With your help we're keeping pets with the people who love them!
You have helped us do amazing things in 2011. Together we’ve kept almost 2000 pets in their homes and out of shelters. That’s 2000 animals that don’t have to hope a new family will find them and bring them home. They’re already home and, if we have anything to say about it, that’s where they’re staying!
We know the need is not going to end in 2012. The economy is still struggling; those who have fought for our country will be coming home to fewer jobs and higher prices and the elderly and those with disabilities must make their limited dollars stretch even farther. Just think how we could help them with your monthly gift of $25 or more!
Read the stories of a few people we served, with your help, in 2011:
JENNIFER'S STORY
Like most kids, Jennifer's wanted a dog. They'd been begging for years. Finally she thought they were old enough to take responsibility and she'd just gotten a promotion at work that would allow a move from their small apartment with no yard and the extra money needed for a pet.It took almost six months, but Jennifer found a great landlord who, in turn, found them the perfect house -- with a huge yard -- within their budget and not too far from work or school. Jennifer used the time to read everything she could about how to raise a dog, realistically work another mouth to feed into the household budget and prepare the kids for their new role as caregivers. With everything in place, the family embarked on a trip to the Animal Rescue League, with Jennifer praying they didn't have any puppies her kids would want so she wouldn’t have to house train.
She needn't have worried. Within minutes, her son had fallen hard for a 25-pound, ribs-showing, three-legged bundle of licks and wiggles named Leila.
"I never had a dog before, and I got myself ready for all the chewed shoes and knocked over plants, but she's been nothing but wonderful for our family," Jennifer says. "She's never even knocked over the trash. She's amazing. I've learned I can't leave yarn out -- she'll steal my knitting and string it all over the house -- but that's about it."
Meeting people in their new neighborhood was fun and easy while walking the dog and everything seemed to be falling into place for the family. They started attending events for animal lovers and owners as well.
"A couple of my friends are really into animal welfare; that's where I first heard about Rescue Ink and similar organizations,” Jennifer said. "We attended a Rescue Ink event here in town, and that's where I first saw the Pet Project booth. I was really impressed by the focus of the Pet Pantry and how it filled a simple, specific need I didn't remember anyone else filling."
Jennifer took a flier home and hung it on the refrigerator, thinking it would be a good organization to donate to when she had extra money. Unfortunately, all ideas of donating took a back seat when she was laid off weeks later. With two kids, a dog, and now hundreds of dollars more due monthly in rent and utilities, plus savings depleted from the move, suddenly all her careful planning meant nothing.
Fortunately, a good part-time job opened where Jennifer was volunteering and she could freelance to make up some of the difference. There was still a period in between where there just wasn't enough money for everything. The dog needed food, but it was also the height of summer when heartworm, fleas and ticks could be deadly if not controlled.
"I was looking at my bank balance and realizing I needed to decide whether I was going to buy food or medication for the dog because it couldn't be both," Jennifer says.
"I've had friends who've had pets with heartworm, so I know how big those vet bills can be, so I didn't want to risk the dog's health. And she's so skinny already. I was feeling awful, and then I glanced at the refrigerator and saw that Pet Pantry flier."
Figuring out how to apply online was easy, and an email asking for more information was answered right away. Jennifer says Board of Directors President Sara Henderson made asking for help easy in a difficult and upsetting situation.
"Although I love volunteering and doing charity work, I hate needing help myself," Jennifer says. "Leila and Sara made this setback manageable. And the best part is, we'd been slowly switching Leila's food to figure out what was giving her trouble, and what Sara had fixed it in one fell swoop!"
When she went to pick up the dog food, Jennifer offered her time to the Pet Project, and is now a regular volunteer, recording the stories of others related to the organization. In a happy accident, Jennifer found out the dog food she received was probably donated by the local business where she regularly buys supplies, which she found through a recommendation from her vet. Jennifer says that sense of community and support is one of the things that makes Des Moines great.
"Before we had Leila, I had some abstract idea about how it would be for someone if they couldn't afford to keep their pet," Jennifer says. "But in the last five months -- some of the hardest economically I've experienced -- there were days I would not have gotten out of bed without Leila's happy face asking me to walk, and I hear the same sentiment over and over from people I talk to. When it gets to be too much, just laying on the floor with her for ten minutes is enough to get back up in a better mood.
"When I talk to pet owners now, I say 'I didn't get it before. I didn't really understand,' because it's not something you can really explain. Now I get it. Now I truly understand the connection with pets, and how incredibly important something like the Pet Project is. And I want to be a part of that."
JESSICA'S STORY
Jessica's house is resplendent with Christmas festivity. A beautiful tree lights up one corner of the kitchen where her 3-year-old daughter is busy at the table making ornaments out of dough, singing and shouting delightedly as she wields her cookie cutters. Two dogs check her progress as they make their way around the house, stopping to lick Jessica's hand, pausing at the couch to observe the angelic baby boy sleeping away on carefully arranged cushions, sniffing something in the kitchen.
"She's the playful one, and he's the grumpy old man," Jessica says of Mala (which means "bad" in Spanish, "because she was very bad when we first got her") and Rico, a black lab mix.
Jessica was nine months pregnant when her dad came over with a puppy he'd found in the middle of the road. It was a matted, skinny, 11-week-old Mala.
"He asked if we wanted her before he took her over to ARL," Jessica says. As a result, Mala and her daughter have grown up together. Rico is a rescue dog as well. Jessica says dogs have always been a part of her family, and easily remembers names and breeds all the way back to childhood.
When Jessica had her second child, a boy, seven months ago, and went on maternity leave, the loss of her income was a difficult transition for the family at first. That's when her mother told her about The Pet Project Midwest.
"With two larger dogs, we go through 40 pounds of food every three weeks, so that really helped," Jessica says.
Jessica says, fondly watching her daughter flatten some dough, "Thanks to the support of our family, our employers and the Pet Project Midwest, we're really blessed, happy and healthy."
DEB'S STORY
When Deb's husband was transferred from Indiana to Iowa, she was transferred from a three-bedroom ranch acreage to an apartment complex, from family and friends to knowing no one.The transition was a difficult one, and Conway and Izzy are the pals who've seen her through.
"My husband's a truck driver, he's only home about four days a month, so they keep me company," Deb says. "I don't know people here so they're both my kids and my friends."
The transient nature of the population in the apartment complex doesn't help either. Whenever Deb does manage to make friends, they're usually gone in a few months. But the complex welcomes pets and pet owners tend to stick together.
That's how Deb heard about The Pet Project Midwest.
"I asked my neighbor if I could borrow some money for food until pay day, and of course she said yes," Deb says. "But she also told me about The Pet Project. I'd never heard of such a thing!"
The trucking industry, like most everything else, was hit hard in the falling economy and it's really hard to predict when there will be money coming in and when there won't. Deb's degenerative bone disease adds to their worries about money and health insurance.
Luckily, toy poodle Conway is there with a lick of reassurance. Deb says he had a hard time adjusting as well. In his old life, he barked loudly at their few visitors, while in the apartment, he had to learn there would be cars coming and going all the time. But he's learned this, as well as being on a leash, very quickly for a mature gentleman of eight years.The only real complaints you'll hear in this household come from the sphinx cat, Izzy.
"You never hear the end of it if it's cold or rainy," says Deb's granddaughter, who is visiting and helping out.
Deb was always fascinated with these exotic, hairless cats, but thought them financially out of her reach, so maybe it was destiny. Izzy was a show cat whose owner wanted to pass on her distinguished genes by breeding her. While Izzy did have kittens she did not embrace motherhood and could no longer be shown. The breeder knew Deb would provide a good home for her beloved cat.
Now Deb is an expert on the quirks and intricacies of the sphinx. She schooled her vet, and he promised to do more research so he could correctly care for her beloved friend.
Deb appreciates The Pet Project Midwest and especially the Pet Pantry. They don’t force her to make the dangerous choice between food for her babies and medicine for herself. "They are my babies," Deb says. "And I feed my babies first."
