This weekend was an awesome weekend for us! We did a lot of adoptions which means we will be pulling a lot of cats and dogs next week, and what could feel better than saving more animals? I know, saving even MORE animals! But I digress.
I, personally, didn't think that this weekend was going to be as wonderful as it turned out. Winter is always our slow time as people don't want to start a new dog walking program with their newly adopted or to begin potty training in the snow. In addition to that, I personally have always felt that days have their own individual tones. The tone that morning, for me, was a very unbalanced one which I thought would leave everyone a little bit "off" of their game. Being the loyal girl I am, I always tend to take criticism a little personally until I remember that the only criticisms we ever really receive at Paws and Prayers are just the result of a vague misunderstanding. So, I wanted to take the time to type something up to hopefully help out those that may not understand what it is that we do here. So, here it goes...
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| Pocahontas- PDA (heart condition) $3,115 |
Saturday morning we had received an anonymous phone call from a woman that was upset with our adoption fees. She was interested in a puppy whose fee is currently $300 (the highest that any of our fees will ever go). The woman believed that we were a scam and "knew" that she could get an AKC puppy for the same price as one of our beloved mutts. She felt that if we were trying to find good homes for our dogs, then we should be "selling" them for much cheaper. Of course, a valid point if we were actually selling our dogs. But we don't sell dogs, we adopt them out.
The thing about rescue is that you are rescuing animals that not everyone wants. You are taking in animals that not everyone can invest the time, money and love into. You are saving animals that others had already deemed "unadoptable." If we were taking in adorable, medically sound, behaviorally stable, youthful dogs, we probably could afford to simply give some dogs away. But we're not that rescue.
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Sky- Victim of double cherry eye
and an over-sized cone $700 |
Our rescue is the rescue that takes in the seniors, the dogs that jump at the cage and bark at you while at the pound, the sick, the frightened, the deformed, the truly left behind. These dogs do not find homes quickly. In the meantime, they live not in a kennel but in a loving foster home where they are given special one-on-one attention. Our fosters are provided toys, crates, food, treats, collars, leashes, bedding and just about anything else a cat or dog may need to live comfortably in their foster home environment. Fosters are also provided needed items for training and behavioral issues. All of these cost money. All of our fosters have these as needed.
Of course, that just covers the basics. We also medically update our cats and dogs. This includes the spay/ nueter, feline leukemia test, FIV vaccines, dewormer, rabies vaccines and monthly flea preventatives for our cats. For our dogs it's spay/ nueter, DA2PPvL vaccines (distemper, adenovirus, parvo, etc), rabies vaccine, bordetella vaccine (kennel cough), heartworm test, dewormer and monthly heartworm and flea prevention. Again, all of these cost money. Again, every animal needs and receives this care as age and health allows.
Now that is our basic medical updating. This is not including the 60+ dogs that tested positive for heartworm with each costing hundreds of dollars to treat. We had one foster dog that was in such advanced stages of heartworm that she had to forgo the treatment twice. Add that to our dogs with cherry eye, with double cherry eye, with ACL tears and the ones unlucky enough to contract viruses like parvo and pneumonia. Add those to the cats from hoarding cases with mange and ringworm, upper respiratory infections and coccidia. Add those to our seniors, like Olaf, who end up with cancer or skin tags or need bad teeth removed. Add that to the rare, but still present, mystery cases that cost thousands of dollars in exploratory surgeries to find out they have something one in a million dogs don't even contract. Medical miracles, these guys.
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Saps- born with a hernia, split open her
abdominal wall $405 |
Take all of that debt already accrued and add that to this little factoid. Our average cat costs about $90 to update medically. After that $90 is spent, we can still only adopt the average cat out for $60. That is a loss of $30 per cat with every adoption, on average. There is a reason that so many cats are euthanized on a daily basis both locally and afar. There is a reason we are one of few groups that take in cats, and that's the reason. Last year we adopted out 626 cats. If those numbers held true for every cat (which this isn't including special cases requiring more money or taking into account the kittens we were able to adopt out for $100) we would be looking at roughly an $18,000 deficit from simply having a cat program.
We can't adopt every cat out for $90. We can't adopt out a dog that has been treated for heartworm for $379. We cannot adopt out a dog that had pneumonia for $1,212. So how do we stay afloat?
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| Khadija- Pneumonia $1,212 |
1. We are a very lucky group with a lot of amazing supporters. We are not government funded so do rely heavily on donations. Our supporters donate and donate and donate until they have nothing left to give, and once they are at that point, they nag their friends and families to give until their loved ones grow tired of it and smack them a few times. Luckily, it does nothing to their momentum.
2. We have AMAZING fosters and volunteers. Anytime that we are at a loss for something, they dig deep, do some research, pull together and bring about whatever is needed. This can range from getting the beds for our kennels used during intake to getting us grants that will assist us through the year. From garnishing us attention through the Dr. Marty Becker Giveaway from last year to simply setting an amazing example of responsible pet-ownership in their community.
3. Our adoption fees. A lot of times we find ourselves doing a whole lot of balancing: a $300 puppy must help balance out the deficit of a $50 senior ($50 doesn't even cover an office visit). A $200 youth that required little care may help balance the cost of a dog that sadly did not make it. A $250 purebred may offset a $75 mongrel that no one is giving the time of day. A whole litter of healthy puppies may offset the cost of a whole other litter of unhealthy puppies that contracted parvo in transport, as we saw this summer. You never know what you're getting into with the animals you take in so the balancing act is never perfect. We never break even here.
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| JackJack- several teeth extractions $248 |
Those are the top three ways that we have been able to make it over the years. There is no magical cure or fantasy fairy dust that we sprinkle on these guys to get them into homes so that we can pocket the difference. It takes strategy, a lot of checkbook balancing and a lot of heart to save the animals we save. In the end, no one is lining their pockets here. I don't see a cent for all that I do. Of course, puppy breath and dog snuggling is of much more value to me anyways. :P
The one thing that I think does need to be mentioned again, in more detail, is that we do not sell pets, we adopt them out. A lot of people don't understand the difference so I'm going to explain that now...
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| Spot- Parvo and kennel cough $2,179 |
When you adopt a dog or cat from us, you're not just adopting that animal but you're adopting an ideal. Your adoption fee is paying to end pet overpopulation, to end euthanasia of healthy castaway animals, to help establish responsible pet ownership, but ultimately, to give animals that would not otherwise have it a second chance. By adopting from any great rescue, you are adopting all of these things and more. I think a wiggly butt or the purring of a kitten more than pays for itself, especially after considering the lifetime of your pet.
So, for some people, maybe $300 is a little steep. But those aren't our people. Our people are those out there making a difference. Our people speak for the animals with no voice. They're responsible pet owners and don't fund irresponsible breeding. They know the true worth of a pet, not as a symbol of status, but as a real companion; a loyal and loving companion. Our people wouldn't bat an eye at an adoption fee knowing what is behind it. And, hopefully, in reading this, we have found some more of our people today.
I am going to leave you with one last thought... If you have a rescued animal in your home right now, please go snuggle them. Imagine, if you will, that people didn't have compassion for animals. Imagine that $300 was too steep so there were no rescues, there were no mission statements, there wasn't any relief from their suffering. Where would your rescue pet be right now?
A sad fact is that, according to HSUS, 6-8 MILLION pets are put into shelters every year. Only
half of these are adopted—the other half, sadly, are euthanized because of overpopulation. Many of these euthanized pets were healthy and adoptable. Where do all these pets come
from? HSUS states that usually, these are not the result of stray animals breeding on the
street; rather, they are companion animals—pets—who owners have allowed to breed, either
purposely or accidentally. By performing spay or neuter, you can 100% prevent unwanted or
unintended breeding. Not only that, but by spaying/neutering your pet, you will help ensure
you won’t contribute to already overpopulated shelters. “The message of World Spay Day
is that by spaying or neutering your pet, by supporting spay/neuter efforts in the United
States and abroad, and by informing others of the importance of spay/neuter, you become an
important part of the solution!”
I don't even like animals. I certainly never thought I'd become this crazy cat lady who lets her pet lick her face at night. But I'll be damned if that little guy wasn't my absolute favorite thing in the world for a solid 14.5 months. He got me through life in Portsmouth when I wanted nothing more than to flee back to D.C. or Ohio. He gave me something to take care of while Nathan was away. He gave me infinite snuggles in exchange for food, water, & a few good belly rubs. When I petted that cat, I could almost feel the stress leaving my body; he was better & cuter than Xanax, but possibly even more addictive.
Wrong. Heartworm is not the kind of ailment you can simply treat and get rid of. The primary treatment in our area consists of two painful arsenic-based injections injected into the meaty muscle running down the spine. The injections are given a day apart and leave the animal's back sore for quite a while. Once the injections have been given, the animal must be on restricted activity for several weeks so that the body can absorb the dead worms without causing any further damage. A lot of the time, this means crate or kennel rest, which would drive most animals mad. If the animals are not kept on restricted activity, the worms can clot up and rupture arteries or find their way to the lungs wherein pulmonary failure is not uncommon. This treatment not only costs hundreds of dollars (over a grand at some clinics) but it causes both the animal and its loving family great stress. Any animal that must go through heartworm treatment more than once, often dies from complications of treatment, so it is important for them to stay on preventatives, even after having been treated for them in the past.
But that won't happen to you, right? Wrong again. Heartworm is becoming more and more prominent as the years go on. Heartworm was originally only reported in the southern most muggy states, like Texas, but the problem has traveled all across our country. There have even been reports in Alaska! Anywhere that there are mosquitoes there is a risk of heartworm. Ohio is especially vulnerable with the muggy summers and falls. The mild winter and early warm weather we have had over the past year means that the risk has increased exponentially. Many vets once thought mosquito season was the only time to keep animals on preventatives. Now, all vets seem to suggest year-round preventative to keep pets safe with the unpredictable weather patterns of the past few years.
The first dog that we had when my kids were old enough to participate was a stray that someone dumped. My kids encouraged her to “stay” by feeding her when I was at work. She was a mixed breed “mutt” (the best kind really). We ran ads in 3 different newspapers for weeks to see if someone would claim her, and when no one responded, we had a family meeting and decided to adopt her. Her name, fittingly enough, was “Finder”, because we did…. :o) And a few weeks after she was licensed and vetted, we found out she was pregnant and probably the reason she was abandoned. She was with us for 15 wonderful years and we loved her beyond measure. 
When we had to have Finder put down because of a cancer that couldn't be operated on, Maggie went into a grief that we couldn't console. She made herself sick and had many visits to our vet. At that time I did some research on “pet grief” and found that there hasn't been as much research done on it as human grief, but there were some experts that were kind enough to send me all sorts of wonderful articles to read. And then someone else intervened (God looks 
after the pets as much as He does us, I believe) and my son found a tiny puppy that someone had dumped on South Street in Akron. If you know the area, you know that it isn’t a very nice area and it’s a very busy street and here was this little 6 week old puppy that had no clue where it’s mommy was or why she was cold and hungry. When we adopted her, Maggie’s grief disappeared and Emme, as we called her, found the “mommy” that she so desperately needed. Once again we had 2 dogs. 
Throughout all these years with all these dogs, my kids were growing up and moving out, I had a wonderful new husband, who by the way was a dog lover, too, and our family adored the dogs we had. Then 2008 rolled around…. Maggie was 14 and Emme was 9 and they were healthy as can be, or so we thought. One day when my granddaughter was visiting and we were playing on the floor, Maggie came upstairs to see what was going on and her back legs gave way. She started flopping around on the floor trying to get her legs to do what they were supposed to do and her attempts to gain control of her legs were futile. I rushed her to our vet and Dr. Robyn found a huge tumor in the crease of her leg. I can’t tell you how many belly rubs I’d given this dog and I didn’t see it. The tumor had gotten so big that it now had taken the use of her back legs away and had spread to other organs in the meantime. All the while, we were unaware and I felt SO guilty and awful. Dr. Robyn gave her a shot and said if it was going to work we might be able to give her a little more time. So we took her home and we laid her on her favorite pillow and watched her like a hawk. She couldn’t walk, she wouldn't eat and we were devastated when a week later, our vet told us the most humane thing we could do was to put her out of her misery. That was another terribly hard trip to the vet. We brought her home and buried her under my favorite bush. That was a couple days before Thanksgiving of 2008 
Now we were back to one dog, Emme…. I was looking forward to being able to spend more time with her, concentrating on her and making her feel as special as she was. She was a little lethargic and we thought she was grieving, which I’m sure she was. She and Maggie had bonded from the first moment they sniffed each other. After a couple weeks of this, I decided to take her to the vet, just to get checked out and make sure she was okay. Dr. Robyn did a routine blood panel and physically she seemed fine. She told me to phone her back in a day for the results of the blood tests. My husband and mother and daughters kept telling me they were sure things were fine, that I was worrying for nothing. I kept telling myself they were right… I was praying they were right. The results of her blood work were shocking to all of us, to say the least. Emme was dying of kidney failure and we were absolutely devastated. On Christmas day, she crawled under the Christmas tree, turned around and laid down and looked at us as if to say “don’t forget what a gift I’ve been”. That was the last picture of her we ever got. She died at home with us 3 days after Christmas and was buried with Maggie under my favorite bush. Within 6 weeks we had lost both of our beloved dogs and I was inconsolable. 
and they bred boxers. Well, when their female boxer was ready to be bred, a sneaky lab got into their kennel and low and behold, the cutest boxer/lab mix puppies you've ever seen were born. I talked with the breeder and they were giving these puppies away. I told her I wanted a female (all my dogs had been females up to this point) and she said she only had one female left, but there were people coming to look at them over the weekend. I kept putting off seeing them, so my daughters talked me into it and I decided to go and look at them on Monday morning. The one female was still there and when we got there it was love at first “lick”. I picked her up and she licked my face and I knew…. “Marnie” had found her forever home. 
But I couldn’t stop looking at Paws and Prayers dog pictures. Jen would send me dogs to look at, but I kept coming back to the picture of “Alvin”. A male border collie/lab mix whose face I just couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of. But I kept thinking “he’s a male” and we don’t want any males”. Hmmm…. then why couldn’t I stop thinking about him. Every day I would go to Paws and Prayers website and look for him, thinking he probably was already adopted. And when he wasn’t, I felt relief…. I looked at his picture every day for a long time and finally decided maybe we should go look at him. So my husband and I took the trip and met “Alvin”. He was so shy, but so beautiful and he had this look on his face… the same look that haunted me in his picture. The look that to me said, “we belong together, please make me yours”. And that is exactly what we did. The next day, my daughter and I went to pick him up and the foster lady kept telling me about this “weird thing” that Alvin did with his mouth; that it looked like he was being vicious, but that wasn't what it was. She didn’t want me to see it and be fearful of him and in turn not want him anymore. We went to Petsmart to get his bed and some other things we’d need. He was quiet and shy, but at one point while we were sitting on the bench waiting on my daughter, he gave that wonderful “doggie sigh” and leaned against my leg and I knew we were going to be alright. And about the “weird thing” thing that he did with his mouth….. well, every time we go away and come back, I see that “weird thing” smiling in the door way at us and I’ve never mistaken it for anything other than what it was…. Finnegan SMILES at us! It’s amazing and it makes me laugh every time I see him do it.
We are so grateful to Paws and Prayers for working with us, for being patient with my grief and for waiting for us to find the right dog. Finnegan has been another wonderful gift and he and Marnie are the best of friends. They are the same age, within a month, and just have the most fun playing and romping around. We have been so blessed in the past with all the wonderful pets we’ve had. But I feel especially blessed by Paws and Prayers for their immense love for dogs and doing what they do. Uniting a family with the right dog is a special gift for so many people AND dogs. Sometimes when I look at Finnegan and he walks over to me with that ”grin” on his face, I know he feels as grateful to be here as we are grateful to have him. Thank you Paws and Prayers for every single thing you do to rescue and unite the dogs and cats that you do every single day! You are special, wonderful people and I applaud you for all the hard work you do!"
We have some amazingly, wonderful selfless volunteers! So selfless, in fact, that many people (no matter how long you've been following us) don't know any of our names! So we decided to start putting a face (and some back-story) to our names. This month's Volunteer of the Month is our beautiful Jenny R! You would not believe how many Jens/ Jennys/ Jennifers we have in our group but each one stands out in their own remarkable way. Read about Jenny R below and see why we love her so! :)
