The Dixie Pet Underground Railroad is in desperate need of financial donations for a number of reasons. Donations of any size are greatly appreciated and can be made via Paypal using the e-mail address dixiedogsandcats@gmail.com. Donations can be mailed to 182 Airport Road NW, Cleveland, TN 37312. There are a number of reasons financial donations are needed more than at any other time in the history of our organization. One of these reasons is that we are having more successes than ever before and with increases in our programs come increased expenses. Among the reasons we need your donations are:
PET FOOD COSTS: With "puppy" and "kitten" season just hitting its worst, we have more than 300 animals in foster care. The cost of pet food each week is soaring with the great number of animals we are caring for until they can go to forever homes.
ASSISTANCE TO PET GUARDIANS: With many still feeling the worst of the economic recession, the Dixie Pet Underground Railroad has been providing assistance in the forms of food, veterinary care and spay/neuter to pet guardians whose dogs or cats would be killed in a shelter if not for our assistance.
UNADOPTABLES: The Dixie Pet Underground Railroad has spayed/neutered several feral cats and older cats in an effort to reduce reproduction and the number of animals who are "pound bound" without our assistance. Feral cats are not adoptable, thus no adoption fees to reimburse our expenses, and are trapped/neutered/returned to their home territory. Older tame cats, whose guardians want them returned, are not highly adoptable but must be stopped from reproducing and the Underground Railroad has absorbed the costs of their spay/neuter surgeries.
VETERINARY CARE: The Dixie Pet Underground Railroad turns no animals away if foster care is available for the pet. This means that we often have dogs and cats who require extensive veterinary care and the costs are often steep. We have treated at least a dozen dogs for heart worms in the last three months. With dozens and dozens of puppies in foster care, we have been blessed to have not had more parvo cases than we have, but we have probably treated 10 puppies with parvo virus in the last three months. In addition we have had pets who had to have amputations, X-rays and additional surgeries. We are looking at spending at least a thousand dollars in the next few months for eye surgery on adult Rottie who was pulled from Cleveland Animal Control.
NEW PROGRAMMING: The Dixie Pet Underground Railroad began a project this week to try to assist more animals in getting out of Cleveland Animal Control alive. Underground staff members will be going to the shelter -- where 7,000 animals are killed every year -- and taking photos of every dog and cat each weekday. These photos will be e-mailed to rescues across the nation each day and the Underground hopes to provide assistance to rescues who can pull animals from the shelter that we are unable to take into our own program. We will also be listing the areas from which animals were taken and descriptions of animals on our Web site each day. We hope this service will help to reunite lost pets and their guardians before the animals are killed.
NEW AREAS: Since the beginning of the year, the Dixie Pet Underground Railroad has been assisting animals in neighboring counties. This includes pulling dogs, cats, puppies and kittens from shelters in Louden County, Rhea County, Athens and Dayton.
Please call the Underground at 423-476-7123 or e-mail dixiedogsandcats@gmail.com
The Photo is of Mojo. Mojo is a Dixie Pet Underground Railroad success story. Mojo was pulled from Cleveland Animal Control nearly two years ago. Mojo was unsocialized, untrained and heartworm positive. After many weeks of love, care and medical intervention, Mojo was adopted. He went to a forever home in the northeast where he continues to be companion to another Plott Hound and a human.
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