Summerl Newsletter

ADOPTION CENTER

THE SCOOP

SUMMER 2010

Page 2

Junior volunteer Amanda Shelton sorts through items before the garage sale with her Aunt.

ADOPTION SUCCESS STORY: BRUTUS

FOSTER HOMES GIVE HOPE FOR THE HELPLESS

THE SCOOP

BUNNIES IN THE WILD MAY NOT NEED YOUR HELP

Page 3

FURRY FRIENDS AT THE FOURTH OF JULY

LONELY HEARTS CLUB MEMBER: BUDDY

9235 Swanson Blvd. Suite 2

Clive, IA 50325

515-222-0009

adoptions@furryfriendsrefuge.org

www..furryfriendsrefuge.org

WISH LIST

· Paper Towels

· Cat Litter

· Kitten and Cat Food

· Greens for bunnies (green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, cilantro, and parsley)

· Ceramic food or water bowls

· Dog bones (i.e. rawhides)

· Sturdy dog collars and leashes

· Cat litter boxes

· Cleaning supplies

· Copy paper

Furry Friends is also looking for secure locations for donation canisters. Please contact the shelter to help!

ADOPTION CENTER

A SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Adoption hours:

Mon 6pm-8:30pm

Tues/Thurs 12pm-4pm

Wed./Fri. 4pm-8:30pm

Sat/Sun 11am-5pm

SERVING CENTRAL IOWA’S HOMELESS ANIMALS

· Wellmark

· University West Pet Clinic

· Starch Animal Hospital

· Tri-County Vet Clinic (Pella)

· Petsmart in Clive

· Petsmart Charities

· Animal Protection and Education

· Diane Shelton and the garage sale helpers

· All of our helpers on the monthly calendar

· Our foster homes

· Chad and Ruth Thoreson and the Petsmart volunteer crew

· The many other volunteers and donors who make a difference in the lives of animals each day

give him the love and devotion he deserves. Weighing in at about 7 pounds, Buddy is the best guard dog a person could find. He is not comfortable with strangers and takes a couple hours to get used to them. If you ignore him for the first while, however, he quickly warms up to you. After the initial wariness, Buddy is one of

Buddy is no longer a stranger to Furry Friends—he originally came to us in 2009 and was adopted to a home who vowed to love him and care for him responsibly. He was found running around in the cold and his adopters never came looking for him and had moved away. He is now in foster care and looking for a home that will

the sweetest dogs you could meet. He is the ultimate snuggler—he would love to spend all day with someone on the couch, followed by spending the night in bed under the covers. He loves cats and can get along with large or small dogs (though he will tell a larger dog when he has had enough). He is a truly loyal companion and a great bed-warmer on colder nights!

to be brought to the trailer mid-parade for a break) it was a great opportunity to spread the word about Furry Friends as show off the wonderful dogs, including our sweet pitbulls, that are available for adoption.

Tank, owned by Jesse and Amy Day and Chance, their Furry Friends foster enjoy the view of the crowd at the West Des Moines parade while Austin Day prepares to throw candy.

Furry Friends volunteers, alumni, and current adoptables celebrated the Fourth of July holiday by walking in the West Des Moines parade. Volunteers Amy and Jesse Day coordinated a trailer for the day and drove their vehicle decked out in Furry Friends messages.

Although the parade was very long (some of the dogs needed

As the weather gets warmer, there are many new litters of young bunnies and many people who become frantic when they find that their dog, cat, or child has disturbed the nest. While many of us want to rush to help these little creatures, unless the babies are cold or obviously injured the best thing to do is to leave them alone. Mother bunnies only nurse their babies for about five minutes a day and usually come around at night or very early in the morning. Even if you don’t see

the mother, most of these babies are

not abandoned. Never assume that the mother has been killed or has orphaned her babies. Put a piece of string over the nest or make a pattern out of grass on top of the nest and check back in 24 hours to see if it has been disturbed. If it has, the mother has come back to the nest. Though humans should avoid touching wild animals to avoid causing stress, the myth that a mother rabbit will reject any baby touched by a human is untrue. If a baby rabbit has ears that are standing straight up and does not have a white

mark on top of its head it is old enough

to survive without mom.

While it is out of caring and concern that most people take in baby rabbits, their chance of survival when raised by an experienced wildlife rehabilitator is often less than 10%. Leaving them to be raised by mom is the kindest thing to do. Only remove babies that are cold to the touch or have visible injuries find your nearest wildlife rehabilitator at www.iowadnr.gov/cs/files/wildliferehab.pdf or call the small animal hospital at Iowa State University.

and adoptability. In the cases of the many young kittens we handle, many of these little ones simply would not survive without the extra care they receive in a foster home.

Many of our volunteers foster animals throughout

Particularly during kitten season, our foster homes play a vital role in Furry Friends’ adoption program. These special volunteers provide essential socialization, medical care, and love to increase the animal’s chance of survival

the year and constantly open their homes to animals in need. Thank you to everyone who has welcomed an extra furry friend into their home. Our adoption program would not be as successful without you!

For the second year in a row, Diane Shelton organized and held a garage sale for Furry Friends Refuge. Diane along with other volunteers came up with items and held the sale over a weekend in late April. Though there were some issues with the weather, the sale was still a big success raising over $1000 for Furry Friends.

Thank you to everyone who participated.

The Gunnare family adopted their dog, then Raja, from Furry Friends at the end of 2009. Now named Bella, they celebrated her first birthday by throwing a party for their special family member. Friends both two and four legged celebrated Bella’s birthday and at the party

the Gunnare’s collected donations for the shelter animals. What a creative way to support the animals!

Orientation Dates

1st Saturday of every month 9am-10:30am

3rd Sunday of every month 1pm-2:30pm

July 18 1pm

Aug. 7 9am

Aug. 15 1pm

Sept. 4 9am

Sept. 19 1pm

Thanks to volunteer Ruth Thoreson, we can stay up to date on shelter happenings and happy endings with our new facebook page. As social media becomes more and more popular, having our new page helps us to stay in touch with our volunteers when they

are unable to be at the shelter and gives our adopters an avenue to share the stories that we all love to hear. There are many updates of Furry Friends alumni along with pictures of them in their new homes. If you have not checked it out yet, find the facebook widget

on our homepage and click on it. If you are not on facebook you are still able to follow all of the information posted. If you have your own website, add a link to our facebook page or to our website to help spread the word! If you need assistance, call the shelter for help or e-mail bgagne@furryfriendsrefuge.org.

FACEBOOK KEEPS VOLUNTEERS AND ADOPTERS CONNECTED

adoption center, have a better set-up for dogs, storage on-site, and a dedicated area to perform surgeries for our animals and community members in need. Furry Friends is proud to announce we will be starting a capital campaign to build a shelter that will meet those needs. The proposed site is a two building property in West Des Moines. One will house the adoption center while the other building will be geared towards our spay/neuter and humane education programs. If you want to get involved in this exciting campaign, please contact Britt at bgagne@furryfriendsrefuge.org

As most of our volunteers and visitors can readily see, at Furry Friends we make really good use of the space we have at the shelter. Small animal cages are often stacked and communal cat rooms are often filled to near their 12 cat limit. While we pride ourselves on always using our resources as best as we possibly can, it is also apparent that we need more space.

Despite expanding a number of times at our current location, our need for space has outgrown the space we have available to us at our current leased site. Even with the newly constructed dog

room that provides roomier accommodations for our larger canines, we do not have a safe area where dogs can run and play off-leash. The tight quarters also pose a health risk to our animals as it allows germs and bacteria to be more easily transferred from animal to animal.

The solution? A new site where we can spread out the

FURRY FRIENDS GEARS UP FOR CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

Grant adopted Brutus, a boxer mix pup:

“Brutus is doing great. He goes everywhere I go, LOVES car rides, and can run and run and run and run and seemingly never gets tired. He’s also as affectionate of a dog as I’ve ever seen.. ….we do great together.

Life takes on a whole different outlook with him around. I’ve attached a couple of photos…...one is of him in my vehicle during a 10 hour road trip back home to Ohio. He never helps drive….”