Cookies for a Cause

a Fundraiser for HomeFur-ever Animal Rescue

What:  Receive a ‘to go’ container and fill it from a variety of home-made holliday cookies, pay by the pound. Dog treats, calendars and stockings will also be available.

When:  December 12th, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Where:  The Woods Clubhouse, located behind the Laurel Park Mall in Livonia (6 Mile/Newburgh area) 18328 University Park Drive

For More Information:  Contact HomeFurever Volunteer Denise @ 734-233-5146 or 734-844-3513

Click HERE for more details

Tales for the Pet Lover’s Heart

We’re excited that Home Fur-Ever has been chosen by our friends at Nestlé Purina and Kroger to participate in the 2011 “Tales for the Pet Lover’s Heart” program.  The fourth-annual “Tales” campaign is a joint program between Nestlé Purina and Kroger stores to donate up to $175,000 to 20 participating animal welfare organizations across the country. 

The campaign encourages pet enthusiasts to share joyful tales, photos and videos of their pets.  In addition, we hope you will consider entering the campaign sweepstakes that kicks off in July.  Nestlé Purina and Kroger will donate $50,000 to one of the participating animal welfare organizations – it could be us! – in honor of one randomly selected person.  The winning person will also receive a year’s worth of groceries at Kroger and a year’s supply of Purina pet food.

Just for participating in this campaign, Home Fur-Ever will receive a $5,000 donation.  Also, for every pet tale submitted to the program website, www.TalesForThePetLoversHeart.com., Purina and Kroger will donate $1, up to $25,000, to be divided equally among the participating animal welfare organizations.  So Home Fur-Ever has an opportunity to receive an additional $1,250 if 25,000 stories are submitted.  We encourage you to log on to the website and enter your tale – you have an opportunity to support our organization and other worthy animal welfare groups around the country.

The “Tales for the Pet Lover’s Heart” campaign runs through November 2011.  For more information, feel free to visit the program website, www.TalesForThePetLoversHeart.com, or Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TalesForThePetLoversHeart.  And thanks to our friends at Nestlé Purina and Kroger for including us in this program and supporting pet welfare.

Help us get Skip adopted!

HomeFur-ever is urgently in need of donations specifically toward the training of our adoptable dog, Skip, so that we may insure his ability to be adopted.  Skip is currently in a foster home with someone who is interested in adopting him, however, his behavior issues are causing the potential adopter to re-consider.  We have found a trainer who has signficantly reduced their fees and is willing to help; can you please help us come up with the funds needed?

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THIS IS THE SITUATION: due to issues with food aggression, Skip is currently not able to be adopted and needs professional training to overcome this. To see his handsome mug shot click on this link: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/15620032 

Skip was evaluated this week by Bonnie Waintz, a very reputable trainer from Alternative k9 training http://alternativek9training.com/bonny.htm

Bonnie assessed that he is totally redeemable and with some work will make a fine dog. However he needs one-on-one training  to resolve his issues. His foster is going out of town and Skip needs to be boarded. Bonnie has offered to take him into her home and work with him for one week (doggie boot camp) and then conduct follow up visits with Skip’s foster to reinforce his training. She wants to help Skip and has reduced her fees.  We only need to raise an additional $170 to make this happen.

If you have boarded your animals, then you know barding alone would cost at least $20 or more a day. To have Skip professionally trained too, is an outstanding deal. Most importantly this will give him the chance he needs at being adopted into a forever home.

Are you able to contribute a couple of dollars or maybe $5, $10, or $20? We realize times are tough and money is very tight, but any amount would greatly help Skip get on track.

If you are able to help, please send a check made payable to Alternative k9 Training to:

Melinda Schneid, 455 Woodvale, Walled Lake, MI  48390

Time is of the essence as arrangements will need to be made this week depending on if we are able to raise the funds. If  funds in excess of $170 are raised, they will be used for evaluation and training of other dogs that need help. We will keep a detailed accounting of all funds received for this purpose and will provide a financial report upon request.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this proposition. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Two National Fundraising Contests for Animal Rescues/Shelters

Two national pet-listing websites, Adopt-a-Pet and Petfinder, are sponsoring contests to help animal rescues and shelters across the country raise funds to help animals.  Each of these contests is won by votes from YOU for your favorite animal rescue or shelter.

The America’s Favorite Animal Shelter contest, sponsored by Care2 and Adopt-a-Pet.com, is a chance for animal lovers everywhere to raise awareness of the need to adopt shelter and rescue animals while helping their favorite shelter win a much-needed donation.  Their contest takes place from November 5 thru December 16, 2009.  The winning shelter/rescue gets $10,000, and a random shelter/rescue is selected weekly to win $500.

Click HERE to vote for HomeFur-ever in the Adopt-a-Pet contest .

The second contest, sponsored by Petfinder, is on the Animal Rescue Site.  If you will click on the link below and search for “home fur-ever” (you have to spell it that way) and vote for us, you will help our chances of winning a grant that’s part of $100,000 being awarded! You can vote once a day, but if you use Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera, that means you can vote 4 times a day – once on each browser.

If you would like a reminder to vote daily, the Rescue Site offers a free Daily Reminder email service that you can sign up for which also results in extra food donations to shelters if you are a new registrant on the site.  Sign up by clicking HERE.

Voting for this contest began September 14th and continues thru December 20th.  The following are the prizes that will be awarded:

Prizes will go to the eligible Petfinder.com organization with the highest accumulative votes for the duration of the Challenge as specified in the rules.  

Grand Prize:  One $20,000 grant!

Second Prize:  One $5,000 grant!

Third Prize:  One $3,000 grant!

New! Most Touching Story*:  Two $2,000 grants! (judged by The Animal Rescue Site)

State Winners**:  Fifty-one $1,000 state grants (50 U.S. states and Washington DC)

Canadian Winners*:  Two $1,000 grants will be awarded

International Winner:  One $1,000 grant will be awarded.

Click HERE to vote in the Animal Rescue Site contest. 

We would very much appreciate your votes in both contests (daily if your schedule will allow), and would appreciate you informing all pet lovers you know to visit the site and vote as well; HomeFur-ever and all of our rescued animals can really use your help!

Emergency Assistance Needed to Save Sanford’s Life!

Poor Sanford, he’s had a tortuous life, and now he’s fighting for his life once again!

We rescued him after he appeared to have been hit by a car. He had two broken legs, one with a compound fracture.  Poor Sanford was in so much pain that he had chewed off his foot to try to alleviate the pain.  Unfortunately, that leg was damaged beyond repair and had to be amputated.   

You would think he had suffered enough and the story would end there, but such is not the luck of our poor Sanford.  Unfortunately, during his recovery he was frightened and managed to escape.  This led to him being missing for several weeks until a good samaritan finally found him hiding under a porch looking for scraps of food.  They saw his HomeFur-ever tag and we were able to get him back to complete his treatment and work toward giving him a much better life.

Unfortunately, due to a shortage of foster homes, Sanford had to live in a foster home that had a lot of other foster animals, including some who didn’t like him very much, so there were times when those animals weren’t very nice to him.  This has resulted in Sanford becoming very timid and fearful for a period of time.

Even with all of this, Sanford has been a trouper!  He adapted fairly well to the loss of the leg and learned to get around as needed, and he seems to have overcome his fear of other dogs.  Unfortunately, it appears that he has now suffered a spinal stroke or developed severe disc problems and is starting to lose his battle to gain a new life.

We at HomeFur-ever are devastated at all the adversity this sweet boy has had to suffer, and his current emergency situation, so we are urgently trying to raise the funds needed to get him the medical treatment needed to save his life and give him the quality of life that he deserves.  To that end, we are URGENTLY REQUESTING YOUR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.  We would be very grateful for any amount you can contribute toward his medical expenses.  Click HERE to go to our website where contributions may be conveniently made using PayPal.

THANK YOU to Those Who Have Provided Assistance After Our Recent Robbery

To those who have provided assistance after the recent theft of our equipment and supplies:

HomeFur-ever would like to extend our deepest gratitude to those who have provided us with equipment & supply donations, cash donations and offers to volunteer assistance during this time of extreme need. 

While a situation as we recently experienced with the theft of all of our equipment and supplies is never easy to deal with or to overcome (see news release and media coverage if you are unfamiliar with our recent situation), we are VERY proud to say that the assistance we have received from the Detroit community has helped us to continue the care of our animals, and has shown a very positive side of the Detroit metro area.  Additionally, we have received substantial support from outside the Detroit community as a result of our participation on Twitter and Facebook; and we would like our new friends to know how very appreciative we are of their well-wishes, assistance and support.  In times like these the support of your friends – new or old – gives you the strength to do what needs to be done in spite of the obstacles!

Though the gifts we’ve received, large and small, have been too numerous to list here individually, we hope that every group and individual who has offered that assistance to us will accept our sincere thanks on behalf of our group and the animals we care for.

As one might expect, the need continues as we have a long way to go to recover, and to replace what was taken from us and our animals.  However, we are very confident  that our friends and animal-lovers both inside and outside the Detroit community will help us to obtain everything we need to insure that our work helping animals can continue without interuption.

Thank you again one and all for your support of HomeFur-ever Animal Rescue!

HomeFur-ever Debuts New, Donated Website Early in Wake of Recent Robbery

We at HomeFur-ever are happy to announce the early debut of our new, donated website at www.HomeFurever.com.  In conjunction with our pro-bono marketing firm, Strategic Growth Concepts, and our pro-bono website consulting firm, Powerful Design, we decided to debut the new HomeFur-ever website on Friday, September 18th, several weeks early, as a result of the substantially increased interest in our group, its’ activities, and our animals available for adoption, because of the robbery we recently experienced.  

The site, already in development, was quickly finalized late last week in order to facilitate the ability of the community to learn about our efforts to save animals, and enable them to contribute toward that effort in a variety of ways. The goal of the website debut date change is to ease the public’s ability to donate resources (we need EVERYTHING from cash to crates to food to people!); we also hope to take advantage of the publicity generated by the theft.  Please click HERE to learn about all the great features on our new website!

We’re VERY excited about our new website and its many new functions, and we’re confident that having this site will enable us to help more animals thru increased participation of volunteers, foster homes and adoptive homes, as well as increases in donations of cash and supplies.  Please visit the site at www.HomeFurever.com if you have not already done so!

HomeFur-ever Animal Rescue Suffers Huge Loss from Robbery; Ability to Help Animals Currently Hindered!

You never think it can happen to you – unfortunately, HomeFur-ever Animal Rescue is proof that it can happen to anyone; even those who dedicate their lives to doing good works!  We were robbed!  Yes, you read that correctly.  HomeFur-ever Animal Rescue was victimized by thieves this week who stole our donated van and trailer and everything contained within.

On the postive side, they abandoned our vehicle and trailer after removing almost every single thing contained inside.  A city-contracted towing company retrieved it, and we were eventually notified by police that we could claim the vehicle.  We are hopeful that vehicle damages sustained in the theft will be covered by insurance – we sure could use that bit of luck!

Unfortunately, luck is not on our side when it comes to the contents of the vehicles.  All we were left with were a few small crates (unfortunately, most of our dogs are large).  So now we’re in a quandry – do we cancel our participation in Saturday’s adoption event because we have nothing with which to transport our animals safely, or do we appeal to the community to assist us short-term and then develop strategies to help us obtain donations to replace all our stolen items (which, by the way, was pretty much everything we own – we don’t have a building; that van and trailer serve as our permanent storage).

We’ve decided to appeal to the community for help and try to re-group as quickly as possible.  Our dogs need us to keep moving forward as quickly as we can!  They need new homes!  But in the meantime, they also need fed, medicated, groomed, etc.  So we’ve all jumped into action and all of our volunteers are making extra efforts to get the word out and help us get back on track.

We’re starting to see some results.  So far, we’ve had TV coverage on two stations in Detroit. Click HERE to view our coverage; we’ll keep adding to it if we obtain more so feel free to check back.   We also posted our News Release on Twitter and Facebook; it’s getting re-tweeted and shared ALOT, so we’re hoping that will start to generate some donation activity. (By the way, if you would like to join us on Twitter and Facebook, our sites are located at:  http://www.twitter.com/homefurever and http://profile.to/homefurever).  Our volunteer marketing firm, Strategic Growth Concepts, will also be placing information about our dilemma on LinkedIN.

We hope you’ll send good thoughts our way as we work to recover from this setback and keep moving forward to help our animals.  If you are motivated to make a contribution, you may do so by clicking HERE.

ASPCA Extends Reach Via Mobile Site

By Chris Harnick, August 5, 2009, Mobile Marketer

The ASPCA reaches out through the mobile channel

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is continuing its mobile strategy with the launch of a mobile site meant to help our furry friends.

The ASPCA’s mobile site aims to increase the organization’s visibility amongst on-the-go consumers. The custom mobile Web site for the ASPCA will feature content specially tailored for mobile-phone Web browsing.

“The strategy here is that the ASPCA wanted to have an on-the-go resource for people to get pet care tips, shelter locations and the ability for people to make donations via their credit cards through an online transaction right from the palm of their hands,” said Zak Dabbas, managing partner at the ASPCA’s mobile provider. 

“This is basically an extension of their Web presence into the mobile space,” he said.

The ASPCA was the first humane organization in the United States. Its mission is “to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the U.S.”

In July, the ASPCA teamed up with another mobile services provider for a mobile public service announcement campaign.

The public service campaign will feature free in-game advertising, as well as mobile donation opportunities in which users can donate money to the charities via their mobile phones (see story). 

Along with their free in-game advertising, the ASPCA has been successful at converting standard-alert subscribers to donors using SMS.

The ASPCA already offers free cat and dog tips to mobile users who opt-in by sending a text message with the keywords CAT or DOG to short code 27722. At the bottom of the ASPCA’s SMS alerts, it asks subscribers to reply with the keyword GIVE to make a $5 donation (see story).

“I think that a lot of clients are realizing that mobile is a great way to reach your audience,” Mr. Dabbas said. “There are a lot of benefits in mobile and it gives brands the ability to have an additional touch point to reach consumers.”

“The ASPCA is targeting people who are on the go and not in front of the computer,” he said.

Saving an Animal ‘the NEW-fashioned Way’

Anyone who’s involved in the rescue and adoption of animals is aware that it is a very expensive, but rewarding, way of life.  Like our organization, Home Fur-ever, rescue organizations all over the country and all over the world are always on the search for new ways to raise funds to pay for veterinary care, food and shelter for rescued animals.  For those of you who may not be directly involved but are interested in helping us, or a rescue organization in your local area, an interesting article has detailed a way you can help without leaving the comfort of your living room – and benefit many grateful animals with your efforts.  Read HERE the way new technologies were used for fundraising to save an animal’s life.  If these strategies were put to use on a larger scale by the rescue organizations, shelters, humane societies and anyone else involved in saving animals; a great many more animals could be saved every day.

After reading, please feel free to use Twitter, Facebook,  LinkedIN, MySpace or any other social media you are involved with to refer people to this blog to help us raise funds so that we may save more animals.  I assure you, we’ll be VERY grateful  for your efforts, and so will the animals whose lives you will save!