Friends of Rescue Animals: Kia Pet Adoption Grant Report

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

During the summer months, our cat and kitten adoptions slow down because there are so many underaged kittens available for adoption in the municipal shelters at lower adoption fees than we are able to offer. At one point, we had 40 kittens sterilized and just waiting in foster homes for adoptions to pick up.

This grant immediately spurred more interest in our kittens, and we had 13 adoptions in just five days. Because the grant was capped at $1,000, we had to quickly take down the signs at our busiest adoption location before we ran out of funds to support the reduced fees. We focused the promotion for the final six adoptions at our lower-traffic adoption location.

Lowering adoption fees to $75 for kittens and $50 for adults definitely increased interest and rate of adoption. Rising medical costs prohibit us from keeping the adoption fees at the lower rate without grant support.

How many pets did this grant help?

19

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

Cream Soda (first photo, with his friend Espresso) was found all alone in a Target parking lot when he was about two weeks old. There was no sign of a mom nearby. He was taken in by a foster who had a nursing mom, Frappuccino, with five kittens about a week old.

Once it was confirmed that Cream Soda was healthy, he was introduced to the mom and she accepted him right away. He was bigger than the other kittens, but they all did well together.

Fast forward three months later and all six kittens and mom had been sterilized, received all their adoption vetting, and were ready for adoption. However, adoptions were going very slow. Once we were able to offer reduced adoption fees, all six kittens and mom were adopted within a few days.