11/19/2023
Howdy Team Trooper! Jessica here. I want to share a brief (🤣) “State of the Sanctuary” and a friendly reminder to make sure you get your raffle tickets purchased asap for the drawing this evening!
Our Fab Five is enjoying the good life at the Sanctuary these days. We added them into our rotation of dental workups and we now have at least two dogs getting dental procedures done each week. (I don’t have to mention how expensive these are - if you have dachshunds you already know.) Jet lost all his remaining teeth and had a drain to help as the infection in his mouth cleared. He’ll go back after Thanksgiving for an additional procedure to close up the surgical site in his mouth.
With our fundraising, we faced big challenges in 2023. The loss of Amazon Smile was significant to say the least. And as we head into the Thanksgiving week we are missing the giving Tuesday fundraiser where Facebook used to match donations.
Thankfully, many of our fundraising efforts have been wildly successful! Our calendar campaign and a generous donation directly towards this purchase has enabled us to bring in a new complete washing station for our current resident’s enjoyment! This was one of the first needs Vanessa conveyed to me when I came on board. We are still in the process of having it installed, but our pups will soon be clean and cozy in their own home. We still have a few that will need to go to a groomer for trims, but we are excited to be reducing our expenses AND the stress on our more fragile residents at the groomer’s next year. We will no longer have to pick and choose who gets a spa day, nor will we have to wait for warm weather to set up a makeshift bath-time station outside for our sweet residents.
We’ve taken a break from our new shirt initiative for a time, but expect to see several new designs just in time for Christmas shopping. Our current designs will all remain available in the new year, EXCEPT for the 22nd Anniversary design. That one will be retired with 2023. (Hint: go order it now if you want to have one!!) Link in comments.
This is our second to last quilt raffle this year - Elaine and Cathy have outdone themselves making these and they are often a huge boost to our vet fund! Please, please, please remember to buy your tickets in the next few hours FOR THE DRAWING THIS EVENING. Link in comments.
Birthday crowd-supported initiatives on Facebook trickle in pretty regularly, so please keep those in mind when you have a reason to celebrate and fundraise. Those types of smaller fundraisers help pay our subscription orders for dry kibble, canned food, pill pockets, weight supplements, cleaning supplies, electric bills, lawn mowing, and more.
Monthly and one time donations are truly what keep us going, though. Our angels of support send us monthly donations in the snail mail, via PayPal, and on Zelle. We hope to update our angels list in the new year - if this is something you might be able to help with, please fill out a volunteer application. You do NOT have to live close to the Sanctuary to volunteer! We would love to be able to do more with our mission with the support of online volunteers. Link in comments.
We were faced with two large unexpected expenses in the past month, as two highly contagious ailments popped up in two different areas of the Sanctuary. No dogs were lost to these ailments, though one was more serious than the other, but we immediately reacted with new shoe sanitizing measures as well as pro-active isolations and daily (sometimes more than once daily) sanitizing of rooms. Our long time forever resident, Shiloh, who is a GSD, was affected the most and with the attentive care of Doc Jess and her team, along with Vanessa and her team at the Sanctuary, all affected residents are on the mend.
Of course, the biggest accomplishment of our cumulative fundraising is that we have been able to say “yes” to help so many more dachshunds this year, some that were in truly dire straights and had no other place to go. I can’t tell you how many times we were about to go into a complete “defer to other rescues” mode, only to have a quilt raffle or other initiative surprise us with huge results.
At last count we had 68 residents at the Sanctuary! This is a tremendous accomplishment and testimony to the support of Team Trooper. Just like everything else these past few years, the cost of care for our residents has gone up exponentially - and we now have more residents to care for daily. It’s 💯 because of the generosity of Team Trooper that we have been able to help SO many dogs this year. Red, Pepper, Heidi, Miss Astor, Roxie and Roxie-Anne, Scooter, Finley, Buzz, Junior... and the list goes on and on. Each time we bring in a new story of hope, and I call Mom and Dad (Connie and Rick) to share with them about our next new resident, we are renewed in our mission and filled with a sense of purpose to rescue one more.
Speaking of successes, let’s talk about adoptions! Boss and Bowser have found a beautiful forever home together in north Texas. Makayla and Pickles, our previous blind residents, have each found hoomans to call their very own. (The amount of spoiling happening for these two special needs babies is out of this world!) Scooby, Aurora/Sync, Heidi together with Roxie, Milo in the mid-west, and so many more! Our adoption celebrations this year are many. I’m overwhelmed with happy follow-ups and updates and go a bit crazy trying to keep them all straight!
Many of our adoptions were sponsored in our “Senior for a Senior” program. I’ve been met with tears of joy and straight-up whooping when I’ve shared with an adopter that their adoption fee was covered already by one of our supporters. Matching senior dogs with the senior citizens who apply through our program is one of the most rewarding things we do. Infographic in comments.
Friends, I have so many stories I could share. As we head into the holiday season I’m looking closely towards our upcoming expenses and reaching out to you today for even more help. With the closing of Dusty Puddles rescue in North Texas, we’ve definitely seen an increase in requests for assistance with pups. Jeff does a really amazing job helping find homes for some of them without bringing them onto the Sanctuary rosters. And we have several more adoptable residents to share with you who are available for adoption (Are you good at making cute, informative informational sheets with pictures? Please apply to help volunteer virtually!). As we move a few more to fur-ever homes, and as more fundraising successes roll through, we will continue to say yes to more pups in need.
Won’t you please consider a monetary donation today? Raffle tickets or a straight donation - it all helps! If you’d like to donate directly using PayPal, visit our website at https://pldstexas.org/shop or send a Zelle payment to (936)285-6191. For checks, mail to our new mailing address, PO Box 150, Shiro, Texas 77876. I’ll post an infographic with more details in the comments.
☝️Until there are none, rescue one. ☝️
P.S. If you’ve read this far, might as well share! 😇
