featuring us on their website – on Pearl’s Page
- and helping to raise funds and awareness about us. Patty, Pearl’s person, is a staunch animal lover with a huge heart and great compassion for animals. They will be doing Pets Alive podcasts every
week. Stay tuned!

Thank you’s

First we would like to thank the Catskill Animal Sanctuary. When a hoarder went out of “business” this month, we accepted 18 of their goats into our facility. When they arrived they were in serious medical condition, something we were NOT told and were ill equipped to deal with. Kathy at CAS immediately stepped up and said “reroute the transport to us, we got it”. And so we did. And they took in all the goats and vetted them and cared for them. We can’t thank them enough for helping us with such a serious case, and so quickly and without a backward glance. We love CAS! Thank you guys.

We would also like you to support our Furball sponsors!

All the people on our Furball sponsor page helped us by sponsoring our biggest event of the year. Thank you to all of them and we encourage and ask you to support these organizations. Without them – we could not have had our event. Thank you.

We’d also like to thank everyone who came out to support the events and bought tickets (YOU are what keep us alive!!), all the volunteers who worked their BUTTS off at the Furball, John Heads for patching and fixing and transporting, all the volunteers who showed up to help with BeagleMania, everyone who helped with Charity and her puppies(especially Jan and the Bagley’s – love you guys), Linda F who is ALWAYS there for the animals, Carmine – same thing – we love you, our amazing yard sale divas (you guys are the BEST!), Sunnyskies for a donation of some generators and doing our much needed bird beak and nail trimming, everyone for your yard sale donations, Becky for always helping on Saturday’s with the adoptions, the other Becky for the photos and time you give us, James for coming every week to help at the cat house, Sonya who is amazing and worked all week to give Dale a break, Flannery Animal hospital for the BowlAThon (such fun guys! Thank you!), C&S Wholesale Grocers who approved us for a f $1,000 grant (thank you guys for all your support!), Marty and Lynette for donating a dish washer and trash compacter, Mark and Christine for fill to fill our old inground pool (YAY!), The Cat Open House volunteers, Sonya, Jim, Peg, and Shirley who helped sooo much, to Bonnie, Shirley and Alison who help at cats, to DAWG Members (and Tammie) for raising supplies and cash for us (thanks so much guys!), to Scott Bergman and Candee and Eric & Lydia for doing so many awesome photos for us, to Gil and Maria who come every week, to Chrissy for fighting the good fight (ALWAYS!), and to Altpoint Capital Partners for the donation of some amazing internet phones. We can’t even move forward without thanking Sky View for the donation of their pickup truck (which happens to also have a plow and salt spreader). We really needed that guys – thank you. I know this was congested as a thank you, and because it has been so long since my last update I know I have totally left out a whole bunch of things and I hope that you will forgive me and understand. You are all so appreciated and are what keep us going. Thank you so much.

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Since our last update on March 22, the following dogs have found homes! Casey, Nugget, Cody, Gus, Tat, Zack, Fuzzy, Aubrey, Rocks, Ty, Sleek, Larry, Sparkles, Trace, Bella, Oreo, Hooper, Gabby, Fuzzy (again), Chase, Buddy, Marley, Madison, McGreggor, Bob, Sophie, Jillian, Spud, Foxy, Petunia, Hawkeye, Natascha, Angus, Dooley, Pluto, Abigail, Jilly, Monkey, Junior, Cindy, Lincoln, Neiko, Hawkeye (again), Badger, Will, Butterball, Gracie, Hansel, Gretel, Gomer, Caramel, One, Daisy, Copper, Benji, Elizabeth2, Byrdie, Sharpey, Ty (again), Cashmere, Earnhardt, Snookie, Trisha, Elizabeth, Larry, Tango, Augie.

We also sent dogs from the West Virginia rescue to other rescues who stepped up and offered to help. We are really grateful to all of them. 21 dogs went to St. Huberts, one dog went to Mountain Rottie Rescue, four to Sullivan County, four to Newburgh Shelter and one to Paws Unlimited. Almost all of those dogs have been placed as well.

The following cats were placed: Oreo (yes, I’m not kidding. OREO!!), Violet, Robert & Bob (who went to MHAA), Fred, Tiki, Tangerine, Mickey, Christie, Chloe, Hermes and Kadji, Summer.

We also adopted out both the donkeys! They went to live on a 700 acre farm with cows and goats (all pets!) and little Peanut has learned to play soccer!

That is almost 115 animals in less than six weeks. Wow. What a long way Pets Alive has come in three years.

Intakes:

The following dogs came in: 7 from NC, 8 from SC, 6 local dogs, 4 from WV, 2 from GA, 2 from Puerto Rico, 1 from VA, 13 from KY. We also took in a blind dog and her seeing eye dog. Red and Moonie. Red is completely blind and Moonie helps her to get around and find things. They are an amazing pair…more about that later. We also took in two beagles. Three had been thrown from a car. Good Samaritans stopped and helped and were able to save two and get them to us. One of them has already been adopted. It has truly been amazing.

We also took in 11 local cats, and 11 from the West Virginia rescue, as well as two baby goats.

Stand out adoption:

One of our stand-out adoptions this month would have to be our beloved Oreo. BOTH Oreos. One Oreo is a cat that has been here for YEARS. That Oreo was very aggressive and could at times actually launch herself at you when you walked into the room. She found a forever home and has shown no aggression at all in her new home, being sweet and affectionate. She just wanted her very own person and no other cats. I’m really glad we were able to finally make her happy (by letting her leave us!) and that the kind gentleman that took her in could look past her obvious issues and decide she was worth loving.

The other Oreo was a pitbull that was dumped on our property almost a year ago, late at night. Marcos was on the way to the hospital with his wife who was in labor when he saw what happened. He stopped and called for Juan who lives nearby and while Marco’s poor wife sat in the car Juan and Chris took over trying to convince Oreo to come to them, and Marcos finished rushing his wife to the hospital (where she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! They did not name the boy Oreo though). Oreo was a HUGE staff and volunteer favorite. We adored her. Eight years old and neglected, she was perhaps one of the nicest dogs ever to grace our shelter. We recently asked Oreo’s new family to tell us how she was doing. This is what they said:

I’ll be glad to! I haven’t had a dog since 1993. A lot of our neighbors have dogs and my husband was always giving them snacks and playing with them, he spends a lot of time outside in the sun. Anyway a few months ago we started talking about getting a dog. My 5 year old granddaughter and I would look at the pets for adoption every Friday in the paper. We didn’t want a puppy, just a nice sweet girl. We went to Petsmart about 3 weeks ago to see what North Shore had there, there were only puppies. So, we went inside and 2 ladies from PetsAlive were there and I looked thru the binder of dogs and picked out 2 that I would like to see. One of them was Oreo. I went on the PetsAlive website and put in an application for Oreo . BlondeKerri and I went back and forth for a couple days, little did I know she was having surgery that week ! She is a trooper! Anyway we got approved and we adopted her that following Friday and took her home on Saturday and it seems like we’ve had her forever! She seems really happy to be a house dog. She has a beautiful big bed and she loves hanging out with us. Lou and Lucy {her new name} watch TV together and she sleeps upstairs with us. Some mornings she wakes me up about 2 minutes before my alarm goes off. She is great with the kids a really lovable girl, also a protector — ask the UPS man!! You all weren’t kidding when you told us she was a sweetheart, she as sweet and special as my last dog, a Cocker named Judy, who showed up at our house in 1980. We always said she dropped down from Heaven, can’t believe I have another one! Lucy’s Mom, Donna

Medical Update: (Written by Janet)

Red is one of our newest intakes. (Kerry here – would like to just add that Red came to us with her own seeing eye dog- Moonie. Red is totally blind and Moonie helps her to find her food, the dog door and gently nudges her to where she needs to be -it is a very tender attachment. They are both special dogs. When Red arrived, and was examined, it was thought that perhaps she was blind with something that might be FIXABLE! So of course, we followed up.) She is an older female Shepherd/ Hound mix who is blind due to bilateral cataracts. There is a surgical procedure that can be performed on some dogs in which the cataract is removed. But not every dog is a candidate for this procedure. And it also tends to be a very costly endeavor. Red saw the veterinary ophthalmologist this week and he felt that Red is most likely a good candidate. She is scheduled for an ocular ultrasound and electroretinogram next week to confirm his belief that surgery is indeed the next step. If so Red will most likely have her procedure within a day or two of that point. If anyone would be able to foster Red (and her seeing eye dog canine companion ‘Moonie’) during her recovery, please email janet@petsalive.com. We expect Red to need several different eye drops to be administered every few hours, although we of course will not be certain of what will be needed until all her tests and procedures are completed.

After our first group of Puerto Rican dogs melted all of our hearts, we agreed to take in a few more from the island. ‘Madison’, another medium sized mixed breed quickly became one of my new favorites even before learning that she is Hero’s mother! Hero obviously inherited all of her gentle and sweet mannerisms from the mother’s side of her family. And just as her daughter had, Madison had a limp!!!! We were able to get Madison in for her spay and have x-rays done on her leg. Our vet was worried that her cruciate ligament was torn in her knee as well as having hip dysplasia. So an appointment was made with the veterinary orthopedic surgeon (the one who also performed Hero’s surgery). Upon his examination and palpation of the entire leg, the orthopedist was hopeful that her knee was NOT involved and only the hip was the cause of pain. To save us the cost of further testing he decided to schedule the procedures and go from there. If he radiographed her leg that morning and saw that she indeed needed her knee repaired in addition to the hip, then so be it. But if her knee was intact, he saved us the cost and Madison the trouble of being anesthetized and manipulated extra times. Madison’s surgery was planned for a week from that initial exam. As it turned out, the surgeon needed to ONLY repair her hip. In addition he called my cell phone about bringing his in-laws over to our facility to meet Madison. Within two minutes they knew they HAD to adopt her. So not only did Madison wind up in a wonderful home, but her orthopedic surgeon became her Uncle. Who could ask for a better situation?

The other dog brought to us from Puerto Rico is a large lab mix named Roy. Roy is a gentle giant who just wants to be friends with everyone. The problem with that is that poor Roy came in with sarcoptic mange (which is the contagious form). Although they did treat Roy before sending him to us, sarcoptic mange can be very difficult to fully rid. We kept him isolated for several weeks and treated him further. His hair coat looks incredibly improved and at this point we are continuing with purely prophylactic measures. Our main concern though for Roy currently is that he has shown a pretty bad limp, especially after going up and down stairs. Yesterday we found out that Roy was indeed diagnosed with hip dysplasia while in on the island. Although we’ve had his on glucosamine supplements from the first day of arrival, we will be making an appointment with the specialist to see if there is anything more that we can do to ease any pain. He is such an incredible dog.

All of our rescues from West Virginia are doing wonderfully! The dogs with demodectic mange are flourishing here at Pets Alive. Goldie is slowly but surely putting on weight. Almost all of her hair is grown in too. Andy the beautiful pit bull who was thought to be gray in color is actually black now that he has hair. He is fattening up too and being introduced into the normal population of dogs. We are hopeful that he can be paired with another dog so that he has a playmate. A few of the other dogs who were originally suffering with demodectic mange, such are Monkey, are now in homes living the good life. Several of the cats from West Virginia have also gone into homes. Even a few of the feral cats were brought up to date with tests and vaccines and then placed into appropriate homes.

Did you see Nancy’s blog on

How do I introduce my dog to the cat?

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers

Pets Alive is planning TWO amazing charity fundraising events in May. One is on May 22, 2010, at Catlin Gardens, in Slate Hill, NY. The tickets are $125 to that event. The other is on Thursday May 27th, 2010 at Life in Ardsley, NY (7-11 pm). The tickets to that event are $200. The FurBall is a fabulous formal evening celebrating the animals that have been saved by Pets Alive. There will be cocktails, dinner, music, dancing, celebrities, a silent auction and a special presentation featuring the animals of Pets Alive. This will be the animal event of the year. Do not wait, buy your tickets now for Westchester Furball, or buy your tickets now for Hudson Valley Furball!

We have just heard that Assemblyman Micah Kellner will attend Hudson Valley Fur Ball! Do you want to help sponsor the event?

Attention Business Owners! Businesses and Corporations all around Westchester and the Hudson Valley are wagging their tails with excitement about the upcoming Pets Alive Fur Balls!
Become a Pets Alive Fur Ball Sponsor Now!

Promote your business at the Fur Ball and earn the loyal support and goodwill of Pets Alive adopters, sponsors, donors, staff, and volunteers. (There are nearly 20,000 loyal identified supporters). Pets Alive has a sponsorship level to suit all budgets, including: A Main Event Sponsor, Yappy Hour Sponsor, the coveted Kissing Booth Sponsor, Gold Sponsor, Bronze Sponsor and Man’s Best Friend. To join us as a sponsor at the Fur Ball please contact events@petsalive.com

We are also now Accepting Journal Ads for the Pets Alive Fur Balls.

Full page, ½ page, 1/4 page and Partner listing ads are available.

A journal ad is the perfect way to:

• Promote your business
• Honor a special pet’s memory
• Thank a special volunteer
• Wish a “Happy Birthday” to your pet
• Congratulate your graduate
• Say “I Love You” to your special someone
• Propose to your beloved!

Support Us:

Get your own Pets Alive Credit Card! 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. This card has no annual fee and a low introductory purchase rate. Use the custom card designs to show your support, you can choose one of ours or upload a picture of your OWN pet or child! The first time you use the card, Capital One will pay Pets Alive $50! After that we get a percentage of every purchase. It doesn’t get much easier than this folks. Please sign up for a card!

Use Goodsearch or iGive
Help Pets Alive every time you shop online and search the web by downloading the GoodSearch Pets Alive toolbar or use the iGive toolbar.

Have you heard our PSA?

Sean Haberkorn is a senior at SUNY New Paltz and an intern at Cumulus Broadcasting in Poughkeepsie . As part of his internship Sean recorded a Pets Alive Public Service Announcement that will run on AM 1390 and AM 1340 during all army sports games. Listeners in Orange, Dutchess and Ulster counties can catch these announcements starting around the beginning of April. A native of Holbrook in Suffolk County , NY , Sean looks forward to visiting Pets Alive very soon.

Click here to listen to the PSA.

Did you see Matt’s blog on

Some Days?

Animal Updates or Issues:

We are still fighting to see the passage of Oreo’s Law in New York State. Recently Nathan Winograd had a survey conducted of NYS Rescue Organizations. The results were staggering and horrifying, but not a surprise to those of us in rescue. The title of the report speaks for itself: New York State Survey Shows Animals Being Killed Despite Rescue Alternative.
Oreo’s Law would save lives AND taxpayer money. The study of non-profit rescue organizations finds that these organizations are routinely denied animals, experience inconsistent and arbitrary treatment, are subject to retaliation and/or fear retaliation if they expose inhumane conditions in shelters, while shelters are killing animals these groups are willing to save. You can read the entire report by clicking here. Want to help bring this tragedy to an end? Make your voice heard by clicking here.

Horse & Barnyard Updates:

Many of you have asked for updates on the horse abuse case – Suzy and Whiskey. The horses are NOT with Pets Alive, they are with a wonderful organization called Equine Rescue but we all got involved in trying to see that justice was done. I have updated the website with the latest information and the court ruling. You can click here to read the latest.

Our goats are doing well and we continue to have almost daily “goat fix” photos on twitter. They really are hilarious. Glen,our senior horse, spends a lot of time laying down and sometimes the goats are seen standing on HIM! They are so funny and such a joy. We recently took in two new goats. Just three weeks old they were being auctioned off at a livestock auction for meat. A kind woman there to save other animals, bid on them,but then once home didn’t know what to do to properly care for them. They needed bottle feeding and lots of care and attention. We were contacted and asked if we could help. We said SURE. So they arrived and they are just the cutest little creatures.

However, baby goats are very delicate and have very sensitive stomachs. They can ONLY drink fresh goats milk. We tried the stuff sold in stores but since it is homogenized and pasteurized it wasn’t ok for them. We consulted with Farm Sanctuary, Catskill Animal Sanctuary and Otterkill Animal Hospital. All had similar advice. Raw goats milk, or raw cows milk would work. Where to get either? Well, I happen to personally drink only raw cows milk and I knew exactly where to get it! Julie and Rick Vreeland live around the block from me and I had been buying milk from their raw, organic farm (Freedom Hill Farm) for years. When they heard what we needed it for they immediately agreed to donate ALL the milk until the goats were weaned! Please show them some love and support and if you want to learn more about the health benefits of raw milk (which are many) you should check out their website.

Cat Update:

Chloe, formerly known as “Nasty” used to be totally feral and untouchable – then along came volunteers Peg and Jim. They spent countless hours working with her and loving her, and bringing her out of her shell. The result? She has now found her forever home. When Lisa came to Pets Alive, she fell in love with Choe and her (now) sweet loving manner. YAY! Another little furry that no one thought would ever leave here (like Oreo) has found a forever home.

Bebe,the pregnant cat, has settled into her foster home (also with Jim and Peg) really well. They said the following:
When we got home, we let her out of the carrying case into the bedroom. She seemed to forget she had a melon sized belly and proceeded to squeeze under the bed. It was a very tight fit, and when I brought a bowl of food into the room, she really had to work hard to wiggle out. She hasn’t attempted to go back under the bed since then. Pfew! Even with her melon belly, she defies gravity and jumps up on the bed, and promptly stretches out. Her belly looks extra huge when she lies flat. It’s scary!! Her favorite spot, no surprise, is sitting in front of the window. We put a few good sized cardboard boxes lined with towels in various quiet areas of the bedroom. Hopefully, she use on of them to give birth. So far, all is going well.

Well, she did give birth. To SEVEN babies. All are doing well and once old enough will be fixed and readied for adoption. Bebe is being a great mom.

Position Available:

We are looking for an assistant to BlondKerri to help out with adoptions. Currently we do adoptions by appointment only and Jen has handled most of the Animal Database entry and filing. We want to expand our adoptions by allowing walk-ins and we want to move Jen to more of a development position within our organization. We are looking for an adoption coordinator that will be onsite from Sunday through Thursday from 11am to 3pm. You would be responsible for learning about the dogs that are on site, handling much of the data entry of the animals into the database, printing up cage cards, handling walk-in adoptions, helping with adoption application checks, and handling the animal files. You should be a patient person. A happy person, and most of all a dog lover!

Thank you’s

Thank you to Ken and Joy. Indomitable. We wouldn’t be able to function without you guys. There is no room enough in this update topost all that you do for us. Thank you.

Thank you to Tara Mikolay from Desires By Mikolay for all you have done to raise money, sponsors and manage the Westchester Furball. You have been amazing. We can never repay the amount of love and work that you have given to us. Thank you Tara.

Thank you to Marcy. What can I say? You are relentless in hunting down and getting us what we need and have so much energy. Thanks for putting it to use for Pets Alive!

Thank you to Alina and Richard for everything you do for our volunteer committee and in helping with the parade and rebuilding our Smooch-A-Pooch Booth! We won first prize!

Thank you to Donna S, a new volunteer that has been helping us out a great deal in the cat house! We really appreciate the extra help in the cat house. Sonya does so much for us already – she is the almost every day and comes in to help at a moment’s notice. Thank you Sonya. Thank you also for the donation of the GORGEOUS wishing well. We all LOVE it. Thank you also to regulars Bonnie and Shirley for helping so much with our cats.

Thank you to John Heads for doing yet another pick up and delivery for us of some food donated by the Newburgh Animal Shelter (we love you guys!). Thanks so much John!

Many thanks to k9stitch.com. They never forget us and give us a portion of their proceeds every single month. We love you Jen and John!

Thank you to J&J Tent Rentals! They are donating the use of a 20 x 50 foot tent for our yard sale in June! This is SUCH A BONUS! Thank you J&J!

Thank you to Fran and Davey. Donated a load of gravel and fixed our terribly rutted driveway.

Thank you to Cathie Giglio from cathandmouse.com – she has been an absolute godsend in helping me keep the website updated.

Thanks to Vera and Cathei for continuing to take care of the horse feeding every Sunday morning! Vera also does all our press releases and a ton of event planning. Cathei’s son also recently had his sixth birthday. Instead of presents he asked people to bring dog toys, collars, leashes, etc. for Pets Alive…and they did! He is coming over soon to donate all of those items. We will be sure to tweet a picture!

Thank you to Phil from Thundershirt for donating some Thundershirts for help with training our dogs (and to Best Friends for sending them our way!)

Thank you to Marc Roberge (O.A.R) and family for donating to help us with the West Virginia rescue. Their Foundation Heard The World really helped Pets Alive a great deal this year!

Thank you once again to Marisol and Rob Thomas and Sidewalk Angels Foundation for helping Pets Alive cover the costs of all the major surgeries from the dogs from Puerto Rico. It was a great expense and we were very grateful for your help.

Thank you to Becky Tegze. A force. Photos, Yard Sale Diva, all around “I’m here, what do you need?” person. We love you and really appreciate everything. Contact her at becky@petsalive.com for private photo shoots of your pets. Very reasonable and she lets you keep the entire CD of all the photos taken at your shoot!

Thank you WELLPOINT for sending us a team of 20 volunteers that worked their butts off and then donating $100 for every volunteer that showed! Wow! That was a great surprise and very appreciated.

Katie for washing dogs, horses – well anything we threw in front of you! We love you. Come back soon!

Thank you Gil and Maria for coming every week, multiple times, suffering injuries, still coming back and being such great animal lovers.

Thank you to everyone who helped out at Beacon Barks – Maryellen, Arty, Anna, Marty, Lynette, Diane, Juliana, Weston, Alexandra and our friends at CFF (Christian Faith Fellowship Family Church) in Middletown for supplying the Kissing Dogs and for marching with us in the parade.

Thank you to Chrissy, she comes all the way from Long Island and works her butt off!

Thank you Jan, who so quietly keeps things in order all week. What a difference she makes.

Thanks to Marilyn, who has taken over the job of scheduling the offsite adoptions at PetCo and PetsMart, and to all the volunteers who give up an entire day each month to bring our message out into the community. Connie, Laurie, Lynn, Stephanie, Wanda, Dave, Brennan, Tricia, Mike, Angela, Danielle, Pam, Robin, Kristen, Nicole, Heather, Amy, and of course Marilyn.

Thank you to Sue, who already does so much for us and now also takes data entry work home to do in her spare time.

Thank you Larry for coming and feeding the baby goats so often!

Thank you to Claudia and Denise who drove 2.5 hours to get here, with a car STUFFED with donations and then volunteered all day. Was great to meet you.

Thanks to all our regular volunteers – Connie, Wanda, Trudy, the Bagley girls – I could go on and on. You guys are the best.

Thank you to the class of Kate Friedman. Her writing project involves them choosing a charity (US!) and writing letters to a celebrity to ask them to help us with much needed items. We can’t wait to see how it all turns out! Good luck!

Current Needs:

We are looking for some commercial steel shelving units that can help us organize our cat kitchen. We are in GREAT need of Advantixx or Frontline right now. We also always need large black garbage bags (yard size), paper towels, Libman wonder mopheads, ink cartridges HP 95 & 98, High Efficiency laundry detergent, dog toys, Panacur dewormer (the big bottles of equine liquid has been working well for us!), Panacur Dewormer, Ivermectin, disinfectant wet wipes, bleach, 3-lb paper trays, backpacks for dogs, Sporn Harnesses, and Slip leads. Thank you for your kind consideration on these items!

Please consider helping us continue our mission
of finding homes for animals in need!

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The problem will be solved at the county level. As a backup our Assembly Member Annie Rabbitt drafted a bill that would absolve us of the tax bill from 2007. PLEASE take a moment, right now to thank Ed Diana: (845) 291-2700, Ediana@Co.orange.ny.us. Without him, we would have been looking at foreclosure or coming up with over $40,000 to pay the bill. We ARE tax exempt 501(c)3, and thankfully someone was willing to say “Hey, this makes no sense”. Thanks so much Mr. Diana. You are the only government official who we actually felt understood the situation and worked to fix it. It’s great to have friends like you in high places.

Big Fundraisers Planned!
Pets Alive is planning TWO amazing charity fundraising events in May. One is on May 22, 2010, at Catlin Gardens, in Slate Hill, NY. The tickets are $125 to that event. The other is on Thursday May 27th, 2010 at Life in Ardsley, NY (7-11 pm). The tickets to that event are $200. The FurBall is a fabulous formal evening celebrating the animals that have been saved by Pets Alive. There will be cocktails, dinner, music, dancing, celebrities, a silent auction and a special presentation featuring the animals of Pets Alive. This will be the animal event of the year, and it is VERY likely that Marisol and Rob Thomas will be attending these events! Do not wait, buy your tickets now for Westchester Furball, or buy your tickets now for Hudson Valley Furball! (Note: no crazy people. Crazy people will be removed! DRUNK crazy is ok. Crazy fan crazy is not!)

Sanctuary animal updates:

Since our last update on January 22nd, we adopted out the following dogs: Gondor, Jet, Kramer, Tyson, Chief, Lana, One (again), Derrick, Shadow, Richie, Sammie, Titus, Mercy, Sassy, Merry, Jack, Valentino, Coreen, Tater, Bocci, Faith, Rambo, Duke, Yankee, Mufassa, Maco, Misty, Buster Brown, Goldenrod, Max, Benji, April, Nakota, Daisy, Gus, Julia, Petey, Macey, Miller, Princess, Dusty, Daphne, Chili, Debbie, Milliard, Grace, Casey, Dallas, Jenny, Dimples, Hush Puppy, Mason (again), Sakari, Delia, Drummer, Kia, Biggie, Bella, Connor, Cookie, Remus, Jessica, Benny, Sadie, Macy, Kodiak, Jones, Pirate, Hope, Hank, Venice, Annabelle, Pluto, Muki, Flying Ace, Jack, Petey, Henry, Nigel, Griffin, Simba, Buddy, aks, Dumpling, Hope, Dolly, Pickles, Carson, Johnny, Hero, Sweetie Pie, Stacy, Fenway, Tricky, Chanel, Johnny (again), Java, Patriot, Pirate, Scooter, Cherub, Pervis, Jenny, Joey, Java, Eddie, Socks, and Sassy.

The following cats were also adopted: Aga Khan, Shah, and Jake.

We also adopted out a horse this month. Devil was adopted and is doing wonderfully in his new home! Check out this link for the most amazingly happy pictures of him in his new home. Beautiful!

That is over 115 adoptions. Good luck furries! We also placed 16 dogs with other rescues (dogs that we pulled from the West Virginia hoarder situation).

We also said goodbye this month to Valentino, Molly, Avery, Large Hissing, and Peaches. The last four are cats and I guess we are at “that point” with cats and it is very sad. So many cats here are so old and had been here for years, that they are actually starting to die of age-related illnesses. It breaks our heart that they never had a home of their own and we’re probably looking at losing many more in the next two years. We take every death personally and grieve for every one we weren’t able to place, and that had to die here.

Thankfully, our Grumpy Old Man – Valentino died in the arms of Carmine and Lucia. They took him home and treasured the last few months of his life and made him special, and proud and comfortable. I’m glad that he had them. I am sure that Val will be waiting for them at the Bridge.

One of the stand-out adoptions this month is Simba. Simba was a dog that came to us with another dog. We were told they were 6-8 years old but they were much older. 12-14 or older was our vets guess. They were victims of divorce – neither side wanted them (can you imagine?). So of course we took them, and of course they needed dentals and medical care. We didn’t have the heart to put these elderly dogs in the kennel so we made a nice place for them in the kitchen. They mostly just slept the day away but Nala didn’t wake up one morning. There they were, curled together, but she had quietly slipped away in the night. We were worried how Simba would take it, but the poor senior guy didn’t seem to remember much, so maybe that was a blessing. Well…some wonderful people (Jennifer and Aaron) came to meet another dog in our shelter when they came across this skinny, disoriented, little old man, and that was it. All thoughts of the other dog left their minds and they knew they wanted to provide Simba a home with what little time he might have left. He has been in their home for over a month now and is thriving! We received this update from them:

Simba’s adjustment to his new home was slow at first. I believe he did not understand what was going on. The new smells and layout was hard for him to learn. It’s been almost a month now and he’s adjusting fine. He accidentally fell down the stairs last week confirming our suspicions he can not see clearly and he needs to be watched very closely. It nearly gave us a heart attack, but thankfully he got right up on his feet and wasn’t hurt. He is very deceiving, refusing to get up every morning when it’s time to go outside, leading us to fear it might be his last day. Only to return back to the house running playfully and wagging his tail. It is amazing to see how much puppy he still has left.

Simba is getting use to our daily routines. He enjoys walks to the pond and doesn’t fear water. So, we are hopeful he might take a dip in the pond with us this summer. He is starting to trust us more everyday, even allowing us to pick him up for car rides. More and more, he is coming and looking for attention by placing his head on our laps. Simba has met the cats, chicken, goats and sheep. He doesn’t seem too interested in them which works out just fine. It seems there are only two things he’s interested in – food and his bed beside the wood stove.

Simba has quickly become apart of our family. We frequently joke and call him Kenny after my grandfather because I often find them both sound asleep by the wood stove; both never waking with my entrance. We enjoy having him has part of our family and thankful we found him!

Intakes:

This month we took in the following dogs: 8 from South Carolina, 3 from Arkansas, 10 from Kentucky, 70 from West Virginia (yes, you read that right – SEVENTY dogs), 4 from North Carolina, 1 from Virginia.
We also took in three owner surrenders and three from local shelters.

The reason we took so many dogs from West Virginia was because of a terrible case down there. Typical “rescue gone wrong” situation and the dogs and cats were suffering. A team of volunteers and staff from Pets Alive (thank you John, Carmine, Becky, Janet and Matt) went down there and got all the dogs and cats back to us. Thank you then for local shelters stepping up to help us by taking on some of these animals. Sullivan County Humane took five, Best Friends took five, Newburgh Shelter took five and Mountain Rottie Rescue even came and took one that was not even a rottie. We also have other offers of help that we’re still working on, and more of these dogs will go to local shelters who have been so gracious to step up and say “We’re here. We have room. We’ll help”. We were all very deeply moved by the response from the local rescue community. Thank you all so much. You can read about the experience in Matt’s Blog titled Saving Xena.

We also took in two donkeys this month. Blossom and her baby, Peanut. I can’t even tell you how cute these two are. Well, maybe I can. This picture is little Peanut. She is 8 months old. When they first got here they were covered in filth, very shy and scared, and not in the best of health. Now they are thriving and it is so cute to watch Peanut race around in these big figure eights, just as happy as can be. Come and visit them. They love the attention.

General Updates:

Note to our Volunteers (written by Nancy Parker):

I did a survey in the kennel this week and asked the dogs what they wanted us as humans to do to make them more adoptable. Here are the answers:

When you take me out of the kennel talk softly to me and give me praise. This calms me down. If you remain calm, I will remain calm. Your energy is my energy.
Also ask the attendants if there are any dogs that do not get regular walks. Some of us are just not as popular as others. But we like to walk and love human contact.
If you do not think you can walk us just take us to one of the open outdoor kennels. This is always fun. You can ask where the balls and toys are. You can teach us to play fetch and play tag.

When you greet me in the lobby or outside, talk softly and give me praise. When you walk up to me from a distance and use a high pitched squeaky voice I get excited and I want to jump up on you. If you use your hand and just direct me in a soft downward motion that will really help me to learn not to jump whenever I see a human, and that will help my new family want to adopt me.

When you walk me please try hard not to let me pull the leash, if I am a serious puller ask about the great walking harnesses we have (Sporn Harness). These harnesses really do work and encourage me to stop pulling. Pulling on the leash is a learning experience. The more I pull the more I will pull. Pulling is a learned behavior.

I love getting out of the kennel and I love to walk. If you have time can you please walk me around the entire path when the weather is good. I would love to stop at the bench so we could talk and you could pet me. I think there are some brushes around somewhere, maybe sometimes you could brush me.

We know it is difficult to remember, but, if you can bring some bags with you (they are in the lobby) when you walk it would really help keep the path clean. We were talking about how many dogs really walk on that path and how many “go” on that path….OMG…The number is staggering. Please help us keep it clean and I will help you make the walk more enjoyable by not stopping to smell each one! If you don’t like those bags – they do seem yucky – maybe take a scooper around at the end of your visit and gather up what you can find. We, and the staff, would really appreciate it!

Please don’t forget the dogs in the offices, or senior room. We LOVE to get out too! And we need it even more than the dogs that have a place to go outside, in the kennel.

When you bring me back please remember to mark the kennel so the next person can walk someone that did not get walked. And when you are done for the day PLEASE return the leash to the leash hooks at the front door. We try so hard not to waste donor money. So returning those leashes help a lot!

Thank you so much for everything you do, we love you all. You make our stay at Pet’s Alive so much easier and happier and healthier.

Did you see Matt’s blog on
Old Souls?
This was about the rescue we did to help some dogs in Puerto Rico.

VOLUNTEER! You can be directly involved in changing the life of a dog or a cat. To find out more information about any of the below volunteer projects, please emailvolunteer@petsalive.com. If you want to be part of the planning committee for this year’s event, please send us an email.

Do you love cats?

Pets Alive is still looking for volunteers to help in the cat house on Wednesday and/or Sunday mornings.
If you would like to be a Cat Caretaker – once a week or once a month – please let us know!

Offsite Adoptions

By escorting an adoptable dog or cat to PetCo and PetsMart, you can help them find a forever home.
All it takes is one Saturday every six weeks.
Sign-up now to be part of the Pets Alive Adoption Day Team, and experience the joy of knowing that you are really making a difference.

2nd ANNUAL ALUMNI DAY REUNION PICNIC PLANNING BEGINS!

For the second year in a row, Pets Alive will host a picnic in honor of all the animals who have passed through the doors of the sanctuary.
All our furry friends will be invited back to the sanctuary for a reunion. There will be food, music, entertainment, games, prizes, a blessing of the animals, a parade, and more!
Please contact us for more information about helping with this project.

Are you a people person?

Training for new greeters will take place on Saturday, February 27 at 11:30 am at the sanctuary.
“Greeters” are the people who welcome visitors to the sanctuary, conduct orientations, and give tours.
Greeters work on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am until 1:30 pm. Only one shift is required per month.

Please don’t delay, start helping today.

Animal Medical Updates and Issues (written by Janet):

The infamous good ol’ Puerto Rican mutt who has stolen EVERYONE’S heart not only underwent major surgery BUT found her forever home. She had a previous fracture femoral head which healed horribly wrong AND a luxating patella (knee cap). The veterinary orthopedic surgeon was a bit concerned about the hip surgery (although the patella procedure was routine). Both procedures in and of themselves are grandscale. Hero had them both done at the same time. She pulled through the surgeries well and was quite the trooper when she returned. Never did she complain about pain (although of course she is on good pain medications). Not even two days after her return to Pets Alive, Hero was snapped up by the brother of the hospital administrator. They are well aware of Hero’s post-surgical restrictions and ready to do all they need for her. We’ll of course be certain to post updates of her progress as they become available.

The start of a large medical project has been the incoming of West Virginia dogs who are emaciated and horribly mange-ridden. Five adult dogs have thus arrived (along with two puppies). These adult dogs are some of the worst cases I have seen in a long time. Goldie is a lovely golden retriever mix whose vivacious attitude was probably the ONLY thing keeping her alive. She is literally a bag of bones being held together by skin (and mange covered skin at that). Each dog has been receiving daily baths along with oral antiparasitics and antibiotics (for secondary bacterial infections). Their ears were filled with yeast, which we are now treating. Goldie’s ears were so inflamed that she has a large aural hematoma. In a best case scenario she would have been sedated and the hematoma would be lanced and sutured. BUT since she is in such dire overall health, we would not even think of attempting sedation lest she not awake. We are attending to the treatment daily and she been enjoying the extra love and attention she receives simultaneously.

Frederick—One of our two darling dogo argentinos has had a problem with one of his back leg even before his arrival to Pets Alive. His hock tends to swell up from time to time. We have had it looked up several times by veterinarians. It is suspected that he had a previous lick granuloma (most probably from living in multiple shelter environments) which then turned into cellulitis. Luckily we have been able to get a lot of extra weight off him which will only help, and he is on joint supplementation. Freddy was on a broad spectrum combination of antibiotics and had a dental done. Although he may not be feeling like a puppy again, his overall health is much improved.

Annie—timid, sweet, shy Annie did have recheck bloodwork for her beginning stage renal failure. She has been receiving sub-g fluids on a daily basis since she was diagnosed. And was being retreated for lyme disease. Unfortunately Annie’s values have not improved, but on the bright side, they have not worsened. Annie also receives nutritional supplements intended to ease the strain on the kidneys. In the meantime, she is lucky to receive a lot of extra attention from an entire slew of volunteers. Its thrilling to see her eyes light up when one of her favorite people enters the room. Oddly enough, since I’m the one giving daily fluids, I am not one of those.

Caramel—crazy caramel does not like being in the kennel. He in fact torn four paws bloody while voicing his dislike. We moved him to the senior room and gave him some time to mend. During that time, we asked Nancy our trainer to start working with him. Although he’d still rather be in a home versus a dog run, Caramel is handling it better this time. And our precious Annie can once again enjoy the sounds of silence instead of Caramel’s LOUD complaints in her ears.

Angel—our selectively friendly pitty is FINALLY healed from her foot pad removal (which was torn off during a scuffle with another dog). Whenever we thought it was fully healed, she would take a walk outside and return with a raw foot. Thus we needed to limit the substrate she walked upon for a while. Hopefully soon, we”ll be able to enable her full activity privileges once again.

This month appears to be cat dental month. We have had an onslaught of cat teeth issues. Of course ALL of them were feral or semi-feral cats, who do NOT appreciate anyone looking into their mouths. Amanda, Thelma and Nero were a few of the cats going in for dental cleaning. Oddly enough, almost as soon as they returned from the vet, they were chowing down food and acting like kittens again. I’m constantly teasing Dale that she NEEDS to keep up with the teeth brushing around here! It would save us a lot money at the vet.

General Updates:

Have you checked out our new Doggie 911 blog? Keep up with all the latest training being done with the dogs of Pets Alive! Also, find training tips, advice and see how surrender requests are handled. Our dog trainer, Nancy is keeping dogs IN the homes, instead of coming back or being surrendered to Pets Alive! Read her blogs and follow the advancement of training with the dogs here at our sanctuary.

Through the ongoing Pets Alive Humane Education Program human/canine teams visit schools, churches and other youth groups in and around Orange County to speak with children. The focus is on helping young people develop empathy for animals, and teaching them how to treat animals with love, kindness and respect. Also, through this program, schools and youth groups are invited to visit the sanctuary. These visitors spend the morning in a class led by two Humane Educators and devote the afternoon to working on a service project. There is also an opportunity to interact with shelter dogs and cats. For more information e-mail HumaneEducation@petsalive.com

Have you heard our PSA?

Sean Haberkorn is a senior at SUNY New Paltz and an intern at Cumulus Broadcasting in Poughkeepsie . As part of his internship Sean recorded a Pets Alive Public Service Announcement that will run on AM 1390 and AM 1340 during all army sports games. Listeners in Orange, Dutchess and Ulster counties can catch these announcements starting around the beginning of April. A native of Holbrook in Suffolk County , NY , Sean looks forward to visiting Pets Alive very soon.
Click here to listen to the PSA.

Thank you’s

Thanks everyone who came to help during the storm – you all were truly lifesavers and we appreciate your efforts so very much.

Thanks to all the volunteers who have been coming to bathe the West Virginia dogs. They are looking and feeling better every day thanks to you.

Thank you Christina, Natalie and MacKenzie from the Convent of The Sacred Heart School in Greenwich Ct, who recently held a supply drive at their school and brought a carload of donations for the animals. The girls are members of the Future Problem Solver/ Community Problem Solvers of CT and came to Pets alive to visit and to learn about how they can help animals in need. They are competing for a chance to go to the national competition. We look forward to hearing more about their project and to helping them achieve their goals.

An awesome group of kids and their parents from the The Minisink Critters 4H Club visited Pets Alive recently – and it hasn’t been the same since. These kids worked hard cleaning the garages, the barn, the cat house and even washing windows. Then they spent time playing with the cats and dogs, and walking dogs. And they brought homemade biscuits for the animals, too.! Thank you Dylan, Kyle, Syd, Meghan, Thomas, Alex, Kathleen and Ashley. We look forward to your next visit in May.

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make our first St. Patrick’s Day Parade a huge success. The Pets Alive dogs were wonderful and the spectators loved them – and the puppies were a big hit. This was a great way to get our name out in front of the community – and it was a lot of fun, too – despite the fierce weather. Special thanks to Marty, who did such a great job of building the float (with some “help” from Alina and Eileen), and to Jane and Eileen for decorating the float and for carrying the banner in the parade.

Thanks to Anthony and to Toni for giving the kissing booth a much needed face lift. And to Maryellen and Gary for supplying the hats and Lisa the ponchos – they really came in handy! Thank you Alina for getting Volvo to loan Pets Alive a brand new vehicle and to Richard for towing the float around and to Andrew, Diane and Alexandra for driving in the parade. Thank you Lisa and Bleu (world’s lickiest dog), for manning the Kissing Booth. And special thanks to Ken for donating the trailer to Pets Alive so the Kissing Booth can easily be transported to other offsite events, and for everything he did to help prepare – and also for serving on Poop Patrol so cheerfully during the parade! Special thanks to the marching brigade – The puppies, Casey and Jillian, in the wagon pulled by Kayla; Jack, escorted by Maryellen and Anna; Patriot, escorted by Gary and Arthur; Bella, escorted by Nikki; Darling, escorted by Connie; Larry, escorted by Kerri; Jake escorted by Patrick; Alumni Riley, escorted by Fran; Alumni Zoe escorted by Richard; and Zoe’s sister Nevada escorted by Andrew.

Thanks to Charene, Quentin, Kirsten, Chelsea. They made the bandannas that were worn by dogs and humans alike, and they were planning to march in the parade, but severe weather in the Philadelphia area kept them from making the 3 ½ hour journey from their home! All of this paid off AS THE PETS ALIVE FLOAT TOOK FIRST PLACE! We won “Most Outstanding Unit-Overall” and it was the first time a newcomer ever won that coveted award! Yay FLOAT TEAM!! (Our Float said KISS ME I’M IRISH and we had a kissing booth with a dog in it!)

Thanks to Jan for the great job she did on the laundry room, and for all the help she gives us every single day. Couldn’t do it without you.

Thanks to Davey for all the work he has been doing down here lately – repairs, filling pot holes – new doors…he never stops. Thanks Dave!

Thank you to one of the best dog handlers we’ve ever met. Nikki – seen here with Oreo – is such a huge help around Pets Alive. She and her sisters can do practically ANYTHING. We love them all and appreciate everything they do for the animals of Pets Alive.

Thanks to Gil for sharing his time and his wonderful heart with the dogs who need it most.

Thank you to Sidewalk Angels and Rob & Mari for covering the $3000 needed to help Hero. Hero was a dog we took in that had been abused and needed major surgery to repair some leg issues. The surgery cost was overwhelming and once again they stepped up to help. Hero is recovering well and doing wonderfully in her new adopted home!

Very special thanks to Nasim and Marc Roberge (from the group O.A.R.) for having their Heard The World Foundation send us a very much needed $5000 to help us with all the expenses of rescuing the West Virginia dogs. That money will help us get veterinary help for all of these dogs and cats that so desperately needed it. Thank you Marc!

Thank you very much for everyone that read about the West Virginia dog and cat rescue and sent us donations to help. We received donations from $2 to $1000. People gave whatever they could and it very deeply touched us. Thank you all so much for caring. These dogs are all alive today because of YOUR help. Thank you.

Thank you to Churchill’s of Mt.Kisco for a very substantial donation to Pets Alive. This donation will help us make many much needed repairs around here. Thank you so very much Daniele.

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The following cats were also adopted: Charlie, Eddie, Cleo and Ricky. That is a total of 61 adoptions this month. Great. Good luck furries!

We had a lot of “pairs” adopted this month too – people coming down and taking two dogs home. Hero & Noble, Linus & Lucy, Claus & Kringle, Cody & Major, Matilda & Madden and George and Mabel went home as duo’s. It is so much better for a dog to have a companion. We’re really thrilled by this latest trend.

One of the stand-out adoptions this month would have to be Bobey. Bobey has lived either in a shelter or at the end of a chain his entire two years of life. He has even been with US for many months. He had almost no interest from adopters, and yet he was such a great dog. A family came to see another dog and he was in the lounge waiting to go back to the kennel and they fell in love with him and took him home. Here is their latest update:

I wanted to thank you for letting me adopt Benny formerly known as “Bobey”. We’ve had Benny for about a month now. What a lovable sweet boy. From the moment Benny got to his new home. he was very nervous & timid. Benny hasn’t been in a home for 2 years its understandable. But in his eyes you see the eagerness to please. He has mastered crate training & is doing fantastic with housebreaking (it took him 2 weeks). I can see signs that Benny was abused/abandoned. So I decided to pamper him at a grooming salon. He did not want me to leave him (abandonment issue). But we got him to stay. When I picked him up a few hours later I swear he almost took out a couple of tables because of that beautiful shake/wag of his. SOOO Happy! Benny loves to chase the deer off my property. He smiles at me after the deer run off. Benny loves car rides as well. Benny also has all the patience in the world. I have an autistic son that is 4 1/2 yrs old. My son does not speak, just makes noises (sometimes loudly). I’ve talked to Benny about my son several times (just like I would talk to another human being) explaining my sons situation. Benny wants my sons attention but does not push my son Nicholas for it at the same time. If Benny sees my son acting up he will stay away from him or just lay on his bed. If he sees my son playful, Benny becomes playful. Benny gives my son all the space in the world like he understood every word I told him. I’m just trying to stop Benny from jumping up on you, which I can see lots of improvement. I was scared he would knock my son over by jumping up. Once again Benny trying to please me and being such a fast learner. I cant believe with Benny’s past that he has remained soo sweet & forgiving of people. Benny seems to have alot to teach people in life.

Congratulations Benny/Bobey. We’re so very happy for you.

Pets Alive Puppies
We have so many puppies right now (odd for us) that I created the
Pets Alive puppy slideshow: Hope you enjoy it. Click here to watch.

Intakes:

This month we took in 19 dogs from West Virginia (take a look at the news coverage on that!), 9 from Ohio, 2 from West Virginia, 7 from Kentucky, 7 from North Carolina, 3 from South Carolina, and 3 local dogs.

General Updates:

Last month we told you about a challenge to increase sponsorships. If we could get 100 new sponsors in two months, an anonymous donor would match the amounts for ONE YEAR. Thanks to all of you – we did it. As of January 1st, all those new sponsorships are being MATCHED. Thank you to everyone who stepped up to help. Thanks so very much.

New Staff: Pet Alive found ourselves in need of some extra staff this quarter (Eddie and Tom are no longer with us). We have not hired a new kennel worker yet. Juan and Marcos have been absolutely AMAZING – truly AMAZING, coming in early, staying late, working extra to make sure everything is covered. However we did hire a dog trainer and we did hire a new horse caretaker (we are still looking for a kennel worker if anyone is interested you can email info@petsalive.com).

Nancy Parker has started doing dog training here. She is willing to work with any volunteers that want to do some additional work with our dogs, and she will also be starting dog training classes in the spring (as soon as the weather is accommodating). She is also handling owner surrender requests. In other words all of the many requests we get to take in dogs – MOST of them are easily fixable. So she is working with these owners to keep the dogs IN their homes, rather than surrender them. So far it has been going great and we’re seeing a huge difference. Nancy also handles all our negative follow-up calls. Most of you know that we call and follow up on our adoptions after three days, then three weeks, then three months to make sure all is going well. If we hear anything negative or the new family is having trouble, Nancy puts on her cape and goes to work. She does ONLY positive reinforcement training and is very good at working with aggression issues as well, which many trainers shy away from. She practices the best practices we learned from Best Friends and we’re really happy to have her with us.
(That is a picture of Houma playing in the exercise yard. Doesn’t he look happy?)

We also hired Juliet Charkin as the new horse caretaker. Juliet comes in for a few hours every morning to tend to the horses needs. She is simply wonderful. She has started taking pictures of Glen’s eye every week so we can compare it weekly to more easily tell if he starts to have trouble. She also really loves all the horses here. She gets a special look when she talks about them which deeply touches me. We really like her and I hope she’ll be around for a long time. The horses ALSO like her, which is even MORE important. She has a very good way with them and we’re thrilled to have her join us.

If you see them around,please take a moment to stop and welcome them both to the Pets Alive fold! Welcome Juliet and Nancy!

Note to our Volunteers (written by Nancy Parker): This is an important factor in getting a dog adopted. I would encourage all humans to make eye contact with dogs as they interact. When volunteers and staff take the dog in and out and walk, encourage the dog to look at you (once you are out of the main kennel). Stop and say the dogs name or just make a clicking sound. Once the dog looks up say YES (marker word) and give him a good pet or rub to acknowledge. Doing this several times during the walk will keep him connected to humans. When dogs are around dogs for the major part of their day they will focus on only dogs and the behavior of dogs. They loose the ability to connect with humans. We need to remember to encourage them to look into our eyes and connect. I teach this basic behavior as part of my Leadership Skills Training. I know it is difficult for staff, but having volunteers take the time to make eye contact during the walk will help the dog to remain connected to humans. I noticed volunteers take the dogs out for short walks….would be better, if possible, if you could take more time and walk the same route two times. This will encourage the dog to slow down and walk better on the leash. Usually second time around the dog slows down and relaxes. Anxiety goes down and the walk is more fun!

Did you see my blog on
What does “no-kill” mean?.

Pet Food Pantry: Pets Alive and Orange County Veterinary Hospital (OCVH) and have created Pet Chow Pantry to help feed family pets who are going hungry and may ultimately be abandoned. The Pet Chow Pantry will immediately start collecting donations for distribution at OCVH, 1761 Route 17M , Goshen Monday-Friday 8:30am t o 5:00pm. Additional locations will be set up shortly. The Pantry hopes to have enough inventory to start distribution to those in need by mid February. Families in need can visit distribution location: Pet Chow Pantry, 43 St. John Street, Goshen.

Oreo’s Law Update: Oreo’s law will be presented to the agricultural committee this month (it has to pass there first). DID YOU REMEMBER TO EMAIL, FAX, CALL your Assembly Members and State senators? THIS IS URGENT! We need you to tell them, ask them, beg them to support this bill. You can do so here: http://petsalive.com/mailem.php. Additionally, we also need letters in support of Oreo’s Law to go to the Agriculture Committee Members as well: http://tinyurl.com/yk6f9md – calls and personal notes and messages mean more than template sends, so keep that in mind. Thanks for your support. TOGETHER we can stop the killing.

For more information click the button below:

Animal Medical Updates and Issues (written by Janet):
Although all the staff had the joy in seeing so many wonderful animals spend the holiday season with their new families, some were not as fortunate. Over the past two months, we have been persuaded to take in a handful of dogs of either geriatric standing or failing health. One such pair was Annie the Shepherd mix and Trixie the little chubby beagle. When I first met Trixie, she was obviously OLD and FAT…but was full of energy. I thought to myself, ‘gee does that dog need to go on a diet’! Many beagles tend to become obese especially as they age, because they are such food motivated critters and they are so cute owners have a hard time telling them ‘No’. So the dog staff placed her on a reduced calorie food as she began the long journey of weight loss. Sadly though only a couple days after Christmas, a volunteer was taking Trixie out for a walk. Trixie came back extremely winded and short of breath. The dog staff became very concerned. Of course it was mid-day on a Sunday (the absolute WORST time for any animal emergency) but we were lucky enough to get in touch with our vet, who met us at the office. Quickly our vet was concerned for her prognosis. He worried about a possibly internal mass that ruptured, cardiac complications, or cancer. He was sending out bloodwork, but in the meantime, set her up in ICU with IV fluids and diuretics. If she did not improve overnight, he would then take x-rays. Sadly, even with the quick response, Trixie did not pull through. Our vet informed us that Trixie indeed had cancer. I suppose we should just be relieved that her health went quickly, instead of experiencing any long term suffering. Still, Trixie missed her chance to live in a loving family as she so deserved.

DID YOU KNOW: The number one health problem with dogs in the US is being overweight?

Trixie had been surrendered with Annie the Shep mix. Although the very limited, inconsistent paperwork states simply that Annie is over 8 years of age, it is pretty apparent that is a conservative statement. Her teeth are worn, her eyes are glazed with age, and her frail emaciated body bears the burden of neglect. Upon her intake, we found out that she is Lyme positive. Although not a surprise to see this in dogs living in this region, it is not good news. If caught early enough it can be treated with antibiotics, BUT left untreated and it will affect the kidneys. Annie was immediately started on Doxycycline, and a full blood panel was sent out. But the doxycycline was upsetting her gut, so we needed to stop for a few days and give sub-q fluids. In the meantime, the bloodwork came back revealing increased kidney levels. We are continuing daily fluids to help flush out her kidneys and we were able to successfully start her back up on her medication. We will recheck her kidney values in two weeks. In the meantime, Annie is getting more confident…and her appetite is great. We simply hope to make her as happy and healthy as possible in her situation. And boy oh boy is she getting a LOT of attention lately, which she truly enjoys.

Another old sad couple arriving to our facility was Simba and Nala, two decrepitly old beagles. They had lived together their entire lives and were now the victims of divorce. Simba visibly is the older (14 years old) and his body frame is frail and arched. The staff had just been discussing the fact that neither dog (especially Simba) seemed to have much time left. BUT neither appeared to be in any pain or distress. When the dog staff and volunteers arrived that next day, ironically Nala just never woke up. She must have died in her sleep. We were afraid that Simba would be distraught over her loss, but he is so old that he seems undisturbed. Simba’s days involve sleeping, eating, pooping/peeing…and then a whole lot more sleeping. As long as he has some quality of life in him, we are content.

Mufasa, the old grumpy Chihuahua that was saved from euthanasia at another local shelter has also been sick this past month. He was neutered at the end of December and since he is typically unhandable, we knew we should have every thing done while sedated He needed a full dental (leaving only his two canines present) and a blood panel came back looking great. But a couple weeks later, Mufasa started feeling ill. He vomited and became very lethargic. Of course he was completely uncooperative at the vet. We would muzzle him and have TWO people restrain him while giving him sub-q fluids and injectable medications. We continued this for several days until the point that he was eating normally and taking oral antibiotics. Luckily (or unluckily for some) this little dictator is back to his normal little tyrant self!

Oreo, the much adored pit bull has fallen sick again!!! She is roommates with the mighty Mufasa, so immediately we assumed that she caught something from him. But Oreo presented with a sporadic cough. Sometimes she was acting completely normal, but when excited she’d go into a little coughing fit. Our vet feels that she has kennel cough (the plague of the shelter world!) and hopefully with some antibiotics and cough medication, she will be just fine. If she worsens (or doesn’t improve in a week) then steroids will be given and radiographs taken. She is still her happy little self though and is actually already looking improved.

The Notorious Biggie Smalls has been losing a ton of weight. When he arrived last May we did find out that he has an underactive thyroid. So he was put on appropriate medication. But with his pronounced weight loss, there was the possibility that he needed an adjustment to his medication dose. Bloodwork revealed that this was indeed the case. He has been lowered on his dosage and will be rechecked in two months. Everyone who has seen Biggie lately can’t help but state how wonderful he looks and how active his is. Biggie is like a brand new dog.

Last week while placing a canine kennel mate back into the run, two volunteers noticed a small pool of blood in the drainage area. When I went back to check, I noticed some blood on Mabel’s paw…but upon closer inspection there were no evident punctures on the body. The only thing we could see was a bit of blood along her gum line where she apparently was chewing at her dog run. We relocated the pair hoping to stop that behavior. Although Mabel was lucky enough to not fracture any teeth in her endeavor, she must have punctured an area of her mouth. A few days later and it swelled. She needed it drained and is now on antibiotics and pain meds.

Talk about pain….Angel the pit bull had her left hind pad torn off during rough play with her kennel mate. The vet did need to remove the entire (hanging) pad but feels that is should recover nicely. I’m fairly certain Angel is in full appreciation of the benefits of pain medications at a time like this. Poor Girl!

Dog Update:
Annie is a senior dog that we took into Pets Alive. Her case really touched us. Her owner was killed in a motorcycle accident. The family went to the house to get her, after his death, and she was so frightened by all the people and the commotion that she darted out the door and was gone. The family tried to trap her for over a year, as they kept seeing her in the area, to no avail. Annie slipped them up every time and was getting more and more thin. Finally her hunger got the better of her and she was trapped. Whew. Well. No. They brought her to a shelter. There Annie lived for another YEAR. The shelter was kind but holding a dog this old (she is about nine or ten) that was getting no adoption interest was beyond their space capabilities. So she was scheduled for euthanasia. Pets Alive was deeply moved by her story and we accepted her here. She came here but she was just “dead”. She had no life to her. Her eyes were dead. She did what you asked of her but there was no joy. One of our volunteers, Colleen, discussed Annie and how troubled she was about her lack of interest in anything. Annie affected me terribly and I started having trouble sleeping for thinking of her and seeing those eyes that never lit up, that tail that never wagged, that body that was giving up and just wanted, it seemed to me, to die.

I put a note on the volunteer board and asked volunteers to spend time with her. Boy did you all come through! Everyone that came by, read the note and stopped in to see Annie and spend time with her. We moved her out of the kennel and into the senior room. I started spending time with her every day too. Little by little Annie came back to life. Her eyes now shine, the tail now wags, and she will come and lay in your lap when you sit in her room with her. We even matched her up with another elderly dog although ultimately she decided she’d rather live alone. Still, our volunteers and staff are just the most wonderful bunch of people. They have touched her little life and made her remember “joy”. They taught her tail to wag again and they taught her that even in a shelter, she can be loved and cherished. Thank you all for that. Now…we need to find her a home. It won’t be easy as she doesn’t really like other dogs, but I’m determined that she will love someone again, and not die here at Pets Alive. Please consider taking Annie into your home, or perhaps there is an elderly person you know, that could use a companion for a few years? She is house trained and really no trouble at all. I hope you will think of this dog that loved someone once, was betrayed, but now has hope again and think of a way to help her find someone to love once more.

Cat Update:
With winter hitting hard, our feral cat house was a concern. Last year we heated it with an electric extension cord running all the way from the house out there to an electric heater. CAN YOU SAY EXPENSIVE? So this year we came up with a better idea. A propane heater (ventless) that we could temperature control. We called the oil company and had them drop a 100 gallon propane tank there, hooked up a brand new heater we found on craigslist CHEAP, and voila’. Our feral cats have heat again and rather inexpensively. We’re all thrilled with the results and I thank Tom Dore for doing so much work over there to figure it all out for us.

Horse Updates:

With the new horse caretaker comes some new horse care taking. (grin). Juliet has been getting to know all the horses and her calm and easy demeanor resulted in a great session with the farrier this week. Our farrier is really good with the horses and barely charges us, so it is a great asset to have him and Juliet as a team when the horses need their feet trimmed. This past week was completely uneventful and everyone mostly slept through their trimming. Juliet also started bringing in her digital camera to take some pictures of Glenn’s eye. She wants to keep a weekly record for comparison and thinks the photos will be helpful. So far the eye looks unchanged to her, but when you look at something everyday, small changes may not be so obvious. We love the idea and love having Juliet’s thought process here.

Our shyest horse, Murphy (pictured here) was her first challenge. Murphy can be very difficult to catch for vetting or feet trimming. He is frightened to trust too much, but once he gives you his heart, you have it forever and he trusts you explicably. Once a carriage horse, Murphy seems to always be anxious about being made to leave his field, friends and new life and be put back to work! Juliet has already won over his heart though and he eagerly comes to her when he sees her.

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers
We received the following email and while it doesn’t help US or the dogs HERE, it DOES help shelter dogs and we encourage you to send them your old sweaters!
We are trying to save shelter dogs from the freezing cold this year by taking in used sweaters (donated to us) and then recycling them into doggy sweaters for all the dogs stuck outside the shelters this time of year. I noticed on your website you had a list of resources and I was hoping you would add us to that list to help us spread the word about this cause. We not only want to reach dog lovers to obtain old sweaters but also shelters who may be in need of these sweaters. So please ad our blog to your resource list. http://bignutshell.com/blogs/dogproject/

We will be having many events and fund raisers this year. So far our membership has come through for us when we ask for specific items we need but our events are very poorly attended. We would really appreciate your support and your physical presence at the functions we are running this year. We are trying many things this year to entice you into attending. Remember these are not just great days or nights out, the ticket is also a tax deduction. We hope to have a casino night this year, we’ll be doing our annual yard sale, we will be doing some really fun other things too – but I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too early, but stay tuned. We’re super excited at this year’s line-up and we really hope that you will come to them!

We also need your HELP in putting these events on! 2010 is going to be a great year for Pets Alive. The past couple of years Pets Alive has been in survival mode, but 2010 is the year this turns around and PA begins to really grow. We are going to get that medical building – we’re determined – and we aren’t stopping there. I know that we have many talented people out there that would love to be pat of this if only you knew how to help. There are a ton of things you can do to help us and you’ll have fun doing it too. Just send an email to volunteer@petsalive.com and tell us about your skills, strengths and talents? We will contact you to let you know how you can help Pets Alive change the lives of countless animals this coming year! Please – ACT. Send that email. By helping us, you help these animals and by helping these animals you help yourself. Giving of yourself and your time for a good cause is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have, to say nothing of the good karma (and friends!) that you find as a result. We look forward to meeting you and making you a part of our team!

Ragazzi life is hosting a contest. They are asking that you submit a photo of you and your dog, and for every photo submitted they will pay Pets Alive $2.50! They are giving the winner of the contest a free custom oil portrait by renowned artist Michele Amatrula…..and you’re invited to attend the party where they announce the winner. Not bad, and your submission wins for the animals! I submitted one already of course. WAY cute. I challenge you to beat it! Click here to submit your photo.

Thank you’s
Thank you so much to Liz who came by to pick up all our broken horse blankets and repair them for us. Horse blankets are very expensive, so someone that can repair them is such a godsend. Thanks so much for this Liz. This is the second year she has helped us with this.

Thank you to long time supporters Bob and MaryEllen Chanda. Bob has invested money for Pets Alive and whenever we need a little help he dips into it and sends us some. Their recent donation of $6000 is a huge boon to us during the “dry” donation months (January and February) and we really needed the help. They are also always thinking of us, networking, coming up with ideas to help. We just love the two of them (they also ADOPT from us!) Thank you both so much for your CONSTANT and CONTINUOUS support!

Our displays at the Middletown and New Paltz Starbucks were VERY successful. In less than 30 days they raised OVER $1,000 in donations! Thank you to Starbucks for allowing us to set up there and thank you to all the generous people that put money in our display! That is Artie and Anna in front of the display! They volunteer here at Pets Alive with their great mom Mary Ellen,who is always doing wonderful things for us. We love them!

Thank you to Cathie G for coming in every Sunday to get new pictures of the dogs for our website and for volunteering walking dogs & helping out with the horses. Thanks also to Vera who cares for the horses for us every Sunday.

Thank you to Dave D for replacing the door in the laundry room. Thanks Carmine for donating, building & organizing this for us! Thank you also to Jan for redoing and cleaning the grooming room. Our new file racks…thank you Wanda, Claudia, Amy …one so came with no name! TY! They look great!

Thank You to Charene Tse & her daughters Kirsten & Chelsea for making all the new going home bandannas for our adopted dogs. They buy the fabric & make them at home. They sent us several with Christmas fabric, now have doggy valentine themed ones. They are really wonderful. They also come and spend time with our shyest dogs. This picture is with one of the pile puppies!

Thank you to Gil and Maria for coming down every week, and more than once a week! You both do so much for us. And OMG Gil is now walking Cam! Go Gil Go! Another person that can handle Cam. This is so great. We really appreciate your love and support.

Thank you to Girl Scout Troop 127/Otisville. They came to Pets Alive, volunteered and brought donations for the animals!

Thank you, as always to our very good friend, John Heads, for all the doggie pickups, transports, repairs, the cabinets, making the file folder hangers, putting together that impossible desk, and for just always being there whenever we need anything. We so appreciate you.

Thank you to Marc Roberge and his charity organization HEARD THE WORLD FUND. They recently lost their precious pitty Judy and made a $5000 donation to Pets Alive in her memory.

Thanks to Sue and Marty P for all the decorating for the holidays, the extra time with our special needs dogs and for always stepping up when we need you!

Thank you to the Monhagen Builders Club for raising money and donating a Kuranda bed to Pets Alive!

Thank you to Maria and Anne, who made a winter weekend trip to Pets Alive and helped clean the puppy room and the cat house. They also brought tons of cat food and supplies.

Thanks for a really flattering blog from John S. about his time volunteering at Pets Alive.

Thank you so much to Paul Q who nominated us for the IBM Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign! Thanks Paul!

YAY! Thanks to all your voting we received a $1000 check from Petfinder for being voted #1 shelter in New York!. Thank you all SO MUCH!

Thank you so much for the help on the weekends from Barb, Trudy, Lisamarie, Colleen, Ricki, Alina, Becky and Fran. We could not do the adoptions and orientations without you all!

Thank you to Mari and Rob Thomas for giving all the Pets Alive staff tickets to his show at the Mohegan Sun, bringing us all backstage and treating us so wonderfully. We had such a great time and it was fabulous to see you in your element. Thanks for all you do for us and all the love you show us.

Current Needs:
We are in great need of reams of paper for our printers. If anyone can donate some paper, we’d really appreciate it – just standard printing paper. We also found out that Kuranda.com now has cat towers and cat beds. Cat Towers and beds are available at a discounted rate for shelters and rescues. You can go to their website and just pick our shelter and they send it directly to us, let us know it is from you, and give you a discount for doing it! If you can consider sending us a cat tower or bed, the cats would LOVE it. These seem great as they are so easily cleaned.

We also just found out that our brand new washing machine can only use High Efficiency detergent. Most of what we have is NOT. That is ok, we can still use what we have up at the cat house in the older washing machine but now we REALLY need some HE Laundry detergent! Thanks for your consideration on these items.

We are also looking for clean fill to fill an old inground swimming pool on the property. We want to make it into a big exercise yard for our dogs. The pool is just an old fenced off area and we’d love to fill it and make it a surface we can use! We also really need to get our driveway paved. It is filled with potholes again and I’m at wits end with the thought of filling the holes yet again. Paving is the only thing that is going to solve this for us. If you have any connections that can get either of these things done for us, please let us know!

Lastly, we really need a building. We want to build a medical facility on site with a meeting room for our students (Humane Education) and maybe with three little adoption rooms. Currently if we have more than one family at a time, we have to have them stand outside while the current family is in the one room we have. Not ideal when it is 20 degrees out. Anyone have like $200-300k just laying around they are looking to get rid of? Or maybe a big building you wanna deliver? Just sayin’. We could really use it.

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Sanctuary animal updates:
Since our last update on November 11th, we adopted out about 57 animals! Preston, Tisbury, Snausage, Rosie, Sandy, Brizzie, Buddy, Coal, Dixie, Shayna, Billy, Dory, Ember, Talia, Quigley, Spunky, Kylie, Bingo, Tessa, Inglebert, Kit, Ernie, Akasha, Princess, Droopy, Layla, Gypsy, J.D., Kanga, Friday, Maggie, Daks, Gracie, Redford, Boomer, Barbie, Rosie2, Pork Chop, Tundra, Slugger, Sinclair, Gunner, Panda, Bunny, Max, Nixon, Samson, Redford (again), Huey. We even adopted out eight cats this month! Yay to Sammi, Jesse, Vinny, Pumpkin, Bear, Katie, Vladimir & Virgil.

Stand out adoptions this month would HAVE to be Rosie, Tisbury, Snausage and Gracie. Rosie was a little dog scheduled for euthanasia because she could be so ornery. She arrived in a metal cage where she could not even turn around or stand up! We were shocked. We were told not to handle her but to DUMP HER out of the cage because she was so nasty. Oh my. In a cage like that, totally exposed, who could blame her??? We opened it up and let her make her own way out. Within 20 minutes she was kissing us and friendly. It is true that it took about 20 minutes every time she met someone to warm up and understand they would not harm her, but she was not a nasty dog at all. In fact, Rosie was one of the sweetest and most affectionate dogs (always wanting to cuddle in your lap) that we have encountered. She was adopted and now lives in New York City. Imagine. Truly. Yes imagine. From death row, to Central Park. Imagine.

Gracie was a dog that lived in a home for the first four years of her life and was well loved. Her family lost their home though and they were forced to surrender her to another shelter. When she got there she became a staff and volunteer favorite but the director loved her so much she wouldn’t SHOW her to potential adopters. As conditions at that shelter deteriorated, Gracie spent most of her time in a crate, laying in her own waste. When we got her, this was evident from the raw skin on her stomach from laying in urine. It was terrible. But Gracie was an older dog, did NOT like cats or other dogs and so placing her was quite a challenge. She was adopted, finally, after 8 months here, by a wonderful woman who had been looking a long time for a dog to love. They are a WONDERFUL match and Gracie is doing tremendously well. Happy, and in her forever home at long last. We all get teary eyes thinking of this dog that finally is where she needs to be. We miss her, of course, but life is finally back on track for this wonderful girl.

Tisbury came to us when the owners were forced to consider euthanizing him. Tisbury was a golden but had a bite history and they had tried many things but ultimately were being forced to consider euthanasia for this boy. No shelters would take him with such a history and they couldn’t keep him in a house with children. We considered long and hard about this guy, but his bite history was sporadic and he wasn’t aggressive ‘generally’. Enter Brenda & Ron. They met Tisbury and we explained he had a spotted past. They decided to take him anyway. So far things have NOT been perfect and he HAS displayed the issues that resulted in him coming here (food aggression and collar aggression), but his new family has refused to give up on him and they say they are keeping him no matter what. They use caution with him and work with him every day on his issues, but they have decided that the good outweighs the bad and they are keeping him in their lives. Wow. You don’t find people like this every day. Tisbury could have very well wound up a “lifer” here at Pets Alive. It is amazing that they can see the good in this dog and how loving he is and deal with his other issues. Let’s hope he learns to trust them and get over his negative behaviors. Stay tuned to the online forum updates and we’ll keep you posted.

Everyone who has spent any time at Pets Alive would know Snausage. Originally called “Chained Charlie” because he spent the first year of his life tied to a doghouse with a three foot chain , and shown little or no affection. Again, another dog that had a lot of strikes against him. He was a pit mix, did not get along well with most other animals and had absolutely NO MANNERS what-so-ever. This was a dog that needed a LOT of work. Staff LOVED this little Snausage and he was one of my favorite dogs here, but he was definitely rude as far as doggie manners and he definitely had no house manners. Enter Claudia and Michael. They fell in love with Snausage and we were honest about his needing some work. Their first week at home was really rough as they tried to master house training and some behavior problems, and they came down and worked with trainer Nancy a little as well. But they were committed. As much of a bad boy as this guy was, they were determined to stick it out with him. They’d tell us horror stories about his behavior and then end each note with how much they loved him. Here is the latest update from this week. Again, maybe I’m a sap but I can’t help but get choked up when I see a dog like this find two such wonderful people that see his worth.

“Thor (aka Snausage or Chained Charlie) first got my attention online with his strange, yet adorable look. My fiancee and I both filled out an application to go visit him, and fell in love with him from the first day, although he had his flaws. He was extremely hyper-active, and had no manners. He never listened to any commands and had a tendency to jump in your face and knock you over while doing it. The first week he was home, he eliminated in the house and we had no idea how to fix it. He still had no manners, and we were starting to get worried about whether we might be able to keep him. Regardless, we decided to stick it through and see if he would change. Little by little, the little monster turned into a very important part of our lives. He began to listen better, he even learned not to eliminate in the house. He now knows when too much licking is enough, and has calmed down drastically to a well behaved dog. Training Thor is still under the works, but this little dog’s transformation in about a month or so has been miraculous. We cannot wait to spending the next 10-15 years with him and giving him all the love and care that we possibly can. He really is an amazing dog with a very distinct personality.”

Thank you Claudia and Michael. Thank you so much. We know this has been a challenge and we’re so happy that this young dog will not spend any more time in a kennel environment. I’m so glad he found you.

Intakes:

This past month or so we have taken in 8 dogs from North Carolina, 15 from South Carolina, 1 from Arkansas, 2 from Kentucky, and 9 other local dogs detailed below.

A local vet called us this week, a little four month old pup had been dumped in their area…could we help. Of course. We took little Noel (now name Jingles) in here and she is an absolute cutie-pie.

This month we took in Mufassa – a little, elderly, Chihuahua from the Newburgh Shelter. What wonderful folk over there. They called us and asked if we could help with this dog, before euthanizing. We’re so happy they reached out to us. Mufassa IS a little bit of a difficult case. Very elderly, mean as they come, with about three teeth left. Someone suggested all the other teeth are buried in people’s ankles (laugh) but that may be true. He can be ornery, but once he gets to know you, he settles in and is a sweetie. Well ok, sweetie is a little stretch…but he’s, ummm….tolerable. (grin). Come and meet him. Wear gloves.

Gabby is a huge mastiff that came to us when another shelter was being forced to euthanize her. She is also elderly and can be growly, but mostly she is a lap dog, or thinks she is.

We also took in two dogs from Queens, when their owner died. This poor woman developed cancer and was gone very quickly. She lived for her dogs and would be horrified to learn that they could have been euthanized. If you have not made plans for your pets, no matter HOW old you are – do so. It can be as simple as downloading a form from our website and filling it in and then making sure your lawyer or family are aware of your intentions.

Additionally we took in two dogos. We have a long history of loving dogos at Pets Alive. These two were about to be euthanized, were elderly and had some medical issues. We took them here and they are doing well in our senior room now. They are really affectionate and sweet. Come by and say hello.

Many of you read the story of what we started to call the “pile puppies”. These three female dogs had lived feral (wild), for all their seven months, under someone’s porch. With winter coming the owner decided the best thing to do was to trap them and have them euthanized. Oh no. They were so adorable and so terrified. They never came out of this “pile” of dogs at the shelter they were at. See the before picture when we first were told about them, and now the ‘after’ picture. They are our “kitchen dogs” now and readily come up to visitors offering treats and good will. Little by little they are coming around. We request that you come down and spend some time with them. They REALLY need socialization and we really need your help in getting them to adjust to MANY different faces – not just ours. Please consider coming down and sitting with them for an hour. We will appreciate it, they will appreciate it and you will fill your pool of goodkarma!

We also took in four cats: Spider, Princess, Stardust, and Pebbles. All of them are owner surrenders or strays that were in need of help. Spider is semi-feral and needs a lot of work. If you have good cat socialization skills we beg you to come down and help us get Spider out of his little shell. We are at a critical point of his development and feel he can go either way right now. With your help he will become a domestic, affectionate, cat. Please consider coming down and working with Spider to ensure his future is in a loving home.

Pets Alive Tour
We put this together to try to show you a mini virtual tour of Pets Alive.
We have SO much work to do and so much maintenance and fixing up,
but I think from the pictures you can tell that we try our hardest and that
“Love is Everywhere”. We hope you enjoy it. Click here to watch.

General Updates:

Want to give someone the gift of a dog this holiday season, without the responsibility of feeding, walking, and cleaning up after the dog? Did you know that shelters fill up in January with puppies and kittens that have been abandoned by people who can’t handle the responsibility of caring for them?

We have the answer. With GiveADog you can give someone you love the joy of following one of our rescued dogs on his or her journey from being alone in a shelter or foster home to the Pets Alive Animal Sanctuary facility to his or her forever home.

The person who receives your gift gets a thank you card and when they choose their dog, a beautiful certificate announcing that they have saved that dog.

They also get an account at GiveADog where they can go to follow the progress of their dog. Once or twice a week they will get email updates about their dog as he or she embarks on the journey to a forever home. Their personal page has the current status of their dog, pictures of their dog, notes about their dog and a place to communicate with us about their dog. They can even see videos of their dog.

You can see a sample of the control panel here. For a full break down of how it all works you can read here.

They will follow their dog’s progress through the journey to Pets Alive, intake and examination, settling in, being matched with another dog, playing and being walked, breed determination, writing narrative about the dog, staff and volunteer care of the dog and how they feel about him or her, different families looking at the dog and finally adoption.

Throughout the process your gift recipient will know that because of your gift, they saved this dog from euthanization and made a difference in getting this dog to his or her forever home.

YOUR gift will genuinely save the life of a dog. You will personally be responsible for making that possible. What better thing can you do with your money at the holidays? Save a life.

It’s a terrific, one of a kind gift for the holidays. And it’s only $39.95 per recipient. And is tax deductible.

Looking for Oreo content? Blogs, press release etc., can be found by CLICKING HERE. Support has been coming from all over the nation for Oreo’s Law. Read these letters of support from Rob Thomas, Michael Mountain, Nathan Winograd, and the nation’s top law professors – they all join No Kill leaders, rescue groups and shelter reformers in support of Oreo’s Law.

We read about this story on Craigslist when one of our members sent it to us. I contacted the owners and heard a terrible story of a hunter that had killed their dog. They are looking for any and ALL information anyone might have that would help them find the person that did this to their cherished pet. I usually do NOT put negative things in the newsletter if I can help it. I try to always make this a positive part of your day but in this case, if this happened to me, I’d want anyone that could help, to help me. The story of Creedence was written by their owners. If you know anything, please help if you can:

My wife and I were hiking on the back of our property with Creedence going up to visit friends. He was running around checking things out like he always does. At 4:45 PM on Saturday November 28th, the dog killer fired the shot that killed Creedence. Five witnesses (2 hikers, 2 hunters and a homeowner) all confirmed they heard the shot come from the same spot. The killer saw through his scope a dog with an orange collar on, not a deer, or a coyote, but a small one year old pet loved by someone. The killer then picked up Creedence by his collar and carried the 40 pound dog across route 6 to a spot in the woods or perhaps a yard. When Creedence did not come when he was called, as he always did, a search with several people on foot and quads searched the whole area this side of route 6 for 5 or 6 hours, and no one found his body. Then the next day, several more searchers on foot and quads searched again for 8 hours never finding his body. At this time we all agreed that Creedence was not shot, but had been spooked and ran away and gotten lost. We then began a big missing dog effort with posters, notifications etc. Myself, my wife and dozens, and dozens of wonderful relatives, friends, neighbors, co- workers, and people we did not even know, drove around for hours and hours every day for 6 days, in agony and worry for his well being. Then on the afternoon of Saturday December 5th, two friends found Credence’s body at a place that had been searched numerous times before. He had been shot with a high powered hunting rifle. Sometime between Monday November 30th and Friday December 4th the dog killer carried Creedence to this place, as it had been searched many times before and the body was now out in the open. The killer was on foot and possibly came from one of the houses on route 6. We buried Creedence up on the hill, with our other 3 dogs from the past, Buddy, Tucker, and Dutch.

Don’t forget our 2010 Pets Alive Calendar is available for sale! You can get it on our CafePress store or in our kennel office! Thanks to Becky for putting this together for us.

Medical Updates: (Written by Janet)

Veruca is a lovely female pit mix. She came to use a year ago October from the hurricane Gustav rescue. She was one of three puppies around 10-12 weeks (although none were littermates) that survived the hurricane and were brought to us. Veruca was adopted along a male from that group. When she was around seven months of age, the owners noticed her limping. Not knowing if she simply hurt herself playing with her brother, they took her to the vet for an exam. As part of a normal protocol and due to the high incidence of such in this area, the vet performed a lyme combination test. Shockingly, Veruca tested negative for lyme but POSITIVE for heartworm. When we learned of this news, we were not only alarmed but baffled. Veruca left us as a 12 week old puppy and in theory heartworm prevention can be started anywhere up to the age of 6 months without testing to rule out a heartworm infection. So how did a seven month old dog who was on heartworm prevention since adoption, test positive? Our vet explained that this must be an extremely unusually occurrence where the mother probably was infected and passed it along to her offspring. He also explained that even if we had tested her for heartworm as a puppy (which is NOT protocol) the test would have come back negative since it tests only for adults and not the larval stage.

Even though we finally had an explanation, we were dismayed over this seven month old puppy that was infected with heartworm. The last thing we heard was that owners were getting quotes for the treatment from a couple different vets and they would then decide who to have the treatment done through. About three weeks ago coincidentally some volunteers ran into the owner and found out that they never had Veruca treated for her heartworm disease. Upon that news, we contacted the owner and stressed the importance of treatment while she is still asymptomatic. When we learned that they would not do so, we were able to convince them that it was in her best interest to surrender her and get her the care she needed. So Veruca has been back with us for two weeks. She is a beautifully sweet submissive girl who just wants to be by your side constantly. We ran bloodwork and started her on pre-treatment medications. Veruca is scheduled for the first part of her adult heartworm treatment tomorrow. Although there is no reason to expect any complications please remember keep Veruca in your thoughts this month!

Leo the red shepherd mix went to see a veterinary ophthalmologist to have his eyes examined. For those of you who know Leo, or at least know OF Leo, you are aware that he can be great with some people and NOT so great with others. Although we do not have an exact age, we are aware he is in the senior category (he is at least 9 years of age but could be as old as 11). Because of the way he stares blindly at people and appears to be caught off guard, we wondered if some of his aggressive tendencies could be attributable to cataracts or other eye-related illnesses. Leo was not the best patient in the exam room, but all in all, the vet was able to perform a good in-depth examination. To our surprise, Leo’s eyesight is actually VERY good for his age. He does have some mild fatty deposits, but that alone should not hinder his vision. So if you are one of the unlucky ones that Leo dislikes, we can blame crotchety old age versus visual impairment.

Maco the chubby, huggable pit bull was found limping in his outside enclosure this month. It appears that his neighbor Tyson has once again caused trouble by ripping Maco’s nail right off. (Would someone just adopt Tyson already? He is a wonderful dog. He just doesn’t like other dogs). Luckily there was no blood and Maco did not seem to be in much pain, especially if you were close enough for him to give you licks and hugs. We did bring him inside and he was started on some antibiotics and pain medication.

In the cat world, this month has been full of fractious feline fun. Some of our feral cats were acting sickly. The problem with treating feral cats is just that….they are FERAL! Wild, untamed, and definitely not in favor of human handling! So it’s always quite the task to try to catch and treat a cat whose least favorite thing is the site of a human…and especially one with a net!

A feral cat who was named “Large Hissing” before arrival to Pets Alive (I know, ingenious name) has had chronic upper respiratory issues. He typically fairs pretty well, but the cat staff noticed that he seemed to be losing weight and that his nose was encrusted with nasal discharge. In our favor, Large Hissing enjoys lounging in one of the cat sheds on the pets alive property. We were able to corner him inside and capture him. He too is getting a good deworming in addition to other medical attention like fluids, antibiotics and steroids. Large Hissing was particularly fond of us shaving mats out of his fur with electric clippers – NOT. Somehow Marcos and I managed to keep all of our fingers!

Molly is a small-framed white and black female that’s been living on the property for several years. Her coat was extremely matted and she looked like she needed some TLC. As a long shot, Marcos and I decided to hang out for their nightly feeding. Most of the other cats took off at the site of us (who can blame them really) but Molly remained at the feeding dish. We approached from separated angles and Marcos was skilled (lucky) enough to net her. We brought her down to our isolation area where we dewormed her for several days. Before her release we actually shaved all the mats out of her fur and applied frontline. She is now back on the property with all her friends.

Wonderful news for Charlie the cat!!! A recheck of his bloodwork has revealed that ALL of his blood values are back within normal limits. He has stopped his antibiotics and is being weaned off of his steroids slowly. As far as being infectious, our vet recommended continuing to keep him isolated for a couple more weeks before he can be safely placed back in the normal population or adopted to a multi-feline home.

Princess is an older declawed cat who is one of our new arrivals along with her sister Stardust. They are extremely timid and during their quarantine period, they were perpetually laying in their beds without much movement. The cat staff noticed that from the very beginning, Princess’ eye was a bit runny. We monitored it for a day or two but then it worsened quickly. I was able to get a look in her mouth (as she was hissing at me) and noticed that indeed her gums were inflamed. We took her to the vet where he removed five of her teeth. She is now back on site but still being difficult with food and taking her meds. Overall, she is looking better but is still quite the handful to treat daily.

Did you see Matt’s Thanksgiving blog:
Giving Thanks.

Barnyard Updates:

The horses and goats all appear to be weathering the winter well, even Glen. Glen did go blind in one eye this past month. We were prepared for that as the eye had been having issues for a while and the vet said eventually he would lose site in this eye. Hopefully he will not also have to lose the eye. Right now the vet feels he is not in any pain but we are monitoring him closely. Glen is a horse in his thirties and we continue to hope he will make it through the winter. He is generally healthy but does have a great deal of medical problems.

He absolutely LOVES living with our two goats though. Glen was never gelded so putting him in with other horses can be tricky, but he can interact with other horses over the fence in many different spots and he has his goats as barn companions. All in all he is a happy horse but we are preparing ourselves that he is failing. We continue to do everything we can to keep him happy and comfortable. He is quite affectionate and loves to greet everyone that goes down the driveway. Be sure to always stop and call to him. He knows his name and when his good eye finds you he will come right over for affection and rubs. Glen has almost no teeth so you can NOT give him treats. If you make a carrot MASH in a blender, you can offer something like that or crushed apples to him but please know that anything large, even cut into small pieces is a choking hazard for this horse. This is a picture of Matt, and me, with the goats and Glen is hanging out in the back!

Latest Media
Matt and I were featured on Animalwise Radio this week to discuss Pets Alive and Oreo’s Law. You can download the podcast or play it on your computer here. (Click on December 11th show).

Last month we were featured on Family Pet Time with Dr. Joe radio show. We spoke all about the sanctuary, what we do, how we do it, our supporters, etc. You can play that here.

Pets Alive has been in the news a great deal this past month. Catch up on our media coverage.

Cat Update:
Debbie and Joyce cleaned the two feral houses this month – in a snow storm and freezing weather! They are amazing. They also built a bunch of extra cat “houses”out of tupperware containers and other unique ideas. The houses really needed it and today we’re installing heat back into one of the feral cat houses. It’s just too cold and these cats have been provided with heat every year so we can’t stop now.

We bought a ventless, SAFE, propane heater (no flame) that mounts on the wall (they can’t knock it off) and are having a propane tank installed outside. Voila. Heat again for the ferals. Let’s hope it is just for them and NOT for all the raccoons and possums that also eat here every night. Anyone know a way to let CATS in but keep wildlife OUT? The feral house has cat doors and an outside enclosure too that also has cat doors to it. The wild animals come in and also help themselves. If you have a suggestion please let us know, otherwise we will continue to get all the wildlife fed through the winter as well! Anyway thank you so much Debbie and Joyce, this was very much needed.

Our cat staff could really use some extra volunteers that want to come in to help clean up the cat rooms every day – litter, mopping floors, laundry, dusting etc. We have our regulars that we are so grateful to, but we could use some extra help each morning. Are you free in the mornings – from about 9:30 or 10:00 to 12 or 1?

Thank you’s
Thanks so much to our Pets Alive Adoption Day teams for this month. To Jan for helping to get the dogs spruced up for their big day out, and to – Mimi, Eileen, Wanda, Connie, Marilyn, Laurie, Jaime, Alison, Barbara, Lauren, Jennifer for escorting the dogs and cats to PetCo and PetsMart. Without their help we would not be able to bring our message out into the community. If you would like to participate in the offsite adoption events, please send email to volunteer@petsalive.com

Thank you Nancy Parker for conducting dog training classes for volunteers and for handling some of our negative follow-up calls! Thanks to Trudy S. for the Christmas adoption Bandanas. Thanks to Peter of Cornell Carpets in Pelham. NY for the donation of carpet samples! Thank you to Fran for selling bunches of the Guardian Angel pins and raising $600 from those sales. Thank you to Pets Alive volunteer Sean Morris recently joined the Navy and is heading off to Michigan. Our good wishes go with you, Sean.

Thanks to Melanie for answering a last minute call and picking up the now famous “Ernie” and driving him to Pets Alive. The rest is history! This was Melanie’s FIRST transport! Thank you Brian M. for braving an ice storm to meet Snowball’s transport and get her to Pets Alive. We are very thankful that you both arrived safely.

A big thank you to our Holiday Photo Team Vera, Cathie ,Tom G., Nicole, Cyndie, and to our Santas Tom F., Donnie, Ken and Matt M. Special thanks to Vera, Cathie and Tom G. , who organized it all and who are working all three weekends to make it happen.

Thanks very much to “Mitch and Kelly’s Christmas Trees” at the Matamoras Driving Range for donating the tree for the holiday celebration, and to Marilyn for decorating it! Thanks to our bakers, Melissa, Tom, Cathie, Lynette Lisa, and everyone else who brought such delicious goodies!

Thanks to Katie for coming in another snow storm to groom the horses and bathe the dogs! Thank you to John Heads for all the repairs around here and the last minute canine transport pick ups!

Thank you to the Orange and Rockland Payment Processing Department. Gloria, Donna, Lori, Manny, Patti, Joe, Sue C., Sue D., Sue G., Joan, Les, and a special thank you
also to Sue D’s daughter Jenny, a high school junior who helped out too. They raised tons of donations for Pets Alive and brought them all to us!

Thank you to Elaine C!! She got her company to donate 9000 vinyl bumper sticker labels and then found a printer to print them for free! Thank you to that printer, Rye Printing, Rye, NY, Peter Nix PNix@ryeprinting.com for doing that for us!

Thank you to Danielle from Churchill’s of Mount Kisco for donating 15 brand new Kuranda beds after she read about Oreo. Thank you so much Danielle.

Thank you to Elaine A. for the huge box of leashes that we use here and the fabulous letter. Thank you to EVERYONE that sent us boxes and care packages this month. Thank you to all the people that heard our tweet and donated much needed space heaters to us this month!

Thank you to our great staff that were scheduled to come in when the big storm hit and STILL made it in. (Janet, Juan, Marcos and Alex). Juan and Marcos, I don’t know what we would ever do without you, and Alex thank you for not only getting here but dragging your husband Mike who worked his butt off all day shoveling, plowing and cleaning. You are all wonderful and we really appreciate you.

Thank you to all our new sponsors that are helping us reach the 100 goal! Especially to Angela who signed up for TEN additional sponsorships (and she already had a bunch) and to Tara Mikolay for signing up for 25 new sponsorships!

Thank you Bekim for coming out to support us at the Desires By Mikolay Fundraiser and giving Matt a very big donation for Pets Alive! He also often shows up here with a truckload of much needed supplies.

Thank you Bobby G from VA for the AMAZING letter, the HUGE donation and your personal note. We so appreciate your help.

Thank you to everyone that donated in honor or memory of Tyler. Your letters were touching and your support so appreciated.

Events and Fundraisers
The biggest thing I can mention this month however would have to be the HUGE donation to Pets Alive from SideWalkAngelsFoundation.org (Mari and Rob Thomas’ charitable organization). Last month they gave us $20,000 and this month they gave us $80,000. That is $100,000 and this donation will ensure that Pets Alive lives another year. This means that we can and will be here next year. You may think that is odd but every month we spend about $30,000 here. We need about $150,000 EXTRA in addition to what we raise in fees and fundraisers on our own, to keep us going. This donation means that we CAN make it to next year now. We can and will. I can not tell you what a relief this is. We are always just a few months away from closing our doors, that is how tight finances always are for us. This donation ensures our survival through 2010. We still do plan on trying to start a capital campaign to develop a medical and adoption building, so if you have any ideas or want to help with that we would love to hear from you. In the meantime we would like to extend our deepest gratitude to SideWalk Angels, and Rob, Mari and Maria and Gil for all that you do for us. If it were not for you, we would have shut our doors many years ago. Thank you so much for this help.

The Desires by Mikolay event was a HUGE success. It raised a total of $13,200 for Pets Alive. We want to thank Tara and Scott and everyone that came down that night to help us out! Rob and Mari (and Sammy!) and Maria and Sheela also showed up as well as many of our biggest supporters. Thank you all so much for making this such a success. The necklaces that were specially made for this occasion will still be available for sale all year long. The women’s design features a disk necklace with a paw center, and the men’s design takes the form of a dog tag. You can purchase them on the Desires website (www.desiresbymikolay.com) and 100% of the proceeds from these pieces are donated to Pets Alive.

Don’t forget our FINAL pictures with Santa this weekend!
Santa has to move on to his other duties next week and so this will be your FINAL chance to get your pets picture taken with him before he and his reindeer fly off. Pictures are just $10 and Santa is VERY patient and VERY jolly. So come on down to the Middletown, NY, Petsmart from 11 – 4, on Sunday the 20th with your pet.

Current Needs:

Paper towels(URGENT!), laundry detergent, (URGENT!), Bleach (URGENT!), Kennel Wash (URGENT!) Kong toys for the dogs, dog treats (small or medium sized), Panacur dewormer (the big bottles of equine liquid has been working well for us!), Advantixx or Frontline for dogs, disinfectant wet wipes, bleach, split keyrings, toilet bowl cleaner, Murphy’s Oil Soap, 3-lb paper trays, and Libman wonder mopheads, Slip leads, empty computer ink cartridges (Staples will give Pets Alive $3 each for the empties). Thank you for your kind consideration on these items!

Please consider helping us continue our mission
of finding homes for animals in need!

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

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[Middletown, N.Y. CA/USA – Nov. 30, 2009] Pets Alive, one of the nation’s oldest no-kill animal sanctuaries, will keep on saving unwanted pets with a $100,000 gift from Sidewalk Angels Foundation.

Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas and his wife Marisol started the foundation to raise money for worthy causes. Sidewalk Angels has so far donated almost half a million dollars to Pets Alive (http://www.petsalive.com) to help the organization save abandoned and unwanted animals.

 “We can attribute a good part of our success to the support of Sidewalk Angels and Rob and Marisol Thomas,” says Matt DeAngelis, Executive Co-Director of Pets Alive. “We are fortunate that they have been involved with Pets Alive all these years and are grateful for their support on projects like GiveaDog.org, our socially responsible pet gift for the holidays.”

GiveADog.org (http://www.giveadog.org) allows people to give their loved ones the gift of a dog without the responsibility of feeding, walking, and cleaning up after a dog. Pets Alive gives recipients regular updates on their dogs through email, custom Web pages and even video.

Rob and Marisol Thomas started volunteering at Pets Alive about six years ago and adopted their beloved dog Tyler from the sanctuary. Tyler recently passed away but the couple’s love for Pets Alive continues, says Kerry Clair, who serves as Executive Co-Director with DeAngelis.

“Rob and Marisol have not only given us their money, but they have given us their hearts, and we appreciate that very much,” Clair says.

Their fans have donated over $6,000 to Pets Alive in Tyler’s memory, Clair says. The sanctuary plans to renovate its outdoor dog area and rename it “Camp Tyler” with that money. Marisol also serves on the Pets Alive board and her parents volunteer at the shelter.

 The most recent $100,000 donation from Sidewalk Angels Foundation will go towards Pets Alive’s annual operating budget of about $400,000, Clair says. The sanctuary saved a record 1,000 unwanted animals last year, and is on track to save a similar number this year.

 “Each year we raise about half of what we need. Sidewalk Angels gets us through the rest of the year,” Clair says. “Without them we would have been forced to shut our doors twice already.”

 Founded 30 years ago by animal lover Sara Whalen, Pets Alive rescues animals from New York and across the United States. The sanctuary also takes animals from other shelters that might otherwise be killed, with a focus on animals that have been abused, neglected or have special needs.

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Some adoptions to note is that Rem was finally adopted. It was the most amazing thing. Rem saw this new family and they saw him… and they all stopped and froze for a second and then Rem pulled across the parking lot and covered their faces with kisses. They loved him, he definitely loved them, and he jumped right in their car and they headed home. I sincerely hope this is his forever home as Rem never did well in the kennel, and he really needed a home and some people to love him again. Good luck Rem!

Another amazing adoption note is Peanut. We hold our breath now in regards to Peanut because he is such a difficult dog. Peanut suffers SEVERE separation anxiety- the most severe we have ever seen. Trust me, everyone about to write to me about suggestions in regards to it – we have tried EVERYTHING – truly. Talked to everyone, tried EVERYTHING. Peanut is a tough dog. He has been abandoned so often that every time you leave him I guess he thinks it will be forever. Linda F. had been taking him home every night and he had finally found some peace. Linda is a amazing and she is truly a GIFT to the dogs at Pets Alive. However things were very difficult for her as one of her dogs wasn’t crazy about having Peanut join them. With Peanut you can also NEVER leave him alone – so running to the store even for ten minutes is not possible. You may remember we found a place for him in a nursing home for him, but even THAT did not work out as it turns out while he needs to be around someone all the time, TOO MANY someone’s also stressed him out. Yet a few months ago someone had taken pity on Peanut and inquired about him. We told them EVERYTHING about him, we really made it clear that Peanut was a LOT of work.

Scott spent a lot of time thinking about it, he works from home and his parents live next door and he came to meet Peanut. As usual, Peanut was stressed, but they went out on a few walks and Peanut ultimately went home with him. We are hoping that peanut has FINALLY, at long last, found his forever home with Scott. Let’s really hope so. Special thanks to Linda for all she did with Peanut. Adopting him out broke her heart but she was selfless enough to be able to let him go in case this was a chance for him. Sometimes it is very difficult on us here to let our favorite dogs go, especially when they need so much. We all hope that this was the right solution for Peanut and that he will finally find peace and happiness. Initial checks (it’s been a week now) have Peanut doing just great.

A final mention in amazing adoptions this month is two cats – Serena and her son, Petey. They were brought to Pets Alive in 1999 and never got more than a casual look. Their new adopter saw them, fell in love with them both and took them home. Petey has NEVER had a home and Serena was surrendered as a stray. This is really wonderful news for these two and we’re really happy for them.

General Updates:

OK, this is an entirely DIFFERENT CONTEST. You don’t have to vote EVERY SINGLE DAY like that other one. This one you only have to vote one time. ONCE. One time! PLEASE vote for Pets Alive. We can win $10,000 and we are already up to number 25. A hundred more votes and we’d be in the top ten. There are more than 10,000 people on this email list and twitter. If you all voted just once we’d have this thing LOCKED UP. PLEASE VOTE! Tell your friends, put it on your Facebook, your MySpace, your Twitter – ask your kids to spread to THEIR friends. This is important – please – please – just ONE VOTE (not every day like the other one, I promise). Cmon…PLEASE???
PLEASE CLICK THIS NOW AND VOTE?

I also promise to not bother you for votes for a YEAR if you’ll do this for us.

Local news – Hunter: As one of the largest animal rescues on the East Coast we have been getting a lot of emails about the Hunter dog case at the Orange County Sheriffs Office, asking us to get involved and get YOU involved. I spoke with Carl Dubois this week (the Orange County Sheriff) and I wanted to pass on to you that although I know him personally and I know him to be a good guy and an advocate for animals, that isn’t going to affect how I feel about animals (and if they are being mistreated) – ever. It is my understanding from some of the coverage that there is a police bomb-sniffing dog that is being utilized past where the vet feels he should be and when he should be retired. The retiring officer wants to provide a home for the dog and have him retired. While I am completely on the side of the emotional aspect of this (anyone who has had a dog would be hard pressed to give it up unwillingly), the truth of the matter seems to be more blurred.

The officer is not retiring – he is moving to another police department. He agreed to a four year term with the dog, and the dog would have been retired with him after his term was up (he is abandoning that agreement after less than two years) and that the dog has been given a clean bill of health from the vets at Flannery Animal Hospital, who advise there is nothing that should prevent the dog from working. I believe that Sheriff Carl feels that a dog should have ideally ONE handler its entire life and then retire with that handler at the end of eight or so years. The most is that the dog would have TWO handlers – each for a four year term, but ideally just the one. What can be done if a handler abandons the agreement and the department doesn’t have another dog trained yet? Therein lies the issue. So Sheriff Dubois has written up something to explain their side of this and you are free of course to make a judgment where you feel it should lie, but I will say that sometimes there are more to stories than are covered in the media. For the other side you can read here and decide for yourself.

Dogs offsite: We invite our regular volunteers to please feel free to take dogs off the property if you like. We just need you to check in with us when you leave and when you come back, but lots of our volunteers have taken the dogs for ice cream and day trips. Please don’t pepper me with emails about how ice cream is bad for dogs and such. Sure, it COULD be, but once in a while it won’t kill anyone and the benefit of being with volunteers that love them and are spending time with them offsite far outweighs any issues ice cream can cause! Some volunteers are also taking the dogs on overnights. This has been hugely successful as they can come back and tell us how they did, which helps us when we update PetFinder with their info. So if you’d like to take a dog home for an overnight, go jogging with one of the dogs on your daily run, or take them out for a day trip – then please feel free to ask! (Special thanks to Jan who has been doing this every week and giving us great feedback!)

Training the dogs at Pets Alive: Nancy Parker, a very experienced dog trainer, is offering her services to Pets Alive. She is going to help some of the dogs here get over minor behavior issues and help YOU learn how to help them as well. We have started a worksheet that you can find hanging in the volunteer lounge. If you are aware of a dog that needs some work on perhaps jumping, walking nicely on a lead, mouthing, basic obedience (sit, stay, etc), we ask you to put that dog’s name on the list and what behaviors could use some work. At this point we ask that you NOT include serious issues such as aggression or problems getting along with cats, etc. Nancy is then willing to come down here once or twice a month and not only work with the dogs but host a quick class to teach YOU how to deal with these issues. This is by no means mandatory. Those that want to just come here and walk dogs and enjoy them, we are absolutely fine with that, but those of you that would like to walk dogs and work on some little things at the same time to help make them more adoptable, we’d love to have your help! We will let you know (watch Twitter or our website) when the first class will be scheduled but in the meantime please write down the dogs and issues on the worksheet at the kennel! Thanks very much to all of you and especially to Nancy from 5 Star Dog Training. If you want to contact her to hire her to work with you and your dogs she can be reached at:
845-248-1370 or dogtraining5star@yahoo.com

Intakes:

This month we took three local dogs from euthanasia lists, 14 from South Carolina euthanasia lists, two pitties that were abandoned at a firehouse in the City, five pitties we boarded for another rescue (four of them were adopted), 7 dogs from Ohio, 5 dogs from North Carolina, and two dogs we took in from a local veterinarian who called us when the owners wanted to put the dogs down (for issues we could easily deal with here). Additionally we took in three cats this month (local surrenders).

Animal Updates:
I don’t know how many of you remember little Toby The Pineapple. He was possibly one of the most vicious dogs we ever had here and he was about 6 pounds. Tiny little mini beagle that had been at Pets Alive for years until Ann came along. It was love at first site, for BOTH of them. She adopted him and took him home. Toby passed away in her arms this month at the ripe old age of 16. He will be sorely missed, he was practically a Pets Alive mascot. R.I.P. Toby.

Marisol and Rob Thomas, also lost the dog that they adopted from Pets Alive many years ago. Their sweet Tyler succumbed to cancer after getting the best care possible. I wrote a blog about Tyler and the meaning that his life has had. You can find that blog here.

Valentino has hit the jackpot. Carmine and Lucia, two of our regular volunteers took pity on our little guy. They have always had a tremendous soft spot for this tiny little vicious chow mix. OK, vicious is relative. He has a bite history a mile long but only on people he didn’t like, or people that annoy him. Shouldn’t we ALL have such a bite history? Well, he happens to LOVE Carmine and Lucia and they love him back. With winter coming, and Valentino’s health failing we were at odds as to what to do with him. Normally with an elderly dog, we make them “office dogs” and they live in an office rather than the kennel. Valentino HATES the kennel too, so that added to the issue. We had talked about heating an outdoor run, but it wasn’t truly feasible for the worst of the winter. We couldn’t really make him an office dog because many people are in and out of an office every day and Valentino might not “like” them all or some might “annoy” him. Carmine raised the issue, in advance to us, and we took it seriously. It really was a problem. Where could he safely and comfortably go – both for him AND the unsuspecting public? Finally I think Carmine got tired of the delays and the solutions weren’t really perfect and so he created an environment in his own home and Valentino has been there ever since. I can’t tell you how happy we are about this. While not officially adopted, we know that this little guy, who is elderly and not in the best of health will have constant monitoring and care. Thank you both so much, we really love you and love how much you love the dogs here.

There is also a GREAT update on sweet Darla (in the forum). This is a dog that never had a real home. She lived tied outside year round to a doghouse (if you could call it that). Darla, even though she has had a difficult time making the adjustment to a home, has been fully committed to and has finally found a loving forever home. You can read more here.

Animal Medical Issues: (written by Janet)

As the old adage goes, no good deed goes unpunished. This was definitely the case this month at Pets Alive. After rescuing three dogs who were slated for euthanasia from a local shelter, we ran into huge medical issues with ALL three.

Autumn, the adorable yellow lab puppy came to us when her owners disposed of her due to the incidence of seizures. A history of seizures in dogs may not be very life altering depending on the cause of the seizure and obviously their potential response to treatment. With that being said, some animals may NOT respond to treatment and their quality of life may be in question depending on the severity and frequency of the seizures. Autumn luckily seems to have sporadic occurrence yet we decided to bring her to Oradell animal Hospital (a specialty practice in New Jersey) where she saw a neurologist. They felt confident with Autumn’s health overall and since her return we were able to quickly place her with a wonderful family, of which the youngest child also suffers from epilepsy. We knew it was fate after the first phone call! And we all hope that Autumn’s (now Abby) seizures continue to be rare.

Deuce is an immense male rotti mix. When we rescued him, we were astounded by his horrendously deep cough. It occurred mainly while pulling on a leash and with full excitement (and for those of you that have had the privilege of meeting Deuce—EXCITED is an understatement). We initially wanted to rule out kennel cough and other infectious upper respiratory components. We nebulized him and gave him fluids, none of which seemed to treat his cough. We then weaned him off the meds he was on, and tried a steroid to hopefully decrease any inflammation to his trachea. It hasn’t been long enough to say for certain that he’s completely cured, but he has been doing great. His new owners in fact just took him home AND they have an American bulldog who also has trachea issues. So now both dogs are being walked on a harness!

Lizzie was a gorgeous three month old Chihuahua puppy who had a similar seizure history when arriving. But very different from Autumn, Lizzie’s seizures were grand scale and numerous. After staying with our regular vet through the night, her seizures were not responding well to any medical attempts. She was rushed to the neurologist where she spent several days under constant supervision. Not only was Lizzie suffering from bouts of blindness and incoherence from her episodes, but there was also a threat that she could be infectious to other dogs (the exact cause of her condition was not known, BUT several infectious components were possibilities). We had an MRI, ultrasound, and spinal tap performed in addition to specialized bloodwork. After all her testing, we were no closer to a diagnosis, and Lizzie’s condition was worsening. After much turmoil and deliberation, and her condition continuing to get worse every day, we decided it was time to end her suffering. Lizzie is in all our hearts, and has been laid to rest in our pet cemetery. This was definitely a difficult loss.

Who says that old dogs are not much fun? Well, when Gypsy the old beagle arrived, she truly was not any. She looked miserable, from her inflamed eyelids, to the poor condition of her coat. She needed a good dental, but she was in no condition to undergo anesthesia. So for the last couple weeks, the dog staff has been trying ALL attempts to coax this dog to take her meds, and for goodness sakes…to EAT a meal!!!! And IF you were lucky enough to get Gypsy to eat some boar’s head turkey today, don’t count on her liking it the next day. She surely kept us on our toes. After finding some ulcers in her mouth, and believing they were possibly caused by her tartar-ridden teeth, we decided it was necessary go through with the dental (even if she wasn’t completely healthy). She just went this past Wednesday and VIOLA a brand new dog came back. She is spry, energetic, HUNGRY, and acting like a puppy! She even currently has a doggie friend.

We also lost our sweet, big old Mush. It was a real heartbreaker for us all. He was fine that morning and went downhill quickly. He was rushed to the emergency room but he died shortly after arriving. The vets diagnosed it as bloat, but we were disturbed that there were no symptoms. Vet advised that bloat is still a very misunderstood illness and they don’t know what causes it, and that sometimes it does present this way (with no symptoms). They used to feel wetting food down, raising food off the floor, multiple feedings (instead of one a day), no exercise after eating, and so on, but they say now that studies have shown none of those things will prevent bloat. They explained that this is still a disease that is terribly difficult to understand and on rare occasions does present as it did in Mush, with no warning. We are really upset over the loss of our big guy. He was truly a Mush and definitely a staff and volunteer favorite.

The cats are busy with their own medical issues as well. Morgan the beautiful orange tabby had been thin for many years. As much testing as we had done, we still couldn’t figure out exactly what was wrong, everything came back negative. Morgan never ACTED sick, she was just very thin. Several weeks ago though, Morgan wasn’t acting herself. She had extremely loose diarrhea and was vomiting. Our vet drew blood and kept her overnight on IV fluids. By that next morning he was suspicious of something very bad occurring in her abdomen. He performed an exploratory surgery where he discovered a large mass which had ruptured. Morgan’s prognosis was poor. She was bleeding into her abdomen and we had no other choice but to put her down. Morgan is missed by all the staff at Pets Alive and especially by her feline companion Pumpkin, and her favorite volunteer, Liz.

All of our kittens have been having reoccurring bouts of diarrhea. Diarrhea is a fairly typical issue in a cattery or kennel environment but unfortunately with these guys, they are not responding to the normal treatments. They were all moved back into isolation….are on strict diet regulations and are undergoing different courses of medication. We have also sent out bloodwork to the lab to make sure we are not dealing with any larger underlying problems.

Charlie the cat and Spazzy are also ill at the moment. Charlie was acting lethargic about 2 weeks ago. When his bloodwork returned, the vet was very alarmed by the results. In fact a second vet at the same practice was also equally alarmed. But when we brought Charlie in, they were in disbelief that that bloodwork could have come from that cat. He did not look nearly as bad as did his bloodwork results. So we sent out MORE blood for additional testing. He did test positive for a particular infection which we are currently treating with specific antibiotics and steroids. He is also getting vitamin B injections. Charlie is doing pretty well, his appetite is good and he will be returning to the vet for a recheck in two weeks. Spazzy was found open-mouth breathing earlier this week. He turned out to also be febrile. Luckily it appears to just be an upper respiratory infection. He is back from the vet and taking his medications well. Hopefully it will not be long before he joins his friends back in the wood room.

Horse Updates:

Francis and Mary are doing just great. Francis has had some continuing foot problems but they are in a great place and Cindy has been taking very good care of them. Here is her latest update. Glen is also doing really well. The two new goats live with him now. At first he was terrified of them but now they are all good friends and hang out together. It is nice for Glen and his leg is doing much better and he moves around a lot more, walking with the goats, which is good for him.

Cat Update:
We moved the FIV cat room this month. We needed another office for a future employee position we are hoping to create and more importantly we needed a larger room for the FIV cats. The three kittens in there romping around make the room look a LOT smaller. The “skylight” room and adjoining bathroom has now been set up to be the FIV room. Dale was concerned that they wouldn’t have enough windows to lay in, and under, and so John Heads came to the rescue and built a whole bunch of shelves and boxes for the cats to be able to sun themselves. It is REALLY awesome.

Petco and Petsmart
We are doing adoption events at the local (Middletown) Petco and Petsmart every weekend (at one or the other). Stop in and say hello, lend us some support or bring your friends to meet some of the animals. Thanks to the volunteers that are helping with this – we know it is a lot of work and are very grateful – and thanks to these stores for NOT selling animals and allowing rescues to come in and adopt!

Events and Fundraisers
Local couture jewelry store Desires by Mikolay will be holding a charity event night on November 28, 2009, from 5:00 to 9:00 PM, to benefit Pets Alive. During this event, you will have the opportunity to purchase exquisite fine jewelry – including Mikolay’s own couture collection of hand-carved 18-karat gold designs – at a 15% discount. Desires will donate an additional 15% of all proceeds to Pets Alive. The night will close with a raffle, the entire proceeds of which will also benefit Pets Alive. The event is open to the public and we hope that you will attend! Animal welfare has been a personal priority for Tara and Scott ever since their adoption of two shelter dogs 5 years ago. “Anyone who has adopted an animal from a shelter knows the joy of bonding with the perfect animal companion – but also the heartbreak of knowing that the pets that were not chosen are likely to be euthanized,” says Tara. “It’s a pleasure to be able to support a no-kill shelter committed to the future of these animals. Our goal is to raise at least $20,000 for this cause.” The Saturday evening reception is a special occasion, offering hor d’oeuvres courtesy of Susan Lawrence (www.susanlawrence.com) and fine wines donated by The Wine Enthusiast (www.thewineenthusiast.com). Jeweler Scott Mikolay has designed jewelry especially for the benefit. These very special jewelry pieces are heavy, hand-crafted of pure sterling silver, hanging on ultra-hip, edgy bead chains. The women’s design features a disk necklace with a paw center, and the men’s design takes the form of a dog tag. Both are fashionable statement pieces that will stand the test of time! They will be available for purchase on the Desires website (www.desiresbymikolay.com) from November 1st to December 30th. Absolutely 100% of the proceeds from these pieces will be donated to Pets Alive. Desires by Mikolay is located at 55 King Street in the heart of Chappaqua. For more information and to RSVP, please contact the store at 914.238.2223.

We would like to thank the Authors After Dark event, which raised over $900 for Pets Alive. Gift bags, author signings and our own booth made the event a fun place to be for the weekend. Thank you especially to our gang of volunteers that manned our table and for the Authors After Dark team for putting together so many gift baskets that were raffled off to raise money for us. It was greatly appreciated.

A big Thank You to RagazziLife.com for making Pets Alive part of their great launch party on October 21st and an even bigger thank you for their generous donation to our cause (they raised $1500 for Pets Alive)! Manhattan’s 26th Street was filled with scores of dogs on Wednesday, October 21st in celebration of the launch for RagazziLife.com. From malteses to mastiffs, each lucky pooch (alongside master) waited patiently to walk the red carpet entrance. The lavish event boasted complimentary cocktails, gourmet hors d’oeuvres, gift bags and – countless dogs! With almost 100 dogs mingling freely at the posh party venue, you’d think there would be the occasional yappy pup, disgruntled growl, or unexpected snap, but each pooch was on his/her best behavior. RagazziLife.com is a new and exclusive website dedicated to uncompromising dog parents and their on-the-go lifestyle. You must be invited to join and as Pets Alive supporters you are all welcome to do so.
CLICK HERE to request your official invite to RagazziLife.com.

Linda Eder also invited us to her latest concert. She had raised $1500 for us (from quarters that fans leave on stage) and we were able to man a table and network with the crowd that night. We made a lot of new friends and really enjoyed the show. Linda has been a LONG time supporter of Pets Alive and we appreciate the love that she and her fans continue to show us.

Thank you’s

Thank you to Historic Hudson Valley for the donation of almost 100 bales of straw after their fabulous Blaze event. We contacted them when we saw all the straw at the Great Jack o Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor to ask what happened to it after the event. They could not have been nicer about it and this week we went and picked it all up. Thank you guys!

Thank you to all our twitter followers that step up and donate ANYTHING we need. From stamps, to sheet protectors, to walkie-talkies – you guys are the BEST. We’re ever so grateful.

Thanks to all the members of the Community Outreach Events Committee for all your time and effort. The committee, which meets once a month to set the calendar and plan events, will take a hiatus over the holidays. The next meeting will be held on January 22, 2010. Anyone who is interested in joining the committee should send email to volunteer@petsalive.com.

Thanks to the volunteers who helped staff the Pets Alive table at the Authors After Dark convention in Suffern, NY. Mimi, Brian, Elaine, Carmen, Debbie and Scott, as well as Hannah and Sandy, Pets Alive ambassador dogs, passed out brochures, sold merchandise and helped spread the word about Pets Alive.

Thank you AGAIN to John Heads for all the transports, pickups and also the building he did for the cats in the FIV room! Thanks also for fixing the Gumby-chewed up molding in our office!

Thanks to John Sibley for following through on your great idea and donating a supply of “Shelter Challenge Reminder Cards” to be handed out at events. These card remind people to vote for Pets Alive every day in the shelter challenge. Thanks to new volunteer Connie, who cleaned and organized “Oscar’s Room” in one afternoon! Thank you to Lisa Burger and her husband for fixing a monitor that we thought was DOA. Thank you to Mardi Gras Gourmet Foods in Verona NJ. Owner Jim Mohan (A Linda Eder fan) has been collecting donations for Pets Alive!

Thanks Nick for all you have been doing to help fix-up around here. We REALLY appreciate all your hard work. Nick is from Preventative Home Maintenance and you can reach him at 845-313-6556. Thanks to Ricki, who has been helping to greet the public and do orientations. This is an important role, and more people are needed to help. If you are interested, will you please email volunteer@petsalive.com?

Thank Lynne, who has returned to help out with adoption paperwork, to Matt M. for picking up a donation of fencing material, to Hailey, for coming every weekend and doing whatever needs to be done, to Vera, our media relations person, for getting our name out there, to Tom, for all your work behind the scenes and to everyone who signed-up to participate in adoption days at Petco and PetsMart. We are looking forward to much success with this program. Mimi, Wendy, Ken, Tricia, Connie, Al, Justine, Laurie, Jaime, Lisa, Kayla, Kim, Heather, Kayla, and Krysten handled the animals and staffed the tables for the first two adoption days, and many other volunteers are on the calendar for the upcoming weeks. Still more volunteers are needed. If you are interested in helping, especially through the holiday season and into 2010, please send email to volunteer@petsalive.com.

Thanks Jan for taking on yet another task and agreeing to return the used ink cartridges to Staples. (Pets Alive gets $3 for each cartridge, and we collect them in the kennel office). Special thanks to the dedicated volunteers who come to walk the dogs in all kinds of weather. The dogs are inside now because of the cold, and so they appreciate their walks more than ever!

Thank you to the Girl Scout troops that continue to visit and help Pets Alive. First they attended the Humane Education class, then they had lunch on the deck. After lunch they painted the entire interior fence of the paddock across the street from the brick house. Then they played with some dogs in the outside exercise areas. They were here all day, from the time PA opened until it closed at 4pm. Everyone had a great time and got a lot of work done!

Thank you to all the businesses that have supported Pets Alive. We have just started a Business Support page on our website. We ask that if you have work that needs to be done you please use the companies that help Pets Alive!

Current Needs:
Volunteers – please check your cars and your homes for our slip leads. They cost a great deal of money (almost $20 each) and they are disappearing at an alarming rate. We are in need of more slip leads and in need of the ones we had being returned. It is easy to walk off with one draped around your neck. Can you please check and if you have one bring it back to us? If you don’t have one, can you go buy one and bring it to us? (grin). Slip leads, kong toys for the dogs, dog treats (small or medium sized), Panacur dewormer (the big bottles of equine liquid has been working well for us!), Advantixx or Frontline for dogs, wet wipes, bleach, split keyrings, dog toys, paper towels, toilet bowl cleaner, Murphy’s Oil Soap, 3-lb paper trays, and Libman wonder mopheads, empty computer ink cartridges (Staples will give Pets Alive $3 each for the empties). Thank you for your kind consideration on these items!

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Sanctuary animal updates:
The following dogs were adopted since my last update on September 11th: Dozer, Bernie, Minna, Dutchess, Bengal, Newton, Starlet, Dove, Lacey, Wolfman, Samantha, Ruby, Mya, Sally, Sparky, Isis, Glory, Rocky, Max, Kimmy, Zack, Annie, Rogue, Mason, Compton, Jade, Adler, Louise, and Harley.

In addition to that we didn’t have a bad month for cats either. Billy the cat, Hansel, Trixie, Sweet Sugar, Gretel, and Little Sam all found their forever homes too.

Mary and Francis – two horses – also found THEIR forever home.

Intakes:

This month we took in 32 dogs. Eight dogs came in from local surrenders, three came from OK, three from VA, ten from KY, five from SC, and two from OH. We also had Lenny returned because he is an escape artist, and we lost our beloved Mush-dog, and we also lost one of our feral cats, Mel.

We took in a slew of cats – don’t even ask! – there are kittens just about everywhere, and we’re going a little nuts. Come down and get a kitten, will ya? Or two – they’re small. Also two goats! Yes, we have goats again! We took in two goats which we promptly renamed Goatie McGoat and McTavish McGoat. Come see them, they are hysterical. You can’t be depressed around goats, they are just too funny.

Job Opening:

We have an admin job available. Can be anywhere from three to five days a week (your choice), at least one weekend day is mandatory, other days are negotiable. Hours are 10-3 on weekends and 10-2 on weekdays. We are losing Pam, our administrator and so we are looking for someone with good computer skills, good people skills, someone that enjoys talking to people on the phone, problem solving, thinking outside the box, self motivated, etc. This person is many people’s first impression of Pets Alive. All sorts of people call or visit every day to request help with their animals, to surrender animals, to follow up on something, to speak with the directors, or medical staff, etc. We need someone to be an ambassador for Pets Alive. That is one of the most important aspects of the job. You are also responsible for all the animal data, cage cards, adoption records, some volunteer orientations, greeting visitors (and perhaps showing them around), and a host of other things we think up as we go. – please email info@petsalive.com if you are interested.

For Rent

The gray house that is on the Pets Alive property will be available for rent on November 1, 2009.

We are going to first ask any of our main mailing list members if they are interested before listing it in the paper. The house has three bedrooms (one has a large walk in closet, another of the bedrooms is quite small), one and a half bathrooms, an unfinished basement with a washer and dryer, and a kitchen and living room. The house has all appliances – dishwasher, stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer etc. There is AMPLE room for parking. It also has a fenced in yard and a back screened in porch.

We are – of course – PET FRIENDLY, so your pets are MORE than welcome! (In fact they’re almost MANDATORY!)

The rent is $1000 a month, which does not include utilities, snow removal, or lawn maintenance (come on – we can barely keep up with the weed whacking at the sanctuary!)
You would be expected to keep up with those things if you were living there. We’d love it if you were handy too, because it could use a little work and we won’t complain if you do it.
You should also enjoy the sounds of the occasional cacophony of barking dogs. And in the interest of honesty, this picture was taken years ago before the shrubs grew up all over the side of the house – feel free to cut them all down – we’ll supply the hedge trimmer!

Please CONTINUE to vote for Pets Alive in the shelter challenge

We WERE number TWO and have dropped down to number seven. We REALLY need your help with this – the easiest $20,000 we could ever earn. Please take a moment to ask your friends to also vote? You need to vote EVERY day to add up the votes for us. Thank you all SO MUCH for the ones that have been doing it, we really appreciate it, as well as all of you that are willing to start now! The Animal Rescue Site is hosting this special challenge for shelter and rescue groups. The grand prize is a $20,000 grant, and they will be awarding many other grants to rescue groups with the most votes. Think how many animals we could help for $20,000! Help us win! All you have to do is click this link, and then vote. Enter Pets Alive (two words) and NY for the state and then click VOTE! There is no cost to vote and no registration required. But you need to vote once a day, every day, from September 14th through December 20th, 2009. Every time you vote, or tell a friend to vote, you are making a huge difference for us. Vote today! PLEASE!

General Updates:

The next Humane Education Class will be held on Saturday, October 10th at 10 am. This class will focus on animals with disabilities, and will feature three handicapped dogs – Lucky and Zoe (who were adopted from Pets alive) and Lilly. All are loving companions to Lynne Przychodzki. Lucky and Zoe use wheelchairs to get around. For more information about the classes or to register, please email
humaneeducation@petsalive.com. Please noe that these classes are DIFFERENT every week! We have a series of five DIFFERENT classes right now, so if your child already attended one, you can bring them every session, to learn something new. The class on the 10th should be an amazing experience with the “wheelchair dogs”. Please come with your children (parents are welcome and encouraged to stay!).

Cat Update:
We had no water for three days up at the brick house and Dale had to wash all the cat dishes, litter pans and other utensils of the trade, in a big tub of water in the driveway. The boys were nice enough to run a hose up there for her, but I must say it was rather hysterical to see her sitting on an upturned bucket washing like they did in the old days! Thanks for your patience Dale!

We also took in a kitten that needed a leg amputation. It was really sad, and going to be very costly. It was interesting timing, because we got a call from a vet’s office and they had a client that wanted to put down an elderly dog – but there was nothing wrong with the dog, would we consider taking it in? My wheels started turning and I said, how about we scratch each other’s back? You do the surgery on this kitten for us and a dental on another cat that we need and we will take in this dog for you. The vet agreed!! John transported for us (it was far away) and in the end the vet fell in love with the kitten and adopted her!!! That was such a GREAT ending for all. Now we just have to find a home for the senior dog, but he is so fabulous, we all adore him, so I’m sure he will find a new home soon.

BTW, Peg (of Peg and Jim) fractured her foot and is home not allowed to walk on it. Her and her husband Jim come a few times a week to work with the cats, but it hasn’t stopped Jim. He is still coming in- alone…Peg – Dale says to tell you that she and the kitties miss you!

Horse Updates:

Glen has been having some troubles. He is blind in one eye now and he has severe arthritis and hip issues. We are not sure how much more time this elderly horse has left. Winters can be tough on horses and we’ll do our best to care for him and get him through it. He has been moved to this side of the road now, so he has a barn stall and lots of pasture, and now he has two companions – the goats live with him! At first he was TERRIFIED of them (hey who wouldn’t be – goats are just plain nuts!) but now he is always hanging out with them and trying to groom them. He can also hang over the fence with the other horses too. Glen is a stallion, so it is difficult to match him with another horse (this is why you should GELD your horses folks!), and he is also very elderly and feeble so another horse could easily hurt him. Horses ARE herd animals though so it was important for us to find him a companion and keep him in a place where he could at least see, and now interact, with other horses.

We get very frequent updates from Cindy, who adopted Mary and Francis. Francis is having a tough time with his feet again, and she is dealing with it very lovingly. This was my favorite of her update comments recently:

“I love his personality! He’s definitely got one Mary too–she is so sweet also. It ain’t no picnic picking up those big ‘ol feet of his either. He really needs some good hoof care to get him over these problems. Hopefully I can get him past this and he will be more comfortable. Every morning Mary is waiting at the gate for me. She tosses her head around, sometimes talks to me in her low deep voice–I think she about lives to eat. Her belly is big and round I love having them here!” Sigh. Me too. I’m so happy they are safe and so well cared for with Cindy.

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers

• Tickets are now on sale for the BIG 50/50 Raffle! $20 each, only 1,000 tickets will be sold, winner gets $10,000. The drawing to be held December 13th, 1pm at Pets Alive. Winner need not be present to win. Please everyone buy at least one ticket, or better yet, buy a whole book and sell to your and family, too! Someone is going to be the big winner – why not you? Click here to purchase a ticket now or stop into the kennel office any day of the week between 10-3 to purchase.
• October 17th, 7:30 PM – Dancing for Dogs – and Cats, Horses and more!
  For Choreographer Liz Geyer, the subject is “Rescue”. For Pets Alive, a no kill sanctuary for pets and farm animals, it is the same. Pets Alive is in the business of rescuing animals. Ms Geyer is hosting a fundraising benefit dance performance for the sanctuary on October 17 at the Paramount Theater in Middletown. All proceeds after expenses will be donated to Pets Alive and will help care for the many animals they rescue every year. For Ms. Geyer it is a chance to give back. An avid dog lover, Ms Geyer adopted an eight year old spayed dog from a local humane society. The dog turned out to be four weeks pregnant, and five weeks later, gave birth to a litter of puppies in the basement of Ms Geyer’s home. Eight weeks later Pets Alive took the six fat, happy puppies in, gave them their shots, wormed and had them neutered, and quickly adopted them out. It all sounds so easy, but aside from the time, energy and care that goes into rescuing animals, it costs a lot of money. Adoption fees do not cover these expenses. So Ms. Geyer, who was a dancer with the New York City Ballet and currently is a teacher and choreographer, decided to dedicate the proceeds of her next production to help fill the coffers of Pets Alive. Tickets will go on sale at the box office at the Paramount Theater in September. For more information, contact Liz at 845-258-1500 at her studio, or ballet@balletnut.com. The Paramount Theater is located at 17 South St., Middletown, NY.
  (Thank you Liz!!!!)
• We have hooked up with Cards for Causes. They are a premier provider of personalized Business All Occasion Cards, Holiday Cards, Invitations and Announcements and every purchase benefit charities and other good causes. If you buy your holiday cards for them, or invitations etc, they donate a large part of that to us. They even show you how much will go to Pets Alive. You HAVE TO USE THIS LINK though in order for that to happen. So please consider ordering your cards from this site!
• October 17th, Shop For A Cause: Shop at Macy’s and Support Pets Alive.
  On October 17, Macy’s presents Shop For A Cause. If you donate $5 to Pets Alive you get a pass for that day where you can save up to 25% on your purchases. You can also enter for a chance to win a $500 Macy’s gift card. Pets Alive gets to keep the entire donation for the pass as well. Click here to get your pass mailed to you. Clip the shopping image or here to buy your shopping ticket.
• Linda Eder is a singer who encourages her fans to leaves quarters on the stage at every show she does (often fans leave much more!). Linda collects these quarters and once a year turns that all over to Pets Alive. Over the years she has raised about $30,000 in this way for us. She has two upcoming concerts in the area and we urge you to attend. If you’ve never heard her, you have no idea what you’re missing. She is really wonderful. Check out her website at lindaeder.com. Upcoming concerts: October 2nd, 2009 at The Community Theatre, Morristown, NJ and October 17th, 2009 at Town Hall, New York, NY.
• Gift Cards: Looking for the perfect gift? Give Pets Alive for all your occasions. Make a donation to Pets Alive in someone’s name and we’ll send them a card that you can personalize. We currently have six cards (dogs, cats,a mouse, and a horse) to choose from, and six different occasions (Birthday, Celebration, Sympathy, etc). Click here to see all our cards and send one today! You can also add a personal message to your card.

Have you checked out this months featured letter?
Click here to read it…while you are there check out
some of our other featured letters. They are a hoot!

Help Us. Help THEM.
We need your sponsorships. When Sara died, we were left in a very bad financial position. The first year Best Friends helped pull us through. The second year Marisol and Rob Thomas and their charity SideWalk Angels pulled us through, but this coming year we’re in a bind. We MUST increase our income and revenues. We are starting now to apply for grants and we have an event and fund raising committee, but we have so many hopes, dreams and plans. One way we can use the fund raising as help instead of as need is to increase our monthly sponsorships. Will you commit to helping us for just one year?

Every year millions of animals die in the United States alone. 4-5 million. Pets Alive pulls animals from euthanasia lists at other shelters. We know you may not have the time to come down here and help or donate your time, or adopt another animal – but what you do have is precious to them and to us. Your sponsorship.

Almost every dog in our shelter was saved, often hours or even minutes from death. Our turn around for getting them vetted and into their forever homes is often within 21-45 days. YOUR sponsorship can help save the life of a dog or a cat every single month. It is less than the price of a cup of coffee every day. Just $25 a month will SAVE THE LIFE of a cat. Just $35 a month will SAVE THE LIFE of a dog.

YOU will save that life. YOU will be responsible for it. Every month when your credit card gets automatically billed that small amount you can look at it and know that another life has been saved thanks to you, or another needle was stopped in mid air, or gas chamber door was slammed closed today, – thanks to your donation. I promise. That is all we need to continue to save these precious and innocent lives every month. Your sponsorship. Please. Help us to help them. We need you. THEY need you. Together we can stop the killing.

Thank you to Anthony and Trudy for working on the MySpace and Facebook pages! That is so awesome of you guys, thanks. Thanks also to Anthony for taking on our Petfinder site and for Trudy in helping with our follow up calls!

Thank you to new volunteer Jennifer, a Reiki Master who has been working with Rem, Bindi, Peanut, Cam and “Angry” Oreo” (the cat).

Thanks to Matt for making the delicious ziti for “A Night Of Laughs for the Animals” at the Manhattan Comedy Club, and to Ingrid for baking the great cookies, and to Roxanne running the raffles. A big thank you goes to Dr. Gordon for purchasing 30 tickets and inviting the staff to attend, and to everyone who bought tickets and came to support Pets Alive.

Thanks Tom and Kory, for coming out in the rain to cut down trees near the brick house.

Thanks to all the volunteers who worked the Pets Alive table at the Hounds for Hospice dog walk. Without willing volunteers we would not be able to go out into the community and spread the word about Pets Alive. Thank You to Fran, Lauren, Matt, Kim, Chris, Mimi ( who brought Sandy, a very sweet Pets Alive dog who is up for adoption) Thanks to Zoe, a beautiful St. Bernard who was adopted from Pets Alive and now comes to these events with her mom (Alina), dad (Richard) and sister (Nevada). Zoe is a great ambassador, representing all Pets Alive adoptees. And thanks to Lisa and Kayla who ran
the “Kissing Booth”, and to Bleu, for giving out so many doggie kisses! The Kissing Booth is a huge hit at these events, and we thank Richard and Alina for transporting it to and from the event.

Thank you Becky for all the photos you take for us – it is truly this gift from you that makes them so adoptable on petfinder. You have saved so many lives just by being the one that snaps the photos for us. THANK YOU for everything you do for us.

Thank you to everyone that donated paper trays to us this month- you are the best. Greatly needed and you all came through. AS ALWAYS.

All they have….IS YOU.

Current Needs:
FRONTLINE AND ADVANTIX for dogs (HELP!!), Slip leads, Panacur dewormer (the big bottles of equine liquid has been working well for us!), wet wipes, bleach, ½” split keyrings, dog toys, stamps, paper towels, toilet bowl cleaner, Murphy’s Oil Soap and Libman wonder mopheads, empty computer ink cartridges (Staples will give Pets Alive $3 each for the empties). Thank you for your kind consideration on these items!

Did You Know:

• We follow up on all our adopted animals. We call after 3 days, then 3 weeks, then 3 months to make sure everything is going ok. If there are any negative comments, the person immediately works with one of our trainers to try to work it out!
• Our plans for the future include building a low-cost spay/neuter & medical clinic on site to help us AND the local community. This building would also house a classroom for Humane Education and small adoption rooms for families to meet their new pets!
• Our capacity for dogs in summer is about 110 (but we like to keep it at 70-90) but in winter it is only about 65. (That is because in the winter we have to move all dogs indoors to our heated kennel and they just come to the outdoor area in nice weather). But don’t worry – their heated kennels have indoor/outdoor access & they still get walked by volunteers every day, even in the bitter cold! We have the BEST volunteers!
• By using http://www.goodsearch.com and designating Pets Alive as your charity, we get money? So far $1020 raised (since 2007)
• Pets Alive was started over 30 years ago after a dog saved the life of the founders son? Story here.
• Pets Alive has goats again?
• Pets Alive has a HUGE dog walk that winds through the woods; built & maintained ENTIRELY by volunteers. All dogs walked daily!
• Pets Alive has communities of feral cats (more than 20) that we care for and watch over (also help us with rodent control!)
• There are TWO executive directors of the sanctuary, Kerry & Matt. He travels 1.5 hours every day (each way) & takes NO salary!
• Pets Alive consists of almost 80 acres. We own about 40 acres on each side of the road.
• Pets Alive has 6 full time workers, 4 part time and the rest is handled by volunteers! We have amazingly wonderful volunteers.
• Pets Alive rescues horses & goats as well as cats & dogs? At one time we also had pigs, birds, cows and sheep. Even an EMU!
• Pets Alive is a cage free environment. None of our cats live in cages and none of our dogs stay in crates or cages.
• Pets Alive has asked ALL local kill shelters to contact us FIRST before euthanizing healthy animals to see if we can help!
• Pets Alive is a no kill animal sanctuary. We never euthanize animals for space, behavior etc. Our staff work w/all our animals.
• Pets Alive vet bill is between $6000 – $8000 every month? (this is why we want to build a medical building on site).
• Pets Alive can have anywhere from 200-300 animals at a time?

Social Networking- Find us on:

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(This is Cam in the exercise yard playing with some volunteers. He was NOT adopted – again. Sometimes, just occasionally, he likes to bite people so for some reason no one has taken him home. We’re working on one of our volunteers though. Cam is one of my favorite dogs here and he has lived here almost his whole life (eight years). I am terrified he will die here, never having a loving home of his own. He really IS a great dog. Once he knows you, he would never, ever hurt you. I PROMISE.)

We also had a record-breaking EIGHT cats go home! Honey, Bunny, Jeremy, Simka, Honor, Maggie, Renee, and Tex. Two of those were FIV cats and two were kittens. Thrilled that we are seeing an increase in cat adoptions and the FIV cats getting a home is just great news.

Additionally two of our horses found a new home. Mary and Francis will be going to live at Ferrell Hollow Farm in Tennessee. They leave Pets Alive on September 15th for their new life. We can’t tell you how happy we are for them. Cindy flew all the way up here to meet them, spent three days getting to know them and helping us and she will be adopting them as her personal horses. This farm SPECIALIZES in retired or special needs horses. Cindy is – there is no other word – AMAZING. I was deeply inspired, touched and awed by her. We are going to miss Mary and Francis terribly, but I know there is not another place on earth I would feel as comfortable about them going to, as Ferrell Hollow. Good luck my big friends. We will definitely be keeping in touch!

Nice job everyone. Sixty-three animals. Good luck little beasties!

General Updates:

Our Humane Education program is kicking off this Saturday thanks to teachers Wendy and Ken and to Joy for working to pull it all together. We really hope that you will have your children and grandchildren attend one of these classes. They are not set up as boring classroom lectures but rather open discussion groups, fun exercises and hands on with some of the animals. It may be too late to change some of THIS generation but we’re really hoping that the next generation can start learning about compassion and empathy. Please consider this as one of the best things you can do for a child in your life.

Pets Alive won the Petco Foundation Scholarship! Animal shelters across the country are closing their doors, losing revenue and at the same time,they are facing increasing demand for their programs and services. Many of us struggle to adequately market ourselves and raise enough funds to sustain operational costs. That’s why the PETCO Foundation has awarded five shelters in the United States some partnership help. PETS ALIVE IS ONE OF THESE FIVE! The partnership will provide fundraising and marketing consultation for one year to help us develop financial independence and sustainability plans. With funds granted by the PETCO Foundation, we will receive hands-on strategic planning assistance and training from The Philanthropy Team’s president, Tim Crum, a fundraising and marketing expert with more than 20 years of experience, including 10 in the animal welfare industry. Thank you PETCO! Thank you Tim. We are really looking forward to this and grateful for this help.

Help Us. Help THEM.
We need your sponsorships. When Sara died, we were left in a very bad financial position. The first year Best Friends helped pull us through. The second year Marisol and Rob Thomas and their charity SideWalk Angels pulled us through, but this coming year we’re in a bind. We MUST increase our income and revenues. We are starting now to apply for grants and we have an event and fund raising committee, but we have so many hopes, dreams and plans. One way we can use the fund raising as help instead of as need is to increase our monthly sponsorships. Will you commit to helping us for just one year?

Every year millions of animals die in the United States alone. 4-5 million. Pets Alive pulls animals from euthanasia lists at other shelters. We know you may not have the time to come down here and help or donate your time, or adopt another animal – but what you do have is precious to them and to us. Your sponsorship.

Almost every dog in our shelter was saved, often hours or even minutes from death. Our turn around for getting them vetted and into their forever homes is often within 21-45 days. YOUR sponsorship can help save the life of a dog or a cat every single month. It is less than the price of a cup of coffee every day. Just $25 a month will SAVE THE LIFE of a cat. Just $35 a month will SAVE THE LIFE of a dog.

YOU will save that life. YOU will be responsible for it. Every month when your credit card gets automatically billed that small amount you can look at it and know that another life has been saved thanks to you, or another needle was stopped in mid air, or gas chamber door was slammed closed today, – thanks to your donation. I promise. That is all we need to continue to save these precious and innocent lives every month. Your sponsorship. Please. Help us to help them. We need you. THEY need you. Together we can stop the killing.

Intakes:
I lost track of my little cheat sheet of intakes and I’ll be honest, it is too much work to go through our records to pull it all, so I’ll summarize the ones off the top of my head and hope I don’t drop my Blackberry again next month. This month we got a call from a local humane society. They had three adorable kittens but they had tested positive for FIV. Could we help. Sigh. Such a terrible shame. There is little to be afraid of with FIV but very few facilities have a separate room or place that they can house them. We felt so badly that we took all three in. They are adorable. Please consider taking a look at them and welcoming them into your home. I will be posting some information on our website soon about FIV. You don’t need to fear cats that have it!

Additionally we wound up with six kittens and a mama cat that was coming here with a transport of dogs for us. Another rescue were taking these cats and were just meeting here but the kittens were so near death that our staff had to rush to save them. Fluids, meds, care, bathing, and some over nights with Janet and they are all recovering well. So add that to the other three and now we’re up to nine kittens and a mama cat. Then one adult cat got dumped nearby, ok, you counting with me? Then three more local kittens we accepted, then another two. Then another one froma volunteer that begged us to help. Ouch. So sixteen cats we took in this month, but trust me we had to turn away about 200 requests. It is REALLY bad out there. Please make sure you spay and neuter your animals. This is terrible that they should suffer so, and I worry about every one that we have to refuse. Then today we got a call from a local vet – they had an eight week old kitten, it was BLIND. Could we take it? If not they had no choice but to euthanize, they were heartbroken. Darn it, what’s one more. Anyone looking for a cat? We have a few. Thank goodness we placed so many this month, but now we are faced with the costs of vetting each of them,chipping, etc. Probably about $150-$200 each cat. Some days I really don’t know where it will come from.

We also took in five locally owner surrendered dogs, and took in six from Kentucky. I have to believe we took in more but without my trusty Blackberry I can’t pull it right up and so you are left to just wonder which ones they are, or else I will have to actually have to figure out how to run one of these reports.

Animal Updates or Issues (written by Janet):
On top of all our new additions and adoptions this month, we’ve had a few medical issues being addressed. Mush and Smokey decided that they no longer appreciated each others company and had a lovely fence fight which left Mush with a tooth dangling onto his torn gumline. Luckily a little surgery, and some pain meds and antibiotics and Mush is like new again. In fact, even with the torn tooth and adjoining gum tissue, Mush acted no worse for wear! What a tough guy!

Biggie has been doing wonderfully on his thyroid medication. The fat seems to be melting right off that handsome boy. Before you know it, he’s gonna have all the girls staring at him!!!! And Biggie is now able to go on full walks on the trail.

A few reoccurring cat issues this month. Taffy’s eye had been bothering her. We had her to the vet and started all sorts of different eye drops and ointments. She was looking better, but is now favoring her eye once more. Thelma (one of our feisty torties) had some crusty discharge on her chin just over a month ago which turned out to be associated with red, swollen gums. We ran a blood panel and treated with antibiotics, but for some reason, her gums are STILL inflamed. So needless to say, we are still working on figuring out what is the underlying cause of both cats medical needs. Hopefully we will find the reason soon enough.

Nina the mischievous dilute tortie is so overweight that her anal glands keep impacting. She also has such a hard time reaching her rear to clean herself that she needs to have her butt cleaned by staff daily and powder applied! What a spoiled brat, huh? It would be nice to see Nina loss some weight, so these problems would be eliminated! But Nina wants to have nothing to do with the word ‘DIET’.

Pumpkin the cat was found to have an incisor tooth hanging last week. We were actually able to pull the tooth with no need for anaesthesia. After a week of pain meds and antibiotics, Pumpkin is back to himself. And on a happy note, Renee and Tex the two little kittens who had chronic upper respiratory symptoms are doing WONDERFULLY in their new homes! Their eyes have never been clearer! Incredible!!!

Also, we would just like everyone to know that we have noticed the weight loss amongst our dog population. We have been checking fecal samples and increasing feed. We are also doing another round of prophylactic deworming. Rest assured we are trying to get to the bottom of this!

Upcoming Events or Fundraisers

• Gift Cards: Looking for the perfect gift? Give Pets Alive for all your occasions. Make a donation to Pets Alive in someone’s name and we’ll send them a card that you can personalize. We currently have six cards (dogs, cats,a mouse, and a horse) to choose from, and six different occasions (Birthday, Celebration, Sympathy, etc). Click here to see all our cards and send one today! You can also add a personal message to your card.
• Comedy Club – September 27th: The Manhattan Comedy Club (located in Middletown NY – NOT the city!) will host a Comedy Night at 5 pm Sunday, September 27. Headlining the show will be Johnny Lambert who is considered to be one of the premier comedians in the country. Lambert has made numerous television appearances on MTV, A&E’s Caroline’s Comedy Hour, Comedy Central, NBC’s Friday Night, and HBO’s Comedy Showcase. In addition he is a regular at some of the best comedy clubs in New York City and Los Angeles including The Comic Strip, Caroline’s Comedy Club, and The Improv. The Comedy Night is open to ages 18 and over and includes dinner (yes we are having food this time!!), door prizes, and a 50/50 raffle. Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door (please purchase in advance so we don’t sweat it!). Tickets can be purchased online or at the kennel office! Buy Tickets Now!
• October 17th, Shop For A Cause: Shop at Macy’s and Support Pets Alive.
  On October 17, Macy’s presents Shop For A Cause. If you donate $5 to Pets Alive you get a pass for that day where you can save up to 25% on your purchases. You can also enter for a chance to win a $500 Macy’s gift card. Pets Alive gets to keep the entire donation for the pass as well. Click here to get your pass mailed to you. Clip the shopping image or here to buy your shopping ticket.
• October 17th, 7:30 PM – Dancing for Dogs – and Cats, Horses and more!
  For Choreographer Liz Geyer, the subject is “Rescue”. For Pets Alive, a no kill sanctuary for pets and farm animals, it is the same. Pets Alive is in the business of rescuing animals. Ms Geyer is hosting a fundraising benefit dance performance for the sanctuary on October 17 at the Paramount Theater in Middletown. All proceeds after expenses will be donated to Pets Alive and will help care for the many animals they rescue every year. For Ms. Geyer it is a chance to give back. An avid dog lover, Ms Geyer adopted an eight year old spayed dog from a local humane society. The dog turned out to be four weeks pregnant, and five weeks later, gave birth to a litter of puppies in the basement of Ms Geyer’s home. Eight weeks later Pets Alive took the six fat, happy puppies in, gave them their shots, wormed and had them neutered, and quickly adopted them out. It all sounds so easy, but aside from the time, energy and care that goes into rescuing animals, it costs a lot of money. Adoption fees do not cover these expenses. So Ms. Geyer, who was a dancer with the New York City Ballet and currently is a teacher and choreographer, decided to dedicate the proceeds of her next production to help fill the coffers of Pets Alive. Tickets will go on sale at the box office at the Paramount Theater in September. For more information, contact Liz at 845-258-1500 at her studio, or ballet@balletnut.com. The Paramount Theater is located at 17 South St., Middletown, NY.
  (Thank you Liz!!!!)

Thank you’s
A huge thank you this month to the Sidewalk Angels Foundation for a $20,000 donation to Pets Alive. This is about a month of expenses folks and a huge asset. It ensures we will be around another month. Thank you guys so much! How in the world would we ever survive without you?

Thanks also to Bob and MaryEllen Chanda for the donation of $5,000 to complete our fence fund. We’ve been trying to raise the money for this for months and the end amount was just stagnant. We couldn’t get there. MaryEllen called us and said “We got it. We’re sending you a check to cover the rest- GO FOR IT.” They have been so supportive and helpful over the years. Thank you guys so much!

Thank you to OneMeaningCouture.com for making us the charity of the month last month and raising $650 for us, as well as continuing to give us $1 for every dog tag they sell! You guys were a blast to play with this month.

Thanks to Nancy Skoog. She just keeps coming back! She loves to “window shop” our dogs and visit with whoever is in the office to pet and give treats to them. She is a HUGE help in the office and things would be very different without her.

Thanks to Mike Martino – building contractor. He is going to give us free labor to put a new roof on the brick house garage. We do have to come up with the supplies though, so if any of you have contacts let me know!

Thanks to Christian Faith Fellowship Family Church in Middletown for inviting Pets Alive to participate in their 1st Annual Dog Blessing, and to Lynette, Marty, Mimi, Wendy, Ken, for running the information tables. Thanks also to Lisa for bringing Bleu to work the Kissing Booth (even though he was FREELY giving kisses to people when out of the booth!) and to Alina for bringing Zoe & Nevada to act as ambassadors for all the animals at Pets Alive. Thanks also to Teri who came and did face painting for us. (Faces by Paris- 845-754-7440) and to Fran and Sara who helped that day.

Thanks to Jan for helping to organize the Dog Bathing campaign that took place last month. So many of you showed up to help that ALL the dogs were bathed (some twice!). Thanks to everyone who rolled up their sleeves, including Jan, Chris, Katie, Karen, Rebecca, Jennifer, Nicole – sorry if we missed anyone. We really appreciated this. You guys are the best!

Thanks to Anne and Maria for all they are doing for Pets Alive. For the second time this year, they traveled a couple of hours to spend a two days volunteering. While they are here they helped out with anything and everything that needed to be done. And when they got home they sent us a shipment of slip-leads!

Thanks AGAIN to John Heads for doing airport transports for us again and also for installing the cabinets we had into Janet’s Office. They look great. John ALWAYS comes through – no matter WHAT we need. He does more things for us in a month than I can list here. He’s a huge asset to Pets Alive (as well as his wife Betty) and we love them both!

Thanks to Tom for weed whacking all the dog runs and many other areas around Pets Alive.

Thanks to Davey who replaced the leaky faucet in the kitchen for us, has done a bunch of repairs around here and is working on fixing our tractor!

Thanks to Fran, who is raising money for Pets Alive by selling Guardian Angel Dog and Cat pins (these are available for sale in the kennel office if you are interested in purchasing some – they make great gifts!)

Thanks to Gil, who has done so much around here. Take a look at the deck behind the brick house – it looks amazing. And to Maria, for organizing the laundry room, a job that never ends.

Thanks to Trudy who has been coming up extra and doing so much for us including being the official greeter and telling people where they need to go (grin).

Thanks to Joy and Roxie, as always. Without you, we’d be drooling at our desks and banging our heads against the wall. I am so grateful to you both for all the hours, love and commitment you give to us.

And a really big thank you to all the volunteers who come regularly to walk dogs, socialize with the cats, care for the horses, do office work, clean, spruce-up, fix-up and all the other day to day tasks that keep us running. We could not do it without you – we love you guys!

Current Needs:
We need roofing supplies, or money for roofing. Mike is going to have his guys do ALL the work but the supplies for just the garage alone will be $1200 and if we want to do the other part of the house it will be $3500. Anyone have any connections?

A screen or storm door, 3×5 index cards, gallon zip lock bags, Slip leads, Panacur dewormer (the big bottles of equine liquid has been working well for us!), Advantixx or Frontline for dogs, wet wipes, bleach, ½” split keyrings, dog toys, stamps, garbage bags (kitchen and lawn), 3-lb paper trays, paper towels, toilet bowl cleaner, Murphy’s Oil Soap and Libman wonder mopheads. We also need donations of yarn and craft supplies for our sewing club, empty computer ink cartridges (Staples will give Pets Alive $3 each for the empties). Thank you for your kind consideration on these items!

Did You Know:

• Did you know that Pets Alive also cares for horses? We have taken in many retired carriage horses and horses off of racetracks.
• Did you know that in the winter our electric bill is over $3000 a month?
• Did you know that we allow children to volunteer? As long as they are accompanied by an adult, we welcome your (well behaved!) children!
• Did you know that Pets Alive started an Education Outreach Program and a Humane Education Program? We will be bringing classes here for field trips, and going into local schools to educate them on the importance of spaying and neutering, on animal emotions and animal care!
• Did you know that Pets Alive is working with local kill shelters to try to stop euthanasia and try to help place all animals by sharing our adoption applications and by taking in animals that would otherwise be euthanized due to lack of space in these shelters?
• Did you know that our volunteer program welcomes volunteers seven days a week at Pets Alive?
• Did you know that is costs a $1300 month to feed (and litter) our cats, $1100 to feed our dogs and $2200 a month to feed our horses and that does NOT include medical?
• Did you know that our dedicated staff often stay late and come in on their own time to complete projects or work additionally with the animals here?
• Did you know that we still have a sponsorship program and it is set up so that it can automatically bill your credit card each month (this is such a great way to help us!)
• Did you know that all animals are spayed/neutered, up to date on shots and matched to each family on a case by case basis before they go to their new homes?
• Did you know that our vet bill is often $6000-8000 a month which is why we think an onsite medical facility would actually SAVE us money AND help the community?

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