Walk N Wag Pictures

Some of our dogs got to go to Walk N Wag and enjoy the event!

Our dogs enjoying the event.

Special thanks to volunteer Anil Raghavan for photographing this event.

For many more wonderful pictures please visit http://www.bestindigital.com/Years/2010/2010HSBoomer/13956108_4M6Lr#1025389967_3ncUa

Rescues and Runways 2010

Last Saturday our dogs and volunteers participated in Maurice's Rescues and Runways. Maurices stores collect donations for us throughout the month of September and at the end of the month we get together for a fashion show- our dogs and their models! In addition to some of our regular volunteers we had great volunteers from OSU's vet school's Omega Tau Sigma helping show off our dogs.

Long term resident and heartworm survivor had a great time and now has his forever home!

The fashion show was a great place for a diva like Nora.

Ivan loved the attention and chance to get out of the shelter for a day.

Claire Bear is a very sweet puppy who enjoyed the attention.

Thanks to our wonderful volunteers and a big thanks to Maurices for supporting animal shelters!

Walk N Wag Results!

Thank you to everyone who participated! The event was very successful and tons of fun! We raised almost $8,000 for the homeless animals of Stillwater.

Thank you also to our sponsors!

Western Veterinary Hospital, Hangar 1 Flight Center, Cimarron Animal Clinic, Suddenlink, Stillwater Pet Sitters, B&P Kennels, Bark N Barber, Perkins Road Pet Clinic, Wilson's Chevrolet, Dorothy Meeks, Tractor Supply, Veterinary House Call Services and Focus Institute!

Two of our dogs found their forever homes at the event and all the dogs had a great time!

(Pictures to come!)

Pet Watch from the director

We think all of the animals at Animal Welfare and the Humane Society are very special but every once in awhile we get an extra special dog that we all love but for reasons we can never understand, they don’t get adopted as quickly as we would expect. Our main goal is to find homeless animals their new families that will love them and treat them like a part of their family. So when a great dog like Rexford is with us for 4 months we tell everyone we know about him so that he can start his new life with his Forever Family.

Rexford is a tricolor Jack Russell Terrier who is about 3 ½ years old. He is a spunky little dog that was found running the streets of Stillwater. During a health assessment he tested positive for heart worms. This broke our hearts but thanks to a generous person in the community, we were able to afford to treat Rexford. The next step was keeping him calm for 4 weeks while he recovered. This was not an easy task considering Rexford is a very happy Jack Russell and he didn’t understand that he was sick and needed to stay calm in order for the medicines to take care of his heart worms. But Rexford was a good patient and he has now recovered, is already started on heart worm preventative so that he will never have to be calm again! He is more then ready to start the next chapter in his life in a wonderful home. Because Rexford has been with us for so long, he has started to do spins in his kennel. This is a sign that our little Rexford is stressed and is more then ready to find his new home. We all want more than anything for him to find a loving family that will give this great little dog a chance in his new healthy life.

We do need help to keep many wonderful animals happy and healthy until we can place them in their Forever Homes. Our current needs list includes: Paper towels, small dog treats used for training, medium dog collars, high efficiency laundry detergent, hand sanitizer and of course volunteers.

We have some great fundraiser events coming up. On September 25, 2010 Maurices is holding Rescues & Runways. This is a Fashion show from 2:00-3:30 which will include some of our great dogs. Also on September 25, 2010 from 12:00-4:00 some of our dogs will be at on offsite adoption event at Verizon Wireless. On Saturday, October 2, 2010 Suddenlink presents Putts for Pets at the Stillwater Country Club in Stillwater with registration beginning at 8:00AM. You can find more information about events on our website www.hspets.org.

Adopt a less adoptable pet week: September 19-25

This week is adopt a less adoptable pet week. Less adoptable pets are those pets who get overlooked by most adopters and end up waiting longer for a home. Some get overlooked due to their breed, special needs or appearance.

Here are two of our lovable pets who are waiting for forever homes who will look at the pets we call 'less adoptable' and call them 'perfect' instead!

Joey is a purebred Australian Shepherd. He is about a year old and has been looking for his forever home since July. He came to us matted and overweight but is in great shape now. He loves people of all ages and is smart and learns fast. Joey normally wouldn't be considered hard to place but he needs a home where he is the only dog. Smart dogs like Joey get bored quickly living in a shelter and Joey can't wait for someone to come along and take him home!

Snickers is an adult cat who was found as a stray. He is declawed. He is difficult to place because whoever owned him previously allowed him to become severely obese. He weighed close to 20 pounds when he came to the shelter. Being so overweight puts him at risk for health problems and makes it difficult for him to groom himself. He needs an owner who can commit to helping him lose the weight so he can have a long, healthy life.

Celebrate adopt a less adoptable pet week by coming in to meet these guys or passing the information on to your friends! Lets get these guys out of the shelter and into homes!

The cat playroom

Most of our kitties wait for their new homes in cages. If a kitty is waiting in a cage for too long and is friendly and healthy they become eligible for an upgrade to the playroom!

The playroom is a neat room with a big window, shelves to climb on and room to run and play. Up to ten cats can live at the playroom a once. It is a great place to cat loving volunteers to sit and love on some kitties!

The active life in the playroom can help some of our chubby kitties lose some weight.

Clementine has been waiting for a new home since March. Waiting in the playroom isn't too bad!

Since playroom cats are usually our longer term residents, their adoption fee is currently only $25.

The cats love all of the nice blankets, pillows, beds, toys and scratching posts that our supporters donate!

Nellie: Changing hearts and minds about Pit Bulls

Nellie has a special task while she is waiting for a home at the shelter. She is changing people's opinions about Pit Bulls. Many people's exposure is limited to horrific stories in the news. No matter what your opinion is coming into the shelter, you will be charmed by the sweet little brown and white dog who greets you by sitting at your feet and offering her paw.

Sweet Nellie is everything a Pit Bull should be. Nellie loves children and puppies. When the younger puppies cry she gets very concerned about them and wants to check on them. She was very concerned about the puppies when they came back from getting fixed this week.

Nellie has such a wonderful, solid temperament that we chose her to be the dog to visit an elementary school with us this weekend. Nellie loved the children and they loved her! Lots of kisses, belly rubs, and laying down across several laps at once! Nellie was very disappointed when it was time to leave, she would have been perfectly happy being loved on by little ones all day.

Nellie is good with kitties too even though they do scare her a little bit. She walks well on a leash and loves having a comfy blanket to sleep on in her kennel.

She is a special girl and thanks to her we have been hearing lots of positive comments about Pit Bulls around the shelter lately.

We would love for a family to adopt Nellie and help her continue to be such a great ambassador for her breed!