FALL 2013 RedRover Relief gives kitten second chance Is your cat getting enough water? Volunteer helps kids relate to animals through RedRover Readers Cool Crew member launches lifesaving campaign Celebrating our RedRover Responders volunteers
Greetings! WHEN REDROVER ADOPTED ITS NEW NAME IN JUNE OF 2011, we solidified the attributes that we believe best represent our organization and the way in which we go about helping animals. All of our attributes carry throughout RedRover, down to how we support our volunteers, recruit staff, find new donors, and look for innovative ways to bring animals from crisis to care and strengthen the bond between people and animals. RESPECTED F INSPIRATIONAL CARING F UNWAVERING F VIGILANT This issue of Companion focuses on people we ve inspired and empowered to go out and do something good for animals. Technically, we are a small organization with only 13 full-time staff, but with the help of our volunteers and loyal supporters YOU we help people direct their passion and knowledge; we connect thousands of suffering animals with people who care each year. When you support and volunteer with RedRover, you share these attributes and become part of a very positive, inspirational story of change. I hope this issue of Companion inspires you to stay vigilant to the needs of animals and to help us expand our reach. NICOLE FORSYTH President and CEO Candidates for the RedRover Board of Directors NANCY BOWYER Nancy Bowyer, a lifetime resident of Chicago, began rescuing animals at a very young age. To her parents dismay, she would bring animals home on her walk home from school. She earned her bachelor s degree in commerce and her Juris Doctor. She is a certified public accountant and has been a practicing attorney for 23 years. Nancy s family includes Scott, her husband, two kids, two dogs, two cats, one turtle and fish. JAMIE SICKLES Jamie Sickles, a lifelong animal lover from Chicago, is seeking a second term on the board. She is the Goodwill Ambassador for the Zanzibar SPCA, president of a not-for-profit animal welfare organization and volunteer humane investigator. She has trained with the RedRover Responders and RedRover Readers programs. Jamie earned her master s degree in Biomedical Science-Forensics. She has 18 years of board experience. P.O. Box 188890 Sacramento, CA 95818 TEL 916.429.2457 FAX 916.378.5098 WEB RedRover.org EMAIL info@redrover.org TAX ID # 68-0124097 Make your vote count For your vote to be counted, please mark your vote on the enclosed postage-paid envelope and return it by December 20, 2013. For a director to be elected by written ballot, he or she must receive a majority of affirmative votes, with at least six percent of members voting. Votes withheld are not counted for or against a director. The board of directors will vote to reappoint a director if members do not return a quorum of ballots. For a listing of RedRover s board of directors and staff, visit: RedRover.org/people Companion is published quarterly by RedRover and is distributed to its members. 2013 RedRover. companion FALL 2013
RedRover READERS These are moments I live for An interview with Whitney Best, RedRover Readers volunteer By Nicole Forsyth, RedRover President and CEO WHITNEY BEST lives in Sacramento, California, and has volunteered with the RedRover Readers program since 2009. She visits classrooms and encourages children to think humanely about animals. She sat down with RedRover President and CEO Nicole Forsyth to talk about what makes the RedRover Readers program unique. Nicole: What made you decide to volunteer for RedRover? Whitney: I loved the idea of helping children relate to animals in a different way to get to kids early and give them new ways to see things. Nicole: In what ways do you think RedRover is different from other animal nonprofits? Whitney: I don t know of anything that is similar to the RedRover Readers program. It is subtle in the sense that the kids don t know that we are there to try to save animals and they end up being the ones to push those ideas along, whether they know it or not. Nicole: What kind of support do you feel RedRover gives you? Whitney: Primarily knowing that RedRover is there behind me. Growing up in my family, I m the odd duck. Mine is a family of hunters and hunting dogs, and then there s me. Knowing that I m not alone in all this, knowing that I have a whole group of people who are just like me, who will embrace me and let me do encourage me to go do what I want to do is great. Nicole: Did you have any ah-ha moments when you were learning about the RedRover Readers program? Whitney: Definitely. It wasn t what I thought it was going to be I thought you would just go read a book and enjoy the story and everyone would be happy. I realized it is much deeper than that and you can learn so much about a child and what they know just from asking them questions. Nicole: What changes do you see in the classroom? Whitney: When it comes to animals, just about all the students come to life. They love being asked what they think. And the teachers get really excited when they see kids who are usually checked out participate, and tell me the whole story: Well, Mrs. Crump loves the cat because she was lonely, but she didn t know she was lonely. And the cat needed Mrs. Crump. And then you see them realize, maybe Mrs. Crump needed the cat as much as the cat needed her. These are moments I live for. Read Nicole s full interview with Whitney at RedRover.org/Companion. FALL 2013 companion 1
RedRover RELIEF RedRover Relief gives rescued kitten a second chance JOHN RYLES, A COLLEGE STUDENT urinary tract infection, they AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, were worried sick. Apollo had described Apollo, his two-year-old cat, been ill for several weeks and the as the man of the house. John and young couple had nearly exhausted his wife rescued Apollo and his brother their resources. To complicate as stray kittens. And, until recently, things further, the emergency clinic Apollo had always been a healthy, in town was unwilling to perform happy cat. He would greet John at the any more treatment without door every time he came home and payment in advance. When the took on the job of family watch cat. RedRover Relief team received When John and his wife learned the plea for help, they knew they that Apollo had a life-threatening had to act quickly. After reading about RedRover and what financial assistance you all provide, I finally had hope to save Apollo s life. Apollo was able to be readmitted to the hospital with the aid of a RedRover Relief grant and within a couple of days, his infection cleared up and he started feeling much better. The couple was so relieved and grateful to have Apollo back home. John wrote to RedRover s case manager, I cannot fully express how appreciative I am of everything that you and RedRover have done for us. Twenty-four hours ago I was thinking that this is Apollo s last night to live. I was losing hope until I found a link to RedRover s website. After reading about RedRover and what financial assistance you all provide, I finally had hope to save Apollo s life. According to RedRover Program Manager Esperanza Zúñiga, Urinary problems are the most commonly reported illness by cat owners who apply for RedRover Relief grants. It s especially heartbreaking because many of the issues are preventable. Ever since Apollo s illness, John and his wife have made some simple changes to Apollo s diet to prevent future infections. Read about dietary changes that might help your own cat on the next page. 2 companion FALL 2013
Is your cat getting enough water? By Nicole Forsyth, RedRover President and CEO DID YOU KNOW MALE CATS are at particularly high risk for developing a urethral obstruction sometime in their lives, and that this condition can be fatal in three to six days if untreated? Urethral obstruction occurs when minerals or other materials that have built up in the kidneys are released and become lodged in the narrow urethra, making it difficult or impossible for a cat to urinate. It is a common emergency diagnosis we see in our RedRover Relief program and is largely preventable. Your cat is more at risk if he is overweight, only eats dry food, or eats a diet high in calcium, protein or salt. So how can you prevent urethral obstruction? 1 Maintain your cat at a healthy weight, feed a high-quality cat food and avoid giving your cat table scraps. 2 Ensure your cat gets plenty of water; they don t naturally drink much. Switching to mostly wet food can help. Increased water intake will dilute and help filter out minerals that can become lodged in a cat s urethra, and can prevent other illnesses common in cats, like kidney disease. What to do when your cat won t eat wet food? If your cat is as finicky as my cat, Milo, feeding wet food may be difficult. To address these try: Heating up the wet food for a few seconds in the microwave Using a plate or shallow bowl. (Some cats don t like to bump their sensitive whiskers!) Mixing a little bit of wet food with their regular dry food Using similar flavors that they are used to eating Offering different kinds of wet food If your cat still won t eat wet food, try a broth, like unsalted tuna water, clam juice or meat broth. This is what I do for Milo, and he loves it! You can find Milo s tuna broth recipe at RedRover.org/Companion. Do you have a trick to get your cat to drink more water or eat wet food? Please share it on our Facebook page at facebook.com/redroverorg. New website to help domestic violence victims REDROVER S NEWEST PROJECT, SafePlaceforPets.org, has come to fruition with the help of a $15,000 donation from the Whitton-Spector Foundation in memory of movie casting director Marion Dougherty. Marion helped launch the careers of some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford and Warren Beatty. She died in 2011 at age 88. According to film director Margaret Whitton, Marion lived a paradox: By day she was the queen of casting, a powerhouse in film, changing the culture and transforming lives with her uncanny eye for discovering talent. By night, she lived a nightmare. At age 50, after 20 years of abuse, she couldn't bear it any longer and ran for her life, leaving behind her beloved cats to almost certain cruelty. She successfully reinvented herself in California, becoming even more esteemed in her profession. But until the effects of repeated concussions and Alzheimer's took her magnificent memory away, she remained haunted by those animals she had to leave behind. The goal of SafePlaceforPets.org is to connect people and pets with a safe escape from domestic violence. We are grateful to have received such a generous donation and humbled by Marion s lifework and challenges. With this gift, we hope to find new solutions for families with pets so they can live free from abuse.
RedRover REPORTERS Cool Crew member launches lifesaving campaign PAOLA POTTS FIRST BECAME INVOLVED WITH REDROVER ABOUT THREE YEARS AGO. As a person who is extremely sensitive to heat, she began noticing that dogs were often being left unattended in parked cars. Through research, Paola A major factor to Paola s inspiring discovered the My Dog Is Cool (MDIC) success has been her involvement website, and started distributing with the RedRover Cool Crew, a private MDIC fliers, posters and copies of the Facebook group for people who are California law to the public. Paola passionate about preventing dogs from wanted to take it a step further, and suffering in hot cars. The formation of in 2012, she developed a parking the Cool Crew group was a brilliant idea lot sign campaign. from RedRover, she said. The parking This is a community service that I have embraced and I do it with dedication and love to protect dogs from unneeded suffering. Paola Potts lot sign campaign was born and evolved through my communication with the members of the Cool Crew we share research, ideas, information, advice, support and encouragement on how to effectively educate the public about the issue of dogs left in parked cars. It is a proactive group. So far, Ace Parking in San Diego has installed 17 of Paola s signs, the Escondido Salvation Army has installed 10 signs and the City of Escondido has agreed to install at least 100 signs. Way to go Paola! What is next for Paola? This is a community service that I have embraced and I do it with dedication and love to protect dogs from unneeded suffering, she said. Once the signs are installed by the City of Escondido, I plan to approach other city councils and planning departments throughout San Diego and Orange Counties. Paola also plans to create a website to make these signs available, at no cost, to anyone who is interested. For anyone who wants to undertake a similar campaign for the animals, Paola recommends: Do research on the issue, obtain information, contact animal organizations that address the same issues, be proactive and be polite but be persistent in achieving your goal. Read how Paola made her signs and launched a successful campaign at RedRover.org/Companion. 4 companion FALL 2013
RedRover RESPONDERS Celebrating our RedRover Responders volunteers REDROVER RESPONDERS VOLUN- Mike Brodersen, from Saginaw, Texas, TEERS ARE INSTRUMENTAL in the volunteers with the Humane Society of success of animal rescue operations North Texas and a local Shih Tzu rescue. during natural disasters and large-scale Last year, he also got involved when a animal cruelty cases. Their willingness group of cats rescued from Superstorm to travel, efficient teamwork and sheer Sandy were transported from New Jersey number allow agencies to safely to California. Mike works at the Dallas shelter and care for hundreds of animals each year. For many RedRover Responders volunteers, the work does not stop there. Outside of Outside of volunteering with RedRover, a large number of our volunteers work tirelessly to make life better for animals in their own communities. volunteering with RedRover, many of airport and was able to accompany the our volunteers work tirelessly to make cats during their layover, checking on them life better for animals in their own in their carriers to make their long journey communities: volunteering at a local more comfortable. The cats arrived safely animal shelter or rescue group, working to Sacramento, where the cat rescue and with feral cats, or educating the public RedRover were there to help them begin about the needs of companion animals. their new lives. Thank you, Mike! Mike Brodersen, helping a group of cats who were rescued from Superstorm Sandy. This past summer, Robyn Cox, a volunteer from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, joined us on a deployment to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The deployment relocated dogs from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to partner shelters and rescue groups. During her deployment, Robyn met Bradley, a free-roaming Welsh corgi. Luckily for Bradley, Robyn is a member of a nonprofit herding dog rescue, which was able to take Bradley in. After receiving loving foster care at Robyn s house, Bradley found his forever family, including a new corgi sister! We re so lucky to have RedRover Responders volunteers like Robyn and Mike who look to help animals everywhere. Above: Robyn s newly rescued Welsh corgi, Bradley. To Left: Robyn Cox completing paperwork while Sue prepares and gives vaccinations. FALL 2013 companion 5
P.O. Box 188890 Sacramento, CA 95818 Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Sacramento, CA Permit No. 421 Companion is printed using vegetable-based inks on paper made entirely from recovered fiber. Share our stories! Leave Companion at your doctor s office, vet clinic, gym, lunch room or coffee shop. To protect your privacy, please clip out or blacken your name and address above. Helping animals while having fun WHEN TORNADOES RIPPED THROUGH THE CITY OF MOORE, Oklahoma, in May 2013, our team of RedRover Responders volunteers deployed to help care for displaced animals. Meanwhile, five hours away in Killeen, Texas, Coach Krista Young and the Wicked City Derby Damez (WCDD) decided they could help with the disaster relief effort by doing what they do best roller derby! As Killeen s first roller derby league, WCDD provides hard-hitting action on the track as well as community support and family values. Through one of their roller derby bouts, the Damez helped raise $500 for RedRover and the animals! Would you like to organize an event to support RedRover? Check out our Third-Party Fundraising Toolkit online at RedRover.org/fundraising.