Animal Welfare United States Project #7544

Help Students to Save Homeless Pets in the US

by Petfinder Foundation

Help Students to Save Homeless Pets in the US

Project Report | Aug 2, 2013
Rescue U Renovates P.U.R.R. West Virginia

By Emily Fromm | VP of development

A volunteer getting to know some new friends

In May, Rescue U volunteers from Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia headed to Grafton, W.V., to renovate a cat shelter called P.U.R.R. (People United for Rescue and Rehabilitation) West Virginia. Projects included painting, organizing and hanging fiberglass, as well as some fairly heavy construction work.

The team replaced the shelter's entryway with a new porch after the existing porch, which had been held up with wood that rotted over the years due to water damage, collapsed. Volunteers also created a new storage room and built a new loading entrance to it. A section of the brick wall had to be demolished in order to install a new door.

To create the storage room, the team removed 7,500 pounds of scrap metal from an old schoolroom and built a ramp leading up to the entrance (the scrap metal was recycled and the proceeds went to the shelter!). Volunteers demolished its bathrooms to create a cat intake area, removed the railings from the sidewalk outside the new room and expanded the sidewalk to allow shelter staff to move supplies in via pallet jack.

An old artists' studio was cleared of debris, its walls scraped, repaired (P.U.R.R. owner Sarel Venter strapped on stilts to plaster hard-to-reach spots) and painted a "purplicious" color to create a new cat colony room.

The major renovations to the shelter have made life easier for the shelter staff and volunteers, and most importantly, more comfortable for all the adoptable cats. As P.U.R.R. wrote on its Facebook page: "Pawesome job at P.U.R.R., Rescue U volunteers!!"

The artists' studio that became a cat colony

A volunteer with her favorite kitty

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May 6, 2013
Rescue U Renovates Lake County(FL) Animal Services

By Emily Fromm | VP of development

Repairing a perimeter fence

The Petfinder Foundation’s Rescue U was in Tavares, FL, at Lake County Animal Services from March 9-15 performing some much-needed renovations. Volunteers from Pennsylvania, Kentucky, New Jersey and Florida rolled up their sleeves.

Previously there were only two small outdoor play areas for the dogs at the shelter, which severely limited the amount of play and exercise time each dog is able to get. Rescue U built a brand new 50’x70’ outdoor exercise pen. This means a significant increase in the amount of time each dog gets outside, making the dogs happier, healthier and more adoptable.

Rescue U also made general fencing repairs throughout the shelter. Several of the cat and dog kennels were in need of repair, and the industrial perimeter fence needed to be replaced in some areas. Our Rescue U volunteers fixed this for Lake County Animal Services to make sure their kennels are safe and their perimeter is secure.

The cats at the shelter got a special focus on this trip. Not only were their kennels repaired where needed, but the cat room got a fresh coat of paint, and a mural to brighten up the mood of the room for potential adopters!

The Petfinder Foundation also built two outdoor cat play areas. These areas will vastly improve the quality of life of the cats at the shelter, allowing them a safe, stress-free place to stretch and play outside. This will reduce upper respiratory infections and other communicable disease and make the cats at the shelter much more adoptable.

Next up: Rescue U heads to P.U.R.R. West Virginia in Grafton from May 21 to June 1. The work will involve a lot of cleaning, paint prep-work, painting, hanging Fiberglass wall covering and reorganizing.

Thank you for your donations, which make this important work possible!

Volunteers hard at work

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Feb 12, 2013
Rescue U Renovates Carolina Waterfowl Rescue!

By Doug Woolsey | program manager

A volunteer and a CWR resident

Rescue U spent Dec. 31-Jan.13 renovating Carolina Waterfowl Rescue in Indian Trail, N.C. Previously, we’d focused on shelters that care for dogs and cats. On this last build, we worked to improve the lives of ducks, pigeons, swans and other adoptable birds.

When CWR was hit by a tornado in spring 2012, wind destroyed many of the structures that housed the adoptable and wild birds the rescue cares for. Kennels, cages and full sheds were blown across the property; feeding areas and barns lost their roofs; and several birds were injured. Rescue director Jennifer Gordon remembers the day the storms hit: “I was outside scrambling to get supplies in the shed, and the roof was lifted off, just like you see in tornado movies.”

Local volunteers made initial repairs (CWR is an all-volunteer organization), but the rescue still needed help. So Rescue U volunteers from Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arizona, Washington and North Carolina took time off work or gave up their school vacations to renovate the facility.

Our projects included a new barn to store supplies and serve as a bird habitat, privacy fencing around the goat enclosure (CWR is also home to rescued goats!), more than 1,500 feet of chain-link fencing surrounding the property to keep out foxes, raccoons and other predators, repair on the existing fencing and gates, and several habitat and feeding structures around the property, including one on an island that can be reached only by kayak.

The barn, in particular, is a godsend. Many of the cage-free waterfowl prefer to roost inside when it is cold or rainy. Rescue U volunteers built several of the raised beds they normally build for dogs to keep the birds off the ground, since birds lose a lot of body heat through their feet. Most importantly, the barn provides protection for all the birds in the case of another terrible storm. “We get a lot of storms here,” Gordon says. “It will be nice to know we have a safe place to protect our birds when another one hits.”

Raising the roof on the new barn

A volunteer bonds with one of CWR's resident ducks

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