As I write this letter, we are preparing for the dangerous Arctic cold
front that is about to blast freezing temperatures into our community
and throughout Central Texas, just in time for the holidays.
Our shelter becomes severely strained with temperatures this low. To keep our animals warm and safe during this cold emergency, we asked our community to take in a foster pet during the storm, give funds to support the increased cost of shelter operations, and help under-resourced shelters across the region. And you've come through, opening your hearts and homes to the pets who are most in need, at the time they need that help the most.
Even though our own shelter struggles tremendously during a
disaster like this, we cannot turn our backs on animals in our community
or in shelters that are severely under-resourced. We are compelled to
help out and our community is too. Your support allows us to distribute warm blankets and heaters to pets in need all across Texas.
Our community stepping up to protect pets during a bitterly frigid storm is just one inspiring example of many, of how working together in 2022 we have been able to do so much for homeless pets in Austin, and beyond.
We saved our 100,000th life in February. Copper, a 2-month-old puppy, survived a disease that is a death sentence in nearly every other animal shelter, thanks to our innovative Parvo Puppy ICU. Copper is one of the whopping 1,035 puppies who are alive today, solely because they came through our Parvo Puppy ICU this year.
We celebrated our 11th anniversary of Austin becoming a No Kill city. Fourteen years ago, animal lovers in Austin banded together to end the needless killing of shelter pets in our community. We achieved this goal in three years, and have never stopped fighting for it since. We've now set our eyes on expanding our lifesaving further beyond our geographical borders, to the areas with the greatest need.
We grew our transport program. This year we saved more than 2,400 at-risk pets by connecting underfunded and overwhelmed Texas shelters to organizations in areas of the country where they would be adopted. In one remarkable transport mission, in July we flew 89 cats and kittens and 12 dogs from Texas, where the animals faced likely euthanasia, to our partner in Maine, where they were received with open arms and hope.
We continued our partnership with Austin FC, our hometown professional soccer club, with 22 of our animals serving as Honorary Mascots during home games. These include pups who are true survivors, and really deserve to be celebrated—like Gavin, who came to APA! with severe injuries after being hit by a car, and needed his jaw reattached; RayRay, who'd been abandoned in a home when his owner moved out and left him behind; and Wolff Pack and Alright, Alright, Alright, two more of our parvo survivors and Parvo Puppy ICU graduates. These furry mascots spread critical awareness about our lifesaving programs and mission—and the game-day attention helps them get adopted!
APA! brought nearly 12,000 animals through our shelter this year. We saved countless more with our hands-on support of under-resourced shelters, through our No Kill education in which we teach other shelters and communities how to save the most at-risk animals, and our Human Animal Support Services project's focus on pet support and keeping people and pets together.
These are just a few of our 2022 milestones. We can't wait to share more with you in our annual impact report. Stay tuned!
Now, as we turn toward the end of the year, let me say thank you for being such an important part of our lifesaving community. It is your support that lets us save these lives.
And now your gift can do even more. A group of generous anonymous donors is matching all donations until December 31st.
From now until the end of the year, your gift is DOUBLED. That means if you donate $1, it becomes $2! We are halfway to meeting our December goals and every dollar helps. Click here to donate.
Fourteen years ago, we set out to save the pets who were losing their lives in Austin, for no reason other than because they didn't have a home. Today, as our pets are welcomed into loving foster homes, while a wicked storm approaches, we are so proud of our community. We are proud to be based here, in this city of animal lovers, where every day of every year, we work to save even more of the animals who would not survive without what we do together. We are excited to expand our lifesaving work to wherever at-risk pets need us the most, and we can't wait for you to be part of it.
On behalf of all of us at APA!, thank you for all you do. Happy holidays, and have a very happy new year.
