FOTAS Gives Thanks for Many Things

This year, Friends of the Animal Shelter have much for which we can be grateful.

We are deeply indebted to individuals, families, neighborhoods, schools, clubs, and communities throughout Aiken County who have given generously of their time and money to help the animals at the County Shelter. 

We are grateful for our local business community’s ongoing support.  Talent, expertise, professional services and resources, and dollars have been invested over and over in our cause.

FOTAS is a 100% volunteer organization, and we are so very grateful for that spirit which moves our volunteers to go out to the shelter day after day, week after week, to assure our adoptable dogs get the attention and exercise they need; to spend time with the cats and kittens; so our homeless pets can be seen as potentially great family members.

Our volunteers plan and execute fund-raisers like Woofstock, Breakfast at FATZ, the FOTAS Hunter Pace at Three Runs Plantation, golf tournaments, and special “giving parties.”  We have clubs like Future Farmers, Girl Scouts, Serteens and NJROTC who dedicate themselves to advancing the FOTAS Mission to help provide a Community Shelter in which we can all take pride.  We are so thankful for all they do.

We have a state-of-the-art website because of a volunteer.  We have broadcast email capabilities, keeping our membership 1000-strong up to date on our progress, special needs, and involvement opportunities – all because of a volunteer. 

We are blessed with rarely talented volunteers who understand database management, how to maintain financial accounts, how to recruit and organize the right help at the right time, and those who can appreciate contributions in just the right way.

We are profoundly grateful for the volunteers who take on litter after litter of abandoned puppies and kittens, who find transfer partners at no-kill shelters, and who see that some very lucky dogs and cats find their way to forever homes.

We have volunteers who are developing targeted spay/neuter programs across the county, who make the calls, who help the owners, rescuers, businesses do the right thing and spay/neuter as many dogs and cats as they can in their communities.  We are so very thankful for all their combined efforts.

We are blessed with county staff and county officials who have joined us in one of the finest public-private partnerships ever seen in creating a better community.  For the officers in the field and shelter staff dealing with daily heartbreak, to county administration and officials determined to find the optimal combination of resources and outcomes, we are thankful.

Perhaps there is nothing for which we in the FOTAS family can be more grateful than the miraculous creatures whose cause we champion day in and day out, our pets.  Dog lover or cat lover, we know the loyalty, affection, entertainment they bring us. 

If we let them, our pets can teach us about tolerance, patience, forgiveness, honesty, and love.  We are thankful always for them, and the opportunity to live up to their image of 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”

November 12^th thru 18^th   

Received: 37 dogs and 46 cats!

Adopted: 8 dogs and 1 cats

Euthanized: 48 dogs and 22 cats

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

TIGER – +/-1 yr, 34 lbs, He has stripes.  He is great on a leash.  Super friendly and only $35

 

SHADOW – Golden boy.  3 months old. Lovely, quiet personality. Purr-fect gentleman! $35

 

Site Prep for the New County Shelter is a Family Affair

“We design everything from the ground down,” is how Tilden Hilderbrand sums up the work he and his partner, Todd Hass, do as a surveying and civil engineering firm here in Aiken.

In fact, if one were to walk across Aiken County, you would be hard pressed not to cross a site that they have worked on, especially if you include Citizens Park or the tennis courts at Odell Weeks, or the more than 350 jobs they have done for the Aiken County Schools, People’s Bank, Holiday Inn, Cedar Creek, and the new Fresh Market project on Whiskey Road. 

However, it is unlikely that any undertaking in the realms of site development connects to more hearts these days than the one on the corner of May Royal and Wire Road, the site of the new Aiken County Animal Shelter.  And for Tilden Hilderbrand, it is a special labor of love. Here’s why.

Three years ago this month, eight stalwart FOTAS volunteers turned out for our very first public event, “Trick-or-Treat on Newberry Street.”  Among the new organization’s representatives were Tilden Hilderbrand’s wife, Susan, and his two son’s Alex and Seth (pictured here with our Cat-of-the-Week).

 Susan and the boy’s commitment to the adoptable animals at the County Shelter predated FOTAS.  Nearly every day after school, they took pictures of the adoptable dogs and cats and faithfully put them up on the website, Petfinder.com.  That October, 2009, the Hilderbrand boys went far beyond service to FOTAS in wearing our paper maché mascot costumes. 

FOTAS also came to rely on Susan for her creative displays of adoptable animals at events (like the Wizard of Oz), and the County Shelter signs in True Value Hardware, Stoplight Deli and Bone-i-Fide Bakery downtown.  Without her beautiful photographs, people who would never go to the shelter might not know that the animals or the shelter, were even there.

Now Tilden Hilderbrand has joined the family in service to a project more than a decade on the minds of too few who knew the need.  And when you are designing a Public Animal Shelter, “everything from the ground down,” gets at the essentials of the project.

The four-plus acre lot is a rolling woodlot, and the architect working with the county and FOTAS, was determined to keep as much of the wooded park-like feel that the project design could realistically encompass. 

Hass and Hilderbrand’s expertise will save many trees; they will determine the minimum earth to be moved; how the facility will tie into utilities; they assure the accuracy of the site footprint; and, who to see for what essential permits. 

Every single person connected with this project understands how important every dollar saved is to its ultimate success, and no one more than Hilderbrand and Hass. 

Once again, Aiken County owes a debt of gratitude to this firm, and once again FOTAS is deeply thankful to the Hilderbrand family.

Brochures depicting the new County Shelter and opportunities to contribute will be available soon.  Get excited; get involved! 

  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 24^th thru 30^th   

Received: 30 dogs and 60 cats!

Adopted: 16 dogs and 4 cats

Put down: 22 dogs and 47 cats

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

SERGIO – 1 yr. loveable Lab mix needs to go, so he is on sale for $35.  Great deal for a great dog.

MOMI (3yrs) and Tilden’s son, SETH – The cat is gorgeous.  She is yours for only $35.    

 

 

    

 

 

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

 

                         

 

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 

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

Plans for the New County Shelter Beckon County-wide Involvement

The crowning achievement of the public/private partnership between Aiken County and FOTAS will certainly be the completion of the new Aiken County Animal Shelter planned for next year. 

Three busy years have passed since FOTAS was founded by three women seeking to make a difference in the welfare of thousands of animals received and destroyed each year at the Aiken County Shelter.  The organization’s progress has been huge, a direct result of a magical teamwork that evolved among the players: County and Shelter Staff, Council, FOTAS volunteers, community groups, businesses, and local governments.

What began as an initiative to address dire conditions at our grossly inadequate, understaffed, underfunded shelter, has  become the very essence of what Gandhi meant when he said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” 

Just substitute “county” for “nation” and you capture the spirit of the FOTAS/ Aiken County team.

Last Wednesday, FOTAS volunteers sat down with the architects from Macmillan, Pazdan and Smith to talk about how to convey critical elements of the project to the public.  As the essential needs of this shelter building project take shape, FOTAS and the architects are reaching for broad community support through the Capital Campaign necessary to complete it.

The conversation among those at the table last Wednesday was already well-versed in the barebones, pragmatic obligations of animal control law.  The challenge then became adding principles of responsibility and morality to animal welfare in our public shelter, then creating a facility that could act as a hub for Helping to promote those values throughout the county.  

 The architects’ initial drawings reflected their deep understanding of: the way shelter staff work; the animal control obligations of county government; and, the animal advocacy dreams and desires of FOTAS members.  

First, it will be a humane, healthy environment for homeless animals.  It will be a place where minimal staff can work most effectively and efficiently.  The new shelter will provide access and space appropriate for all the public demands it must accommodate: the animals brought to, developed within, and adopted from it.

Adopting lots of animals into responsible, forever homes requires a place that invites public involvement: volunteers to get the pets ready, and adopters willing to come to their public shelter to look for a pet.  Ultimately, our new shelter will have an open stable-like feel, and multi-purpose indoor and outdoor spaces for fun and productive people-pet interactions. 

Finally, our new Aiken County Shelter will provide a hub for county-wide programs that build commitment to spay/neuter and responsible pet-ownership.

FOTAS is working with the county shelter to improve data-gathering; to assist funding opportunities for future shelter-based programs; to prevent unwanted pets; and, to  give back to the larger community.

The new Aiken County Animal Shelter is a beginning, and it will be a healthy, happy place where no adoptable pet has to go to die, and the heart of a responsible, animal-loving county.

Join us.  There are many ways to help.

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

For August 6 thru 12, 2012

Received:  66 dogs and 51 cats

Adopted:  10 dogs and 2 cats

Put down:  57 dogs and 33 cats

COWBOY – 1 yr. “Singing Chihuahua!”  You sing; he sings.  Cute as a bug for only $35!

 Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” are HALF PRICE*!

DIABLO – Baby male tabby.  Bold gray stripes and white mittens.  Too cute for only $35.