apaws

March 2010

A great big thank you to all of our adopters so far this year! We appreciate you and thank you for giving an animal their forever home.

Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen

Don't forget to come eat at California Pizza Kitchen and present this flyer on Tuesday, March 2, 2010. APAWS will receive 20% of your total! This is an excellent opportunity to enjoy a family dinner without having to clean up afterwards and support a great cause. In these tight economic times it is difficult to donate money, this is an excellent way to donate to APAWS and enjoy a night out.

Jambalaya Benefit

APAWS will host a jambalaya benefit at the Books A Million in the Siegen Marketplace (next to PetSmart) on Saturday, March 13, 2010. The food will be ready for 11:00 AM and we will be there until we are sold out! Each dinner is $5.00 and will include a generous portion of chicken/sausage/pork jambalaya, white beans, bread and a dessert. We are accepting preorders, if your company would like to order several dinners we will deliver them to the Baton Rouge area. Please contact us if you would like information on how to order or would like to donate for the meal.

Cat toys and Dog toys

Providing medical care and food is our primary obligation to our foster animals. The money we bring in through adoptions and donations goes to these things, but animals need more than medical care, food and love. They need toys! Unfortunately, our group can't provide the foster animals with toys. Our foster parents purchase toys for their fosters with their own money. There are two great sites willing to donate 15% of each sale made with the supplied links in store credit for us to buy toys! Get the furry friend in your house a toy and make a donation all at the same time.

Cat Toys

Dog Toys

Special Needs Animals

This year is no exception, we have taken in special needs animals. A special needs animal is one who requires extra medical and/or emotional care or has a chronic disease. Few rescues will take in these animals due to the financial toll it places on the organization. Animal control facilities are not equipped to handle these animals which usually means they are euthanized. Although it is a good business decision to minimize loss and lower costs, we do not view animal rescue as a business. Instead we view it as the right thing to do and work very hard to help as many special needs animals as possible. Anyone who asks why we bother with these animals has never met one. Animals know when you have helped them and the special needs animals are typically the most loyal and affectionate animals in the group. They quickly gain the love of anyone willing to give them a chance. We can only continue helping special needs animals with donations because our adoption fee does not nearly cover our veterinary and food expenses. If you would like to donate please visit our donations page.

Dutchess

APAWS was contacted by an LSU vet school student regarding a puppy that had been abandoned at the LSU emergency clinic. The puppy had a severe leg break and her owner couldn't afford the necessary treatment. The owner chose to release the pup to LSU, if rescue was not found immediately she would be euthanized. We agreed to take her and brought her to one of our vets for a consultation. The x-ray revealed a butterfly break requiring immediate surgery. The injury was older than the owner had indicated therefore the surgery was much more involved than anticipated. Because of the increase in difficulty the price was also increased. We are now struggling to pay off the surgical bill.

We are very happy she is doing well. She will have a long recovery period, but the bone was able to be repaired. In a few months she will be running and playing like a normal puppy!

If you would like to view more pictures of Dutchess please visit our home page.


Buster

Buster is FIV+ which is a life long disease, but is no reason to euthanize. According to Veterinarian Dr. Virginia Clemans, who was previously the Cheif Veterinarian at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, "Although there is no specific treatment for FIV, infected cats can live long and healthy lives. It is important to keep these cats up-to-date on vaccinations, feed them a high-quality diet, and seek veterinary treatment at the first sign of illness." (http://www.bestfriends.org/theanimals/pdfs/cats/catfiv.pdf).

Buster was a stray who lived under the house of a lady who has been taking care of him for the last few years. She moved at the end of January and could not take Buster with her. She was afraid to leave him behind so she asked APAWS to help him. His vet visit discovered that he is FIV+ and has a respiratory problem. According to the lady who rescued him when he first showed up he had a severe upper respiratory infection that was untreated. It is possible that his lungs or sinuses were damaged due to the past infection. He is doing fine now and is an extremely sweet boy who gets along well with the other FIV+ cats.

Lucky

Lucky was rescued in Lafayette when a woman called animal control to report a dachschund being attacked by two other dogs. The animal control officers immediately responded and rescued the dog. Lucky's throat was ripped open. The owner was found, but after seeing the injuries the owner surrendered Lucky to aninmal control knowing she would be euthanized. She felt she wouldn't be able to deal with cleaning the injuries. The vet at animal control felt she was too sweet and deserved a chance. She began looking for a rescue to take Lucky, APAWS stepped up and agreed to take her.

Lucky is fortunate enough to be fostered by one of our veterinarians. Her throat was ripped open and the esophogas was visible. For the first few days after the injury the wound had to be flushed out, but could not be closed because infection would in. Her throat was able to be stapled shut and is healing very well now. Even after being through trauma and pain Lucky is a very sweet dog and once healed will make an excellent addition to a family.

If you would like to view more pictures of Lucky please visit our home page.


Katherine

Katherine was a stray at LSU who was rescued by a student who could not keep her due to her living situation. Katherine tested positive for FIV, but she is a very healthy and big girl. She is super sweet and would be great as an only cat for a person who is looking for a single cat and would be willing to open their heart to a FIV kitty.