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Paw PrintPaw PrintPaw PrintPaw Print A newsletter from the Friends of

the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter

Susan Herzog, Editor December, 2010

Pets leave a paw print on your heart

Adopt Your New Best Friend Today!

City of Buffalo Animal Shelter 380 N. Oak Street

Buffalo, New York 14203

(716) 851-5694

What is Maddie’s Grant and Who the Heck is Maddie? by Gale Ferris, Shelter Volunteer

Maddie was a beloved Miniature Schnauzer whose unconditional love, devotion, loyalty and spirit inspired her care-givers to start a charitable foundation, Maddie's Fund®, in her name. Maddie's Fund® awarded a $541,550 grant in 2009 to support the first year of Maddie's® Pet Rescue Project and Maddie's® Spay/Neuter Project in Erie County, New York. As goals are achieved, the Fund will provide animal welfare groups and veterinarians up to $4.9 million to end the killing of Erie County's healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats.

In 2010, Maddie's® Pet Rescue Project, led by the SPCA Serving Erie County (SPCA-EC) worked with the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter and four adoption guarantee organizations – Buffalo Humane, HEART, Second Chance Sheltering Network, and Ten Lives Club. The 1st year goals for participating organizations and Erie County shelters included:

• Increase the total number of dogs and cats adopted, and maintain a total of zero healthy dogs and cats

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Welcome to Paw Print . . . a message from Kelly McCartney, Director, City of Buffalo Animal Shelter

One of the most gratifying things about working at the Animal Shelter are the stories we hear about the lives of people who have been touched by the adoption of a Shelter dog or cat. In our inaugural issue of Paw Print, created and produced by our volunteer organization, Friends of the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter, we will share some of those stories with you. We hope to enlighten you, update you, and let you know how much we appreciate the support of the Buffalo community, without which a successful adoption program would not be possible. We hope that if you have ever adopted a Shelter Animal that your decision brings you many years of joy, and that your pet has left a paw print on your heart. Enjoy your holiday season, and hug your pets often.

euthanized. • Decrease the number of treatable

dogs and cats euthanized. • Develop strategies for increasing

adoptions to include operating a full time cat adoption center, adding new coalition adoption events and special adoption promotions for bully breeds.

Our first year as a Maddie's® Partner served the Shelter well. Our goal had been set for us, and we needed to

find homes for 735 homeless animals – a big challenge for a small city shelter – Well, with the efforts of the Shelter staff and a small but determined volunteer base, we found homes for 836 deserving pets: 502 great canines and 334 fantastic felines! The shelter received four starter grants in the amount of $2,700 each. These funds were used to help subsidize our spay/neuter program – resulting in reduced costs for our adopters. The Shelter will also receive $5,400 in adoption subsidies and a bonus for surpassing our first year goal.

Byron W. Brown, Mayor

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Is Foster Care in Your Future? by Kerry Neaf, Shelter Volunteer

The City of Buffalo Animal Shelter has a small but dedicated team of volunteers that open their homes to Shelter animals in need. The three main reasons animals need foster care are they are too young, too ill or too shy to go up for adoption at the Shelter. Foster volunteers get these animals healthy, socialized and ready for life with their new families. Many of the pets are adopted right out of their foster homes through Petfinder.com, adoption events, spotlights by our local media partners, social networking, and tireless efforts by their foster parents. 2010 has been a record year for our foster program. As of the first of November, 324 animals have made their way through 41 different foster homes! Some pets stayed only a day or two before returning to the Shelter or going to their new home, while others remained for the better part of the year. There is no time limit set on our adoptable animals, and they remain up for adoption until the right home is found for them. The Shelter, along with Friends of CBAS, provides food, crates, supplies and medical services for the animals while they are in foster care, while the foster parents provide the time and effort needed to care for the animals in their homes. Our foster pets are spayed or neutered as soon as they are healthy or old enough for surgery. Fostering can be difficult at times, is a lot of extra work, clean up and can be heartbreaking, but the reward of

seeing an animal go to a perfect new home, the first tail wag from a shy dog, the smell of puppy breath or an extra loud purr is worth all of the work for those of us who choose to foster.

If you don’t have the time or a schedule that allows you to come to the Shelter and volunteer with us, but are interested in becoming a foster parent, please contact us at cbasvolunteerinfo@gmail.com and we’ll be glad to discuss how you can help us. If you can’t foster, you can help our foster homes with donations of blankets, canned dog and cat food, beds, carriers, crates, toys and treats that can be dropped off at the CBAS during business hours.

Shelter Hours:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Wednesday 9 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Saturday 9:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. Closed Sundays and Holidays

Pet owners know how fast one illness or injury can deplete funds, so we need to continue our own efforts in fund raising for the Shelter in our ongoing efforts to care for the animals that temporarily seek refuge there. Did you know that a total of 2,823 animals passed through the Shelter in the past 12 months? Many of these were lost pets reunited with their families. Others were transferred to our Maddie's® Partners prior to placement in permanent homes. They all received shelter, food and medical care if needed. Year two as a Maddies® Partner will continue to be a challenge as we seek permanent homes for 764 Shelter animals. It is a huge task, but we are confident that with the public’s ongoing support of the Shelter’s efforts that we will meet and exceed this goal once again. Visit our web site at www.bflocityshelter.petfinder.com and click

on the Maddie’s® link for more information.

Maddie’s, Continued from Page 1

Lucky’s StoryLucky’s StoryLucky’s StoryLucky’s Story by Mark DiGiampaolo, Shelter Volunteer November 7, 2009 was my lucky day. I finally signed adoption papers for a 14 pound chocolate brown miniature poodle who had stolen my heart. But sometimes heaven’s blessings are accepted only after stubborn resistance on the part of the receiver – this one was no exception. A few weeks earlier I had finished my orientation as a CBAS Volunteer and was ready to take on the challenges of the animal kingdom – or at least Room ‘A’ where the travel-size dogs tend to live. Having cared for two Shepherd mixes I was curious to see why the little ones caused so many people to melt and coo. So there I was one day surrounded by Pit puppies, Chihuahuas and a buffet of Terriers. As I turned to leave I noticed a pile of curly brown hair in the corner of Kennel A7 staring right up at me – it looked exactly like the stuffed dog Brownie I had as a kid. ‘What kind of cosmic joke is this?’ I wondered. Over the next three weeks I walked the little guy every day; he was soon perched on my shoulders, wrapped around my neck. This charmer certainly knew all the right moves but the sting of my former dog’s death was still too recent and I hesitated. Okay - I freaked. I watched two adoptions for him come and go, and finally exclaimed ‘If a 3rd person plans to adopt him and it falls through I’ll take him.’ Yep, #3 fell through. Rumor has it there were bets on how much longer I was going to torture myself with this angst-ridden process. The morning of November 8th I awoke and tapped the radio for some tunes. The first thing my sleepy ears heard were Colbie Cailatt and Jason Mraz singing my favorite song: Lucky. In that moment all my fears melted and I knew the ‘little pile of brown curly hair’ now had a home and a name.

From the Litterbox . . . .From the Litterbox . . . .From the Litterbox . . . .From the Litterbox . . . . Won’t you consider giving our longest stay cats a permanent home? Check out Angel (since April 20),

Luigi (April 26), India (May 5), Gretta (May 28), Mr. Magoo (June 4), or Olive (June 7) on our web site: www.bflocityshelter.petfinder.com

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Mimi, post surgery

Finley, before Treatment Healthy Finley, after treatment

Unconditional Love by Kerry Neaf, Shelter Volunteer

Every once in a while an animal comes in that needs more care than usual. A lot of our fundraising efforts go to help these special cases, and that is why we have created an Unconditional Love Fund to fix our less than perfect animals. These are the pets that need much more than a quick and easy treatment. In the past we have done biopsies, blood work, various tests, x-rays, lump removals, hospitalization and emergency and or very involved surgeries to save pets that otherwise wouldn’t have been adoptable. Having funds readily available allows us to authorize treatment without passing most or any of the cost off to the future adopter. Friends of CBAS is often helped by Citizens for Humane Animal Treatment, who pays for medications and readily pays part of the bill for animals needing extras, joined by Buffalo Small Animal Hospital, who provides a generous discount that allows us to be able to pay for procedures that we otherwise couldn’t afford.

Here are just a few of the animals we have helped with your donations:

Mimi was dumped just three days before giving birth to four puppies.

She developed a life threatening uterine infection called Pyometra and was going into organ failure from the serious infection. Along with lots of work from her foster mom, we were able to pay for multiple rounds of blood work, a sonogram, an emergency spay surgery, IV fluids and several medications needed to save her. Despite poor odds, this feisty little terrier mix pulled through making a full recovery in just a month. Her adoptive mom calls her the biggest blessing in her life.

Finley is a Labrador mix but it was hard to tell when he came in as a stray, bald and with badly infected skin.

At just four months old, this pup was in terrible physical shape but still happy and friendly. He was placed in a foster home and treated for Demodex mange and secondary skin infections for a full 6 months. After all that time and effort, his foster Dad just couldn’t let him go and adopted Finley. He paid only a small portion of the

extensive and expensive treatment we were able to provide.

Ginger was our most expensive patient yet. She was just 10 weeks old when she was surrendered with a badly broken leg. The leg needed surgery which was done right away, and then Ginger needed extensive physical therapy. She was placed in our most experienced foster home

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Ginger the Pug

with a Vet Tech and recovered for about 6 weeks before moving to her forever home. Ginger’s bills, even with our discounts, were about $1,500 and we were able to raise enough to cover her balance and then some. Ginger’s new family only paid our regular adoption fee. Ginger is grunting little Pug noises of happiness in her home where she is a champion lap dog and always, always wagging her tail. Her family thinks she is a joy and feels lucky to have her.

Do you have people on your holiday gift list that are impossible to buy for? Make a

is the Season . . .

donation to Friends of CBAS in their name and we’ll send them an acknowledgement. It’s a gift that will make you both feel good and help our animals receive medical care that is much needed. While your generous monetary donations help us help the animals, there are ways you can donate without spending a dime. There are things we need that you (or your friends, neighbors and family) may have lying around:

• Blankets, used are fine with our dogs! We prefer not to take

comforters, as de-stuffing them is too much fun for the dogs

and we can’t watch them at all times.

• Towels, used in any condition…we can find a use for them.

• Beds your pet no longer use

• Toys, the ones your pets ignore

• Newspaper, just the newsprint sections, not the

glossy ads

• Leashes and collars . . . maybe your pets outgrew

them or were ready for a new look

• Crates or carriers you no longer use

If you want to donate AND do the shopping for us:

• Canned food, cat, kitten, dog and puppy (dry

food is supplied through a contract, so we just

need the canned please)

• Laundry supplies, liquid laundry detergent, bleach

• Treats, dog and cat

• Fleece to make cat beds

If your class or troop or other service group is looking for something to do, organize a donation drive for us! We’d be happy to help you out with tips or ideas, or even pick up of large donations, please contact us at cbasvolunteerinfo@gmail.com.

Stay in touch!

Unconditional Love, Continued from Page 3

Abby came to us with a litter of kittens and trouble of her own.

She had several large growths in her mouth, and through our fundraising efforts we were able to biopsy the growths and treat them. After excellent care in her foster home we were able to place Abby in her forever home knowing that the growths were just from a virus and she will live a long, happy life. When you donate to this fund you are providing hope and life to animals that would otherwise have neither. No amount is too small and we hope you

will consider donating so we can fix the next Mimi, Ginger, Abby or Finley that shows up at our door. Donate online at www.bflocityshelter.petfinder.

com, or by returning our Donation Form, found in this newsletter.

Abby in Foster Care Lump under Abby’s Tongue

I WANT TO HELP!I WANT TO HELP!I WANT TO HELP!I WANT TO HELP! Please accept my donation to help CBAS Shelter Animals. MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE

TO FRIENDS OF CBAS and mail to 380 N. Oak Street, Buffalo, New York 14203

Name: ____________________________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________________________

City, State, ZIP ____________________________________________________________

-OR-

My donation is being made as a gift on behalf of someone else. Please send an

acknowledgement to the address below.

Name: ____________________________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________________________

City, State, ZIP ____________________________________________________________

For my donation of $50 or more, please send me a complimentary hand silk screened print, suitable for framing and inspired by our Shelter Animals. Prints lovingly designed, produced and donated by Hero Design Studio, 93 Allen Street, Buffalo. Return this form with your donation, or donate online. Check out our web site to help you make your selection: www.bflocityshelter.petfinder.com/hero Can’t make up your mind? Donate $75 and select both! Indicate your Selection: ���� Shelter Cat Betty ���� Shelter Dog Zelda