Underdog Pet Rescue of Wisconsin, Inc.: Cat Chow Building Better Lives Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
We used the money, combined with some funds received from Best Friends, to reduce our adult cat adoption prices to $25 (from $100) and our kitten adoption prices to $75 instead of $100.
We have been, and are hoping to continue to be, pulling all the already neutered/spayed cats from the shelters we work with, as well as some cats who need sterilization surgeries to keep our finances healthy while still offering this reduced rate. We've done some handouts and put them around town to show our reduced-rate adoptions (which will last at least through March). I am so excited to report that in January/February of 2015, we've had 17 cat adoptions, compared to January/February of 2014, when we only had two cat adoptions (this time of year is our slowest). Our cats are getting interest much more quickly, and then we can help more cats in shelters who need us. The quality of the applicants has not changed.
How many pets did this grant help?
We've had over 20 adoptions in 2015 so far, and we have five more cats in our care who have already received veterinary care and are ready for adoption.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
One cat, Billy (first photo), had been in our care for over two years for no good reason. Thanks to our low-cost adoption fee promotions, Billy and a number of other adult cats have found super, loving, fantastic homes. Older kittens and shy cats who usually don’t get adopted quickly have received more attention and have been having adoption meetings thanks to drawing people in with the promo.
Yaksha (second photo) was a mother to four kittens who came in during kitten season. The babies were adopted out as soon as they were ready to leave mom, and Yaksha sat for a few more months. When we started our $25 promotion, Yaksha was our first cat to find her home (our vet had euthanized an older cat and Yaksha lives at the outreach office we share with our vet. The family saw her on their way out from their sad appointment and fell in love). She has been a great addition to their family.
Tubbs (third photo) was a stray who came in and received lots of love in his foster home. Despite his beauty, he sat for a few months with no interest. Thanks to our promotion, he got more attention and found a very doting, loving new mom. She referred Tigre’s family to adopt him!
Tigre (fourth photo) was an abandoned kitten who grew to be about 10 months of age in our care. He didn’t do his best at introductions to new people, but with the work of his committed foster parents and the right home coming along, he’s frolicking and playing up a storm in his new home.
Ariana (fifth photo), now called Christmas Valentine by her new family, came in as a transfer from a shelter. She was very shy, but due to our promotion, a family came to meet a few kittens at our Coffee and Canines (and Cat Cafe!) event a couple weeks ago. They fell in love with Ariana and have been working to get her to come out of her shell.
Thank you SO MUCH! Thanks to the success up through now (and what will surely be ongoing success with the remainder of the funds from this grant), we hope to find a way to keep our adoption fee for cats between $25-50 on an ongoing basis.
