A lot has happened since that last post. Austin Pets Alive! is growing so fast thanks to the work of all of our dedicated volunteers and board members. In the last month, we have accomplished a lot and are still working furiously on getting our life saving programs implemented. It is not going to be an overnight process but we are well on our way. A few of us are going to blog about our progress on a regular basis so that we can share our successes and defeats with you. I hope you will find it interesting but most importantly, I hope that it will inspire you to get involved in any way you can to make Austin the No Kill City it should be.
This is a list of the progress we are making right now:
Mac is our amazing Dog Adoption Manager. He has a fantastic team of adoption counselors. We are so fortunate that he is merging with APA! and we look forward to using volunteers and other resources to expand his services and save more dogs!
Enhancing our partner program with TLAC to get dogs that have been in the shelter for a long time adopted through Petsmarts and Petcos. Some amazing TLAC volunteers (Chandra being the one taking on the most right now) have stepped up to shuttle the dogs to and from the adoption sites and we have effectively adopted 2 dogs!
We have rescued about 10 dogs from TLAC that were slated for euthanasia. We are happy to report that many of these dogs have already been adopted!
We are growing foster homes. Thanks to Palmer, we now have an amazing foster program. It is well organized and easy to use. We are committed to short term fosters because it is imperative these animals make it to their permanent homes quickly.
We have a home grown website that is incredible thanks to Gretchen and her web team. It is going to blow you away when it is finished!
Our volunteer program is becoming more and more organized so that as we get volunteers we can keep them happy by using their time effectively to make a difference. Kim is a whiz at organizing this stuff so that no volunteer will be left behind.
We have already instituted our Boot Camp program that offers low time commitment, low cost, high value dog training. Tara will save a lot of dogs from being surrendered in the first place because of her dedication and skill.
We are working hard on implementing a hotline for pet owners to use when they encounter issues with their pets. We hope that this will make it less likely that people lose their connection with their pets and pets stay in their homes permanently. Carolina is working on the content with some special help from the ASPCA and we hope to have a functional hotline soon.
We have an amazing new logo that was hand picked by our fantastic marketing committee. I hope to unveil it soon!
There are many more progresses to report but I am running out of time. This will be our way of keeping you up to speed so stay tuned.
