Our plan was to raise a specific amount of funds that would support us as our plan took hold. Our goal was to become a more effective part of the community by:

1. Reducing the number of dogs and cats we were able to take in since we no longer had animal control contracts. This meant our facility would be less crowded but we could help more dogs and cats who were in homes and had to be surrendered by their owners. (Shelters with animal control contracts are often so overwhelmed that they are not able to take in surrendered animals. This puts pets in danger if their owners are desperate enough to abandon them on the street.

2. Establish a vaccine/wellness clinic to provide low cost wellness care for the community and their pets. We want to help enable folks to afford their pets by providing as many services at a reduced cost as possible. We hope this will allow people to keep their pets in their homes and not have to surrender them because they cannot afford the care they need.

3. Establish a pet food pantry to help owners who are struggling to purchase food for their pets.

4. Continue adoptions of dogs and cats so they will have a home to call theirs forever. 

Thanks to all of you who believe in what we do here at Almost Home, we raised just over half the amount that was called for to go forward with our plan. We then had a decision to make. Should we attempt to go forward with our plan with the amount we were able to raise or do we lock the doors and walk away not knowing whether or not we could have continued to make a difference in the lives of the dogs, cats and people in the local community? Due to the outpouring of support we received from all of you, we made the decision to put our plan into action, hoping for a very good outcome. 

With a renewed dedication to all of you and the animals, we began some of the much need upgrading to our building. Floors and walls were tiled and painted, new kennel doors were installed. One of our cat rooms was converted into an exam room, complete with an exam/lift table, microscope, scale, refrigerator and more. The office and kennel were painted. New LED lighting was donated by Bright Ideas LED and installed by Williams Electric. John’s Powerwashing came in and power washed the kennel walls for us. John Wapenski donated time and materials to improve the cat rooms and exam room. Abe Karetny helped us with scraping and painting walls. Many other improvements were made too. We stayed closed for about 2 months to complete these tasks and re-opened in June of 2016. To date the clinic has provided vaccines and wellness care for over 600 dogs and cats. If things continue to go well, we have plans to partner with a local animal hospital to offer more low cost services to the community. However, once again we need your help and support to continue our mission. 
The summer months are always the most difficult for every shelter. Intake is at its highest and monetary donations are generally at their lowest. The dog and cat residents who are coming in to the shelter being surrendered tend to need more medical care than usual. Our bills are higher because of the need for air conditioning. It seems all our costs are higher in the summer. The need for supplies increases because of the increased census of dogs and cats.