Tag: help

Austin Pets Alive! | Heat Help Needed Now

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Jul 11, 2022

Emergency Fosters

With temperatures soaring to ranges of 105-110 degrees and the possibility of rolling blackouts, our shelter is at great risk of losing power and we need your help! We’re calling on members of our community to foster a dog or cat for a minimum of 1 week starting now. Temperatures this high severely strain our facility making conditions dangerous for the most vulnerable animals in our care, even with our hot weather protocols in place. Willing to help?

Come to our Town Lake Center location today or tomorrow between noon and 6 p.m. to let us know if you can foster a dog or cat. No need to fill out paperwork in advance. We are also facilitating adoptions at this time. Not able to foster or adopt at this time? Please help us get the word out to others by sharing this post or tagging a friend.

Protection for Community Pets

As we continue through the Texas summer, we want to help keep your dogs safe too. Temperatures this high are dangerous for you, and even more dangerous for your dogs because they are 10 times more likely to die of heatstroke than people.

Limit outdoor activity for your dog and watch for the signs of heatstroke. We’ve put together some heat safety tips for you. Click here and share!

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July 11, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | URGENT HEAT HELP – Friday Update

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Jun 10, 2022

The weather is forecasted to be brutally hot this weekend, starting at 100 degrees today and going up to 104 tomorrow. Even though the heat is bad enough, we know that this could get much worse if there are any power outages. The more we do TODAY, the more likely we are to stay on top of any catastrophic changes that may arise without warning. You can help us get the resources we need to stay ahead of the danger by giving NOW.

By making a gift today, you immediately help us keep animals safe. But there are several more ways you can help. Just like with Winter Storm Uri, we know we have to tackle this emergency with a three-prong approach.

1. The pets in our care: The most important thing we need today is to move as many dogs as possible to foster homes where they can get out of the deadly heat. Despite the work that has gone into improving our facilities with more shade and misters, this weather is still extremely dangerous for our most vulnerable dogs.

We need fosters and adopters to show up from 12-6 p.m. and help by taking home a dog while we get through this triple-digit heat wave.

2. The pets in our community: Triple-digit heat waves like this can kill pets much faster than people. You can save animals NOW by posting on NextDoor asking neighbors to put water out for wildlife and community cats. If you can, offer to help a neighbor who has an outdoor dog with shade, ice, lots of water and even fans, and ask folks to keep pets indoors from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. each day to avoid accidental heatstroke. Our Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender (P.A.S.S.) Program ([email protected]) is also standing by to connect people to hot weather supplies and advice.

We have put up signs along the trails around Town Lake warning of heat stroke in dogs and we have sent press releases to the media almost every day this week. We need your help continuing to spread the word that this 100+ degree weather will kill.

3. The pets in Texas: Austin is very fortunate to have so much love for pets in need, as many communities do not have the same resources. Our American Pets Alive! team regularly helps shelters in these communities treat illnesses and get more pets adopted instead of euthanized. Right now, those communities have asked for support in keeping pets cool. We are preparing large transports of supplies to these shelters tomorrow and through the weekend to include fans, misters, and kongs that can be frozen.

You can help us support these communities in Texas with the supplies they need to keep shelter pets safe by making a gift NOW.

Thank you for supporting pets during this weather emergency. We know how important the lives of companion animals are to you and we are so grateful for your teamwork to make sure pets are safe.

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June 10, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | URGENT HEAT HELP – Act Now

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Jun 10, 2022

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for the Austin area, with temperatures expected to reach dangerous and deadly levels.

With forecasted highs above 105 degrees Saturday and Sunday, we are activating emergency measures to keep our animals safe in the extreme weather conditions. At this time we are also urgently asking for your help!

As important members of the APA! community, we are committed to keeping you aware of our preparedness plans, top priorities, and what we need most to continue our lifesaving work:

Adopt or Foster Today!

With the strain the extreme heat puts on our animals, staff, facilities, and the power grid, we are urgently asking for your help now to get our animals out of the shelter before temperatures reach the highest levels expected. We are calling on you to help us get 70 of our most vulnerable animals into homes before Sunday! We have both adoption and fostering options available and to help expedite our efforts to get animals into homes we’re waiving adoption fees* until June 16th for ALL our pets. This offer includes the nearly 40 adorable puppies onsite at TLAC. Visit our Town Lake location between noon and 6 p.m. Friday or Saturday to help get a pet in a home. No appointment is required!

Donate to Support Our Lifesaving Work Through this Emergency and Beyond!

We are calling on everyone to protect the animals who need them most during this extreme heat. The average temperature in Austin in June is 93 degrees with a jump to 98 degrees in August. With thermometers soaring more than 10 degrees higher in early June, some weather experts are anticipating that the summer of 2022 is on track to break records.

The brutally hot temperatures bring a plethora of problems for our shelter: rising electricity costs, overtime for staff, and an increase in supply needs that go beyond the cooling equipment generously donated in the past. Since the heat wave is not limited to Central Texas, we are also providing support to partner shelters across the state.

As you receive this email, our teams are using mister fans and swamp coolers generously donated by friends like you to bring some relief to our dogs in kennels. We’re also using swamp coolers and baby pools in our play yards and making room inside of our buildings for animals struggling in their kennels. We are also placing mister fans and additional sunshades near the cat barns. Ice packs and ice water are being put out for barn and truckport cats, and regular rounds are taking place 24/7 to monitor all animals.

With your support, we can provide our animals with the best possible care during this hazardous Texas heat right now and throughout what could be an extremely hot summer. Will you donate to help us today?

Lastly, check out our blog post with our hot weather recommendations to ensure that the pets in your home and neighborhood are staying safe.

To stay up to date on our extreme weather response efforts, check our blog and social media for the latest news. Thank you for everything you do for our most vulnerable pets. Stay safe and cool Austin!

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June 10, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | URGENT HEAT HELP – What We Need and What To Know

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Jun 09, 2022

With upcoming forecasted highs of 105+ degrees, it is much hotter much sooner than we would expect right now! With the strain the extreme heat puts on our animals, staff, facilities, the power grid, and pets in our community, we have activated emergency preparations and need your help.

Thursday update

Friday update

What We Need Now:

Foster, Adopt or Foster-to-Adopt

Help us get animals into cool homes before a potential heat emergency by visiting our Town Lake location between noon and 6 p.m. to foster or adopt. We also have foster-to-adopt options for dogs and adult cats. And in case you missed it, we’re waiving adoption fees until June 16th for ALL our pets, including our many adorable puppies, seniors and special needs pets!

*Surgery deposits still apply for unaltered animals & fees cannot be waived retroactively for adoption special.

Make A Gift

Click here to make a gift to support our heat wave operations which require more time and resources, and help us help other animals needing our help with heat.

What To Know & Share:

How to Protect Pets Near You

Click here for important precautions for keeping pets safe at home, in your community or anywhere you go with dangerous(and potentially deadly) heat. Share this link on your social media or with you friends, family and networks to educate and activate others to help pets in the heat.

Know Anyone Who Can Help These Other Texas Animals?

We’re also helping our friends at other shelters facing heat challenges. Here are a few shelters facing extreme heat challenges needing supplies (please send supplies directly to them), adopters or fosters plus pets who need homes most:

San Diego Animal Control – San Diego, Texas
needs: adopters/fosters, misters, flea/tick prevention, dewormer
contact: Kara Sandoval, [email protected]

Ozzy

San Benito Animal Control – San Benito, Texas
needs: adopters/fosters, misters (send misters to 601 N. Williams, San Benito Tx., 78586 Attn: Animal Control Javier Coronado)
contact: Jaclynn Pope, [email protected]

San Benito

Mission Animal Control – Mission, Texas
needs: adopters/fosters, fans, misters
contact: Montana Gray, [email protected]

Mission

Presidio Animal Shelter – Presidio, Texas
needs: adopters/fosters, Kongs (to freeze for dogs)
contact: Heather Hall, [email protected]

Tonto

City of Devine Animal Control – Devine, Texas
needs: adopters/fosters, 4 shade clothes (send to: 303 S Teel, Devine, TX 78016)
contact: [email protected]

Devine

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June 9, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | Letter from Dr. Jefferson: Tornado Help

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Mar 22, 2022

I hope this finds you and yours safe after last night’s scary weather event.

With multiple tornado touchdowns in Central Texas and morning reports today of damage, we wanted to reach out to let you know how we fared and what we’re doing to support response efforts.

Firstly, our animals and facilities were unharmed. Our Town Lake Animal Center (TLAC) shelter, which as you probably know faces challenges, weathered the storm well! With our recent equipment upgrades and overnight staff additions, the teams were able to prepare the animals and facility ahead of the weather, as well as quickly mitigate any pooling water as storms hit our area. Thank you to our amazing staff and volunteers on the ground last night.

Secondly, Austin Pets Alive! is offering assistance to local, county, and state government emergency operations teams as they assist with recovery efforts following yesterday’s tornadoes. We are concerned that many pet owners could be facing difficulties and pets could be struggling, displaced, and at risk. Through our Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender (P.A.S.S.) program, we will assist with finding temporary homes, food, and other pet need for people with pets affected by the tornadoes.

Need help?

Need help or know someone who needs help with pets affected by last night’s tornadoes? Email us at [email protected] or call us at 512-961-6519.

Want to help?

Join P.A.S.S.

Our P.A.S.S. program, which we coordinate our community crisis response through, depends on peer-to-peer support so we are always looking for those willing to help other Austinites to join our Facebook group. Join us today to support our post-tornadoes response efforts for Austin-area people and pets.

Donate

You can also support all of our in-house programs, services, and support for people and pets in need by making a donation here.

Thank you for all you do to support people and pets!

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March 22, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | #AmplifyLifesaving for Pets Like Elton

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Mar 01, 2022

Elton was born in Bastrop, Texas, and was brought to their shelter when he was just a baby. When he was rescued, it was soon found out that Elton had a very severe case of Parvovirus and almost did not survive. Our Parvo ICU took him in and saved Elton from these terrible circumstances.

Parvo is a canine life-threatening virus that rapidly infects the dividing cells in a dog’s body, most severely in the intestinal tract. The virus is highly contagious and resistant and can survive in the ground for up to a year. Many symptoms of the virus are lethargy, vomiting, loss of appetite, and diarrhea. These symptoms can lead to very harmful dehydration.

The best way to prevent Parvo as it is most susceptible to young puppies is vaccination. Vaccines are very important to prevent your pup from this virus.

Since APA! opened its Parvo Puppy ICU back in 2008, we’ve saved nearly 8,000 lives! We are proud to say we have an 88% save rate in the ICU. Before when these dogs were immediately euthanized in the shelter, they now get to go on and live long and healthy lives like Elton is doing!

As Elton was cleared and looking for an adoptive family or foster home, the Reynolds family was new to Austin and decided they wanted a new friend while also wanting to save a pup’s life. They came to APA!, fell in love with Elton, and adopted him in September of 2021. He is now a happy boy living in a warm, loving home with his adopter and the transformation this boy has received is amazing! The Reynolds family gushed, “Elton is a sweet gentle boy. He is our best friend. We never knew could love anything the way we love him.”

When you #AmplifyLifesaving for APA!, you allow us to help and save more pups like Elton and continue with our Parvo ICU so we can care for pups infected with this terrible virus. Every donation will be doubled to help save more lives! Will you #AmplifyLifesaving today?

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March 1, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | One kitty, Two Legs & a Whole Lotta Love

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Feb 02, 2022

Each one of those lives is special but sometimes a little furry friend climbs into our hearts. One of those feline friends is named Jersey Bagel.

When we first met Jersey Bagel it quickly became clear that her back two paws were in serious need of medical care. Jersey Bagel’s paws were terribly infected and the pain quickly became overwhelming for her fragile body. Our vets knew we needed to act quickly. APA! lept into action and after a double amputation, Jersey Bagel wasn’t doing well in the shelter. She stopped eating, drinking and couldn’t seem to relax. We reached out to one of our most committed fosters, Allie Wassel, to help Jersey Bagel transition to a home so she could have the best chance at recovery.

Check out what Allie had to say about her new roommate, Jersey Bagel!

What has been your favorite moment with Jersey Bagel?

When I brought her home, she stretched out on all her blankets and just started purring. She was so clearly happy to be out of the shelter and it was heartwarming to see her so relaxed and comfortable.

Why do you love fostering with APA!?

I remember exactly where I was when I decided to foster her. I was on a plane, and I got a text from a care team member that we were starting to have quality of life talks about Jersey Bagel. Our vets had fixed her feetsies, but she wouldn’t eat in the shelter, wasn’t healing and was absolutely miserable. I frantically reached out that I would foster her as soon as I got home. When I brought her home she immediately started eating and relaxed, she just hated the shelter THAT much. It’s for cats like Jersey Bagel that fostering makes all the difference.

What do you think would have happened to Jersey Bagel without APA!’s help?

Jersey Bagel is FeLV positive (Feline Leukemia Virus), ringworm positive and a double amputee. Therefore, she needed some pretty intense wound care. I padded my entire guest bathroom with blankets, yoga mats and made a special litter box for her “nubs” while they healed. I imagine many other shelters would have euthanized her for simply being FeLV+ before even considering other complications she came with.

(FeLV or Feline Leukemia Virus is often a death sentence in traditional shelters despite cats with FeLV being able to live for many happy years)

How do monthly donations from members help animals like Jersey Bagel have a second chance to thrive?

Your monthly donations make sure that our clinic has the funds to do special surgeries for kitties like Jersey, and all the follow-up medications she was on for weeks. We spent weeks on different medications trying to get her paws better before they had to make the unfortunate call to amputate both her back paws. But I am happy to say that after two months of healing, both her nubbins look great and she is a perfect kitty!

Jersey Bagel is currently available for adoption! If you have the space in your home for this wild girl, please reach out!

By becoming a Constant Companion today, you can help APA! reach our goal of 100,000 lives saved and grow to care for the next 100,000 animals in need. Because if there is one thing we know for sure, there will always be animals in need of our care and our love.

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February 2, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | Cold Weather Prep for Pets: How to Help or Get…

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Bring pets inside. The best thing you can do for your pet is to bring them inside with you. While some breeds of dogs are more tolerant of cold weather than others, no pet should be left outside for long periods of time when it is below freezing (32ºF). You know your pet best, so be vigilant about watching for signs of their cold tolerance and limit outdoor activities accordingly.
Check your car for cats. Our feline friends like to hide from this weather in car engines and/or wheel wells, so thump the hood of your car a few times and check your wheels for stowaways before you start the engine and take off.
Provide a makeshift enclosure for outdoor animals. If you’ve noticed outdoor cats or other animals in your community suffering from the cold (shaking, curled up, etc.) and you are worried about them, create a makeshift shelter for them to stay warm in. A closed box or Rubbermaid bin with a cut out in the side, with towels or blankets, will help keep them safe in the frigid temperatures. Click here for example directions for cat shelters from Alley Cat Advocates and click here for more on what to do for dogs in the cold from Best Friends.
Or consider opening your garage slightly (and leaving a heating pad or heat lamp on) to let cats in from the cold.
Put a sweater on your pup. If you have a dog with a short coat, you can keep them a bit more insulated by putting a sweater or dog coat on them. Be sure the sweater and coat are completely dry for each outing, though, as damp or wet outerwear could actually make them chillier.
Check paws. After outdoor activity, check your pet’s paws for any signs of cracking on the paw pads, redness between toes, or bleeding. Wipe them down after each outing, too, to remove any salt, ice, or chemicals.

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Jul 02, 2021

Each year, we save thousands of lives of pets right here in Austin and Travis County, and in the counties immediately surrounding Austin. We also provide support, education, and animal transport guidance to shelters all over Texas and beyond. Our ultimate goal is to focus on animals who, without APA’s help, would die or face being killed in a shelter. For this reason, we ask shelters we support to do everything they can to keep as many pets as possible in their homes and communities, in order to reduce shelter intake. We also ask that they learn and follow American Pets Alive! best practices, in order to save as many lives as they can and to serve as many pets as possible within their own cities and towns.

Consultations: Our American Pets Alive! instructors are proven professionals, with a decade or more of experience in the animal welfare field. We offer consultative support for shelters, in order to make recommendations to streamline operations, increase lifesaving, prevent needless pet intakes, and keep all shelter pets healthy. If our team does help your organization transport pets OR if we ‘pull’ animals from you into our organization, we ask that you receive and implement recommendations from our AmPA! team so you can achieve long term solutions to the root causes of the challenges in your organization.

Transport: If your shelter faces chronic overcrowding and you are severely limited on resources to save them, our team can assist you in finding viable transport solutions. Transport is not a ‘magic’ solution to difficulties faced by underfunded, high-volume shelters, but it can be tremendously helpful for some organizations. Here is an example of how El Paso Animal Services is utilizing transport to prevent overcrowding. Reach out if you have a question about how we can help you create a transport relationship with a receiving shelter, get connected to existing transport solutions, or ask anything else about transport.

Transfers to Austin Pets Alive!: In some cases, we may be able to take animals into our organization, with most pets arriving in Austin and heading immediately to loving foster homes. We primarily focus on animals who do not have any other viable options, including pets with contagious illnesses, injured and sick animals, pets with special needs, and in some cases, pets who are otherwise healthy but face imminent euthanasia for any reason. These spaces are very limited, and the need always exceeds our ability to help. If you need help, or are an organization that wants to contribute to our efforts, contact us.

What we ask our partner organizations: Thanks to the generosity of Maddie’s Fund Family Foundation, as well as the tireless support from our Austin community, we are able to offer support and guidance free of charge. Our team is made up of just a few folks and we’re aiming to help organizations all over the nation, so we ask our partners to be part of the solution. If we assist your organization in any way, we ask you to commit to the following:

Follow recommendations (to the very best of your ability) of our AmPA! instructors. They help hundreds of shelters annually and they know their stuff!
Become a Human Animal Support Services partner shelter. HASS is a collaborative of more than 500 organizations and 1,000 animal welfare professionals working together to solve today’s toughest animal welfare challenges.
Implement emergency space protocols and AmPA!’s other proven protocols.
All levels of the organization work alongside our team to help solve the root causes of your challenges so in the future, we can focus on other shelters in crisis.

What AmPA!-supported shelters have to say:

“AmPA! brings hope. Animal Welfare is a very emotional and lonely existence. Even with us all being in the same field of work, AmPA! gives validation and hope to our everyday lives at the shelter and on the streets.”

“Our live outcomes have changed drastically! Before AmPA! training our local shelter was as 33% live release, since June 2019 it has been at 90+%!”

“The best part of AmPA! visits is how inspired our staff is after they leave. We are a rural small non-profit so being able to see the big picture has been game changing for our team.”

“I appreciate that you provide one on one conversations to help with specific questions and problems in OUR shelter. It’s better than doing research because a live person is hearing your issues and giving ideas on what to do next.”

“Our staff LOVES when AmPA! staff visit. All the AmPA! staff who have visited us are members of our internal organizational page and often participate. Our team gets so excited when they visit and everyone learns so much while they are here. Most of our staff have had no prior exposure to the national scene so feeling a part of a larger movement has been great for their self-identities and commitment to our organization. The presence of AmPA! staff has been invaluable.”

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