We really, really need to get our own facility. Some of you may have seen the newsletter and Facebook posts that refer to our future facility as the CARE Center, which stands for Cattery and Rescue Establishment. We need our own place because we cannot grow without it. It is so difficult to find fosters who measure up to our standards and even when we get fosters we still run into problems:
- Two separate fosters stole our kittens.
- Two separate fosters have lost small dogs.
- One foster stole a cat and we got him back when her house burned down. Animal Control returned him to us based on his microchip.
- Three HTFF animals seriously injured by fosters’ dogs.
- A foster gave our puppy to her cleaning lady and refused to return the puppy.
- Police escorts were required to retrieve a Shih Tzu stolen by a foster. We got the police escort because the adopter was also a police officer and his children had met the dog and were heartbroken.
- Many fosters only last a day to a week before quitting and then we are forced to either double or triple up with other fosters or we spend money on boarding.
At the Monrovia Petsmart, we have 9 kennels provided for us to keep rescued cats. This is very generous, but not nearly enough for our needs. If a cat is very scared or shy, we may encounter problems with volunteers or the store staff. Also we are limited by PetSmart policies on what we can do and provide for our cats in that location.
The stories can go on and on, but we can’t go on and on without a place to call our own. There are two zoned streets in Arcadia that will allow for our CARE Center. We got a wonderful $5000 donation from Fran, who we have helped over the years with the stray kittens in her neighborhood. We got an equally generous $5000 pledge from Alan, who adopted a beautiful doggy a few years ago. We also got $6000 from Lush Cosmetics Charity Pot. So we have $16K towards our desired $50K to 80K down payment.
We were hoping for a $25K grant from NKLA, but they are not giving funds for capital needs this year. We will try for the PetSmart Charities capital grant, but they require organizations to have a substantial amount of their own funds.
Right now, we can only concentrate on Strut Your Mutt to help with major fundraising. We would have liked a larger goal, but we at least are trying to get $20K. This amount will get us halfway to the minimum down payment we would need to secure a location.
October 21st, only days away, is Strut Your Mutt. Some of you have signed up for our team or have donated and I thank you so very much. But I want to ask if more of you can sign up for our team. If you join our team..ANY AMOUNT will help us out towards our goal. You do not have to actually strut on the 21st, but you are certainly welcome to do so. You do not have to send out all sorts of emails…you will get a portal and you can send selected emails.
- Does your company offer a gift matching program? That could easily work for you. Ask your Human Resources Manager!
- Post on your social media accounts. Maybe you have only a few people who might be interested…any amount will help us! $5, $10, any range.
- Your peers? Your teachers? Neighbors? Colleagues? Your dog loving relatives? Know any crazy cat lovers?
- Are you members of any “city” Facebook group pages? Post that you are doing this and can use some donations for your Team.
- Anyone can donate and any amount will help us. Strut Your Mutt is an easy way to ask for a donation as you are phrasing it as a donation to your “Team.”
Here is the link below. If you can sign up, be sure to join the Homeless To Forever Foundation Team! For any donations, you can look us up and donate to the HTFF Team or to any member of the HTFF Team.
Thank you all…thank you for all you have done for HTFF. I can hardly wait to have our CARE Center and we will be certain to memorialize, in some visual and/or concrete way, every person, company, and organization that helps us secure our CARE Center.