Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter: Play Yard Renovation Grant Report

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

We used the full amount to add double-gate entries to our different play yard entry points, gate openings to blend yards together, and a large fence with a gate to divide a large yard.

With these modifications, we are able to run more dogs at a time, as we have created an additional play yard. We are also able to safely enter dogs into group with the double gates as well as assess the dogs' response to coming to group.

How many pets did this grant help?

Approximately 2,000+ a year

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

Erma (first three photos) is a 4-year-old pit mix who came into the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter (CCAS) back in October 2018. While Erma has always been a playgroup player, we discovered some new challenges with her during the play-yard renovation process. While our yards were being modified, we moved our daily playgroups into our garage. Erma, being the smarty pants that she is, figured out there were treats stored high on shelves in the garage. Even though she couldn’t get to these shelves of treats, she knew they were there and guarded them from other dogs during playgroup. So during the couple weeks the renovation was happening, Erma would come into the garage alone for playtime while we were setting up. Now that the renovation is complete, Erma is back to playing with friends and a much happier pup! Meet Erma here.