January 2009 Newsletter

Louisa Humane Society
Email: info@louisahumanesociety.com
WebSite: www.louisahumanesociety.com
Louisa Humane Society Update
Important Message from our President
Pulling Policy: Our general policy regarding
pulling dogs and cats from the Shelter is that (1)
owners are allowed a reasonable amount of time
to retrieve their animals from the Shelter, (2)
the community has an opportunity to adopt animals directly from the Shelter, (3) other rescue
groups and pure bred rescues pull (Shelter employees contact from a compiled list) pull animals and (4) we pull the “last chance” dogs and
cats. Dogs and cats will only be pulled IF there
is a foster home available for them. Prior to being sent to a foster home, they will; first be
quarantined for at least 10 days to see if they
harbor possible infectious diseases, and checked
at a vet’s (wormed, spayed/neutered and appropriate vaccinations). It may be necessary for
the animal to go to a foster home without altering and shots if the animal is too young or there
is not a low cost spay/neuter outlet available to
us at that time. Unless a Board Member authorizes someone to pull an animal from the Shelter,
only myself, Jeannie and Patty are designated
pullers. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCE are LHS
members to tell citizens that LHS will pull a
dog or cat that they have surrendered. This
policy has evolved over many years in order to
control the number of animals we pull so that we
can provide the best medical care, be able to
transfer into loving foster homes (ensuring training and thereby adoptions that stick), and to
regulate our general costs. Our only revenue is
from adoption fees and fundraising events. Our
main expense is vet bills, but there are also
other expenses. Unless we have more money
and more volunteers we are limited to the number of animals we can pull from the Shelter.
Bottom Line: We are only pulling dogs and
cats that are scheduled for euthanasia and
ONLY when a foster home is available.
Now for a little yoga...ahhhh, good stretch.
Recent Adoptions
We all need to be reminded frequently of our accomplishments. We have had many successful
adoptions since our last update. Most of you will
remember the lovely large orange/white tabby,
Morris, that was living at Jeannie’s dog salon
where we held our dog wash. Lucky Maxwell
(aka, Morris) now lives on a gorgeous 300 acre
farm in Rappahannock County, Jordon River
Farms. He lives with his new dad, Cory Koral, and
they are getting along like macaroni and cheese!
Max is teaching Cory about kitty love; sitting on
Cory’s lap whilst at the computer and sitting on
top of him when Cory is doing his yoga. Our old
hound, Traveler, was adopted to a wonderful
young couple in Charlottesville. New dad, Cole,
sent an email thanking us for providing him with
his “best ever” dog. Traveler is in paradise! He
waited many years for his perfect family. Wilma
(now, Lucy), who was mauled by a wild animal,
and fostered by one of the vets’ at Old Dominion,
was adopted to a great family where she is the
queen; adored. At last, sweet little Rainn was
adopted to a lovely family that say she is just perfect. Michelle did a fabulous job in socializing and
training Rainn and when she was perfect, she
found her perfect family. Little Tilly got adopted
to a little 13 yr old boy that looks just like her;
small, black hair and a sweet personality. He cried
when she jumped in the car with him, he was so
happy. They do everything together. Natalie fostered Diz, the gorgeous blonde golden/something
mix and said that he was no trouble at all. Diz,
now Duke, is living near me in Culpeper on a
lovely horse farm. My farrier hooked Duke and his
new adoptive parents up and now Duke is living
like a king in Culpeper. Evelyn (now Ella) enjoyed an unprecedented barrage of applications.
So she had the luxury of perusing through and
picking out just the perfect mom for herself who
lives in Chicago. Nora did a fantastic job with Ella,
who was very skittish and needed lots of confidence-building and housebreaking. As a reward to
herself, Nora adopted Jake, a little guy she was
fostering for 1 whole day before she knew that she
could never let him leave. Romeo and Juliet
(now Daisy and Duke) went to a family with 2
little boys just in time for Christmas Day. We
have a photo of them and dad really tired! We are
so grateful that we were able to adopt them together. Thanks so much to Peggy who worked on
housebreaking the little angels! Our friend and
volunteer Maureen, sadly lost Harry, the gorgeous
GS that she adopted from us 7 years ago. He was
truly a special spirit and will be sadly missed. Fortunately, there was a little puppy who survived the
dumpster and became Maureen and her fiancé
Alec’s new love-boy. See Badge below whooping
it up at Christmas!
January 1, 2009
Cupcake and Jimmy Spike,
fostered by Margueritte
and her family, are looking
for their forever home.
This charming twosome, Cupcake
and Jimmy Spike, are Shih Tzus
between 3 and 5 years old,
spayed and neutered, up to date
on all vaccinations, parasite free
and Pure Adorable. They are
crate trained, learning some basic
commands and being confirmed in
housebroken. Both get along
great with other dogs, cats and
kids, as they currently live with all
the aforementioned. They are not
nervous little yappers. These
enchanting creatures are very
lovable, possess sweet temperaments, and are fairly calm.
Formerly fostered by
Nora, Dudley is now at
Jeannie’s , and still waiting
for his forever family.
Dudley is a handsome white lab/
hound mix (with a few blonde spots)
who is housebroken (almost), crate
trained, good with other dogs, cats,
kids and people. He would make a
wonderful active family dog. He
needs lots of exercise and lots of
space to run out his considerable
energy. Dudley is just 1 year old,
about 55-60 lbs, and possesses an
extraordinarily sweet disposition.
Eager to please, very affectionate,
Dudley even knows a few commands. His motto is “Don’t fence me
in!”, favorite toy...YOU, color...red
and “it’s all about the nose”.
We may not have
saved all the animals
in the world, but what
we have done has
meant the world to
each of these animals.
Traveler
Wilma
Rainn
Tilly
Ella
Daisy
Duke
Financials
Our 2009 goal is to keep all our veterinarians paid in full, and to maintain a
cushion in our LHS account for emergency medical costs.
Aside from fundraising our only revenue comes from adoption fees and donations. Since the economy has taken a nose-dive all charitable organizations
are feeling the extra pinch in their financials.
Keep in mind that we have NO ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.
Our largest and most important bill is for veterinarian services. We need to
keep these bills paid so that we can continue to take our rescue animals
there. Ostensibly, our adoption fee covers the costs of basic medical costs.
This seldom happens. Most of our rescues need additional medical treatment. Several examples from this year; we had dogs whose collars had to be
cut from their necks, a huge tumor removal from a throat, heartworm treatments for 2 little ones as well as surgery for a wound, and a dog badly
mauled. While our adoption fee does not cover basic medical costs we remain competitive with other rescue groups due to the market. We have estimated that it costs at a minimum $175 (which includes one month of flea/tick
and heartworm preventatives). The longer we foster these animals the more
the cost increases. For those adopters that exclaim over the amount of the
adoption fee…they can easily triple that cost at a vets office without the discount that we enjoy. Occasionally, we pull an animal that does not need
spaying or neutering and is injury-free; this helps defray costs. So, we will
pull animals from the shelter at our discretion if we know an animal can easily
be adopted and is “ready to go”.
Other costs include (but not limited to);
Heartworm and flea/tick preventatives
Van; insurance, fuel, maintenance, property tax
LHS business license
Trustee; renews LHS state corporation license
Virginia Federation of Humane Societies annual fee
Sundries like for the dog wash; propane gas, water or dog collars and name
plates
Fundraising
One of my ideas has been to develop small fundraising programs that
function all year delivering us small but steady cash amounts. Keeping in mind our small (but vigorous) group of volunteers, the criteria
I employed was simple; very little of our involvement, and having
other groups raise money for us.
Donation Box Idea: Put containers of chocolate mints for 25₵ alongside the
donation boxes...anyone not wanting to donate may want a chocolate mint,
thereby donating! LHS will purchase an economy size bag of chocolate mints
and distribute to folks maintaining the donation boxes.
CAT Group: This is a community group that Michelle administers to in the
Mineral Middle School. Jeannie and I are planning a February return; presentaing on animal over-population, and doing something fun to reward them for
fund collecting for us. I will of course be dressed in my finest dalmation dog
suit. We may suggest they sponsor a dog of their choosing.
Now for something completely different; actively seeking big ticket
items or events that can earn us significant funds. [Again, if you
have an idea that can earn us big bucks (or even some bucks) please
let me know asap!]
Raffle for 18K Topaz Bracelet: We have a winner! Sherri LaReaux, a friend of
Maureen Reese, won the 18k gold topaz bracelet. Sherri is a full time model/
actress and is a big supporter of animal rescue. Sheriff Fortune from Louisa
did the drawing on Dec 30th. Sherri was ecstatic about winning the gorgeous
bracelet, although she says she didn’t know about
the bracelet, she just gave money to
us as a donation (and something
about a raffle, she didn’t know what it
was!). While we did not make our
goal of selling 100 raffle tickets (sob),
we did make $2500 on raffle tickets.
I think that we would have done
much better had not the economy nose-dived. But we are
very grateful for the $2500 we did earn by selling 50 tickets!
Holiday Dog Wash: More volunteers than we knew what to do with and plenty
of time to wash some LHS kenneled dogs...but we did make about $400,
which included some donations and people giving extra in their payment of
the wash. I asked everyone who showed up with dogs to be washed how
they found out about the event. We learned that it takes everything; newspaper advertising, flyer advertisements, emails to our adopters database and
street signs announcing wash on that day. Also, it’s nice that we have pretty
young girls with adoring boys to bring their dogs in for a wash! It was great
to get everyone together to chat and get to know each other better.
Ideas:
Raffle Monticello Hunt Race Tickets (I can get for FREE)...maybe the
CAT group could help us sell the raffle tickets or sell on Ebay.
Another dog wash?
Contact the Louisa Volunteer group to see if they would fundraise or
collect contributions for LHS.
Important Message to Fosters
Dog Collars and Name Plates: Maddox Feed Store offers the plastic collar
with name plate showing our phone number. A dog without a collar, and tag
with his phone number, is a very bad thing. Statistically, the highest rate of
dog loss is in the first two weeks of a new adoption. No dog should leave
your care without a collar and tag with phone number. If the new
adopter does not have their own collar and tag, please send the dog to its
new home with the LHS collar. However, we do have to pay for these, so ask
that the people kindly mail them back to us when they secure their own collar
and tag. Or just collect $10 for the LHS collar.
Heartworm and Flea and Tick Preventatives: Please call Jeannie to replenish your foster dog’s preventatives; you can pick them up from her at her
office. Please call her first to ensure she has the correct ones you need.
Encourage your adopters to send us photos of dogs and cats LHS
adopted to them. We can highlight them on our Happy Tails page on our
website. They can either mail us the photo or send us a jpg with happy,
glowing words. By staying in touch with the people we adopt to we create a
vital database and positive relationships. Many of my dog adoptions are repeat customers!
Adoption Outings
Adoption Outings are more than just about adopting out dogs/cats (most of
our adoptions are from the internet on PetFinders. However, it is important
to us as an organization for visibility in the community, an opportunity to
educate people and children, and to be present to receive donations. If you
are able to attend an Adoption Outing at the Culpeper or Charlottesville
PetSmart once a month, please sign up for a Saturday of your choosing. No
schedule will be observed unless we have volunteers. We will need to
know in advance to reserve space for our organization.
Happy Tails!
Here's a pic of the puppies-dog tired-Christmas
Day with my father (also dog tired)!!
We are all so thrilled with our new additions!
Thank you!!
Brandy
Daisy and Duke

How much do you love this photo of
Badge laughing right out loud? It’s
so wonderful to see this little puppy
so happy! Maureen and Alex have
given him the best home ever!
Badge is absolutely the most handsome,
smartest, funniest, kindness dog in the
whole world! We love him to pieces,
and Alex cannot keep his hands off him.
Requests
Please send me your address and phone numbers that LHS can use to contact you. The purpose is for volunteers to have a list of all LHS volunteers
readily available at the tips of thier wee fingers.
Please, never give out a volunteer’s number to a prospective adopter without
receiving the volunteer’s permission first.
Volunteer Directory
Andrew Kenny
Jeannie Kenny
Patty Werick 14508 Chesterfield Lane, Culpeper, VA 22701
540-829-2227(W/H)
patty@werick.com
Peggy Richardson
Michelle Forest
Annemarie Rustic
Allison Vonn-Love
Sheryl Jacobs
Maureen Reese
Lyn Kendall
Natalie Waldron
Nora Deuell
Diana West
Marguerite Martin
202-669-5195(C)