Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Be a Part of the Mutts in 2012!

Mostly Mutts is proud of our success each weekend at pet adoptions held at the Kennesaw PetSmart and the Pet Supermaket at AnsleyMall.  We get excited when our furry friends find loving homes.   We also use this time to promote Mostly Mutts…what we do and why it’s so important.  We take every opportunity to  raise awareness about spay/neuter and how this alone will save the lives of so many animals.  We receive generous donations which allows us to continue with our mission.  With the start of a new year, we will take a deep breath and find the energy to continue rescuing and adopting.    

The many Mostly Mutts volunteers donate a lot of love!  They also donate their time and energy.  Working with MM is fun and meeting new friends is a highlight.  After reading our post you'll want to be a part of Saturday and Sunday and share in our success of finding homes for the sweet animals that come through Mostly Mutts.

As soon as Sunday adoptions are over, we start working on the next weekend.  Volunteers monitor our phone lines and our many emails with inquiries about our dogs.  Potential "parents" are referred to our website where they can find profiles and photos of every dog and kitten available for adoption.  Applications that are submitted during the week are approved (hopefully) so these families can come to our adoptions events one step ahead of others.  Applicants are interviewed, counseled and references (including vets) are checked prior to approving apps.  We offer advice on dogs we feel would fit well into the family.  Matchmaking is our specialty!!

As dogs get adopted during the weekend, new rescues come in during the week.  Their intake involves baths, health checks, vaccinations, intake paperwork, housing them (either in the shelter or in a foster home) and offering them lots of love and attention.  Once they are spay/neutered, a volunteer will write a profile on each dog's personality to post on the web site. Volunteers are crucial for making these dogs happy during their stay with Mostly Mutts. 

On Saturdays, approximately 40-50 dogs come to the Kennesaw PetSmart to attend the adoption event.  At least 35-40 people take action every Saturday helping with shelter work, transportation, set-up, and walking the dogs throughout the day.  About 30 foster families drop their dogs (and kittens) off at 11:30 and then pick them up at 4:30 if not adopted.  Some take new dogs home to foster if theirs were adopted. 

All of this has be have one coordinator.  She sets up shelter transporters, ‘senior’ and ‘junior’ volunteers to help with the set up, volunteers to help with break down at the end of the day.  She has to train the ‘junior’ volunteers each week as these are often college kids who need college credit.  This person supervises the set up, gets profiles on the kennels, bedding in each kennel/playpen, supervises the dog walkers, etc., etc., etc.  It’s HARD work but it goes so smoothly week to week.  Often we have PetSmart customers watch us and comment about how we work like a ‘fine oiled machine’.  This is a nice compliment. 

Sundays are adoption days too and need coordinating.  Dogs available from the shelter are loaded on the van to travel to Ansley Mall’s Pet Supermarket.  Along the way, the transporter stops and picks up some of the foster dogs that will be going to adoptions.  Our “Intown” adoption team is waiting with kennels already set up and things ready to go when the van pulls up.  At the end of the day, foster families meet the van (if their dog is not adopted) and the others come back to the shelter until the next adoption event.  

Our volunteer coordinator is one busy girl!  She coordinates everything above and her work is rarely ever done!  She also monitors and updates our remarkable FaceBook Page.  This includes updating profiles, photos, etc.  Each week a newsletter is created to send by email, called our “Flea-mail”.  She prepares this by adding photos, comments and updates the volunteer’s names for the next issue.  She has too many jobs to mention but it’s a full time job with no pay.  

 Mostly Mutts had a successful  2011 due in part to our volunteers.  By our count, we adopted out roughly 550 animals for the year.  How awesome is that?!

If you would like more information  about how you can help volunteer, foster or be involved with Mostly Mutts, please visit our website at MostlyMutts.org or email us at volunteer@mostlymutts.org

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