The Pet Pulse MEET OUR NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. Fall 2016

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1 Fall 2016 The Pet Pulse MEET OUR NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR We are excited to announce that we have hired a new Executive Director, Carie Schultz, to lead the Animal Adoption Foundation into the next chapter of its life. You may recall that a little over a year ago the Board of Directors made a major restructuring decision by creating the position of Director of Animal Care and rewriting the job description for the Executive Director. For the Executive Director position, we were looking for someone who is enthusiastic and ready to go out into the community to let people know who we are and what our mission is. We wanted someone qualified to implement the changes needed to grow the shelter. We also wanted someone who could expand our volunteer program and develop our donor base along with bringing new and fresh ideas on fund raising and expansion. Carie s skills in organization, volunteer program development, fund raising and more are what drew her to us. She is just who we were looking for and we are glad to welcome her into the AAF family! Carie s prior experience at The Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired helped prepare her for the position of our Executive Director. She has vast experience with a volunteer program and has jumped right in by spending her first two months learning all the aspects of the shelter including taking all of the classes that we offer, working closely with Eric Johnson, and greeting and meeting the public when they come to the shelter. But before going any further, we want to thank Eric Johnson for the great job he did as the executive director and how excited we are that he accepted the position of Director of Animal Care. Anyone that knows Eric is well aware of his natural ability to work with the dogs and cats and this is a perfect fit for him. This is an exciting time for both the Animal Adoption Foundation and Carie as we combine our skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm to take AAF to the next level. Come join us! The Board of Directors Animal Adoption Foundation. Carie lives in Ross with her husband, two boys and Sarge, a happy-go-lucky Golden Retriever who has groomed Carie for her new job as Executive Director of the Animal Adoption Foundation. We welcome Carie and her family to the AAF family!

2 Letter from the Board President Change Some of the things I love about living in Cincinnati are the different seasons and the change that happens with each one. Fall is quickly approaching and with it comes the spectacular colors of the leaves as they light up the sky with their blazing fall colors; the humidity begins to lower, and the morning and evening have a cool crispness to them. We start thinking about decorating with pumpkins and cornstalks and we even eat different foods that we associate with fall. Yes, fall is in the air and I know I am ready for all of the changes that happen as we enter the third season of the year. Change is also happening at the Animal Adoption Foundation. The biggest change is the welcoming of our new Executive Director, Carie Schultz. I hope you will read about Carie on the following page and even stop at the shelter sometime to meet her in person. We are so glad to have her as part of the AAF family and she is certainly focused on promoting AAF in the community so that more people know about us and support us. My favorite changes here at AAF come from the conference that Eric Johnson, our Director of Animal Care, attended in Las Vegas last March. It was sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States and it gave shelters all over the U.S. the opportunity to come together to listen to and explore new ways of doing adoptions and helping their communities. We had already been doing some of the things they suggested, so you might say we had a head start, but we immediately began to think of others. Something that we have been doing for a while is to have one of our volunteers make a personal phone call to our adopters just to say thanks, have them share some memories with their pet and invite them to the shelter for whatever upcoming event we are planning. It is a way of letting the adopters know how much we care about the animal they adopted and offering our support if they need it. We refer to this time of the year as kitten season because so many kittens are born and brought into the shelter in hopes that we can take them. We are a no-kill shelter with a limited number of fosters and there comes that time when we just cannot take any more kittens into the facility. In the past we suggest that the person who has the kitten take it to another no-kill shelter and oftentimes they have already tried only to be turned away. Introducing another change we still explain that we cannot take the kitten, but offer for the kitten to be brought to the shelter where a volunteer will evaluate it and instruct the person on how to care for it. I have personally helped several kittens with good results and a feeling of satisfaction knowing that we helped even though we could not take it into our facility. We continue to make ourselves available to the person raising the kitten to make the experience a positive one for both him or her and the kitten. Our dog care committee continues to explore and implement ways to market our dogs and find ways to match the right dog with the right family. Committee members are developing ways to educate adopters about the dog they have chosen, making the adjustment time easier and resulting in a successful adoption. Being a part of an organization that is always looking for new ways to improve, whether it be the way we do adoptions, preparing our dogs for their forever homes, the socialization of all of our animals, expanding our fosters and providing more training and education is something of which I am proud. I invite you to come to AAF, see what we do, and take part in the many opportunities offered to enrich the lives of our puppies, dogs, kittens and cats. I look forward to seeing you! Sharon Ollinger President, Board of Directors Change brings opportunity -Nido Qubein Page 2

3 It s What We Do! I have written articles for several of our newsletters in reference to how we at the Animal Adoption Foundation go out of our way to save dogs, puppies, cats, and kittens. Each of them has held a special place in my heart because I care so deeply about what we do. But this article that I am writing ranks among the top and I am sure you will soon know why. About two months ago, we received a call from a young woman on the east side of town. She had found a cat sitting by the side of a busy road and when she stopped to check on her, she discovered that the cat was blind and declawed. This young woman is allergic to cats and yet she put her in the car and took her home and made a place for the cat in the basement. She began calling shelters, rescues, county facilities and individuals hoping to find someone who would take this cat. In all, she made almost 40 calls before she got the number for the Animal Adoption Foundation. The cat and kitten calls are referred to me as the foster care coordinator and this was no exception. I called her right away and after listening to her story she said we were the first organization or individual that had gotten back to her and actually talked to her. She couldn t thank me enough. I knew we could not take the cat into the shelter because we are not equipped to care for a handicapped cat but I said I would start working on trying to find a place for her to go. For whatever reason, it became my mission to help this cat and the caring young woman who saved her. All my phone calls turned out to be dead ends until late one night when I was talking to one of our fosters and she said she would foster this cat that we have named Wendy. We arranged a meeting one evening at the shelter which included Wendy, the couple who found her, the new foster, a vet tech and myself. We met Wendy for the first time and our hearts melted for this seven year old cat that had obviously been injured at some point in her life. She tested negative on her combo test, received the appropriate vaccinations and headed for her new home. Everyone and everything seemed great. But then the unthinkable happened. As she was slowly being introduced to her new family and house, she suddenly, and I mean suddenly, became aggressive and would literally sink her teeth into the nearest person. They kept her for several days but it only got worse. The foster could not keep her and we didn t know what we would do. We took Wendy to Woodridge Veterinary Hospital and they began testing along with observation and came to the conclusion that the behavior we were seeing was neurological and would require medication. They were willing to keep her for an extended period of time to regulate medication and calm her. She began regaining some sight and the aggression completely stopped. This took over 20 days. I also took her to Medvet to see an ophthalmologist who confirmed that the eyes were not injured but her sight was minimal and suggested also that her problem was most likely neurological. We brought Wendy into the shelter and gave her a room of her own. She would spend most of her day in the same spot with her head down just waiting for a visit from somebody it was tearing at our hearts we just wanted her to have a home where she would be loved and cared for. Was that really too much to ask for this lovely cat? Well, be careful what you pray for, for prayers are answered thank goodness. Jill Binzer, a longtime volunteer at the AAF also was drawn to Wendy and recently took Wendy to her home to introduce her to her feline family. We all kept our fingers crossed as Jill and Wendy left the shelter. The introduction process is a slow one, but as of now everything is going great and Wendy is finally happy and in a home surrounded by someone who will love her and care for her. I will say it again and again, I am so proud to be a part of this Animal Adoption Foundation family of rescuers. I am proud and in awe of what we do. With pride and humility, Sharon Ollinger Volunteer at the Animal Adoption Foundation Wendy

4 An Oscar-Winning Performance! This is not the first time that I ve written about a dog named Oscar. In fact, I first wrote about Oscar and five other dogs we nicknamed The Six Pack way back in These six dogs were rescued from a deplorable situation in the far reaches of Eastern Ohio. The dogs had been neglected and living in conditions that would make the strongest person cringe. Oscar in particular was extremely timid and afraid of anything that moved and while his friends that were rescued along with him were adopted, one by one, Oscar waited. Shelter life was very hard for Oscar. He spent most of his time cowering in the corner of his kennel, looking at you with those soulful eyes that told us he wanted our help but he didn t know how to let us do it. After spending several months at the AAF and volunteers spending endless hours working with Oscar to make him feel more comfortable in his surroundings, we found a family what would foster him. Oscar stayed with that family for over two years and made some progress. We learned that Oscar loved the company of certain dogs but not all. We also learned that Oscar definitely preferred the company of women over men. Unfortunately for Oscar, circumstances beyond his control forced him to come back to the shelter and he was devastated, as were the volunteers at the AAF. What progress Oscar had made in his foster home seemed to vanish upon return to the shelter. The task of finding another foster home for Oscar had begun. During his second stint at the shelter, volunteers were able to get Oscar to come out of his shell somewhat but the search for another foster home continued. Enter Kristen Williams, a former professor at Miami University and AAF volunteer. She welcomed Oscar into her home where she already had three dogs of her own. Kristen is very wise in the ways of working with timid dogs and used a lot of the training techniques that she had learned at AAF to help Oscar find his way. Kristen kept Oscar for several months before moving back home to Maryland and we knew that Oscar had to come back to the shelter but it was different this time, he had come a long way. Though Oscar had come a long way, we still wanted to continue working with him outside of the shelter environment where he was not comfortable. Loud noises still scared Oscar as did sudden movements. One of our volunteers Renee Perdew had taken a liking to Oscar and his situation and talked to her husband about possibly bringing Oscar home for a short time and he agreed and so did Oscar. Oscar really started to act like a dog in his new foster home, running in the back yard, playing with toys and showing some affection towards people. The Perdew s did not intend to keep Oscar for very long but he did stay with the family for several quite some time and it was during this stay that Oscar met his forever mom. A good friend of Renee s had met Oscar and Oscar did his best to charm his way into her heart and it worked. Amy Miller spent more and more time with Oscar at the Perdew residence and wondered what would happen if she were to take Oscar home for a night or two. Amy already had another dog and wanted to know how the two would do together. The dogs did great and Amy asked if she could take over as the foster home and of course we were all thrilled. Of course we were concerned about Oscar bouncing from home to home but we knew that at some point he might come back to the shelter if we didn t give this a try. After having Oscar for several months, Amy made his adoption official. We want to thank everyone involved in Oscar s long journey for helping him get to his forever home. As they say, it takes a village and this is a wonderful example of how people working together for the welfare of just one animal can make such a difference in the life of that one animal! Page 4

5 How You Can Help! What we do and how we serve our community seems to be different each year. This year, the Animal Adoption Foundation has helped more injured and sick dogs and cats than in the past. Along with our routine wellness medical expenses, the spay/neuter expenses and the expenses of several of our dogs and cats requiring specialized medical services, we have spent to date more than in past years. Several years ago a fund was created for the purpose of helping pay the bills for specialized medical expenses of our puppies, dogs, kittens and cats. It is called the Angel Animal Fund. The following are just a few of the animals we have helped so far this year: Two of our puppies were diagnosed with Parvovirus. Both puppies required medication and lengthy hospital stays resulting in high medical bills. The puppies are fine and have been adopted. Bella, a friendly and loving Jack Russell Terrier, was diagnosed with a severe heart murmur during an examination by our veterinarian. This led to a visit with a cardiologist at MedVet and later, heart surgery. The surgery and multiple visits for follow up care left AAF with a large bill. Bell stayed with a foster during recovery and was adopted by a couple who lover her dearly. Brady, a dog brought to the AAF after having been hit by a car which resulted in multiple injuries, was seen by both our vet and specialists at MedVet. He required extensive surgery and numerous follow-up visits along with six weeks of fostering by two of our foster families. Brady has been adopted and his new mom adores him. Murphy, one our long-term resident dogs, had surgery at MedVet to repair ligament damage in one of his front legs. This particular surgery required a very lengthy stay in foster care along with at least six months of rehabilitation. Chestnut, one of our older cats, was diagnosed with a heart condition that requires daily medication and regular visits and checkups with our veterinarian. Chestnut is with a foster who can medicate him and keep a watchful eye on him. With the medications and checkups, his medical expenses are high and ongoing.. The above cases resulted in $13, of expenses to the Angel Animal Fund which resulted in the depletion of the fund. Other expenses directly involved with the care of our animals are veterinary services - $35, and medical supplies - $13, Through this article, I am asking for your donations as we continue to help as many of our furry friends as possible. Without your support, we could not do as much as we do. If you choose to help in this way, please make checks payable to the Animal Adoption Foundation. You can also make a donation over the phone using a credit card. On behalf of everyone at AAF with fur or without I send a big THANK YOU!!!!! Sincerely, Sharon Ollinger Board President and Volunteer Brady (left) and Murphy (right)...they thank you! Page 5

6 Save the Date with Your New AAF Calendar! It s that time of year again and it will be 2017 before you know it. The new 2017 AAF calendar will soon be available for pick-up at the shelter or we ll deliver it to you. We are also looking for adopters to send us pictures of the pets adopted from the AAF so that we can highlight them in our calendar. Calendars will be just $15 or two for $25. They make wonderful gifts for Christmas! The AAF and our animals benefit from the sales of the calendars! Do you love hanging out with AAF s many dogs? Did you know that any AAF volunteer can take a dog home for an overnight Doggie Date? Dates are a great way for our dogs to get out of their kennels for a night and have some fun! It s a Date! Make a Cat s Day! Which eligible bachelor or bachelorette will you choose? Join us for Meow Mingle Mondays From 4:00-5:00 PM Page 6

7 Cloudy With A Chance Of Success Despite Obstacles, Another Successful AAF Yard Sale The Animal Adoption Foundation's Annual Yard Sale takes place every June. Many volunteers put in countless hours to make this event a success, with a goal of raising at least $10,000 over three days to benefit the homeless cats and dogs in our care. Road construction and poor weather cast a shadow of doubt on our ability to achieve this lofty goal. In the weeks leading up to the Yard Sale, the AAF learned that Route 27 would be closed only a half-mile from our doors. For us, this meant that much of the daily commuter traffic would detour away from our location, reducing our Yard Sale visibility. This did not discourage our dedicated volunteers who worked twice as hard to spread the word about our event: putting up signs, placing ads in local newspapers, and of course spreading the word in person and through social media. Our Yard Sale volunteers also generously gave more time to the event in order to extend our hours to ensure that as many shoppers as possible could make it to the sale. When day one of the sale rolled around, everyone was very excited to get started and hit our goal. Our Yard Sale coordinator, Teddy Spade, had done a phenomenal job arranging, pricing, and categorizing yard sale donations in the months leading up to the event. Her hard work allows our volunteers to keep things organized for our shoppers throughout the event. This year we also introduced a new booth to our sale, the Fur-tastic Finds Boutique. This booth held designer purses, collectibles, sports memorabilia and more, allowing our shoppers to explore some of our best items in one place. The sale looked great, our volunteers were ready--it was time to drop the rope and let the shoppers in... but five minutes prior to the sale opening it began to rain and became unseasonably cold. It rained, and rained, and rained for more than five hours straight. A few eager shoppers showed up to peruse our wares in the rain; however many of our items had to remain covered by tarps to protect them from damage, making it difficult for shoppers to browse. These five hours are a crucial selling time for our Yard Sale, as the first day of our event has historically been the most successful. Eventually the rain stopped and our volunteers jumped to work, uncovering and drying the items to get them ready for sale. Even though we started in adversity, we were still able to surpass our goal of raising $10,000 to benefit the AAF. We could not have achieved this level of success without our phenomenal volunteers who braved extreme weather shifts, working tirelessly in the cold and rain as well as the heat and humidity. We closed our weekend with $10,910.50, our second most successful year ever. Thank you to all of our supporters who turned out to shop with us this year, and we hope to see you again next June! A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who spent time with us over our Yard Sale weekend. Finally we want to extend our gratitude to our "Yard Sale Crew, the small group of individuals who come back year after year and contribute countless hours to make this event a success: Teddy Spade, Shelly Armstrong, Rick Armstrong, Susan Castator, Gary Castator, Kim Schaeper, Jill Binzer and others. Save the Date! Join us for the 2017 AAF Yard Sale. Friday, June 2nd Saturday, June 3rd Sunday, June 4th We will be accepting donations for the sale beginning May 1st. Please think of the AAF while you are doing your Spring cleaning and donate your items to help us with another successful event. We can t do it without you! Page 7

8 Home Sweet Home! A few pics of some of our recently adopted pets and their families! Page 8

9 The AAF would like to thank the following pet and business sponsors. If you are interested in sponsoring one of our homeless pets, please visit our website at Our business sponsors donate in many ways including monetarily, services provided and materials. We strongly encourage our readers to become patrons of these generous proprietors if you have not already. Pet Sponsors Sandy Allen sponsoring Lulu & Sophie Mike & Terri Brenner sponsoring Angelina & Henry Janet Clegg sponsoring Bill Laurie Fowler sponsoring Henry Meredith Epperson sponsoring Murphy Maura Hafer sponsoring Oscar, Joey, Nicholas, Easton & Mae The Kahn Family sponsoring Patches Linda Owens sponsoring Annabelle Wanda Schumacher sponsoring Cashmere Patti Schopmeyer sponsoring Ellie & Xander Michelle Sparto sponsoring Patches Amy Wert sponsoring Daisy Business Sponsors The Joanie Bernard Foundation Magnet Signs of Ross Compuaid in Ross RMA Fleet, Inc. The Spaw Barn Dr. Elsey s Cat Products Cutz & Clipz Circle Storage of Colerain Kroger Appletree (Oxford) Jack s Pets The Whistle Stop (Oxford) Petsmart State Farm Insurance MedVet of Cincinnati Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital Woodridge Veterinary Clinic Okeana Veterinary Clinic Oxford Veterinary Hospital Animal Care Clinic (Oxford) Would you like to help support the AAF with your business card displayed in our newsletter just like the one above? We are hoping to offset the cost of the newsletter by giving local businesses a chance to advertise to our many readers. It s simple, the cost is only $50 and that gets your business front and center in our quarterly publication. If you are interested, please contact us at PETS or aafpets@yahoo.com. And as always, thank you for your ongoing support! Page 9

10 Acknowledgements Leadership Level ($1000) Lori Foster (Author) Fraternal Order of Eagles (Hamilton) Cindy & Ernie Pendergrass Exemplary Level ($500) Sam Cheever Yvonne Dudley Maria Garnett Matthew Norris Cindy Toms Supporters ($250) Karen Auffinger Leslie Ashcraft Ann Regan Cindy Yaust Protectors ($100) Tuesday Night Bible Study (Holmes Ct) Carol Juniet c/o Christ Hospital Lab The Allen Household Robert Bowen Charlie Frank & Amy Snyder Ruth Engel Maggie Gonzales Maura Hafer Anne & Paul Hemmings K.M. Hiller Julie Jackson Amy Johnstone Irene Kleiman Bob Long Stacey Lowe Betty McAdams Dan Miller Sunil Mungur Linda Owens Eric Priebe Buddy Smith Michelle Sparto Wanda Schumaker Page 10 Patrons ($50) Sandy Allen Ray Boyle Joseph Cochetti Gregory Kaiser Charitable Fund Bruce Best Amy Eldridge Dana Dalton Pam Finfrock Carolyn & Jay Kahn Margo Kinney Deborah Ladsinski Vicki Lape Mark Lunt Carrie Mancuso Kathy McRoberts Tarun Mathur Amy Miller Theresa Neal Pam Eldridge Marjorie Fugate Peggy Fitzgerald Angela Ryan Patti Schopmeyer Renate & Anthony Thomas Kaitlyn Welch Michael Wirtley Fran & Earl Johnson Family ($30) Janet Clegg Meredith Epperson Laurie Fowler Krista Gray Melanie Hanson Jean & Fletcher Knight Jourdan Mollett Jackie Roy Victoria Schwab Lisa Stephens Robert Tyler...Thank You To All! Family ($30) Kathy Wiebell Peter Williams Friends ($25) Fairfield Wesleyan Church Sandra Baldwin Patricia Berger Dana Dalton Jerry & Jean Heffron Joanna Hess Susan & Gregory Holbrook James Kaya Patricia Miceli Richard Mienheartt Kathryn Roth Shirley Roth Richard Schrand Terence Widmann Honorable Mention Joy Anhalt Judy Bailey Michelle Barnecut Becky Bauman Anitza Aquila Justine Bloedorn Georgia Burgos Reza Cook Karen Coston Laura Crowe Heather Duran Brielle Fetrow Vickie Gerlach Annalisa Giglio Kimberly Gorman Danielle Kramer Sarah Lehman Mary McClure Julie McCreadie Christina McCutcheon Nicole McVey

11 Acknowledgements Honorable Mention Victoria Metzgar Nancy Nelson Pauline Phillips Phyllis Rachuba Melissa Schluter Michelle Southworth The Theiss Family Terri VanRossem Melanie Vasquez Ellen Viars Kim Vinie Celesta Walker Tina Wideman Dawn Wilson Material Donations Ashley c/o Berkely Square Darrell Hallberg c/o Miami University Equipment Dept. Haley Craig c/o Sam s Club Mary Beth & Fred Andes Cindra Barter Betty Becker Denise Bell Roselyn Benson Deron Bertsch Janet Boling Megan Chadwick Jimmie Cleveland Patti Dahlheimer Fairfield Wesleyan Church Terri Fassnacht Debbie Faver Debbie & Ashley Fore Michelle Fraszier Eric Gilkey Whitewater Valley Elementary Ray Gundrum Shirley Hamilton Connie Helmers Material Donations Adam & Sally Henson Samantha Hiller Sheri Holland Don Huesing Frances Jennings Diane Jones Sherry Lind Larry Loos Taylor Lovell R.A. McVay Derek Morrissey Maddie Munro Ensel Muse Melinda Neal Jim Overly Raven Parris RACD Industries Vanessa Roark Jordan Rosenfield Steven Shaw Rebecca Sloan Hobie & Margaret Smith Kelsey Snyder John Snyder-Jorgenson Anita Triggs Mary Vierling Tami Webb In Memoriam Tuesday Night Bible Study in memory of Ted and Mary Ann Boyer Christ Hospital Lab in memory of Eva Grothaus RAF Area Flyers in memory of Betty Mienheartt Judy Bailey in memory of Betty Mienheartt Melanie Hanson in memory of Betty Mienheartt Jerry & Jean Heffron in memory of Betty Mienheartt Susan & Gregory Holbrook in memory of Betty Mienheartt James Kaya in memory of Betty Mienheartt Julie McCreadie in memory of Betty Mienheartt Richard Mienheartt in memory of Betty Mienheartt Renate & Anthony Thomas in memory of Betty Mienheartt Terence Widmann in memory of Betty Mienheartt Danielle Kramer in memory of Renee Amakye The Allen Household in memory of Lilac Pam Finfrock in memory of Amy Lynne Francis Debbie & Ashley Fore in memory of Wendy & Patsy Eric Gilkey in memory of Sabina Joanna Hess in memory of Patti Schopmeyer Jean & Fletcher Knight in memory of Patti Schopmeyer Pauliane Phillips in memory of Patti Schopmeyer Fran & Earl Johnson in memory of Eddie Carrie Mancuso in memory of Shirley Snyder Patricia Miceli in memory of Kiki Pam Eldridge, Marjorie Fugate & Peggy Fitzgerald in memory of Toby Blair The Theiss Family in memory of Toby Blair Eric Priebe in memory of Erika Priebe Victoria Schwab in memory of all passed kitties (RIP) In Honor Of Dana Dalton in honor of Dr. Clinger Krista Gray in honor of Vivian Ghodsy Amy Johnstone in honor of Mark Lunt Deborah Ladsinski in honor Todd G. Hamilton Cindy Toms in honor of Jenna Toms Page 11

12 Presorted Standard U.S. Postage PAID Hamilton, OH Permit No. 389 Shelter Location: 2480 Millville-Ross Rd. Hamilton, OH PETS Address Service Requested Visit our Website: Like us on Facebook! adoptionfoundation The AAF is solely funded by donations, with no government aid. Please don t forget about the many pets eagerly awaiting new homes at the AAF. The Animal Adoption Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Please give generously. We need you. Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated! Yes, please let me help the animals! Leadership Level $1000+ Patron Level $50 Exemplary Level $500 Family Level $30 Supporter Level $250 Friend Level $25 Protector Level $100 Animal Angel $ Name Address Please check this box if you would like an acknowledgement of your donation sent to you via . Please write down your address in the space provided below. Thank you for saving a tree (and a stamp). Please clip and return to: The Animal Adoption Foundation 2480 Millville-Ross Road Hamilton, Ohio City/State/Zip