Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Week of 7/15/09 Humane Happenings

Desert Haven Animal Refuge is home to abandoned, neglected, mistreated and unwanted companion animals who, safe and wanted at last, finally find their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So is the story of Sprinkle, one of the six remaining puppies born in early March to Scruffy, a small and very loving terrier-mix rescued at DHAR while very much pregnant. See the photo on our masthead above taken by Skip Higgins.

Sprinkle was adopted Tuesday evening by a young family who came all the way from Los Alamos, NM, to visit DHAR with the intent to adopt, for their very young daughter, “a black puppy with white markings” that reminded the mom of her own companion animal from years back – a black puppy with white markings given to her by her own parents when she was her little girl’s age.

Since six black puppies with white markings were still available for adoption at DHAR, the choice was there and obviously worth the long trip for that family. Adoptions like this one have become more and more the norm at the sanctuary, thanks to the common efforts of a friendly and cohesive volunteer crew.

Meet the crew: Stan of Hillsboro routinely updates the DHAR list of animals on the Petfinder web site. It can be reached by clicking on www.petfinder.com, as well as on www.DesertHavenAnimalRefuge.com, which is maintained by Camille of Florida. Freddie and Reba, who both reside on the premises, handle all dog and cat adoptions. Their responsibilities involve keeping veterinary visits and medical attention up-to-date. They also do home visits prior and after adoptions whenever feasible. While Freddie handles DHAR visits for adoption purposes, either on Tuesdays when the sanctuary is open for visitors, or by calling her at 575-894-2778 for an appointment, Eliana and Reba keep-up with all e-mail correspondence related to adoptions. All intakes of unwanted animals and birds are handled by Freddie and Reba, who take into consideration the sanctuary resources, such as availability of space and volunteers at that specific time. Day after day, the entire DHAR crew, together with several local volunteers, keeps the non-human residents in good physical and mental condition and their living quarters clean and attractive. Thank-you all!

This week, we call on our computer oriented friends in the Sierra County Humane Society and DHAR, to support us as they interact with other animal loving friends on Facebook. If you are not already a member of Facebook, it is free and anyone can join at www.facebook.com for a wonderful tool for networking with family and friends. We have two pages on Facebook. The “Sierra County Humane Society” has a “Group” page and can be found by doing a search in the box of the upper right hand corner of your main Facebook page. The SCHS group page has a wall where you can post about your experiences with us or start discussions about relevant topics. We would love to hear your adoption story and see photos of your pet in his or her new home. Are you a volunteer? Share your story about why you work with us or tell something funny or touching that happened at Desert Haven or Paws & Claws.

If you are able to support us financially, we also have a “Causes” page for Desert Haven Animal Refuge. You can donate on line through the non-profit organization, Network for Good, which process credit cards for us. You may join the cause without making a donation but still express your support for our work. There is also a tool to send invitations to your friends and families to join our cause and help us spread the word about Desert Haven in order to help save the lives of more homeless pets. If you have any questions or are unable to find our Facebook pages, please write to our web master, Camille Pronovost, at ccpronovost@earthlink.net or www.facebook.com/ccpronovost.

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