APET Animal Shelter: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report

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

This past spring, in east Texas, we received so much rain that our play grounds and yards were inundated with water. This caused two massive oak trees to fall, which took out most of our fences and several shade shelters. With this disaster grant from the Petfinder Foundation, we were able to have our fences rebuilt and seven new shade shelters built as well. Now our dogs are back to having nice yards to run in and shady spots to cool off.

How many pets did this grant help?

40

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

For one of our dogs, this disaster was just the worst. Her play yard, more than any of the others, took the most damage. All of her fences were destroyed, as was her shade shelter, and one of the trees lay right across her entire pen. This dog was Molly.

We could tell this upset Molly. She, like most dogs, is a creature of habit. She is also a senior dog, so having to change her routine this drastically was getting to her. She was not able to spend as much time out of doors, since all the dogs were now taking turns in the two remaining pens we had standing — and for Molly, outdoor time is needed therapy. She loves to run and play ball, even in her older years.

She started having depression, and no amount of extra attention seemed to be helping. We even took her on doggie days out more than usual, but nothing worked. She would just sit and look forlornly at her yard.

So when the fence-repair contractor showed up, I asked him if he could fix Molly’s yard first. He agreed to do so. We had her new shade shelter delivered and when we took her out to her yard, she was like a puppy again. She was so happy.

Petfinder foundation, you restored normalcy to the life of a shelter dog. We thank you, and Molly thanks you! You can see Molly here.