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From the Director's Chair

Writer's picture: Sarah DavisSarah Davis

Ever wondered what it’s like to be one of the directors of an all-volunteer animal rescue? You’re in luck! We’ll be including a monthly feature written by two of our directors, Jeanine and Tara. Ladies and gentlemen, straight from the horse’s mouth, we present: From the Director’s Chair!


When we started out, we just wanted to do a little fundraising to pay for TNVR (trap, neuter, vaccinate and release community cats). Well, turns out you have to have a game plan for the kittens you come across - because they can’t all be community cats - which means adoptions. 


We never imagined how big this rescue would grow, and we will have close to 2500 adoptions of cats and dogs by the time we finish our year end count (Feb 1st). We run 5 adoption centers (not to mention a whole farm) completely with volunteers, and let’s face it, it is ONLY because of the dedicated volunteers and fosters of this amazing rescue that we are able to accomplish so much.


A lot of exciting news happened in 2024…we found our farm! We just need to run the capital campaign to pay for it (more on that later in the year), but we are currently leasing it and making it the temporary home these gentle giants deserve. We have already successfully rehabilitated and rehomed several horses and 5 piglets. 


We started selling fun and seasonal t-shirts, sweatshirts and cups with the Rescue’s logo to help cover costs (yes, we have MERCH! See our general store.)


In 2024, we proudly signed an exclusive agreement with Hill’s Science Diet, which usually only partners with shelters, not foster-based rescues like us, but we made a strong "alternative shelter program" argument… and with a little help from PetSmart Charities, it worked. This allows us not only to buy good quality dry food for all cats and dogs in foster care, but allows a smooth transition when they are adopted as each pet now comes with a FREE bag of the same Science Diet that they are already used to eating. 


And speaking of our friends at PetSmart Charities…their dedication to making a difference in the lives of cats and dogs allowed us to vet 3500 cats and dogs in 2024 with a $75k grant we received in December 2023. And NO ONE was more surprised than us that we were among the winners for a $5000 grant in September 2024 for Clear the Shelters, a contest sponsored by PetSmart Charities and Hill’s, based upon the number of adoptions throughout the month.


We also completed our first Florida Animal Friend grant, which helped us TNVR 500 community cats to help reduce our pet overpopulation problems. 


And since solving the pet overpopulation problem has always been a large focus of ours, in 2024, we turned our eyes to our sister community, Polk County. While we have been and remain good friends with Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center (the county animal shelter) for many years, and still rank #1 for rescues pulling animals from them, they’ve gotten more efficient, gotten more partners, and frankly, just don’t need our help as much any more (a well-deserved round applause for that!). Other great rescues have stepped up, they’re running smoother than years’ past, and are consistently saving over 90% of the cats (when it used to only be 25%). We’ll still continue to partner and pull from Hillsborough, but our focus has now turned to aiding Polk County Animal Services. Having really just started our relationship with them in March, we are now their number one rescue and have already pulled over 600 cats and kittens. The bottom line is - their shelter staff has been phenomenal to work with, and they really do everything they can to help us save as many as we can. We will continue to partner with them and (ahem) are always looking for new foster homes to save more.  


Our dog division has grown tenfold in the last year and there seems to ALWAYS be dogs and puppies available for adoption and to foster. 


We look forward to what 2025 brings!

Sincerely,

Jeanine and Tara 

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