We gave information and contact information for spay/neuter assistance for unaltered animals, and will be paying for the spay of a chocolate lab that was rescued from being chained to a car and forced to have litter after litter, ’til her person rescued her.

This is what animal welfare is about–getting out there into the community and helping the underserved. They are usually the people on SSI or unemployment who made room in their hearts to help another living being. The people who are off the radar for any help like this, and want to do right by their pets. We had one lady pay in quarters for her dog. All grateful and kind, and liked that we did not make them go through paperwork to see if the qualify, we went in and helped and that is what the grant was intended for.

Many thank yous to: Dr. Dana Edwards, Cat Kuhlman, Jan Link, Leslie Vogt, Marla and Paulie Stone, and Christy Chernow for their enthusiasm and help. And definitely huge thank yous to Christina and Marilyn of D.O.G.S. for hosting our rag tag event.

I have had a hard time finding foster homes, especially for adult cats, and put out an S.O.S. InterMountain Humane Society answered by saying they would take up to 8 adult, friendly cats for me if Duncan’s Place took 3 feral brothers and found a safe placement for them, so done deal. Stopped and chatted with Zach at Poudre Feed and he said he would take the brothers. So 11 cats will be saved in one day, thanks to networking and a shelter that had the room, and is a no kill.

So that is what I have been up to this week so far. Never a dull moment!

We have taken in 70 adult cats and kitten this last year! We reached and passed 200 official rescues thanks to our small band of fosters, volunteers, and supporters, so thank you all!

Spayed and neutered 56 “owned” pets throughout Larimer County with our Spay Mommy Program (we spayed and neutered any cats that were in a household, at no cost to their human guardians, some weren’t preggers or of the right sex, but we just wanted to cut down on the overpopulation problem in our small corner of the world).

We fed 123 humans this year through our partnership with Larimer County Food Bank. We also fed 364 cats, dogs, birds, and a ferret with our pet food bank, Dudley’s Delectables.

We do not make people fill out forms and demoralize them by that–they come to us for help and we just do, we just hope that when they are on their feet again that they pay the kindnesses forward to someone else who needs help, plan and simple. That is what all our programming to help animals and people is based on.

Our low cost vaccine clinics have helped 360 cats and dogs get the vaccines they need at a fraction of what a veterinary office would charge. Again we did not require paperwork–as long as a animal is being helped then we did our job!

We received 2 large grants from LCVMA and Animal Assistance Foundation, which helped fund our Spay Mommy Program, Dudley’s Delectables, and our low cost vaccine clinics.  We also received monetary gifts from the Linnea/Pure Heart Foundation, and the CSU Student Chapter of Feline Practitioners. 

We have had some very generous people help us this year, so we could help more animals:
Joan Campbell
Rose & Don Caroll
Skip Freeman
Jan & Bob Link
Leslie Vogt
LaShelle Lyman
Linnea/Pure Heart Rescue
Sam Uberman (Duncan’s Place East)
Cheryl Stravis, Pumpkin Puddy Katz
Susan Malonne (Breeders Choice) 
Poudre Feed South-Zach
D.O.G.S. at Centerra
Dr. Dana Edwards
Dr. Jack Worthington
Dr. Smith
Dr. Love
Dr. Welsh
Dr, Rustigi
James Christofferson
The Hoffman family
The Cortese Family
Beki Newok
Chris Head
The Iffeninger Family
LCVMA 
Animal Assistance Foundation
CSU Student Chapter of Feline Practioners
Ian with Target

Each year we seem to get more recognition and support which is wonderful, and we hope it continues.

I thank you all for all the help, support, friendship, and love you have given both to the kitties and I, we are truly grateful and happy we have the people we have in our lives, THANK YOU!!

Cathy

We need to say THANK YOU to Chris Bergees, Duncan’s East, and Pumpkin Puddy for their continuing support and love!

We helped 12 needy families and their pets with holiday food baskets for the humans and the furries for Thanksgiving.

So with the year winding down and good things happening for the kitties, I hope we can all end it on a positive note!

We have one more event for this year and it is up in Cheyenne, Wyoming–the Merry Mutts Fair on December 10 hosted by our friends at Black Dog Animal Rescue. The dogs wanted Duncan’s and our kitties to come up and share in some fun and maybe find a furever home or two! If anyone wants to help let me know!

We have paved the way for DVMs and other groups to bring affordable preventative care for companion animals in our community, so you all should be proud of what we accomplished!

With that said, I would love to have a blow out on both volunteers and cats and dogs lined out the door, to send off our last vaccine clinic.

We need volunteers to help people the tables and get the word out to the press/community, so we leave JAX with empty boxes and lots of cash donations to help keep Duncan’s Place going.

It has been a tough year for all, and with larger groups giving away cats and reduced kitten adoptions, it has made it more than difficult for any of our little charges to be seen or considered. We cannot compete with the larger groups, but, I am happy to say, I will not join LHS as others have, we have stayed and always will stay independent of those type of collaborations. The cats and kittens are way too important to me and I believe the majority of DP supporters agree. So we will struggle on and work our magic for the kitties that we can help, until forever homes are found.

It is a long, hard road to follow but our feline charges are better off due to this–we have had only 2 returns in 3 years after 277 adoptions. It might be the wrong thing for others, but I think it is the best we can do for our furry friends. I do not want them placed in worse situations than where they came from, so our matching the right kitty with the right people has worked!

If anyone knows anyone who would help in fostering, PR, community events, fund raising, anything that can take a lot of the work off my plate so I can work for more sustainable programming, please step up! Or if someone wants to take over for a few days so I can go away, before my last nerve fries, that would be appreciated too.

Target in Ft. Collins will be donating pet food and cleaning goods to us once a week. Thank you IAN!

Poudre Feed south donated quite a bit of food to us to keep going. Thank you, ZAK!!

We are working with Petsmart on becoming an adoption partner, that could bring grant opportunities, discounts, and free goodies. I will not place our cats in cages there, though; I guess that is either very anal retentive or micro managing, but our cats should never know what a cage is, in a strange place, and with strange people. We will do adoption events and they will have to be kenneled but that is as far as I want our furry friends close to cage.

So that is the news for now, thank you all for all you do!!!!

In addition, we have been working with Divine Feline, via Karen Hood, and our pals over at Northern Colorado Friends of Ferals in saving and socializing kittens so they do not have to face life as a feral.

Everything we accomplish is thanks to all of your love and support, and the hard work of our foster families!

We need to thank a few of our great friends/supporters:
Skip Freeman
Leslie Vogt
Jan Link
Myenberg Milk Products
Worthington Animal Hospital
Highland Hills Pet Hospital, Dr. Dana Edwards
James Christofferson
Poudre Feed South, Zach
Slad Jones
Sam at “Duncan’s Place Way East, Philadelphia”
Nip & Bones
Pumpkin Puddy and her person Cheryl Stavis

Thank you all for helping the kitties!

You can read more about it here.

Head on over to Nip and Bones this month for your pet needs, and $1 from every purchase goes to the kitties of DP!

Thank you, Nip and Bones!

KONG is donating more toys for the kitties. Thanks, Robert!

Breeder’s Choice is giving us more samples of Pinnacle and other goodies. Susan Mallonee is so good to us.

We received a donation in the name of Karen Longberger, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge this year to join her animal friends. She will be sorely missed by all that she touched in her life. She was a good friend of our friend Duncan (”Duncan’s Place, East”) who lives in New Jersey; he sends the proceeds from his mouse & bird kill earnings to Duncan’s Place “West.” He is also a big Phillies fan…

UPCOMING EVENTS

We won a Petfinder grant for 25 doses of canine influenza vaccine, so we are going to do the series of 2 for 25 lucky dogs. It is part of Schering Plough’s Creating Community Immunity campaign. The vaccines will be free, but we’ll ask that owners buy a big bag of Pinnacle, Merrick, or EVO at DOGS, where we’ll be holding the event.

Our friends at the Dog Club of Fort Collins are holding a cat clicker training class on March 5. Now’s your chance to teach an old cat new tricks!

Our next vaccine clinic is coming up in April, date TBA.

The next Linnea Memorial Pet Walk and Adopt-a-thon will be June 4.

The NOCO LOCO Cat Show is in Estes Park on June 18. We get a $1 from each ticket sold, so go have fun and see some kitties in the mountains while helping DPs!

Many thanks to the Animal Assistance Foundation, whose grant is helping us keep this program available for pet owners in these tough times!

With this grant we can spay/neuter 20+ owned felines for families that would not otherwise be able to afford this surgery, and we can cut some of our pet overpopulation problem here in the greater Loveland area. We are in the process of formulating guidelines for qualifying for this help. We encourage veterinary clinics, human service agencies, and neighbors to contact us about a family who could use this assistance.

The Animal Assistance Foundation’s mission is to provide leadership and support in improving animal welfare in the state of Colorado. Each year, they generously award thousands of dollars to animal organizations across the state.

We are so fortunate to have been chosen as one of this year’s recipients! Many kitties will benefit from this grant. Thank you, Animal Assistance Foundation!

We will be at Loveland JAX’s Pet Halloween parade 10/30, might dress Peanut the kitten up as a peanut.

We had another successful vaccine clinic last Sunday, which will help pay our food bill. Thanks to all those who helped out! We have next year’s vaccine clinics already scheduled with Loveland JAX.

We are working more and more with NOCO Friends of Ferals, we took in 11 kitties from them, 2 of which we will be rehoming as barn kitties–they don’t like us humans too much, don’t blame them!!

Paws crossed on our grant requests to Larimer County Veterinary Association and Animal Assistance Foundation!

We will be doing a Party Light Fundraiser that will go on to to the middle of December, we get half the proceeds and people can get some great holiday gifts! (Too bad we can’t have candles here–too many burnt whiskers!) Also, we will do a regular Party Light party December 11, at 7 pm, will be sending invites… margaritas and cosmos will be served, plus some yummy appetizers.

We’re also working on a December skating party out at Centerra for all.