It’s so important to me to give every vulnerable animal the chance at life they deserve. That’s why APA!’s No Kill mission is at the heart of everything I do, even at home. When my own pup Echo came to APA! during Hurricane Harvey, she and her brother had distemper, a dangerous virus with symptoms like tremors, lethargy, and fever.
Echo’s brother sadly passed away shortly after arriving at APA!, but
Echo has been by my side ever since. If Echo had stayed much longer in
another city without the resources to give her the round-the-clock care
and mobility support she needed, she might not have grown up into the
talkative companion she is today. Needless euthanasia is still an unfortunate reality for pets like Echo in cities that haven’t adopted No Kill yet.
Without APA!’s experience and passion for saving pets like Echo,
animals with severe illnesses or injuries might have nowhere to turn.
Because of the lifesaving and innovative programs pioneered here
(including for dogs with distemper!), vulnerable pets have a shot at
recovery and the life they deserve. We can only save animals in need and give them the chance to thrive in loving homes because of the support of friends like you!
I fostered Echo as she battled the virus, which left her paralyzed at just 8 weeks old. Echo
was sick during her critical growth phases as a puppy and still lives
with the lasting effects of her fight with distemper. Her front leg
sticks out to the side but she can scoot around the yard faster than
many dogs with 4 fully functioning legs! She has a cart that helps give
her limbs a rest from being laid on. All this means that, despite her
rough start to life,Echo’s routine just looks a little different than it might for other dogs!
So many vulnerable animals like her just need some extra love and care
to survive and thrive. When you support APA!’s lifesaving programs
today,you’ll help pets like Echo survive tough battles with illness and injury.
Austin was a very different city for vulnerable companion animals just 14 years ago. Some of the animals most at risk were puppies with parvovirus. Each day these tiny lives were needlessly lost because shelters didn’t have programs set up to treat parvo.
Veterinarians learn how to treat parvo in school, so we wondered why animal shelters couldn’t or wouldn’t. If these puppies could often be saved, why wasn’t treatment the norm? To
save these pets and increase lifesaving in Austin, we had to start
somewhere — and keeping parvo puppies from being euthanized seemed like a
good place to start.
The Parvo Puppy ICU, as we know it today, was born in a bathroom in my house around Thanksgiving 2008. At its peak I could spend up to eight hours a day cleaning and treating anywhere from a couple to 25 sick puppies at a time. Thankfully,
my husband was very understanding and willing to put up with the smell
of sick puppies in our bathroom. Even though it wasn’t ideal having the
strong and unforgettable odor of parvo in our home, it was the only way
to protect these pets in need and give them the critical care they
deserved.
We often share the story of the ICU’s humble beginnings because it
reminds us how far we’ve come. Although I was often the only one
cleaning up after that first batch of puppies, APA!’s capacity to care for animals in need continues to grow thanks to the help of friends like you.
Because of our community’s determination to make Austin No Kill, we were able, eleven years ago, to trade the bathroom tile and pop-up crates for linoleum and metal kennels in a location with easy access to our clinic and round-the-clock staff. The need for support didn’t end when we moved to the Parvo Puppy ICU at TLAC.
Today, parvo puppies are still at risk of needless euthanasia in shelters across Texas that haven’t yet adopted No Kill. As we celebrate the 11th anniversary of No Kill in Austin and its continued impact on pets at high risk of euthanasia we know there is still so much work to do to save even more lives and help other shelters do the same. Will you join us today?
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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 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]
City of Devine Animal Control – Devine, Texas needs: adopters/fosters, 4 shade clothes (send to: 303 S Teel, Devine, TX 78016) contact: [email protected]
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!
I’m excited to let you know that on February 17, 2022, Austin City Council approved a one-year extension on our Town Lake Animal Center (TLAC) license agreement so that we can continue to negotiate the much longer-term license of 75 years. You may recall that we didn’t want a long extension at first, but we now have a more equitable agreement in place which allows us to serve our mission and the City of Austin at the same time while we go into another year of negotiation.
We are very pleased with this agreement, as it has unrestricted our work for the next 12 months. This means we will be able to help any animal in need and intervene in euthanasia lists, while also committing to our continued partnership with Austin Animal Center and to all the dogs and cats in Austin that need our specialized help. We believe this extension will give us enough time to negotiate the terms of the public-private partnership between APA! and the City of Austin so that it is strong and successful, long into the future.
While continuing to negotiate with the city the terms of the 75-year agreement to build and operate at our TLAC campus, we will have time to find the right spaces to house our pets during the eventual demolition and rebuild of the TLAC facilities as well as to move the part of our operations that will need more space than the future restricted TLAC site can provide. The APA! Board of Directors has been continuing to work hard using their connections to lead the search for potential properties to support our planned expansion throughout Austin.
As part of this property search, we are moving ahead on locating land of our own to house a rehabilitation center for dogs who have experienced trauma and provide sanctuary for dogs and cats. This land will also act as a transport hub for animals who are in imminent danger of death in shelters across Texas so that we can connect these cats and dogs with organizations in other states who don’t have enough adoptable pets in shelters to fill the loving, adoptive homes that are available in the northern region of the country.
Knowing that much of what we do will no longer fit at the future TLAC site, we are also continuing our search for additional facilities in Central Austin for adoptions, clinic, and treatment wards such as parvo and ringworm, as well as exploring properties that would be suitable for foster and clinic services and would make fostering more accessible to all of Austin. Though these centrally-located real estate options are few and far between, we are determined to find the right match for our needs.
We will continue to update you on our progress toward these exciting possibilities, and let you know how you can help join us as we work to build an even brighter future for pets and people. Thank you so much for caring about APA! and being such an important part of this lifesaving journey.
An estimated one million pets will be dying in shelters this year because they haven’t been adopted—or weren’t kept out of the shelter with safety net programs to support people and pets.
Meanwhile, in some parts of the country, there are not enough cats and dogs for the people who want to adopt them. See the issue?
There is a veterinarian shortage, exacerbated by more people bringing pets into their homes during the pandemic. Vet prices are going up to meet the increased demand. This is leaving more and more people and pets behind.
Underfunded government shelters can’t compete at all. Most are funded at just .2% of city and county budgets. That period is in the right place: .2%. It’s far from enough, given the literal life and death stakes. In this time that veterinary costs are rising, it means—among other things—that pets in shelters are not receiving enough medical care, and sometimes no care at all, which leads to more unnecessary death.
These are among the problems that pets, and people, need the brightest minds to solve.
Dr. Jefferson recently spoke with Triple Pundit about how companies and individuals can help end pet homelessness. Read the interview here!
We need tech innovators, entrepreneurs, and pet lovers looking to make a huge impact.
These are not quick or easy projects. These are real global issues that, if solved, will mean a completely new world for pets and the people who love them.
Here are some of the areas where we need your energy and expertise:
Tech to connect more people to pets in shelters, especially to help people adopt from shelters in another city or state. This is harder than it sounds—but we know with the right minds at work, excellent products and apps can do this critical job.
Tech for shelter resident flow tracking, like the systems used to track hospital patient flow. That will allow shelters to better manage their populations, and develop and meet goals for animals’ survival.
An app that will let people use their cell phones to scan pets for microchips, instead of needing to use a specialized device often found only in vets’ offices, police stations, and animal shelters. This app would make it significantly easier to get lost pets back home.
Other tech solutions for reuniting lost pets with their families, that anyone of any income can use—such as a free crowdsourcing app that pinpoints a pet’s location.
Tech and law to solve for too many vet patients and not enough veterinarians.
Business analysts to predict foster and adoptive capacity in any community—then build software to better facilitate pets going into foster and adoptive homes. Especially in communities with more capacity than their local shelters need, this is another instance where tech can save lives by connecting people to pets outside of their local community.
Tech support to build industry report cards that help any community see how they are doing in terms of pet ownership and pet equity.
Legislative support to overturn laws that allow for adoptable and treatable pets to be euthanized in shelters.
Funding for research into treatment for common diseases like distemper that affect hundreds of thousands of pets every year, but are largely overlooked by drug manufacturers.
Developing affordable pet products to keep pets occupied while a foster or owner is at work.
Entrepreneurs to greatly expand the pool of affordable, pet-inclusive housing, and tech to connect people with rentals where they and their pets can live.
The majority of Americans own at least one pet. And if there is one thing we know, it’s that people LOVE their pets. In a recent national study, 98% of pet owners described their pets as family members who are as important as their human family members.
The government-funded animal shelters there to support pets and people, and to take in pets whose owners can no longer keep them, are drastically underfunded for the role they are there to serve.
In a world where pets are often the most important connection we have in the world, this system is needlessly cruel and inhumane to people and the pets they call family.
So how do we bring the awesomeness of the pet boom to all pets, since we have a shared belief that pets are family? That is where you come in. We know the problems. We need your help developing the tech, entrepreneurial, and legislative solutions that will keep people and pets together, and save pets’ lives.
Austin Pets Alive! was founded in 2008 fueled by a need to save companion animals whose lives would be lost without our support.
We looked at our community and saw so many animals unnecessarily losing their lives due to a lack of resources and education.
Our mission is to promote and provide the resources, education, and programs needed to eliminate the killing of companion animals. And yesterday, because of our community’s long-held trust and generosity, APA! celebrated our 100,000th life saved. We had city council members Leslie Pool and Kathie Tovo join us along with board members and staff as we read a proclamation celebrating 100K lives saved with the adorable Copper present as our 100,000th life.
This celebration doesn’t just belong to APA!, it belongs to each and every one of you. So many of those furry lives saved are sitting with you now as you read this email, smiling on your phone backgrounds, or being lovingly remembered for their impact on your hearts. We invite you to watch this video showcasing just a few of the 100,000 pets your support has saved.
Thank you, Friend, for being a part of the first 100,000 lives saved by APA! and we know we can count on you for the next. Whether it is our Parvo Puppy ICU, the Feline Leukemia Adoption Center, our Medical Triage & Wellness Clinic, or another innovative program, please know that APA! will always be here for animals in need, just like you have always been there for us.
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.
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.
You are likely well aware of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the emerging eviction crisis, which threatens to displace millions of Americans from their homes.
Evictions are on track to be the number one reason cats and dogs enter the public shelter in Austin. Based on our Pet Eviction Calculator, in Travis County alone a whopping 37,340 pets are at high risk of eviction.
If these evictions span the course of 60-90 days, as is expected, our shelters will be overwhelmed. The shelters are not able to absorb even a fraction of this number of displaced pets, without invoking mass euthanasia. We need your help to prevent the senseless loss of animals’ lives.
There are two actions we are asking of Austinites today:
Call and email the council members and the city manager to ensure that animal welfare leadership is at the table while solutions to mass evictions are being discussed. It is critical that our government, especially here in Austin, doesn’t forget how much pets mean to our residents. To keep human-animal families together, we must plan now. This means ensuring transitional housing is pet inclusive, identifying temporary boarding options at Austin Animal Center for people being evicted, and providing resources and support to pet owners to help them keep their beloved family members.
When you reach out, please say or write that we need real solutions for the whole family, including pets, and animal welfare leadership must play a key role in the city’s eviction response.
Get involved. If you want to help a pet owner facing eviction or other financial crisis, join our efforts on the Austin Pets Alive! Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender (P.A.S.S.) Facebook page. This page is set up to help pet owners who need help paying pet rent deposits or medical bills, who wish to rehome their pet without shelter surrender, and who need temporary safety net foster caregivers. We need good Samaritans to join as we prepare for many more people in need. Another way you can get involved is to stay tuned to your Nextdoor app and offer to help a neighbor in need—you can proactively put the message out or you can wait until someone posts about a need.
You may have heard Austin Pets Alive! championing the Human Animal Support Services (HASS) model that turns industry-facing, shelter-based Animal Services into outward-facing, community-centered Human Animal Support Services.
This fundamental reimagining of Animal Services addresses the root causes of animal shelter intake, in order to serve more pets in their communities and homes and to reduce the number of pets entering the shelter system. HASS partner shelters across the country are preparing for the eviction crisis by expanding community-based sheltering options, like temporary safety net fostering programs, right now. You can read more about HASS’s tools and resources for keeping families together through the eviction crisis here.
We have two choices in the face of this catastrophic looming eviction crisis: let it happen and bemoan the senseless waste of pet life, or do something about it. I hope you will join APA! and do something about it, starting today.
Not far from APA!, our friends at the Bastrop County Animal Shelter reached out to us for emergency help, as their shelter is facing an outbreak of distemper. All their kennels are full and the pets inside are facing euthanasia to make room for incoming pets. This news is devastating, and we want to help.
The Bastrop County Animal Shelter said their greatest need is for us to help them save the lives of 20 dogs. The dogs have tested positive and may come down with signs of distemper. They need a place to stay while recovering – so their foster homes need to have no other dogs or ferrets, or fully-vaccinated adult dogs with healthy immune systems.
These dogs are friendly and adoptable, yet they are facing euthanasia if they cannot find foster homes over the next 48 hours.
Distemper is a contagious disease of dogs, coyotes, raccoons and other wildlife. It can cause fever, lethargy, anorexia, and respiratory illness. The virus is spread in the respiratory secretions and urine of infected animals. It’s easily prevented with routine vaccinations and vaccinated pets are not at great risk (much like COVID). Distemper does not infect domestic cats, people, pocket pets (like hamsters or sugar gliders, but does infect ferrets) or birds.
If you can foster a dog in the next 48 hours, please email [email protected] and someone will respond right away. If you’re not able to foster but still want to help pets in Bastrop, please consider donating to their Amazon wishlist.
We are so grateful for the generosity of the greater Austin community for opening both hearts and homes to the pets from APA!, Bastrop and anywhere there is a need.
If you’ve lived in Austin for more than a year, you might be wondering how we are doing over here at the Town Lake Animal Center with all this rain. Historically, our little 70 year old facility floods when we get these crazy Texas torrential downpours. This happens because the land around our buildings is higher than the kennel buildings that have sunk just a little every decade into the ground. Over the past decade of our inhabiting this facility, we have flooded many times in both minor and major ways. We have worked hard to prevent this issue year after year, and in the past 12 months we have made even more improvements to correct the problem. That is why you haven’t heard from us these past weeks — our drains are actually working better than ever! This has only been possible because of the generosity of donors and the City of Austin Water and Watershed Protection Departments.
But even with these improvements, our drains are still 70 years old, and there is only so much they can take.
What is happening right now with the weather is very much like what we experienced in 2015 right before the Memorial Day Flood. It rained for many days straight and the land was completely saturated. By the time the big downpour happened on Memorial Day, the only thing water could do was travel as runoff. While we were nowhere near the hardest hit, our kennels and buildings flooded and we had to do an emergency evacuation of our pets.
We are hopeful that the rain predicted over the next week stays light, but because it would be foolish to bet against Mother Nature, we are preparing for the worst.
Right now, we need your help to move our dogs to fosters and adopters as fast as possible in an effort to decrease the number of kennels being used. That way any dogs still left at the shelter can be moved to dry kennels, as some kennels may flood before others.
If you are interested in fostering a dog and giving them a dry place to stay out of the rain, please email [email protected] to be connected to the Austin Pets Alive! Dog Foster Team.
If you cannot foster or adopt a pet in need at this time, consider making a donation to support APA!’s future life saving efforts. You can also spread the word to your networks by sharing this blog or this Facebook post.
AUSTIN, TX — On Wednesday morning March 24th, Austin Pets Alive! placed 27 cats onto a private plane bound for Wichita, KS, culminating a weeks-long effort to transport 1,000 at-risk pets to safe shelters in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri. This is the third transport flight that David Nelson, the owner and pilot of the plane, has donated on APA!’s behalf. By offering his plane, fuel, time and resources, David has played an integral role in APA!’s transport missions that began in late February.
Charlie, the 1,000th animal transported.
Upon landing in Wichita, the kitties will be met at the receiving airport by staff members from KC Pet Project, who will then drive the cats the rest of the way to their shelter to be put up for adoption. This feline-focused transport represents a significant milestone that was only made possible through the support of countless volunteers, donors, and animal welfare advocates.
Map updated 3.23
After the devastating winter storm that hit Texas just a few weeks ago, APA! responded to urgent pleas for help from small, rural shelters across the state that lacked resources to care for all the pets that were suddenly arriving through their doors. The APA! Town Lake facility became a central transport hub for these pets in need, while shelter partners across the country organized the next leg of transportation to reach their final destinations. From Florida to Washington to Massachusetts, animal shelter staff across the continental U.S. welcomed these vulnerable pets with open arms, providing safe shelter and care to get them ready for adoption within their respective new communities.
Additional photos and videos of this transport are available for press upon request. Please contact [email protected]
