September 2010 Update
September 2010
Updates 
There have been so many positive changes at Elmsford in the past six months. I hope that you have all had an opportunity to come by and witness some of them for yourself. For those that have not I'll try to briefly summarize what we've managed to accomplish.
I think the first thing we have to mention is that every single animal is now cage free. Unless recovering from a surgery or illness, there are no animals that spend their time in cages or crates. This has been one of our primary goals and one of our proudest achievements. It certainly wasn't easy. When we first merged, there were dozens of dogs that lived in crates and literally hundreds upon hundreds of cats in cages that filled the lobby, from floor to ceiling. It was so difficult for many of us to see, and one of our very first goals was to get them out. I'm so happy to say that the lobby is now filled with comfortable chairs and couches and is a warm and welcoming environment. We have painted many of the areas, and plan to soon paint the upper areas of the lobby with a beautiful mural (if you're an artist would you care to volunteer to help us?)
Additionally we have laid linoleum down in all the cat rooms - no more drab, depressing cement floors. Thanks to an awesome donation by Elite Floors we had enough linoleum to do every room. It has made the rooms so much cheerier and brighter than a sheet laid on a cement floor. Also thanks to your donations we have filled the cat rooms with cat trees, climbing devices and scratching posts. We still need more of these items though and would REALLY appreciate donations of them! The cats are so much happier and so content now. It is a great joy to see them interacting and enjoying each other and their freedom, in their beautiful new rooms. Cat trees, fluffy beds, scratching posts, and cat and dog toys are still very much needed and very much appreciated!
Adoptions
Our adoptions have increased so much that we had to hire a full time adoption coordinator! That is such fabulous news, and I'm sure you all feel as good about that as we do. We have streamlined the application process and trained adoption staff. We now routinely see at least a dozen and often more than twenty animals a week leave our sanctuary and go to their forever homes.
I think the best part of this for staff and volunteers, is watching dogs and cats that have been at Elmsford for over 10 years FINALLY find their forever homes. This week THREE senior dogs went home. One had been here seven years, one six and one ten years. We can barely hold back our tears as we watch people come, fall in love with them and take them home. We have even managed to find homes for some of our dogs with behavior issues!
We work with each adopter and give them all the assistance we can by following up with them after three days, then three weeks and we will do so again after two months. If there is ANY negative feedback we put them in touch with our dog behaviorist to immediately start them down the right path to solve any issues that may be arising. Our goal is to spend time and effort in keeping dogs IN the homes, and we have been wildly successful at this so far.
Elderly cats have also been finding their way into home after home after home and we are just seeing one success story after another. It is very gratifying. We also just started an online place for people to post pictures and updates of their new family member. You can read some of those updates here.
Volunteers 
We have also seen a tremendous increase in volunteers. Many groups are also contacting us about coming down to help. Specialists have contacted us to help with different projects and either worked for free or inexpensively. All our dogs get walked and get socialized now. We are working on ID cards for every dog run that will be color coded so volunteers can tell which dogs are easy to walk and interact with and which ones might need some more specialized or senior volunteers. Robert, the Dog Behaviorist will also add notes to these cards. We expect to have that fully in place by next weekend. The cat rooms will also have pictures of each cat with their name on it so it is easy to know who is who and call them by name. We feel this is very important.
There are so many, many things that we still need done though. If you think you have a talent or specialty that we could use, please contact us. Right now we need pretty much EVERYTHING! Even if you have no professional background to assist us we'd love for you to attend an orientation (Saturday's at 11:00) and then start volunteering with us. We even have at home data entry work you can help with. We are truly at the point where every bit of assistance is welcome and needed.
Medical/Surgery Room
Our next big goal is something we are already working on. We want, and need, to have a veterinarian on-site five days a week. With the number of animals at Elmsford (over 700 total), paying for off site veterinary care is not cost effective, however, we really had no decent place for surgeries or for a medical staff. So we have been building and outfitting one of our rooms to serve this purpose.
This week two of the staff from our Middletown location went down to help the staff at Elmsford finish the room. Now we need your help. We need medical equipment. It is going to take a lot of money but currently our off site care is running over $25,000 a MONTH. We can't deny animals care, but we need about $25,000 worth of medical equipment to have this fully functional.
We can't afford it, but we can't afford NOT to do it. We are appealing to you to help us with this project.
Please consider making a donation toward the purchase of medical equipment or if you are in this field, please consider helping us obtain discounted or donated items.
Staff
The staff at Elmsford has been amazing. They have come in on their days off, volunteered their time, stayed late, gone out of their way to help animals and accepted many new changes - all graciously. It hasn't been easy for them to make so many adjustments, but seeing the difference in the animals and the conditions quickly brought them all on board.
They have been nothing short of amazing in all the effort and energy they have put in, as well as welcoming new staff and rearranging their responsibilities as we go along. Change is never easy and this staff has stepped up completely to embrace the new methodology. Our hats are off to all of them.
Sponsors and Finances
So we have seen a lot of amazing changes in six months. We are committed to continuing our no-kill philosophy and we are determined to save the Elmsford Animal Shelter and continue it's good work.
But we're in a financial crisis.
We have a plan but it is going to take us about eight months to get to the point where we can survive. We desperately need your help.
Would you please consider, for just eight months, sponsoring an animal or being a "lifeline" for us at Elmsford? We have sponsorship levels set up and once you sign up, your credit card will be billed that amount every month. It is simple, it is easy and it will keep us alive. We are asking you for just an eight month commitment to help us get over this hurdle and back on our feet.
Will you PLEASE consider stepping up and signing up for a monthly sponsorship?
They start at just $18 a month. The difference is truly our survival, or not.
If you believe in the no kill message, if you believe in what Elmsford is doing, and what we have accomplished in just six short months, and if you value the lives of every animal there, will you please, please...help us?
To help you see the faces of the animals in our care we put together this video of some of our dogs. Elmsford has 92 dogs that are over the age of 10. Think about that number. That is more dogs than most shelters can even house. But financially, elderly animals can be crippling. We've committed to every one. We believe their lives are worthwhile and valuable. Do you? If you do, please help us by clicking this link and being a monthly sponsor. While you decide, please watch this little slideshow we have put together of the happy faces at our shelter (and watch our twitter and Facebook this week for an additional one where the cats of Elmsford will be the stars!)
Current needs:
Items that we can really use around the shelter include Kuranda cat trees (multi level PLEASE!), toys for dogs and cats, and slip leads. This month we also need page protecters, black ink pens, 3 ring binders, clipboards, toner (Brother TN360) and a full size copier. We can also always using various cleaning supplies, paper towels, bleach and 3lb paper food trays. Thank you for your consideration on these items.
Our mission is to improve the lives of companion animals everywhere by any means possible, including rescue, adoption, advocacy, collaboration, intervention and education. Please consider making a donation to help us.