Snoopy Daniels and Lessons of Love

In lieu of an interview, Dineen Daniels wrote the following piece.  She and her children are huge supporters of our Aiken County Animal Shelter.

 "There is no greater legacy to leave than a beating heart that would not have had a chance had it not been for you." - unknown

 It was a Wednesday afternoon and my three children wanted to make our routine visit to help the animals at the Aiken County Shelter.

Parker volunteering at the Shelter

 While deciding which dogs needed walking, we came upon a large dog recently surrendered; roughly a year old, emaciated, with every rib exposed.  
  

To make matters worse, the dog had tested heartworm positive and was to be euthanized in two days. The children looked at the big dog with their huge sense of empathy and said that he had kind eyes. They asked if he was gentle, and were told that he seemed friendly, but, as he was not destined for the adoption aisle, no one knew for sure.
  

Often my children place their hands gently against the dogs’ cages to test how kid-friendly they are. But on this occasion, as this dog was a large intact male, I decided to enter his kennel instead.  

I entered. He sat and nuzzled his nose between my legs.  

In that moment, we decided to save this dog.  We were able to arrange a transfer for this dog to our vet and neighbor, and six months later “Snoopy” was heartworm free and a brand new dog. 

Josh and Snoopy

Over the last hear-and-a-half, Snoopy has bonded deeply with my children.  When they leave for school, he sits patiently on our front porch.  With over sixty acres on which to run and roam, he prefers a stoic vigil until they return and then wiggles with ecstasy when they arrive. Snoopy sleeps in twelve-year-old Josh’s bed at night and his waking hours are spent demonstrating his love for the children who saved his life.

We are an approved foster home for Aiken County Animal Shelter.  Fostering dogs and puppies has created a passion for animals and a deep awareness of the importance of love and the responsibility to care for living beings that cannot care for themselves.

 

Bailey and Foster Pup

The connection that emerges between a shelter animal and a child is deep and immensely gratifying.  My children’s creed has become:  "Forget the zoo. Let’s go walk the dogs and pet the cats at the County Shelter," and on their birthdays, “Let's ask for donations for the animals instead of gifts."

We thank the Aiken County Animal Shelter for trusting us to help rescue those who wouldn't have had a second chance, especially our amazing and beloved dog Snoopy!

Dineen and Shelter Pup

  

And as a parent, I thank God for blessing my children:  Josh (12), Parker (9), Bailey (7),  with their deep sense of empathy garnered from the life lessons with abandoned, neglected and abused animals. 

They know about the desperate need to spay and neuter; in fact, it would not surprise me if they all grew up to be vets!



      Please consider fostering.  

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”

April 1^st thru 7^th   

Received: 51 dogs and 21 cats

Adopted: 9 dogs and 1 cat

Euthanized:  34 dogs and 24 cats

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” 

HARMONY –  Young adult Siamese mix with big blue eyes.  Purr-fect for  the cat lover!  Only $35! 

 

 

ROBERTA -1 yr. Pitt/Terrier mix. “Little Rascals” Petey look-alike.  Sweet, sweet girl! Only $70

 

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

So Many Ways to Enjoy Woofstock and Do Good

Truly, it is not that hard to raise $300 dollars. Find 12 people to donate $25, thirty to chip in $10, sixty kind-hearted souls at $5 a head, or mix it up. Given the cause, it should be easy, especially on Facebook, or an email to friends and family about the good their help will do. Plus, there is that possibility of winning the fancy iPad for doing a good thing well.

Raise $300 by Saturday, November 10^th, bring the money to Woofstock, and you are automatically eligible to win the $825 iPad tablet, and get the T-shirts, and have a blast with your dog, your family, your friends’ dogs, or all of the above.  Or you can raise $300, stay where you are, be entered to win, and hope the phone rings. 

Enter the Walk-for-the-Animals Mutt Strut Relay and never leave your home. A “Virtual Walker,” is someone who cares enough to raise or donate money, but will not be present at Woofstock. Virtual Walkers will miss a special festival, but they can be anywhere in the world and support someone here in Aiken, and a very special cause.  There is still time to do it.

Of course you don’t have to raise $300 to participate.  A whole family and all their dogs can parade in the Woofstock Mutt Strut for $25, or one adult for $10, child under 12 for $5. 

Once you have the dogs out, you might want to see if they are the Best Kisser, can perform the Best Trick, or are sporting the Best Costume.  Register for those three contests between 11 and 12 o’clock at Woofstock. 

Three student judges won their titles by entering the Woofstock Essay Contest and answering the question, “What can we do about all the unwanted puppies and kittens?”

Sophia Frank, Christian Madden and Sofia Ferreira will be helping to select the winners of the Dog contests: Best Kisser (11:30), Best Trick (12 noon), and Best Costume (12:30). 

Even if you are not participating in the Mutt Strut Relay and walking for Aiken County’s homeless pets, you can come out for the contests, or just come out and have a blast, with or without a dog.

The Woofstock Festival, a day full of family fun, food, and music, is a huge community event made possible by volunteers, local clubs and businesses, and the residents of Aiken County who love their animals. Every dollar raised, after expenses, will go towards our new shelter.

The vision for the new Aiken County Animal Shelter is a happy, healthy place that is the heart of a responsible, animal-loving county.

Join us at Woofstock on November 10^th.  Enter the Mutt Strut Relay and walk for the homeless cats and dogs. We promise a memorable experience.

Or, if you are busy that day, think about becoming a foster home.  Unfortunately, the need for temporary guardians for puppies and kittens is constant.  Get involved.  It may be one of the most rewarding commitments you ever make. 

  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”

October 15^th thru 21^st    

Received: 48 dogs and 30 cats!

Adopted: 6 dogs and 4 cats

Euthanized: 45 dogs and 41 cats

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

  MONTY – 1 yr. Soft, affectionate Lab mix for $70.  Tiny price for a great friend caption

COCONUT- precious young adult female. 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 

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 26^th, 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 16^th, we hope Herbie will be the “Kitten Caboose” at FATZ Café, 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

Help Us Win Free Spay/Neuter at Bark to the Park!

There are so many wonderful ways to do A Very Good Thing, but you only have six days left to pick one.  

Friends of the Animal Shelter-Aiken (FOTAS) was founded to help our Aiken County Animal Shelter become a community-centered, community supported facility with programs in which we could all take pride.  We had no idea what a huge project this initiative would become.  With the county, FOTAS is finally stewarding the building of a new shelter.  With our rescue partners and dedicated volunteers, we are expanding adoptions and transfers of our homeless pets.

 

Now, through Pawmetto Lifeline’s Bark to the Park on Saturday, TEAM FOTAS Aiken County can make a huge contribution to the County Spay/Neuter Voucher Program and help us promote  spay/neuter in the most hard to reach areas of the county.

We are counting on your support to achieve one of the top five fundraising spots for area rescues for this event.  There are several ways to help, but whichever one you choose, be certain to note that you are supporting TEAM FOTAS Aiken County:
 

Go to the FOTAS website or to this link: www.supportprojectpet.com/goto/FOTAS 

From there you have the option to:

1.     Join the team ($25/$15 under 12)

2.     Support an individual walker (any amount)

3.     Donate to the team or an individual walker for any amount.

You may write us a check and note that it is for Bark to the Park and we will submit it in your name.  It is tax deductible. If you join the team you can be a “virtual walker” or join us at Finlay Park in Columbia. Just be sure that you make it very clear that you are supporting FOTAS at Bark to the Park.  We want every dollar to count.

Herby Brown, our “new” Dog Rescue Waggin’, will be making his debut at the FOTAS booth.  A 1979 converted Airstream trailer, he has been an amazing collaborative project in the making.  We will have our county dogs available for adoption sporting their new “Adopt Me” vests.

We hope you will come out with your family and your dogs.  The walk and the festival are a blast for dog lovers.  It is barely an hour away.  Directions are available on line or contact FOTAS for more information.

If you do plan to attend, be sure to tell them when you register that you are supporting Team FOTAS Aiken County!  If you are donating, supporting a walker or participating as a virtual walker, be sure to do it as a supporter of Team FOTAS!

Finally, you can help Equine Rescue of Aiken by attending their spectacular spring fundraiser, “Buck the Film,” on Friday, April 13.  There will be a matinee and an evening showing which is accompanied by a party and silent auction. Tickets and information are available on line at  www.aikenequinerescue.com

Have a very good time doing a very good thing: Support Team FOTAS at Bark to the Park and Equine Rescue at Buck the Film.  Happy Easter!  

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

P.S. Come to the Bark to the Park Festival on Sat. APril 14th from 11 to 3 pm $10 for adults, $5 for children 5-12 yrs. Place FOTAS on your entrance waiver to show support for the Aiken County Animal Shelter and help us win free spay and neuter vouchers for Aiken County Animals.

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

For the Week of March 26th thru April 1st 2012

Received: 36 dogs and 26 cats

Adoptions:  15 dogs and 9 cats

Euthanized:  45 dogs and 15 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter Pets of the Week

TRIXIE – 1+ yr. Gets on great with everyone 

and loves to retrieve a ball!

 

ZENA – 3 yrs.  A sweet little gal who loves her window ledge in the sunlight