No-Kill RGV Coalition: KONG Toys Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Thank you Kong and Petfinder Foundation for your generous donation to No-Kill RGV Coalition. We believe that pets need to play as part of their overall mental wellbeing and physical health. Enrichment is necessary for all pets to encourage desired behaviors.
Each adopted pet goes home with a starter kit of brand-new personal belongings to help facilitate a smooth transition from our foster homes to their furever homes. These wonderful Kong products will go home with our adopted pets in their starter kits along with Kong educational pamphlets.
How many pets did this grant help?
The 20 toys we received will be distributed to 20 pets.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
One particular pet who is being helped by this grant is Soledad. She was one of several stray cats who were being fed by an elderly, disabled gentleman. The gentleman’s neighbors reached out for help when the cats became ill and they observed that the gentleman was sharing his one and only meal of the day, from the local Meals on Wheels program, with his beloved kitties.
When we arrived, not only did we discover that the cats were ill and unvetted, but we discovered that the gentleman’s son had recently passed and his care provider was not properly caring for the gentleman.
Working with the provider agency and the concerned neighbors, we were able to find a new provider for the gentleman, who now eats three meals a day and lives in a clean home. Because we knew these kitties were the only remaining family the gentleman had, we made arrangements with the new provider to help him keep two of the cats. Thankfully, we were able to find a provider who was also an animal-lover.
We vetted and trained all of the cats for indoor life, and we were able to return two of them to the gentleman. This took nearly a month of hard work and dedication from our loving foster families and, in particular, from our behavior specialist.
The other cats, including Soledad, have entered into our adoptions program. She is currently available for adoption and can be seen in our local PetSmart Adoption Center.
One of our team members goes every three months to check on the cats, provide Bravecto flea- and tick-preventative for them, to ensure that the gentleman has everything he needs. Sometimes animal rescue is about keeping families together and helping people in need.
