Our first meeting of 2012

Tonight (Sunday) was the first volunteer meeting of 2012. We had a somewhat poor turnout, with 5 of us showing up total. Nevertheless, we had a great discussion and managed to come up with a lot of great fundraiser ideas for the upcoming year.

Some of the ideas we talked about incorporating into this years fundraiser schedule included:

• dog wash
• dog show
• selling pet treats
• pet walks (5k run/walk)
• psychic fair
• motorcycle rally
• adoption convention
• "fill a truck" (Hutcheson-Ford)

We had many more ideas, and many of these are repeats of successfull fundraisers we held last year.

Many of these fundraisers would require vendors, demonstrations and other fun things to keep people engaged and excited. If you know anybody who is interested in becoming a vendor at one of our events, please let me know. :)

I'm still working through my notes and getting them organized to write a more "profesh" article about what we talked about. If you would like to share any thoughts and ideas about fundraisers or anything, please comment.

We passed!

As some of you may know, last year the Dept. of Agriculture came at us hard with many citations involving our shelter... threatening to close us down for good. Lucky for us, most of the citations were cosmetic, and were easily fixed. We were able to replace an exhaust fan in the kennels so the dogs could have better circulated air, fix the tile in our cat rooms and much more with the donations of our kind Facebook followers. We raised over $1000 in just a week during this crisis to help keep our doors open.

With that donated money, we fixed everything. We were practically DARING the Dept. of Agriculture to come back and see what we've done.

Well, they did just that. And we passed the inspection with FLYING COLORS!!

We still have many more improvements to make, and the first one on our list is adding a quarantine area for new dogs and cats to stay until they are deemed healthy and ready for adoption. A quarantine area would prevent our healthy and adoptable dogs from becoming ill, and would also keep any diseases from spreading among the other animals.

Of course, these projects take MONEY. Something that is very scarce among our shelter all the time. We run entirely on donations provided through the public and we often come very close to shutting down for good due to lack of income. If you're in the Missouri area, please plan to attend our meeting this Sunday at the Days Inn & Suites in St. James. The meeting will begin at 5PM and should last no longer than an hour or so. We will be discussing 2012 fundraisers - and would appreciate everybody's wonderful and creative ideas.

If you're unable to attend, feel free to comment below with any ideas you may have! :)

2012 Fundraisers - I need your ideas!

As you may know, this Sunday (the 29th) we are having our first volunteer meeting to discuss some fundraisers we hope to accomplish over the year. One of the main ones we were thinking about included a large adoption convention - including a couple of other rescue groups from around the area.

We are going to need a lot of volunteer resources, budgets and much more to plan this out. Luckily, for the first time ever, we are planning this event with other local and experienced rescue groups.

We're hoping to make this event similar to the Bark-B-Que held in Jefferson City last year - with lots of vendors, food, training demos and, of course, adoptable dogs and cats. Any vendors are welcome to come offer their services - booth prices have not yet been stabilized (we may or may not discuss the issue at this Sunday's meeting.) Anybody with pet-related services or projects are welcome to contact us to book a booth.

-Dog treats
-Cat/dog toys
-Pet supplies
-Pet photographers
-K-9 training demos

We're hoping to book as many people as possible to make this event a success - and hopefully an annual event. We will need a lot of publication (newspapers, radio ads, etc.) to help spread the word.

If you're in the area, and are interested in attending this Sunday's meeting - it is held at the Days Inn & Suites hotel in St. James, MO. We will begin at 5 and the meeting should last no longer than an hour or so. Sign up here to become a volunteer.

Be sure to "like" the shelter's Facebook page as well!

Picture Day!

Today was yet another picture day, and it was not a very pretty one. It was raining, and the clouds were very dark - making for awful lighting for my camera. Along with that, absolutely none of the dogs wanted their picture taken. We were outside in the cold and the rain for about 10 minutes per dog (6 dogs) waiting for them all to calm down enough to get a decent shot.

Of course, asking a dog to "calm down" after being cooped up in a kennel for so long is like giving a child candy and telling them they can't eat it. Of course, we love watching the dogs and puppies enjoy their "free time." But boy, it was cold - and that can make anybody a little bit impatient.

Here's some shots from today. They're obviously not the best, but you can never blame the dogs for being overly-happy. All of these great dogs are available for adoption at the Tri-County Humane Society - located in St. James, Missouri. Contact 573-265-7955 if you're interested in adoption. Adoptors are responsible for their own pet transport.

Please like the Tri-County's Facebook page too!