Yep, my little Lucy is officially looking for a home!  Below is her adorable bio the cat marketing team at Austin Pets Alive! helped write up for her as well as a little video I put together of her.  Please help her find a forever home and spread the word about this amazing lady!

This beautiful feline specimen is a Flamepoint Siamese. Lucy may be 12 years old, but she is an ideal lap kitty and reading partner. She LOVES being pet and headbutts all the time. Because of her maturity, she is not super needy, pushy or demanding, but definitely wants to spend time with you and be near you. Lucy plays a little with strings and loves her scratch post at times, but is normally pretty mellow.

Lucy is currently in a foster home with another gentle cat and a friendly dog and Lucy doesn’t seem to mind too much. As long as other pets are respectful and don’t try to engage in too much play, Lucy is fine.

Lucy has been diagnosed with IBD (irritable bowel disease), which sounds worse than it actually is. It’s an auto-immune disorder where parts of her intestinal tract have become inflamed, but are managed with a gentle prescription food, both the canned & kibble varieties (Purina EN available through your veterinarian and costs the same as most high-quality cat foods). Her foster currently keeps a large, shallow litterbox in a tiled bathroom so that if Lucy has any accidents it’s easy to clean up. This doesn’t happen often, but gives everyone peace of mind.

Despite her occasional tummy troubles, Lucy has a very sweet, quiet “meow” that comes out when you are getting her dinner ready or sometimes when she wants to say hello and receive some affectionate pets. Overall, this mature gal loves to lounge around and enjoy sunbeams more than run around or play.

Lucy has been microchipped, vaccinated, tested negative for FIV and FeLV, and is given her monthly flea preventative. To learn more about Lucy contact adopt@austinpetsalive.org.

Hello Loves!

As you may have heard, I have been suffering from a freakishly strong strain of strep in my throat for over three months. Yep, that’s three months of my throat hurting, pain whenever I swallow, losing my voice almost daily, and pain when I talk or sing for more than 10 minutes. After a trip to urgent care, then the primary doctor, and then the specialist – and five rounds of steroids/antibiotics during the process – they have determined surgery (removal of my tonsils) is my final option for relief. My surgery is scheduled for October 9, 2013.

While I am incredibly lucky to finally have a job that offers insurance, I unfortunately have over $2500 in bills for the co-pays, deductible, and prescriptions. Also unfortunately, paying my own way through grad school, living on my own, and working for nonprofits means I have also been pretty much breaking even each month since moving to Austin. So these bills are putting me into a debt that I don’t see a way out of due to my profession and income. I spend my days – am spending my life – raising money for very worthy charities. Now I’m hoping you will help my personal cause by making a donation towards my medical bills as I try to make ends meet and be healthy.

Thank you for any support you are able to provide. Hugs & Kisses to all of you!!

Best Friends Animal Society is quite possibly my favorite nonprofit.  They embody everything I love about animal welfare organizations and the no-kill movement.  While the organization is itself a sanctuary in Utah, they also have a very strong presence in the United States and beyond with national initiatives to keep community cats safe and out of shelters with trap/neuter/return, battle commercial breeding operations, and fight discrimination against pit bull terriers.

I am currently a volunteer for Best Friends as the Booth/Vendor Chair on the planning committee for the Austin Strut Your Mutt event.  It has been a busy past few months helping plan this great event that not only benefits Best Friends, but also the local rescue partners of Austin such as Austin Pets Alive, Love-a-Bull and Shadow Cats.  If you are in the Austin area, I strongly encourage you to sign up and enjoy this AMAZING event next Saturday, September 28 with your pup(s).  If you cannot make it, please consider making a donation on my Strut Your Mutt donation page.

Best Friends Website

Over the past few years, I have spoken with several animal shelters who have higher euthanasia rates and believe becoming nokill (90% live outcome rate or higher) was impossible.  It has always been frustrating trying to explain to them how nokill works and that they need to shift their focus from anti-euthanasia to pro-live outcome.  It seems to be the same thing, but the shift in thinking and implementing programs with that mindset is the difference between a successful nokill shelter and one that probably will not be successful.

I recently read a wonderful blog post (Good intentions, but the wrong focus) from Mr. Toellner’s KC Dog Blog about this and it just hit home.  Below is an excerpt from him – I encourage you to read it and use it to change the thought process of the leaders at your local shelters:

“The focus should not be on ending euthanasia — it should be on saving them all.

It’s a subtle difference, but important. From my experience, the focus of “ending euthanasia” sets up a mindset of looking for space at the shelter to put more animals when they come in. “We can’t kill them, so we have to find somewhere to put them”. Inevitably, the result is overcrowding, lack of space, etc. Exactly what Genessee County is experiencing here.

However, when the focus in on saving them it, changes the mindset entirely. Instead of focusing on where to put the animals, the focus becomes: How do I get more adopted?  How do I move more to rescue?  How do I get them treated? What foster home can they stay in while they get better? How do we get more out humanely and alive?

It’s a subtle difference, but an important one. And in my experience, focusing on saving a lot of lives is far more effective as a strategy than focusing on how to just not euthanize them.”

I finally got to meet my niece this past weekend.  We shall be great friends. 🙂

And now for something not nonprofit or animal welfare related:  My newest obsession.

Mission:  Our mission is to inspire and enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.

This wonderful organization is where you will find me working the usual 9-5 during the week.  I am working on their grants program as well as assisting the development and marketing departments as needed, with a focus on social media and integration of communication systems and databases.  Just like House of Blue Hope, the affect of providing children with the support and resources they need is astounding.  The BGCAA is creating a generation of successful leaders who will go on to do great things and I am proud to be part of that.

Website and donation page

These two beautiful people fell in love back in the early 70s and I am a product of that amazing love.  Yep, this is where my awesomeness comes from.  Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Mission:  SPARC is a no-kill animal shelter dedicated to rehabilitating and rehoming the homeless pets of Santa Paula, California.

SPARC (Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center) is one of the latest amazing shelters proving that nokill is achievable in any community.  SPARC is a unique partnership between public and private resources with a shared goal of creating a more humane, no-kill system for saving the homeless and abandoned animals of their community. When successful, the prototype can be recreated in other cities. In the long run, SPARC strives to show that smaller, local shelters can attract a larger volunteer and foster corps, make reclamation of lost pets easier for residents, and provide a more convenient location for license renewals and adoptions.  I am honored to be helping in a small capacity with their fund raising and some social media work and hope I will be able to visit their facility in California very soon!

Here is their website and donation page!

After several tests and vet visits, we believe we know what is happening inside this beautiful little lady.  She has a very powerful UTI, a high white blood cell count, pancreatitis, ibs (irritable bowel syndrome), and early kidney disease.   We are currently treating her for the UTI and ibs, and soon I will also be giving her daily fluids for her kidneys.  The UTI is really taking its toll on poor Lucy and she is no longer being herself.  The once social and affectionate girl is now hiding in the closet and not a huge fan of me at the moment (it’s probably not helping that I’m pilling her, either).  But I have high hopes that once we get rid of her UTI, she will be a happy kitty again.  Please keep her in your thoughts and I will update again once she is through her current series of drugs.