Sunday, May 27, 2012

When the Alternative is to Let Them Die What Do You Do?


“The most frustrating thing is that I can’t save them all,” says Girl, “No, I can’t.  But I can save that one.  That’s gotta be worth something.”
Fostering puppies is a three-generation effort, to which Courtney, her daughter Girl, and granddaughter Caroline dedicate themselves with passion.  Since they brought their first litter home in February last year, they count at least 60 puppies that they have saved.
It all began with the Steeplechase Ball in 2011, when FOTAS was the beneficiary of the event’s generosity.  Trying to better understand FOTAS, Girl visited the County Shelter and was overwhelmed by how inadequate it was.  Wanting to help, and having many of her own dogs, it was suggested that she try fostering.
There’s an old kennel under Courtney’s house where her husband used to raise hunting dogs.  Cool in summer, simple to heat in winter, with its own segregated pen attached, it offers a perfect setup for a dedicated foster home for the most vulnerable occupants of the Aiken County Animal Shelter.
“I’ve rescued dogs for years,” Courtney said.
“We can do this,” Girl’s said, thinking that it would give her teenage daughter a chance to experience puppies. 
Living right next door to her Grandmother, Caroline jumped right in.  She was with the puppies before school, after school, and even while she did homework.  One time the pups actually did tear it up.  She even wrote an essay trying to persuade her classmates to adopt or foster. 
In the beginning, the foster-trio was able to eventually place their plump healthy puppies with friends.  That list of available vacancies necessarily dwindled.  Now, many of their fosters end up on FOTAS transfers to northern no-kill shelters.  But the trio brought a litter to Woofstock, and they have been known to take them to Petsmart adoption days, trying to place them in good homes.
Fostering is definitely a labor of love.  Courtney cooks rice with chicken or beef, to build up the puny ones.  Caroline keeps clean newspaper down, and her mom administers the meds.  Occasionally, they use a private vet, but it is not required.  The shelter staff backs up their effort with necessary supportive interventions. 
If you think you might like to try fostering puppies or kittens, a process is now in place to make it as easy and rewarding as possible.  You fill out an application and have a simple home inspection to demonstrate adequate facilities.  You do not need to go to the shelter. 
Nor do you need to start with a mother and babies, or a litter.  There are plenty of “lonely-only-ones” who need a good healthy start to have a chance.  Think of these babies, no mother, no litter-mates, alone in that environment.
Yes, it can be hard to finally let them go, but when the alternative is to let them die, what do you do?
The crazy numbers coming in now are mostly puppies and kittens.  Without foster homes to keep them healthy, they stand almost no chance of surviving.   
FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”


For May 14th – 20th 2012  

Dogs taken in: 84
Cats taken in: 88

Dogs adopted: 11
Cats adopted: 12

Dogs euthanized: 76
Cats euthanized: 77
NELLIE -6 week old female kitten. Well socialized and quite a cutie pie!
Half-Price Adoption Fee! $35.00

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” 

About 3 months old. Two girls and two boys. Cuddly cute, and ready to learn good things! ADOPTION FEE IS HALF-PRICE  $35.00

Monday, May 21, 2012

There are Many Ways and Many Reasons to Participate



Let’s start with some really fabulous news: April 2012, FOTAS volunteers, County Shelter staff and rescue partners working together saved 132 dogs and cats through adoptions and transfers to no-kill shelters.  The bad news is that the euthanasia rate was still 86% for the month.
FOTAS, as the non-profit animal advocacy and fund-raising arm for Aiken County Animal Services, is working nonstop to involve the entire county in a three-pronged approach to addressing this problem:  community awareness of animal issues; providing an adequate, healthy, humane county shelter; and, animal population control through spay/neuter.
Rescuing 132 animals in a single month is a signature achievement, but when nearly 400 animals are coming through the door, it can feel like Sisyphus pushing that proverbial rock up the hill only to have it roll back and his struggle to repeat.  Sisyphus was condemned to this futility for eternity; FOTAS believes there are realistic remedies for our pets, that is, if enough of us care.
Shortly, we will officially launch a capital campaign to raise the approximate half-million dollars still needed to build our new county shelter.  We are going to pull out all the stops over the next year or two to make this happen, because this is our best last chance to do this right. 
FOTAS foresees the opportunity for everyone throughout the county to have a stake in this venture, and to leave a lasting legacy far into the future: just who we are, and what we stand for, when it comes to responsibility and compassion for our animals.  As we seek to enroll Aiken County citizens in making a contribution, FOTAS endeavors will be hard to miss.
On Saturday, May 26th, we march in the Memorial Day Parade.  Herbie Brown, our community designed, magnificently renovated ’79 Airstream Landyacht, recently converted into a climate- controlled Animal Rescue Waggin’, will be making his Aiken debut.  Herbie will be the centerpiece of FOTAS’ demonstration of appreciation for our fallen veterans, accompanied by seven special adoptable dogs from our county shelter with their volunteer handlers. 
Three weeks later, on June 16th, Herbie will be the “Kitten Caboose,” full of adoptable kittens at FOTAS’ first “Breakfast at FATZ for the County Shelter Cats.”  Tickets are already on sale through our volunteer network, at the Aiken County Shelter, Bone-i-Fide Bakery and Aiken Saddlery.  We even have commemorative no-show “bookmarks” for our fans who can’t make it to FATZ’ yummy breakfast.
The breakfast is dedicated to our cats, because on November 10th the second annual Woofstock Festival will feature the dogs in a community celebration full of surprises, and bigger and better than ever.  Stay tuned.
In between events, we will be present in other meaningful ways: adoption days, our annual meeting, and Steeplechase in the fall.  It all brings us closer to our vision: Aiken County Animal Shelter never has to euthanize an adoptable pet. 
We are counting on your support.  Volunteer.  Walk dogs.  Raise money.  Foster puppies, kittens, or transfer candidates (short term).  Promote spay/neuter.  Join us.  
FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”


For the month of April 2012  

Dogs taken in: 243
Cats taken in: 141

Dogs adopted: 70
Cats adopted: 31

Dogs euthanized: 204
Cats euthanized: 125

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week”

DOOLITTLE – 2 yrs. This boy is a beauty and 
so affectionate for only $35!
WIGGLES – 5 year old boxer mix, another  loving dog longing for a home





Monday, May 14, 2012

Paws for a Cause is a Great Way to Come Together


If you can get seven teenagers to a track at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning, it must be a good thing…or an important thing…a really fun thing, or all of the above.
It was.

Paws for Cancer held its 13th annual walk to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society’s fight against the dread disease, and it created a new opportunity for special people to come together to support an important cause.

Katie organized Team Lula for a second year, and Valerie, coordinator for South Aiken High’s Serteens, saw a chance to include the Aiken County Animal Shelter’s adoptable dogs in the event. 

Delighted to fund the cause, FOTAS, and the  Serteens, joined Team Lula with 4 dogs and a wagon-load of puppies!

Mary Lou, a FOTAS founder, has been working with Serteens from the beginning, and loves it.  “They are so responsible, so polite, and fun, and they are so good with the dog,” she said, “I've known a couple of these kids since they were freshman and had to be driven to everything, now they drive themselves.  They are so committed.”
She also provided the gardening wagon for the pups.

Susan, a teacher, joined Team Lula.  Susan is super-dedicated to FOTAS and the County Shelter.  She accompanies the Serteens one Saturday a month at the shelter, and then comes many additional Saturdays with her own daughter to volunteer.

County senior Vet Tech, Sandy Larsen, brought the 4 dogs, two small and two large; and 3 puppies, that she had carefully chosen, to participate in the event.  That they were so well-behaved demonstrates the magnificent work that our FOTAS volunteers do with the adoptable dogs.

For example, Sasha, a lab/hound mix came to the shelter as a court case, so scared when she arrived that she just cowered and trembled.  Sasha walked the Odell Weeks track, on her leash, wagging her tail.  She is a beautiful dog who will be featured on channel 12 tomorrow morning at 6:20 am.

Of course, the puppies stole the show.  One of them had so much energy it kept scrambling over the rails of the FOTAS Puppy Wagon. 

Those puppies stole little hearts, and even challenged a Grandma’s devotion when her granddaughter fell in love with the little black fur-ball.  They already had one dog and Grandma knew that puppies, and promises to care for them, mostly do not last.

Big dogs, small dogs, and the puppy wagon all did the mile walk with the Serteens.
 
Also, a Girl Scout troop working on a community service badge was at the event picking up trash.  The busy girls proudly assembled for a small ad-hoc ceremony and presented FOTAS with a $100 donation raised from their cookie drive.  Thank you!

Although no county dogs were adopted that day, we were proud of them, and of our volunteers.  It was a great day in the Aiken Community with our Community Shelter doing its part. 

FOTAS welcomes all help.  We especially need temporary foster homes.
  
FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”


For April 30th thru May 6th 2012  

Dogs taken in: 58
Cats taken in: 34

Dogs adopted: 5
Cats adopted: 7

Dogs euthanized: 48
Cats euthanized: 34

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” 


All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip!
MOZEY – 5 year old gorgeous female Labrador.   
This special dog is longing for a home. Only $35!

 

BUZZ – 3 yrs. He is a beauty, a purr-fect
 adornment for a window sill for only $20!  

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Herbie Brown Represents the Best of Who WE Are!



Herbie Brown’s story is still unfolding.  A 1979 Airstream Landyacht , Herbie has been recently transformed into FOTAS’ state-of-the-art Rescue Waggin’.  How he got his name, his amazing career change, and what he will be doing, are all long stories, but considering what he will be up to in the next couple of months, well worth highlighting.
For over 25 years, the travel trailer belonged to Bert Davis’ uncle, Herb Brown, who traveled among Airstream enthusiasts as far away as Mexico, and who ultimately lived out his final years as a widower calling his beloved RV home.
“My uncle loved this trailer and he liked to help people,” Bert said, and then he did everything he could to help FOTAS get the project going.  Bert was so generous that we named the trailer after his uncle.
Herbie Brown now sports thank-you notes to his major benefactors on each rear corner.  The first are only initials of anonymous donors who funded the project.  Then he acknowledges Ernie Wolf who assembled the first crew for gutting, and basic electrical work.  There’s Robert McBrayer, who spent a few weeks with
metal patches, silicone, primer, more primer, paint and plywood securing the windows, sealing leaks, covering wheel wells, installing subflooring, priming and painting the interior a brilliant fun yellow.
Ken Simmonds did the most exquisite job of laying vinyl on the floors and up the walls that you’d think royalty would be traveling, not dogs.  Eric Figueroa of Premier Metals created the secure generator housing on the trailer’s fork so the animals could have light, music, and climate-controlled travel, winter or summer, wherever they go.
Don Bush was the brilliant craftsman who designed, constructed, and installed the four pens and their wire mesh doors.  It was no small task to get the wood to accommodate the irregular curve of aluminum interior walls designed like an airplane fuselage. 
Anthony Goehl, a recent transplant to Aiken, primed, painted, and sealed the pens so that animals who travel can find clean, healthy accommodations for every voyage.
Herbie is ever grateful to Charlie at Tyler Tire who was under Herbie in a downpour; to Sherwin Williams for the advice, primer and paint; and to Ron at Signworks who designed the messaging on Herbie’s exterior so that wherever Herbie goes FOTAS’ message will be very clear: “Rescue, Adopt, Spay/Neuter & Love!”

Soon, Herbie will be re-stationed between the C.A.T.S building and the main county shelter waiting to be called into service.  On May 26th, he will be the star of Friends of the Animal Shelter’s march in Aiken’s Memorial Day Parade, along with volunteers with adoptable county shelter dogs. 
On Saturday, June 16th, we hope Herbie will be the “Kitten Caboose” at FATZ CafĂ©, with Senior Vet Tech Sandy Larsen offering adoptable kitties at FOTAS’ first “Breakfast at FATZ for County Shelter Cats!”
Be proud, Aiken County, we are a community making a difference!  Just follow our latest miracle, Herbie Brown, who reflects the best of who we are!

  FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”


For April 23rd thru 29th 2012  

Dogs taken in: 75!
Cats taken in: 37

Dogs adopted: 14
Cats adopted: 7

Dogs & Cats euthanized: Way too many!

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” 

WILLOW – An eager beagle, 4 yrs and 27 lbs. She will entertain and accompany many good walks.  $70

 

GYPSY – Gorgeous gal! A purrfect companion who doesn’t need to be walked! $35