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Featured Dog – Jay Jeffries

Featured Dog – Jasper

 Jasper is true to his breed. This 15-pound boy is an outgoing, energetic two-year-old Jack Russell Terrier Mix. His amiable nature is a great match with his very handsome white-and-tan coat. Jasper is overjoyed to be rescued, after being saved from a high-kill facility.

He has the potential to be an agility of flyball star – this guy is happiest when playing fetch and has lots of drive and action to be a contender! Just image how happy he will be in the forever  home of his dreams. See his video below. You can tell he is very smart, agile, and treat motivated! Jasper gets along well with other dogs too!!  Apply to adopt Jasper now!

Featured Pet – Tonka 11334

Tonka is a very handsome 5 year old male orange tabby with big bright eyes and “bulls-eye” markings.  Tonka and his brother Tonto belonged to a soldier, who was deployed to Afghanistan in May, 2011.  Unfortunately, the soldier’s family was unable to take care of them, so they brought the boys to a county shelter (where their lives were in jeopardy).  The shelter called Furkids, who stepped in to give these two great cats another chance at life.

Tonka seemed to get along with the other Furkids shelter cats, however he soon stopped eating!  He probably had just gone through too many changes in a short time.  Furkids saved his life again with a feeding tube and intensive care by a foster family.  After a few weeks, he began eating on his own and is now a happy & healthy kitty (and maybe even a little chubby).  Tonka’s foster family is pleased to have helped him, but it is time for him to find a “forever” home. 

His foster family feels that the best home for Tonka will be a home where he is the only pet.  He is shy when meeting people but once he knows you; he wants to be near you as much as possible.  Tonka loves being brushed and enjoys playing-catnip mice are a favorite.  He is also very content to hang-out with you while you watch TV or sleep.  He does not need to be adopted with his brother. Apply for Tonka today!

Help spread the word about #GAGives – a 24 hour online giving event for #nonprofits in GA

Join us Thursday Dec. 6 for GA Gives Day – a day to encourage giving back to non-profit organizations in all corners of Georgia. What better way to honor someone’s memory than by donating to charity or make a donation as a Christmas present for your secret santa!

Click the link or image below!

https://www.gagivesday.org/c/GGD/a/furkids

Thinking Outside the Box: Balto goes home to Nebraska!

A Year in Review – 2012

Dear Friends, 

This has been a great year to be a Furkid! Our 10^th anniversary year brought us more activity, growth, intakes, adoptions, and opportunities than any other year in our history. We have happily saved over 1,000 dogs and cats this year and remain the largest no-kill shelter in Georgia.

Part of the excitement came from our acquisition of SmallDog Rescue & Humane Society at the end of 2011. We are so grateful to our staff and volunteers for integrating our operations into one strong, cohesive organization that serves more animals than either could do alone. Their efforts have increased dog adoptions to the highest rate ever! By September 30, 2012, we surpassed our number of dog adoptions for all of 2011.

On the cat side, it has also been a banner year. In August, a special promotion resulted in 96 cats going to happy families, up 65% from last August. In addition, this Thanksgiving, we gave the gift of life to 40 Death Row kitties from a local shelter.

Special stories for 2012: 

Adoption successes: Ony, the spunky Whippet mix (pictured right), who lived at the shelter for two years, and Buster, who starred onstage as Bruiser the Chihuahua in the Atlanta Lyric Theater musical production of “Legally Blonde“. The actress who played Elle Woods adopted Buster before the show finishedits run. At the cat shelter, we said tearful, happy goodbyes to some of our longest residents. Hadrian, an outgoing, elderly, toothless guy, and Sheba Deva, a shy, mature, black cat who had been overlooked since 2007. These lovebirds were adopted together by a great mom. Sadly, we lost Bruiser, our cheerful feline ambassador who “managed” the thrift store but never knew the joy of being adopted. 

Furkids Thrift Store: The staff and volunteers at the thrift store are blowing off the doors in intakes and sales, and increasing revenues every month. The merchandise – literally, from the kitchen sink to designer handbags, jewelry, antiques and children’s clothes – turns over quickly. You never know what treasures you’ll find, and when you shop at the thrift store, you help our cats and dogs in the process. 

Yearly Highlights & Celebrations: 

Some other high points of the year included our 10^th anniversary celebration. The gala, held at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, featured commemorative Pete the Cat paintings by artist James Dean and a guest appearance by radio personality, Rick Dees. The event brought out the best in our sponsors and friends. It was a very special night of celebration with over 500 guests in attendance!

Vehicle News: Most of you know Furkids won second place in the Nalley Driven for a Cause Facebook contest. Thank you for voting and helping us round up support from friends and allies all over the country! In the process, we made more than 1,000 new friends on Facebook, and while we didn’t win the first prize vehicle, the Nalley Automotive Group generously awarded us a $10,000 cash donation. The contest inspired a donor to match the prize money and two other donors to give us vehicles. Ultimately, we were able to buy a box truck and a mini van, and now Furkids has four vehicles that help us at our adoption events and thrift store. 

More Adoption Centers: Both SmallDog Rescue and Furkids have had strong relationships with Petco and PetSmart and we’re overjoyed to add the Buckhead PetSmart as our 10^th adoption center! We will close out the year by adding the Smyrna Petco and the Buckhead Petco stores. Furkids manages 12 adoption centers - more than any other shelter in Georgia!

Helping Others: The Southern Hope Humane Society halted its animal rescue and adoptions this year and asked Furkids to absorb their adoptable animals. We are very honored that they chose Furkids to receive their animals and support of equipment and a van.

Our Greatest Asset, Our Volunteers: We are blessed that many of you know the joy and satisfaction that comes from being a Furkids volunteer. We are unique in that we welcome children of all ages, disabled adults, corporate volunteers and so many others to share the grace and emotional fulfillment that comes from spending time with animals. We are so proud that our volunteer program helps socialize our cats and dogs and enriches the humans along the way. We give thanks for the many groups that partner with us and to all of our students who faithfully volunteer with us.

Vision for the Future: We were honored to receive an impactful gift from the Estate of Eugene Rehm – a long-time musician with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra who loved animals. Mr. Rehm’s gift has been set aside towards helping us realize our long range vision of creating a peaceful, unique destination, carved out of nature, where visitors can walk dogs along a nature trail, play with cats in their indoor/outdoor home, enjoy tranquility in a memorial garden, and all of our animals can experience sunlight and fresh air.  If you are interested in learning more about our vision, please contact Samantha Shelton (sam@furkids.org).

Thank you to everyone who has helped us accomplish so much this year. But our work is far from done. In 2013, we will focus on increasing volunteers at all adoption centers, realizing more adoptions and saving more animals.  We are hopeful to renovate the 34 year old building that is our dog shelter, hire a week-day kennel tech and expand operations. We also want to build on the success of our thrift store by opening a second location. These are just a few of our goals for the New Year and we need your help to achieve them.

Please consider a one-time gift or monthly donation to help Furkids continue to save 1000s of lives. CLICK HERE!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and best wishes for a wonderful New Year! Thank you for your care and friendship that makes our important work possible. 

Samantha Shelton

Founder and Executive Director

Good Day Pet: Via MY FOX ATLANTA November 20

source: www.myfoxatlanta.com

Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

ATLANTA -It’s the Good Day pet for Tuesday, November 20! For more information on how you can adopt a pet from FurKids, call (770) 613-0009, or click here for a link to their website!

CLICK ON THE VIDEO ABOVE TO SEE TODAY’S PET OF THE DAY!

Furkids Saves 39 Cats from Death Row in Time for Thanksgiving

Every year Furkids has a Thanksgiving tradition - we save lives! On Monday Nov. 19 Furkids staff and volunteers prepared for 40 new arrivals with great excitement and happiness.

Furkids has a tradition of choosing an animal control facility and rescuing every cat scheduled to be killed at Thanksgiving. This year we chose Floyd County Animal Control in Rome, GA with a 99% euthanasia rate for cats and kittens.

As you can image 40 cats and kittens will require a lot of attention and care and will need vaccines, food, litter, antibiotics, flea and tick treatment, spay and neuter surgeries, and combo tests for starters. We estimate we will spend at minimum $100 per cat rescued i.e. $3,900 MINIMUM. We need your help!! Please consider making a donation now for our 2012 Thanksgiving Cats.

Consider your gift as a thoughtful holiday present for an animal lover! 

Thank you for providing the gifts that will allow us to care for our new 40 intakes and continue to provide for over 500 cats and dogs currently in our care! 

Anyone who donates $100 or more will have the opportunity to name a cat too – just mention the name in the comments box at checkout! 

We are also looking for foster homes for cats, kittens, and dogs. Click here to learn more about fostering opportunities. 

Georgia has a pet over-population crisis. Every day hundreds of healthy, sweet, loving adoptable dogs and cats – even puppies and kittens – are killed due to shelter over crowding. It isn’t their fault; Georgian’s must put an end to this cycle by preventing future litters. Spaying and neutering is the responsible thing to do. To learn about low-cost spay and neuter options in your area please visit http://furkids.org/resources/#lowcost

Celebrate Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week with Furkids

Furkids, Georgia’s largest no-kill animal shelter, is joining PetFinder.com to celebrate Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable Pet Week. Pets that are different are often over looked, and this week we encourage you to consider adopting a pet that is special in it’s own way.

There are many factors that make a pet seem “less adoptable.” Breed prejudice, special needs, and ageism are just a few. To celebrate this week, Furkids is showcasing some of our wonderful special needs pets just waiting to snuggle up to you in their new forever homes.

Furkids is PROUD to be one of the few shelters in Georgia to take in special needs dogs and cats on a regular basis. We were the first shelter to have a special place dedicated to FIV+ cats in Georgia – now other shelters are following in our footsteps. We take in animals that are blind, deaf, old, injured, abused, and/or have medical issues like diabetes, heart murmurs, paralysis, amputations, or broken bones. 

September 17-23 is National Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable Pet Week! We have over 100 special needs animals that need special homes. Consider adopting a special needs cat or dog today! During Sept. 17-30 special needs animals adoption fees are lowered to $25 for cats and $50 for dogs. 

Adopt a Special Needs Cat for $25 

If you are interested in adopting a special needs cat, but unsure which animal would be a good fit e-mail adopt@furkids.org and we can help guide you. 

- Special Needs Adoptable Page     

- FIV+ Cats      

- Any black or tuxedo (black and white) cat     

- Any cat 10 years or older

We have a chance to share 5 million dollars in grants from Chase Giving

Furkids was nominated as one of hundreds of non-profit agencies around the United States to participate in Chase’s Community Giving Program. Chase will be giving away 5 million dollars in grants and YOU get to decide who receives them! 

Voting will run from September 6 thru September 19.  Voters receive 2 votes per Facebook account. Each vote must be cast for a different Eligible Nominated Charity – 1 for Furkids and 1 for another lucky charity!

Chase customers with an online Chase account have an opportunity to get 2 additional votes. There is also 1 bonus vote awarded for Facebook users by allowing Chase“Access” and sharing content from the Chase Community Giving application to your Facebook newsfeed or timeline. If you qualify for each of these opportunities, it will allow for a total of 5 possible votes – with 3 going to Furkids! Are you still with us?? 

Steps you can take to help Furkids win $10,000 – $250,000: 

1. Visit  Furkids’ Chase Community Giving Page and vote for Furkids and another charity of your choice

2. Share your vote on your newsfeed or timeline and receive a bonus vote.

3. Use your bonus vote to vote for Furkids – again! 

4. If you are a Chase customer visit www.chasegiving.com and use your additional votes for Furkids and one other charity. 

What we can win!
Chase will donate the $5,000,000 to the 196 Eligible Nominated Charities who receive the most votes:

o   $250,000 to the Charity receiving the most votes;

o   $100,000 to the next ten runner’s-up Charity;

o   $50,000 to the next thirty-five runner’s–up Charity;

o   $20,000 to the next fifty runner’s-up Charities;

o   $10,000 to the next one-hundred runner’s-up Charities;