More Shelter News

We had an eventful day at the shelter yesterday. We had two families come by to look at our available dogs. First family picked out our one of our long time residents, Misty. She is a beautiful dog who has a slight food agression problem. The other, Spud, is a small herding dog. He is constantly stress being in the shelter. But is good when he is in a single dog home. The other family is interested in Polly, our only hound dog.She is full of enegry and is amazingly agile for a dog her size. So the outlook is good to get them rehomed (the new word for adoption in the animal community). We also have someone interested in Blue, a male lab, who is just so full of himself. Full of energy and a loud mouth to boot. SOmeone asked me how do we match dogs with perspective owners? Well, we go by Cesar Millan's philosophy - high energy dogs with high energy people, medium, and low energy dogs match appropriately. It has worked out so far. We got them all wormed and treated yesterday. We have one more project ahead of us. Our former president has submitted a grant request to Halifax EMC for $5k to complete a second fenced in dog run. This will give us a run on both ends of the shelter. It will also allow us to let the dogs out more often during the day.

I came home and continued work on our two upcoming fundraisers (see www.downeastanimalrefuge.org for more info). Well, first had to get the smell of 40 dogs off of me. Must have stood in the shower for 30 minutes. My pit bull, Penny Sue, likes to lick my feet and legs when I come out of the shower. She must think I am not clean enough. I told a friend that someone needs to tell her that shes a dog. I'm not going to do it. 50 pounds of dog that pulls at 300 pounds of torque.

Our Kentucky Derby Fundraiser, the second year we are doing this, is going to be held on Saturday, May, 2010, 4:00 - 7:00. We'll have snacks, refreshments, and a full fried chicken dinner. Country cookin at it's best. It is $25 a ticket. We expect to sell out like we did last year. Members are selling tickets. But this year you can purchase tickets via PayPal on our web site.Donations are also accepted via PayPal at any time.

I am happy to say that our Micro Chipping program is finally getting off the ground. This is after three years of work. We have purchased 100 micro chips and have donated two hand scanners to the community and county. We're going to have the local SPCA, Humane Society, North Shoree Animal League, Best Friends Society (Dog Town), and material from the Cesar and Illusion Millan Foundation present. We've invited several other rescues and shelters to attend. I am happy to say that we will also have local law enforcement present to talk to the kids about the ills of dog fighting. Not to be out done, we will also have another fried chicken plate dinner, along with home made deserts and ice cream. We are only charging $25 per animalfor micro chipping. That will include the cost of the chip, injecting it, and permenent registration with AKC's Companion Animal Recovery program. We are planning this event for Saturday, June 26, 2010, Town Commons, Scotland Neck NC, 10:00 am to 3:00pm. Our travelling vet, Dr. Marty Edwards is being very gracious with her time.

I am also working on our week Rabies and Wellness Clinic which is scheduled for this weekend in Scotland Neck.

Feel free to contact me any time if you have any questions about these events. I can be reached at (252) 826-3965, Cell (252) 406-4184, Twitter @RandallCMelton, Email Randallcmelton@downeastanimalrefuge.org. Mail address is 1705 Main St. Apt 15, Scotland Neck NC 27874.

All this and I am working full time too!