Mt. Pleasant Animal Shelter: Play Yard Renovation Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The Petfinder Foundation Play Yard Renovation Grant allowed us to split our single play yard into two, as well as add additional 6'-high fencing in a third yard. In each new yard, we were able to install catch pens, which will give us an extra safety feature when bringing dogs to and from the yard.

How many pets did this grant help?

Estimated 50 dogs

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

When first arriving at MPAS, many dogs were labeled as “dog-aggressive” or “reactive” and were never tested further with another dog. With the training provided by DPFL and renovations from the Petfinder Foundation grant, we were able to dog-test a few of our long-term residents in-depth, safely and with confidence.

It turned out that many, including three of our long-term dogs (Tabitha, Bagel, and Sutter), were not aggressive at all, but rather quirky, solely leash-reactive, or particular in their play. Sutter (first photo), who has been with us since November 2022, became our go-to helper dog, helping other pups come out of their shells and engage in play.

The new and improved yard renovations will help us create more opportunities to run playgroups safely, and we hope to increase the number of individuals who can play in the yard from two to four or six!

We are thrilled to share that Sutter was recently adopted (second photo) after nearly a year at MPAS!