Beaver County Humane Society: P.L.A.Y. Pet Beds Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
We have an enrichment team at our shelter that works tirelessly to provide quality enrichment to all of our animals. Finding new ways to enhance the lives of the animals, especially those who have been with us for a while, requires forethought, creativity, and commitment on the part of our staff and volunteers.
The P.L.A.Y. Pet Beds provided a new and refreshing way to enrich the lives of the animals, especially the dogs who love to be outside playing in our yards, running and playing and sunning themselves. But of course, those activities make the dogs hot in the late spring and summer seasons, and the Chill Beds were the perfect solution to help cool them down!
We also recently started a Senior 2 Senior program where we match 7+-year-old animals with 65+-year-old people. Western PA has one of the highest populations of older adults, so this program, while only being implemented two months ago, has been a great success!
However, we also realize that some older adults don't have the agility, financial resources, or energy to provide a lot of enrichment activities for their pets. Therefore, if we have an animal who has enjoyed the P.L.A.Y. beds, we send the bed home with the older adult as part of their complimentary special welcome kit to help them provide continued enrichment to their new friend. The new adopters are excited to have the bed and the pet gets to continue his/her enjoyment of this special treat.
How many pets did this grant help?
We received 20 beds. Since we use the beds for multiple dogs, we anticipate the beds helping at least 100, especially since some of them will go home with our newly adopted senior animals.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Zuna was a “rock star” player here at the shelter and went to playgroup every day with her friends. She entered the shelter as a stray dog and was the typical “undesirable” dark-colored pit bull-type dog.
The shelter staff always presented her as an option to potential adopters, but she stayed with us for three months. Her unknown past, mixed with the way she looked, was holding her back. Although she was considered one of our playgroup “rock stars,” she could be overly zealous when meeting new dogs, and this deterred adopters who were bringing their own dogs in to meet her.
Alas, Zuna was with us through some of the higher temperatures that we had in Western PA this spring, and she enjoyed having the P.L.A.Y. bed in her kennel to help her cool down after running outside in the 80+-degree temperatures with her furry friends. Having the bed as part of Zuna’s enrichment offerings certainly helped her maintain her happy personality.
She was finally adopted by a nice couple who said that Zuna was exactly the dog they had been looking for. We were thankful for the grant of comfortable and cool beds to help get her (and all of our other animals) through the days until her forever family was found!
