Pet Dish 6/5/12

In this issue:

An inspirational walk for animals
Kindest Cut celebrates one year of service
Looking for Leo
Support animals (and the Twin Cities!) in a new nationwide giving contest
More treats
Scratching Posts

An inspirational walk for animals

The rain held out making for a fabulous day for thousands of people and pets to celebrate the 38^th annual Walk for Animals on May 5. And it wasn’t just dogs in tow — cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, rats, a parrot, a turtle, and even a duck were among the crowds of canines!

The Walk culminated the effort of thousands of supporters who collected pledges resulting in nearly $1 million in community donations! While we ended up a bit short of our goal, there’s still time to make up for this shortfall before the end of our fiscal year on June 30. We deeply appreciate anything you can do to help. Click here to make a donation.

It takes an entire community to make an event like this a success and we want to give a big thank you to each and every person who raised pledges and donated to this very important cause. We also want to recognize the 150 staff members, 400 volunteers and dozens of vendors whose hard work and dedication made this event possible.

Special thanks to our 2012 Walk for Animals sponsors: Purina, Fox 9, Cities 97, Radio Disney, My 29, Crave, Subaru, Cub Foods, Health Partners, Lavender Magazine, and Wells Fargo.

Visit our Walk for Animals website for a list of top fundraisers and teams and to view photos from the day’s events. We hope to see you at next year’s Walk for Animals on Saturday, May 4, 2013!

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Kindest Cut celebrates one year of service

One year after Kindest Cut’s low cost spay/neuter service hit the road, Dr. Meghann Kruck and her team is amazed by the number of pets they have been able to help. "This past year has been an incredibly rewarding experience,” says Dr. Kruck. “This spring several of our rescue partners noted a significant drop in their intake of cats and kittens. We started this program knowing our goal was to reduce animal homelessness, but we could not have imagined how quickly an impact would be seen.”

The success of Kindest Cut can be seen in the highlights of their first year of service:

Over 7,500 spay/neuter surgeries performed
Became a member of MnPAW(Minnesota Partnership for Animal Welfare), a coalition of animal welfare organizations working toward a shared goal of reducing euthanasia in Minnesota.
45 cats received free spay/neuter surgeries from Kindest Cut during MnPAW’s Feline Fix, a one-day event providing subsidized surgeries for felines.
Participated in the 1st Annual Pit Bull Awareness Day event at Neighborhood House in St. Paul where they provided spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations and microchipping for 16 pit bulls.
Partnered with MnPAW and Leech Lake Legacy to host the first collaborative spay/neuter clinic at Leech Lake Indian Reservation. During this two-day clinic, they provided spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations and microchipping for 91 pets.
Participated in Project Homeless Connect, a twice-yearly opportunity for individuals who are homeless to have access to services they need. Kindest Cut provided pet treats, cat litter and 190 pounds of pet food to people in need.
Partnered with HealthPartners to hold monthly spay/neuter clinics at HealthPartners locations in Apple Valley, Bloomington, St. Paul, Inver Grove Heights, Roseville, and Woodbury.
Seven students from Minneapolis College of Art and Design interned with Kindest Cut to produce creative new marketing materials.
Participated in the Pet Project Rescue subsidized spay/neuter day for pets of North Minneapolis Tornado victims.
Joined Law of the Paw, a national movement for pets. Through this initiative, pet owners promise to adopt, spay/neuter, and ID their pets. As part of their commitment to Law of the Paw, Kindest Cut provides free collars and ID tags to pets receiving surgery without proper identification.
Raised $4,485 through a garage sale and dog wash to fund a second spay/neuter event at the Leech Lake Reservation. The sale raised enough funds to support two full days of spay/neuter surgeries and vaccinations for pets on the reservation.

Now working with more than 70 rescue organizations, up from 36 one year ago!

As awareness of Kindest Cut grows, the mobile clinic will perform an estimated 10,000 surgeries annually. But this is only a portion of the need in the Twin Cities metro area. Once funding is secured through our Bound for Home initiative, the next step is to break ground on a bricks and mortar clinic for Kindest Cut at AHS’s Golden Valley location. This community clinic will provide an additional 15,000 affordable spay/neuter surgeries each year.

Kindest Cut depends on the support of volunteers to help the staff by cleaning surgical instruments and laundry, walking dogs after surgery, and helping out at events. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Cheryl Fiore at cfiore@kindestcutmn.com.

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Looking for Leo

Story submitted by Ann W.

“Like a lot of people, I grew up with a dog and wanted my daughter to have the same experiences. It took a little convincing but when the whole family agreed, we started looking around. My husband and I researched breeds and asked friends about their experiences. We wanted to be careful and choose the right dog for our active lifestyle. We needed a dog that was big and active enough to bring up to the cabin, yet gentle enough for our five-year-old girl, Tilli.

After much deliberation, we agreed that a boxer might be a good fit. There was no real deadline as it was important to both of us that we take our time. We didn’t want to rush into a commitment we’d later regret. Enter Santa Claus. When asked what she hoped he would bring her for Christmas, our daughter Tilli shyly answered ‘a dog.’ Yikes! Gifting a dog was out of the question. Besides, how would we manage the whole 'dog coming down our chimney’ piece? But then wise old Santa explained that dogs and people had to find each other and that she would know her dog when she met him. He agreed to also keep an eye out for a dog that was looking for his girl.

We stepped up the search and after several failed attempts at making the right connection, I took Tilli to Animal Humane Society. I warned her that we were just going to look (mostly to convince myself) because her Dad wasn’t along. We walked past a lot of dogs. Tilli pet several of them and even took a few into the visitation room.

Then a volunteer suggested we look at a dog we hadn’t considered. I don’t know where you find your staff and volunteers, but I am pretty sure this woman came directly from the North Pole because she left and came back with Leo, the dog who was looking for his girl. When she brought Leo in, he leaped up and licked Tilli all over her face then circled around her, bouncing and wagging his tail. Leo was very excited — it was clear he found his girl, just like Santa said he would.

We are so grateful to the volunteer for her insight and familiarity with dogs. We could not have ordered a more perfect dog for our family. Besides being a tireless running partner and a highly effective watch dog, Leo tolerates floppy hats for tea and sitting patiently on the floor while his girl reads him stories.

Honestly, he has become something like the little sibling I wished for Tilli. On a recent road trip to the cabin, Tilli complained from the backseat, ‘Mom, Leo won't stay on his own side!’ The 60 pound dog was trying to get as much of his body onto the lap of his 40 pound best friend.”

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Support animals (and the Twin Cities!) in a new nationwide giving contest

On June 14, hundreds of communities across America will compete to win $30,000 in prizes for a nonprofit organization in their area. Razoo.com is sponsoring a 24-hour online giving competition and asked top social media personalities to choose their favorite organization. Each city can only be represented by one person and one cause. Animal lover and philanthropist Dania Miwa was selected to represent Minneapolis and she chose to raise funds on behalf of Animal Humane Society.

“Animal Humane Society has been an important part of my life for more than 20 years. Nearly every dog and cat I had growing up came from there,” says Dania. “And besides giving animals second chances, I’m so impressed by how much more they do to make a meaningful impact for people and pets in the community.”

The giving competition, Twive and Receive, was named by mashing up the phrase “give and receive” with the name of the social network Twitter — but don’t worry, you don’t have to be on Twitter to participate! During the 24-hour contest period, communities across the nation will make online donations to the nonprofit selected for their city. The top three nonprofits with the most dollars raised will receive bonus funds — $15,000 for first place, $10,000 for second place and $5,000 for third place.

Both Minnesota and Animal Humane Society have a strong track record in online giving challenges. GiveMN.org’s Give to the Max Day raised over $13 million for Minnesota nonprofits last year, three to four times the amount raised in similar giving contests in other states. Due to the support of animal lovers like you, Animal Humane Society has consistently been on GiveMN’s leaderboard every year of the Give to the Max Day competition. We know with your support, we can get there once again.

So mark your calendars for June 14 or schedule your donation in advance, and be prepared to show the nation just how generous Minnesota animal lovers can be!

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