For the Love of Rescues

OK, guys, it's been a while. Every day, I've thought about writing about my new One True Love. Her name is Angelina. Let me real quick check and see if she's been adopted before I announce who she is...

Nope, she's still here. Bummer. I had to check because we've had SOOOO many adoptions lately that I can hardly keep track.

So, her name is Angelique and she's been here at the shelter since like February. That's a long, long time. Here's my One True Love, Angelina:

She is not what I want to talk to you about today though, because I'm in love with something else right now. It's a thing, not a cat. Is that weird? I don't care if it is, because guys, seriously. This thing (or concept or community...I'm not really sure what it is exactly) has been amazing me week after week after week. Almost every week we, get help from this thing and they don't even ask for anything from us in return.

This thing that I want to talk to you about is the Rescue Community. Oh, hey, check that out...now that I type it out, I think the correct term for this thing is community. It's right there in the term.

DuPage County Animal Care and Control wouldn't be able to do what we do wihout the support of the rescue community. Are you guys following The Friends of DuPage County Animal Care and Control on Facebook? If you are, some of this will be old news to you, but stick with me.

This is What Kristie L. posted on the Friends of ... Facebook page recently:

A very special THANK YOU to rescue partners ARF-Illinois and Strays Halfway House for, in total, taking nearly 20 kittens into their respective adoption programs over the past 2 days. Thanks to their assistance they have opened up lifesaving space for the now constant stream of incoming kittens arriving at the DCACC shelter. Thank you ARF & Strays...we wish you many happy adoptions!!!

See all those exclaimation points? That's how you know what a solid thing ARF-Illinois and Strays Halfway House did. We get kittens like crazy around here. You wouldn't believe the number of kittens we take in. And because of our rescue partners, we can give fresh starts to even more kittens.

A half dozenof the kittens that went to the rescues was this family:

Do you see that look on Mom cat's face? That look says "DCACC is great and all, but I would SOOOO much rather be caring for these little miracles in a foster home." Because of our rescue partners, she got her wish.

Name My Own Fee? Really? Really.

So, our cat room is bursting at the seams. I'm a little surprised, because we had an awesome promotion during June where the cats "Grad-mew-ated." Our goal with every promotion is to turn over the cat room. We have twenty two cages in the cat room (kittens have their own area, so I'm strictly talking adult cats here that are at least a half a year old. That means our goal is to adopt out at least 22 cats for each promotion.

Well, during the Grad-Meow-ate 36 cats were matched up with their forever families, including my one true love, Marble. I'm in the process of deciding who my new one true love (or bro) will be. Be on the look out for a very exciting announcement about that sometime soon.

Like I said, though, our cat room (and surprisingly kitten area) is full and cats and kittens continue to flow in. And the thing is that they are good cats that are coming in. Cats that used to live with humans, but their humans went into a nursing home. Or to heaven. Or to Aruba. I don't know all the places that the humans are going, but what I do know is that we are swimming in cats. Not literally, because that would be silly. Although it would also be kind of cool? Imagine a swimming pool filled with cats. Google Images can help us imagine this. It would look something like this:

Anyway, like I was saying, we are practically swimming in cats and kittens around here. So we're having another promotion. This one will be an interesting one.

I'll give you a hint about what the promotion is:

Is that too subtle? I guess I'll just have to tell you what it is.

We are having a "Name your Own Fee" cat promotion. That means that you can, umm, well, you can name your own fee to adopt an adult cat. I'm thinking that people will like to decide how much their fee will be. I know if I were a human and I were going to adopt a cat from the shelter, the fee I would probably name is $1,000. Others might name $50 and still others $25. For this promotion, we're going to put the adopters in charge. Of the fee, not of anything else. Folks will still have to pass our adoption screening and all that.

This promotion is also notable because we aren't leaving the kittens out. We're going to name the adoption fee for adopters, but that fee is one kitten for $50 and two kittens for $75. I always say with kittens, you should take two.

For example, this is one kitten named Mikey:



  These are two kittens, Mikey and Milo.

See what I mean?

So, if your family has been thinking of a cat or a kitten, this summer is certainly the time to do it. Be on the look out for the e-mail from Kristie officially announcing the promotion. You should get it by the end of the week (if you are on our mailing list).

If you do end up adopting a cat or kitten from DCACC this summer, you can bet I want to hear about it!

Since I Had to Listen To Them, I Might as Well Write About Them

Thank you so much America...I'm happy you've had a birthday last weekend and everything, but can't we just buy you a cake? What's with the fireworks? If you don't want a cake, can we replace the fireworks with a lovely laser lights show? All the beauty and none of the horrific sounds. Think about it, America, and let me know. Seriously, I think it's going to be a win win. You'd get the pretty sights, the shelter dogs wouldn't feel the need to BARK BARK BARK, and I would get the peace and quiet I deserve.

I don't feel the need to scream my head off when I hear the booms like the dogs do. It's not that I'm not afraid of fireworks. I am. It's just that I know if I run and hide under Barb A's desk, I will be safe.

The dogs on the other hand, think that they can make the sounds go away if they bark loud enough. News flash: Fireworks aren't afraid of barking dogs. Fireworks are going to be scary no matter what you do.  I think the dogs might as well just calm down. Seriously.

So, all weekend, I cowarded under Barb A's desk listening to BARK BARK BARK. If you have a dog, then you know what one dog barking sounds like. Go ahead and times that by ten and you'll know what my weekend was like. It wasn't great.

As I entered the third hour of the cacaphony that the dogs were making while Wheaton had their fireworks on July 3rd, it occurred to me that I'm behind on sharing with you the dog-porter reports that have been filed by dogs this summer.

Buttercup was supposed to go to several of these, but she and her person just moved houses, and I guess that takes up so much time that Buttercup didn't have fifteen minutes to help me? I'm almost getting the feeling that Buttercup is not taking her role seriously.

It's ok, though, because it turns out I don't even need Buttercup. There were LOTS of other dog-porters that I could rely on. Sort of.

Franny and Franklin were adopted a couple of years ago by Katie from the Kennel (read that in the same tone of voice you would read "Jennie from the Block"). Frannie and Franklin went to The Cellar Bistro Dog Days of Summer. They had some extremely refreshing water while Katie and Not Katie enjoyed a great meal. You know it was a great meal because all four of them look really happy:

Frannie and Franklin only sent that picture of themselves at the event, without commentary. So, basically, they had the "dog" part down, but not the "porter" part.

The next dog-porter to file a report was Sandra, one of our adoption dogs. I had high hopes for Sandra's report of the Woofin' Hoofin' dog/human walk that the kids at GlenBard West hosted on June 21. I talked to Sandra about the assignment and she even paid attention. (You'll have to take my word for it...no pictures exist.) She knew she had to get some pictures of the event and then come back and file a report.

She got the picture part right, as witnessed by these excellent pictures:

Sandra at Woofin Woofin

Mayor Greysk and Wheaton's First Dog, DCACC Alum Nikko

My buddy Sebastian, the Very Tall Airedale(ish) Terrier, who graduated from DCACC a few years ago.

 I really think Sandra would have filed an excellent report, too. Before she could finish typing up her notes, though, she was adopted. June 22, just one day after the Woofin Hoofin event, was an absolute banner day for adoptions. Sandra was one of eight adoptions that were completed on that day. Eight!With all the excitement of going to her forever home, Sandra just didn't have time to tell us about the event. It looks like Sandra, Nikko and Sebastian had a great time, though, so I think the pictures speak for themselves.

So, there you have it. The dog-porters are...not doing a super great job following my instructions to a) go to DCACC events b) take some pictures and c) tell me about it. But, I guess I should go easy on them. It wasn't really their fault. Franklin and Franny are so cute, they've probably never had to do a lick of work in their life. Sandra has a pretty gosh darn good excuse too, since she got adopted right after her event.

The Fall Festival is coming up in September. Maybe by then I can find a good, reliable dog-porter to go to it. If not, I guess I'm just going to have to report on it myself.