Mutt Strut at Woofstock for the New County Shelter

Mutt Strut?  Yes, it is an opportunity to do something fun with your family, especially the four-legged members, while making a big contribution to Aiken County’s homeless animals. All of the funds from this year’s Woofstock Festival and the Mutt Strut will go directly to FOTAS’ Capital Campaign for our new Aiken County Animal Shelter.

We will tell you how to get involved (even if you won’t actually march in the Mutt Strut Parade), but let’s look at what can happen if you walk a dog for a cause.

Last April FOTAS participated in a similar event in Columbia.  The fundraiser was for a new facility that offers high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter.  FOTAS had an opportunity to compete with other area rescue groups and win thousands of dollars worth of spay/neuter surgeries.  All we had to do was find sponsors for a dog walk.

FOTAS volunteers contacted other FOTAS members who contacted friends and families all over the world to sponsor their participation in the event. 

FOTAS volunteers walked their own dogs; they walked shelter adoptable dogs; and, they had enough people supporting their efforts to win the competition, and that was just the beginning.

The funds awarded provided FOTAS with an opportunity to launch a pilot for a targeted, subsidized spay/neuter program that we call SNAP: Spay-Neuter Assistance Program.  Due to the need to transport the dogs and cats to Columbia, the Wagener-Salley area was chosen for the pilot.

The project began August 1^st, and before all those SNAP funds are exhausted, nearly 100 animals will have been spayed or neutered.  The number of unwanted cats and dogs that this project will prevent is almost incalculable, especially given that only two intact dogs, plus just two intact cats, can conceivably produce nearly half-a-million offspring in only 7 years. 

It all began with a dog walk.

While SNAP addresses the prevention end of Aiken County’s unwanted animal population, the obligation to collect and house the overwhelming number of homeless cats and dogs that already exist is the other end.  The current County Animal Shelter has no humane way to house them all, or, in spite of our best efforts, to rescue most.  More than 7 out of 10 die there. 

Help is on the way with FOTAS’ Capital Campaign.  The Woofstock Festival is our signature fundraiser and it begins with a dog walk called The Mutt Strut.  All of the proceeds from the Mutt Strut and the Woofstock Festival will go to the Capital Campaign to be invested in our extraordinary new Aiken County Animal Shelter.

Here’s how to participate in the Mutt Strut:

Register to walk, or to be a virtual walker. There are forms on line and around the area.  The fee includes entrance to Woofstock. Get people to sponsor you and win prizes.  Raise $300 and enter a drawing for a 64G iPad.  Get a dog, and come out on Nov. 10^th.

It  all begins with a dog walk, and then good things can happen. Join us, please.

  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”

September 10^th thru 16^th   

Received:  61 dogs and 29 cats

Adopted:     5 dogs and   1 cat

Put down: 16 dogs and 33 cats

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” 
So much LOVE for so little!

BOOTSIE - 

BOOTSIE – Shepherd mix.  Young and smart enough to be your best friend!  $70 is a deal!

TINKERBELL -  13 wks. Female tabby.  Big eyes.  Cute as she looks  $35 for kitty, purr-FREE!

 

 

 

*All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip 

Wizard of Oz Star Toto to Lead Woofstock Mutt Strut

It was a gutsy move to use a real dog as Toto in Aiken Kidney Benefit’s 2012 production of the Wizard of Oz; more so, given the director, Bradley Watts, didn’t have a dog to play the part.

The Aiken Kidney Benefit is a local charity for the benefit of patients with kidney failure in our area.  Each fall they produce a Broadway musical as a fundraiser.  This year’s production had Bradley heading out to the Aiken County Shelter to see if there was a dog he could cast as Toto.

“I am going to ask the stupidest question,” he warned the shelter staff before telling them he needed a dog to play Toto. Did they have one?

Of course they did, a dog called Trapper.

Trapper went up on Facebook for others to see if he could be Toto.  The dialysis nurse and costume lady, Diane, saw Trapper and immediately fell in love.  “He will be my dog,” she said, and adopted the star of the show.

Once they had cast Toto, they used him to pick the actress for Dorothy who he took to right away.  But he also liked the Wicked Witch of the West, who is supposed to be their enemy. 

Toto loves his job.  He loves acting classes.  He is waiting to play Sandy in “Annie.” His trainer at Petsmart says that he is the smartest rescue she has ever seen.  

TOTO At Practice For The Wizard of Oz

But anyone who has ever found their perfect dog in our profoundly imperfect County Shelter knows that Toto is in good company when it comes to being very special, and homeless.

So, in addition to being a star for the next two weekends, Toto is also becoming a celebrity ambassador for the animals he left behind.

The Wizard of Oz opens next weekend and FOTAS hopes you will come out to see one of the eight performances in the two-weekend run.

FOTAS will be there to promote adoptions of the dogs and cats currently at the County Shelter.  We are also asking for food donations: dog, cat, puppy, and kitten food.  And we will be promoting our first-ever Mutt Strut.

The Mutt Strut is a competitive fund-raiser to be held in conjunction with the Woofstock Festival of Mutts and Music on November 10^th.  Woofstock celebrates our canine friends.  It is a fun family affair featuring food, vendors, competitions, demonstrations and music. 

The Mutt Strut will kick off the festival as a grand dog parade where people and their dogs can march, proud of their contribution to a great cause.  Raise $300 and you can win a 64G iPad!  All of the proceeds go to the new Aiken County Shelter.

Toto and Diane have graciously volunteered to lead the Mutt Strut; and, who knows, we may even see Dorothy, the Wicked Witch and other local celebrities. 

These are two important community causes joining up to provide entertainment and a reason to give.  For more information about either event, go to: www.aikenkidneybenefit.com and the FOTAS website: WOOFSTOCK

See you there!

 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” 

August	2011	2012
Animals Rec’d	478	512
Adoptions	63	67
Transfers	68	20
Euthanized	430	44

 Aiken County Animal Shelter      

“Pets of the Week!”

So much LOVE for so little $$!

 

CHANCE – Yellow Lab mix. 1 yr. 

Go for a run!   

 $70 includes the workout partner!

HOLLY  –  3.5yrs.  Serene and affectionate, 

a soothing companion.  

 $35, purr-FREE!

WRDW Channel 12 Offers a Weekly Opportunity to Shelter Pets

What a joy for Sandy Larsen, Senior Vet Tech at the Aiken County Animal Shelter, to arrive at work early on Monday morning, and hear on the answering machine, “I saw this dog on channel 12.  This is my number…. I got to have this dog.”

It starts her week off right. 

Sandy has been getting up at 4am every Monday morning for almost five years now so that she can give one more animal a chance to find a forever home. 

WRDW, Channel 12 has a segment called , “Take Me Home” featuring adoptable pets in need of good homes.  Our Aiken County Shelter pets star on Monday mornings at about 6:20 am.

You may see a cat, dog, puppy or kitten.  Sandy says that she tries to pick the animal that has been there the longest and that has the personality for this opportunity.  She has learned to avoid the hyperactive ones.

“Once I took this young black lab, and he got so excited when he saw Tim, the meteorologist, that he ripped the button off Tim’s jacket.”

Although there has been recurring turnover among the anchor women, Tim and Sandy have been doing this spot together since the beginning.  One time Tim did the whole weather segment with the kitten Sandy brought on his shoulder.

On Saturdays, Sandy and Denise, one of FOTAS’ volunteer coordinators, have a game they play in anticipation of Monday’s potential “star.”

“Who are you going to take this week?” asks Denise.

Sandy picks a candidate.  More often than not, that animal will be adopted before the shelter closes on Saturday, and Sandy must choose again.  It is her turn to spend time one-on-one with an animal.

“It may sound crazy,” she says, “But you’d be amazed at how much I can learn about a pet in the time it takes me to get them out of the kennel, walk them to do their business, ride to the station, and then wait to go on.”

She learns if they are housebroken, how they do on a leash, how they ride in a vehicle, and how they deal with strangers and new situations.  She appears with them like a proud coach.

The whole process pulls at Sandy’s heart.  She wonders if they think they are going home when they get in the truck.  She recalls  a dog called Amanda, “She sat close, put her paw on my lap, and just looked out the window the whole way.”

Sandy swears that when these animals go on TV it is like they know it is their time to show what a wonderful pet they can be. But you don’t have to take her word for it.

Go to WRDW.com, go to “Community” and then click the drop down “Take Me Home.”  You may still see Uggy offering his belly in the lower right corner of the screen. 

Sandy and the shelter staff love to hear, “I saw this dog on Monday morning; do you still have it?” Check it out. 

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”

September 3^rd thru 9^th   

Received: 57 dogs and 30 cats

Adopted: 7 dogs and 3 cats

Put down: 31 dogs and 36 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter     “Pets of the Week!”                            

So much LOVE for so little $$!

ANNABELLE-Yellow lab mix. 4 yrs. This dog is a doll on and off leash. $70 includes the love!

 

 

ORLANDO  –  1yr.  This elegant gentleman will be a soothing companion.  $35, purr-FREE!

 

*All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip