July 2010 Update

Monthly Update - July 2010!

We've Merged!
Welcome to our inaugural newsletter on the goings on at Pets Alive Westchester - Elmsford Animal Shelter! We know it's a mouthful, but we are incredibly excited about our merger with Pets Alive and can't wait to show off our new name. We want people to know that the shelter is there for all of Westchester County, including the town of Elmsford. However, we don't want anyone to think we've closed (we've worked too long and hard to keep that from happening!), so we include the old name.

It's been an incredibly busy spring and summer here at the shelter. One of the biggest changes was our merger. Our previous board decided to retire and looking to ensure the continuation of the shelter, found another group of like-minded people. They met Matt DeAngelis and Kerry Clair from Pets Alive in Middletown, NY and the future arrived. In addition to the new board members, I've taken the position as the new Executive Director. I'd like to take a minute to introduce myself. I first became involved with the shelter several years ago when my husband and I came to adopt a cat. We ended up going home with two new members of our family and came back as volunteers for those we could not adopt. The more time I spent there, the more I wanted to do. When the opportunity arose, I was excited and proud to accept the challenge of moving us into the future.

Shelter Update:
So what's been going at the shelter? One of our first challenges was to move cats that had been living in cages into rooms. It is so much healthier and less stressful for them to enjoy a home-like environment while waiting for their new family to find them. We also have a number of cats who are feral. These cats do not enjoy the company of people and having to deal with us kept them upset and on edge. With your help, we were able to raise the funds needed to buy them their own houses and create a wonderful indoor/outdoor space. By creating a separate space for them, it freed up space in our other rooms for our cage cats. Soon, we will have no cats living their lives in cages.

We want our animals to have homes of their own though. With close to 500 cats and 300 dogs, it seemed nearly impossible. It would have been on our own. Other rescue groups stepped up to help us and due to their efforts more than 25 cats, 10 dogs, and 3 rabbits found new homes in the last couple of months. We can't thank them enough!

We'd like to thank Pets Alive in Middletown, Best Friends Animal Society, CT Humane Society in Westport, Cause for Paws, Briarcliff SPCA, Shelter/Rescue Partnership, and Community Cats, who have all stepped up to offer their assistance in helping our animals find homes. You have made such a difference for them.

We also recently held our June luncheon. What a wonderful event! We had almost 200 people come join us for some great entertainment and a lot of fun during the auction. Because of you, we raised almost $50,000 for our animals. Many thanks to volunteer, Michelle Mazzacca, for the tremendous amount of work she put into planning this event, as well as the numerous volunteers who made everything run smoothly.

Volunteer Opportunities
It is also easier to volunteer at Pets Alive-Elmsford. Orientation is Saturdays at 10:15 am and volunteer hours are 11 am to 4:30 pm, 7 days a week. If it's been awhile since you've been at the shelter or haven't had the chance to come yet, join a class and spend some time with our dogs, cats and rabbits. They would love to see you! We also have a tremendous number of projects going on, everything from the day-to-day of laundry to beautifying our landscape and making the animal's living spaces more like home. We can really use your help.

We also have many projects we could really use your help on. If you are interested in contributing to any of these projects, please email us at info@petsalivewest.org

• Painting
• Laundry (a daily chore!)
• Planting flower beds and weeding (those weeds just won't stay away)
• Building cat shelves and cubbies in our rooms
• Building outdoor spaces for our feral cats
• Winterizing our cat houses
• Renovating some of our kennel space for quarantine dogs
• Renovating one of our rooms to create new clinic space for our animals

We are also looking forward to expanding our senior foster program. We have a number of senior dogs and cats that could use a warm, soft bed and your love while they wait for a home. If you are interested in fostering, please contact me at info@petsalivewest.org for more information.

And we'd never be successful without our adopters. What a tremendous group of people they are to welcome these animals into their hearts and lives. In June, rabbits Hope, Joy, and Spotty went home. Dogs Gepetto, Shelby, Belle, Fred, Oscar, Princess, Betti, Cupcake, Haven, Cinnabun, Little Eddie, Precious, Downy, Drake, Kane, Angel, and Maddie found their families. And the following cats found their new family Trouble, Bella Blanca, Kate, Velcro, Pouncer, Ocean, Chester, Mr. Meow, and Tina.

PLEASE SPONSOR!
We know that it isn't always possible for you to adopt an animal, but you can still help them. Become a sponsor! Sponsorships run from just $18 a month for a basic lifeline to $100 a month to be an executive gold sponsor. Your monthly sponsorship donation can be used in so many ways here at our sanctuary.  From vet care, to utilities, to staffing, our needs are many, but we can stretch your "lifeline" and continue to save lives! If you can do this for us, it could mean the difference in our survival.
PLEASE click here and sign up for a sponsorship. We, and the animals, will so appreciate your help.

Current needs:
Items that we can really use around the shelter to improve the lives of our animals include Kuranda (multi level PLEASE!) cat trees Slip leads, and just about any sort of toys for dogs and cats! (We love Kong's for the dogs!)

We've also really been struggling with our washers and dryers. We have the ability to handle commercial ones, but they are a little out of our price range right now. We've done the research and these seem to be the best ones. If you can help, we'd greatly appreciate it. Wascomat Washer and Dryer (40 lb): Armand is willing to give us a great deal for the shelter!

Thank you all again for everything you do for these animals. We look forward to seeing you soon!