The Giving Tree

Next time you come into the shelter you may be surprised to see a large tree in the corner of the reception area. What is it you wonder? Let me explain:

The Giving Tree is part of our celebration and fundraising effort for Spay Day - which is coming up quickly in February. We are doing several things to celebrate Spay Day including a surgery day that will be just for female cats on February 21st, and the surgery will only cost $15. Also a talk at the library with Larimer Humane & Animal House where we will discuss why spaying animals is so important and what our organizations are doing to help make every pet a wanted pet. This talk will be open to the public, and more information will be available soon.

The Giving Tree is a fundraiser for feral kitties. You can purchase an ornament for The Giving Tree and write whatever you like on it. The money will go towards spay/neuter surgeries for feral cats - which contribute hugely to the pet overpopulation problem. We also have a Giving Tree in the clinic, and the hope is to have both trees covered in ornaments by the end of February!!!!

We hope you will consider making a donation for this fundraiser. Whether it is $1 or $100.

Missy found a home!!

Those of you that frequent the shelter and know all of the kitties in the adoption room probably just did a double take. Read it again if you have to because it is true......Missy was adopted! Let's all do the happy dance and cross our fingers that it works out for our loved and often misunderstood kitty friend.

Thank you to Otto for giving Missy a chance! This fiesty little girl has been waiting for a home since August.

Just goes to show that there is a purr-fect home for every kitty if you are just patient enough to wait for it. :)

$2,000 grant from Animal Assistance Foundation!!!

We just received a $2,000 grant from Animal Assistance Foundation to use for the purchase of surgery packs . The packs will specifically be used for feral cats that are altered through our trap-neuter-return program.

Thank you Animal Assistance Foundation for this fantastic opportunity and for helping us to help the homeless cats in our community!
To learn more about Animal Assistance Foundation, please click on the following link:

http://www.aaf-fd.org/

Hooray for new cages courtesy of Fort Collins Animal Hospital!!

Yesterday the office manager at VCA Fort Collins Animal Hospital called us because they were getting rid of a bank of cages and they wondered if we would want it. Of course we jumped all over it, and today our fabulous volunteer, Randy Spence, went and picked the cages up and delivered them to the shelter.

They are used, but they are soooooo much better than the dog crates that we have been using in isolation for the last 3.5 years.

Thank you VCA Fort Collins Animal Hospital for the great donation!

You guys are wonderful for thinking of us!!

End of Year Numbers

I can't believe we are already in 2010. It is amazing how quickly time goes by. I spent a good part of the day yesterday figuring out our statistics in regards to the number of kitties in and out for 2009 as it is required for any PACFA registered shelter to report this information every year. Here are our numbers for 2009:

Intakes:
Strays & Owner Surrenders - 876
Transfers from other shelters - 41

Outcomes:
Adoptions - 854
Died/Euthanized - 29
Returned to Owner - 2

These numbers compared to last year tell me that we were able to take in an additional 219 kitties in 2009 versus 2008. This also tells me that we not only met, but surpassed our goal of increasing our intakes by 20% in 2009. Hooray!!! This is amazing considering the poor economy. I am so proud of our staff, volunteers, and supporters for making our goal achievable!

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. :)