Working Together

I failed to mention in my last blog about one of the MOST exciting things that happened this holiday season:

On Dec. 12th the Animal Assistance Foundation put together an all day meeting in Greeley for any animal welfare groups in Northern Colorado that wanted to start looking at how they could work together to help even more animals. This is a very exciting thing because although all of the rescues and shelters have the same goal in mind, many of us have different ideas about how to reach that goal, and this can cause conflict between groups. The meeting was a huge success. A lot of the day was just getting to know each other, sharing successes, talking about obstacles, and figuring out how to work together.

The groups that attended the meeting included:
Fort Collins Cat Rescue
Northern Colorado Friends of Ferals
Animal Rescue Connection
Larimer Humane Society
Humane Society of Weld County
Dalmation Rescue
Every Creature Counts
Denkai Sanctuary
K9 Bed & Biscuit
Animal House Rescue
Colorado Unwanted Horse Alliance
Four Paws Pet Center
Fort Morgan County Humane Society
Union Rescue
*Duncan's Place (located in Loveland) had wanted to attend but was unable due to sickness.*

The name of this coalition is Northern Colorado Animal Welfare Coalition.

As the groups figure out ways to work together to save more animals I will share that on the blog.

Since then, Duncan's Place received a HUGE donation from Merricks (a pet food company). They donated 9 pallets of canned food. Because founder, Cathy Campbell, knew she wouldn't be able to use that much food herself, she called the other rescues and shelters in the area and told them she wanted to share.
Anna & I drove the shelter van to Cathy's home on Dec. 23rd where we found a group of people organizing and helping to distribute the canned food. Cathy & volunteers literally FILLED the shelter van with canned food. This food will not only be used for our shelter kitties, but will also be given to caretakers of feral cat colonies and cat owners that are on hard times and need help feeding their cat(s).
Cathy's generosity is one of the first of what we hope will be many gestures of different rescues and shelters working together. Thank you Cathy!

So Much Great News!

Many people are dying to know if we met our $3000 goal for the matching donation. The answer is YES! Not only did we match it, but went quite a ways over it. Hooray!! Thank you everyone for your generosity. FCCR is going to have a great start to 2010 thanks to our wonderful community that cares about these animals and FCCR's mission.

In addition, 2 of our wonderful supporters bought us a new washer and dryer. Both of our previous machines pooped out right before Christmas, and it is awfully hard to run an animal shelter without a functional washer and dryer. Thank you Len & Carol Mahoney for doing all of the research on new machines and donating them to us! Also a big thank you to staff member Mary Wolf for doing all of the laundry at her house for the week that we didn't have a functional washer and dryer! Now that is dedication!!

Last but not least, we received a BEAUTIFUL afghan from a group that calls themselves Afghans for Animals to use as a fundraiser. The afghan is 6 feet x 4 feet and has kitties on it. It was made by Lisa Craft who is the founder and coordinator for Afghans for Animals. We will be doing a drawing for the afghan. You can receive tickets to the drawing for a suggested $2 donation each. The drawing will take place on Jan. 31st. Pictures are below. :)

I LOVE this time of year!

Kaitlyn the Kitty enjoying the new
cardboard scratcher that was donated today!

This is the best time of year to be the director of a non-profit because people are so generous. We just had 2 of the nicest women (Darcy & Tracy) come in and donate 1 or more of EVERYTHING on our wish list! Tracy had asked Darcy to make a donation to FCCR as her Christmas present, so the 2 of them went shopping for the kitties together.

They brought the donations in and then got to go into the adoption room to give the kitties their new cardboard scratchers and treats. It really made the kitties' day!

Thank you Darcy & Tracy for your kind hearts, and thank you to everyone else that is donating to FCCR for the holidays.

Great Opportunity for Making Your Year-End Donation Go REALLY Far!

I just received word that one of our supporters has a challenge for the rest of our supporters: Donate at least $3000 by the end of the year, and her and her husband will top it off with a $1500 donation!!!!! Things have been extremely tight at the shelter lately with the economy, and this could really help out the kitties.
If you have been thinking of sending in a donation, now is a really good time to do it!!!!!