Thank you to those of you who gave so generously to help Home for Life meet our $25,000 match challenge. Featured in our fall mailing was the incredible story of our dog Raha (facebook video and here) how his life has come full circle since arriving at Home for Life®, a miracle you made possible with your support. Excluding a bequest that came in at the end of the year and fall gala sponsorships, but including funds from GiveMN and the fall campaign, AND both gifts made on line and gifts mailed in, Home for Life® has been able to continue our mission of helping those animals that have run out of options. Amazing!!
As a result of your contributions, we have been able to purchase four custom made wheelchairs that four of our paraplegics needed desperately: Zavier the Saluki mix; Hilly, a little street dog from New Dehli; Yasmin from the Vafa Shelter; and Beininabucket from a rescue in Indiana. All four dogs had suffered terrible cruelty which left them paralyzed before their rescue and arriving at Home for Life®, and all have done so well since coming to us. But they had outgrown or needed new carts, and finally we were able to order these for such deserving dogs.
Another project will be installing forced air heat in our feline leukemia building and switching the heat source to propane. Currently this building runs on electric heat and has only heated floors. With the new extremes in the weather, we are finding our buildings need both forced air and floor heat to keep our animals comfortable and safe. During this recent cold snap, having both heat sources made a huge difference for our dogs in the main building, most of whom are either paralyzed or geriatric. Our main cat building also has both forced air and floor heat.
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Home for Life® doesn't do constant on line Facebook or Go Fund me type fundraisers, so having the funds saved up for emergencies as they come is so important - there always seems to be an emergency that needs to be handled. One such event was when one of our diabetic dog Zee (above), a collie mix only eight years old, suddenly went blind due to cataracts. We were advised by the veterinarians that his diabetes was well controlled and insulin levels were correct, so it was shocking to have him suddenly develop cataracts that left Zee blind. The surgery was expensive but necessary to allow Zee to live his best life despite diabetes. Thank to your gifts, we were able to restore Zee's sight. (Zee video)
Your gifts also enabled us to help many animals in desperate need including Makwa, a paralyzed Newfoundland mix from Northern Minnesota's Leech Lake Reservation,
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Gracie a three legged and blind St. Bernard who suffers from seizures due to stress - she was the beloved pet of a woman who became homeless and who wanted to be sure Gracie would not be passed around anymore - she had been in two rescues and three homes at only the age of four, the many cats as described in the second article of this E News, which helped us leverage the rescues to help desperate cats on the placement list at the humane society:
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and dogs like Ginger, a chow mix with an auto-immune condition called Pemphigus Erythematosus. She had been left tied outside by her elderly owner in Chicago and was full of sores and very emaciated when seized by animal welfare works of the Anti Cruelty Society in Chicago. Because of her condition and her sometimes challenging behavior, she was offered to rescues only. Home for Life® has a special affinity for ChowChows and when other rescues passed Ginger up for their programs, Home for Life® was happy to offer her help.
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Not every dog or cat will be helped with the conventional solutions offered by animal welfare. Can we make a place for these special dogs and cats like Zee, Ginger, Makwa and Gracie and our at risk cats too? These animals were no longer candidates for adoption, had been passed over by rescues focused on turning over animals, weren't in need of hospice care - and didn't have a dramatic rescue story to garner Go Fund me type donations for an expensive, major surgical procedure. Yet these dogs and cats were as much in danger of losing their lives as any extreme "rescue" story that crosses your facebook feed, and maybe more so - an invisible animal forgotten and overlooked by the animal welfare system as it currently operates.
Home for Life®, an internationally recognized care for life sanctuary, offers a service to forgotten dogs and cats in need like no comparative organization. Many shelters and rescue organizations aspire to find a home for every animal and dream of the day when there will be no homeless animals. At Home for Life®, that's what we want too - and that's what we provide - for dogs and cats that are overlooked for placement. Home for Life® has created a new idea, the care for life sanctuary - a life-saving and life affirming alternative for dogs and cats who have not been able to find a home or keep the home they had and for animals who have lifelong special care needs, that most adopters cannot provide. We call our idea the "Third Door" in animal welfare which gives at risk dogs and cats, animals who might have been passed over for adoption, an alternative to an undeserved death.
The dream of a home should be an opportunity that is available for all dogs and cats, and now with Home for Life®, and the innovative model we have created at our prototype sanctuary in Star Prairie, WI, it can be! Thanks to you all of these special animals are now Home for Life®! Let's continue to help make that dream come true for other cats and dogs in 2019 - Give Today!