Hello! Welcome to the November edition of Dr. Pet Mom’s Delightful Pet Menagerie (DPM) Newsletter. This month’s edition celebrates the holiday season. I wrote my Quilting For Rescue Pets blog about the small kennel quilts I sew for homeless pets. These quilts fit pet carriers for cats and small dogs living in shelters and rescues.
I reached out to interview the staff and volunteers from four rescue groups. This edition is a round up of my Holiday Heroes Interviews to spotlight these wonderful people dedicated to helping homeless animals. Enjoy!
Holiday Heroes Interviews: Midwest Animal Rescue Services
Happy holidays to all! I’m happy to share a project that has come full circle. And just in time for the holidays! You may recall my Quilting For Rescue Pets blog about my small kennel quilts to fit pet carriers for cats and small dogs.
This year, I sent quilts to several animal rescue groups that save the lives of pets in disaster areas. To celebrate the holidays, I decided to conduct interviews with some of the rescue groups.
I’m sharing another Holiday Heroes Interview about these wonderful animal rescue groups. Staff and volunteers give so much to help homeless animals.
Midwest Animal Rescue Services
This week’s interview was with Camille Bates from Midwest Animal Rescue Services (MARS). Camille works in MARS Community Relations.
MARS is a foster-based rescue group that serves the greater Minneapolis area. Lost, left behind or forgotten animals are fostered and loved until they find a forever home.
Fostered pets have a good chance of finding adoptive homes: Pet foster families help socialize cats and dogs and learn their personalities. The partnership produces the best match possible for new families. MARS is proud of its 99% success rate!
Holiday Heroes: Build, Climb, Fly and Work to Save Animals
Greetings and HAPPY HOLIDAYS! This week, Dr. Pet Mom is taking a break from conducting interviews. I discovered some organizations that help homeless pets in different ways.
This week’s Holiday Heroes are a unique group of animal lovers. These organizations are special because they:
- Build shelters for animals
- Climb trees to rescue cats
- Fly into disaster areas
- Provide pet care for overcrowded animal shelters
- Work to end puppy mills
I did not get a chance to interview all these special animal lovers. But Dr. Pet Mom’s pet parent community should know about their good works to help animals.
Meet this week’s Holiday Heroes!
At Rescue Rebuild, Hammers and Nails for Happy Tails is their motto. Rescue Rebuild is a shelter renovation program that recruits volunteers from all over the country to help shelters in need.
Rescue Rebuild makes animal shelters more adoption-friendly by creating spaces that are engaging and enriching for both pets and people. Renovation projects include:
- Play yards & agility
- Kennel installations & repairs
- Free-roaming cat rooms & outdoor enclosures
- Shelter makeovers
Since 2007, Rescue Rebuild has:
- Recruited 5,000 volunteers
- Built over 140 shelters
- Traveled to 48 states and three countries
These Holiday Heroes build shelters in domestic violence shelters, animal shelters, and homeless and veterans housing.
Canopy Cat Rescue is a non-profit organization that believes that EVERY cat deserves the chance to be rescued. The founding members are cat parents who save cats stuck in trees all over Western Washington.
Since 2009, the team of cat lovers, Tom Otto and Shuan Sears, climb trees to rescue cats. They rescue cats anytime, day or night, rain or shine. The tree team rescues hundreds of cats every year and returns them to their loving families.
Holiday Heroes Interviews: Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League
Happy holidays to all! I’m happy to share a project that has come full circle. And just in time for the holidays! You may recall my Quilting For Rescue Pets blog about my small kennel quilts to fit pet carriers for cats and small dogs.
This year, I sent quilts to several animal rescue groups that save the lives of pets in disaster areas. To celebrate the holidays, I decided to conduct interviews with some of the rescue groups.
I’m sharing another Holiday Heroes Interview about these wonderful animal rescue groups. Staff and volunteers give so much to help homeless animals.
This week’s interview was with Mona Climstein from Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League. Mona is the organization’s Donor Relations Coordinator.
The Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League (the League) is also known as the Humane Society of the Palm Beaches.
Their missions is “to shelter to lost, homeless and unwanted animals, to provide spay and neuter and other medical services for companion animals, and to care for, protect, and find quality homes for homeless and neglected companion animals, to advocate animal welfare, community involvement and education to further the bond between people and animals.”
The Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League serves the needs of homeless and neglected animals in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Tell us about your animal rescue group.
Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League, also known as the Humane Society of the Palm Beaches, is an independent nonprofit animal rescue organization operating continuously since 1925.
Our humble beginnings started on the property of what is now the Palm Beach International Airport. When the airport needed to expand, the County traded us a parcel at 24th & North Tamarind in West Palm Beach.
In the 1980s, Peggy Adams was received a bequest that enabled us to purchase our current property on Military Trail.
Today, we have two large buildings on our property and have broken ground on a state-of-the-art new Pet Adoption and Humane Education Center which is expected to be complete in the fall of 2020.
In 2018, the League provided services to over 35,000 cats and dogs in our community.
Holiday Heroes Interviews: Whispering Willows Senior Dog Sanctuary
Happy holidays to all! I’m happy to share a project that has come full circle. And just in time for the holidays! You may recall my Quilting For Rescue Pets blog about my small kennel quilts to fit pet carriers for cats and small dogs.
This year, I sent quilts to several animal rescue groups that save the lives of pets in disaster areas. To celebrate the holidays, I decided to conduct interviews with some of the rescue groups.
This week is my final Holiday Heroes Interview about these wonderful animal rescue groups. Staff and volunteers give so much to help homeless animals.
I interviewed Valerie Reid, from the Whispering Willows Senior Dog Sanctuary (WWSDS). Valerie is the organization’s President and Founder.
WWSDS is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in Hermitage, Missouri. Many pet parents are afraid to plan for their pet’s future. And death is a frightening reality. When many animal shelters do not care for senior animals, WWSDS helps to fill the gap.
Whispering Willows specializes in end-of-life hospice care for senior dogs who have a short time to live, allowing some to experience love for the very first time.
Whispering Willows is a place for senior dogs to call home. Their motto: Where love is whispered to the last breath.
I love the idea of a retirement home for senior dogs! How did you make a pet retirement home a reality?
We originally lived in Overland Park, Kansas. It had been a dream of mine for about 10 years. My father passed from cancer and there was no where for his senior Doberman to go.
It opened my eyes to a need that was seriously lacking in the rescue community. My daughter was still in school. So we waited until after she graduated to make it happen. Her senior year I started looking for homes further out with land. Once we found the house and land we began the sanctuary.
Do your senior dog residents have to be a certain age?
We accept senior dogs ages 12 and over. Unless there is a professional medical diagnosis stating they need hospice care. It does differs with giant breeds since they age faster. We accept them starting at age seven.
Book Update: Final Touches
Another year is winding down along with my book project. Thanks to some great feedback from my beta readers, I revised and edited my book.
Feedback was an opportunity to get into the minds of some of my readers and listen to their ideas to improve my book. The process took longer than expected and I’m very happy with the result.
The finishing touches include more graphics, a finished book cover, and one last read from a small group of beta readers. And the new title is Special Pets: Dr. Pet Mom’s Guide to Adopt and Love Your Senior or Special Needs Pets.
I’m happy with a cleaner, easy-to-read, useful, and well-organized book for pet parents.
The book is planned to launch in 2023. Stay tuned for more details!
Thanks for stopping by! Merry Christmas to all!
Dr. Pet Mom
“Animals are a blessing to God’s creation. He created them to assist humankind in many ways.”
–John Stange