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?
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