Not everyone can help animals in their community the same way. As much as the head peep would like to foster, Ashton says, “No way!” So we support homeless and needy animal other ways.
But how do you know how you can help? One way is to reach out to your local shelter or rescue and ask. Maybe your local organization has their own outreach program so that you can learn more about them. That’s what the head peep did recently, signing up to go to an after-hours event at the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando. The Pet Alliance is the largest shelter organization in Central Florida, and we were excited that they were offering a way to get to know the organization better and understand what they had to offer the community.
The amazing tour took the head peep and other attendees through their public veterinary clinic. A lot of people probably don’t know they even have affordable veterinary services available to the public, and the profits help support their rescue efforts. The tour visited the back areas of the veterinary clinic, too. Our own vet doesn’t usually let people tour through the back of his practice, so this was interesting and educational. The medical director, Dr. Rhoades, talked to the group about the services available through the clinic.
The tour visited the agility yard where dogs who are up for adoption are worked for exercise and to build their confidence.
And the tour also went through the lobby of the adoption center, where a couple cats are on prominent display as soon as you walk in. Here, Executive Director Kerri Burns greets one of the cats in the lobby.
One of the interesting parts of the tour was getting to see the inside of the Pet Alliance’s mobile clinic.
This looks like a motor home on the outside, but inside, it has a surgical table and cages for pets awaiting treatment or recovering from surgeries. The mobile clinic visits underserved areas of the city and does spays and neuters of community cats.
The tour also visited the shelter’s veterinary ward, where the shelter’s veterinarian talked about the different priorities in shelter medicine and how important it is to keep the whole shelter population as healthy as possible.
We learned that every adoptable cat gets at least $254 cost of medical treatment and care (exam, FeLV & FIV blood test, flea treatment, rabies and distemper vaccines, ear mite treatment, fecal and deworming, microchip and spay/neuter, as well as 30 days of pet insurance) and every dog gets $315 of medical care (exam, distemper combo/rabies vaccines, flea treatment, heartworm test, first heartworm preventative, spay/neuter, microchip, and 30 days of pet insurance). That’s a great value for adopters whose adoption fee is nowhere near that much to take home a new family member.
It was a wonderful tour, and a good way to get to know the largest rescue organization in the area. If your local shelter or rescue has an outreach program like this, we highly recommend attending. You may learn ways to support them that you never knew existed!
My human loves doing this – she toured the Best Friends facility in Mission Hills last year and was SO impressed with it!
That sounds like a really great event and shelter. Our favorite local shelter, Cat Care, posts lists of their current donation needs on Facebook. I think that’s a good way to let people know what the shelter could us – like paper towels and laundry soap. Another local shelter also has a mobile that goes around to underserved areas and offers reduced-cost spay/neuters. It’s called the Meow Mobile! 🙂
Thank you for sharing your experience. We enjoyed reading about it!
How wonderful! 🙂
What a great shelter. And how cool that they give tours, etc. to educate the public about the shelter. We like how the mobile vet services areas that may not get vet services they need.
Looks like a wonderful rescue organization-thanks for sharing.
This rescue seems to really put the cats first.
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
Behind the scenes tours are the best way to learn what really goes on in shelters. Yours is way better than our public shelter
Just to be clear, this isn’t our public shelter. This is an awesome shelter who doesn’t euthanize their adoptable cats for for being in the shelter waiting for adoption too long who happens to share the parking lot with our public shelter. They do a lot of cooperative work (especially with their proximity), but the public shelter is another story altogether.
That’s so cool that they have some agility things there. That REALLY helped Doodle learn confidence. – Crepes.
I can imagine that the County shelter is a whole ‘other’ ballgame. I know ours is. Our County shelter NO longer takes in adult cats. They only take in kittens. It’s not a nice place. I hate to even think about it. But this shelter sounds like a pawsome place and thanks so much for sharing your experiences with us.
That sure looks like a great organization. Our shelter here is not a nice place and the animals don’t stay there for more than a day and then put to sleep. But glad you have such a great place. Great post.
Our local SPCA is currently being renovated and the newly renovated shelter will feature an education center among others. They are looking into promoting TNR actively with special neutering rates for community animals. It’s a very good initiative though they will also have to look into convincing the local councils to accept that concept. Right now, the local councils are not on board, making it terribly disheartening to the rescuers when they come and swoop up community dogs to be killed at the pound.
Your shelter sounds like such a great place! And we like that they gave you a tour of their veterinary facility.
Such a wonderful post! Yes, there are always ways to help out!
This place looks very scary. My v-e-t has that same enclosure out front to showcase adoptable cats. Sounds like your peep enjoyed the tour.
We don’t have those here. I wish we have. Momwould love that fur sure!
What a wonderful shelter! Thanks for the tour.
Wow – that’s so neat! It sounds like a very cool tour. Thanks for sharing about it!
Pet Alliance is NOT a No-Kill shelter. Check out their grant applications for the Florida License plate grant on line.
You did a great disservice to your followers and the community with this lie.
Thanks for your comment and for bringing that to our attention. We edited our comment to reflect that they don’t euthanize their adoptable pets who have been at the shelter too long awaiting adoption, which is our understanding of their policy.