Alfie. Shyla. Jinxie. Odis. Buster. Dolly.
Queenie. Crabapple. Chuck Mantooth.
Luna. Petey. Nutmeg. Felix. Pickles.
Momo. Saddie. Sassafras. Little Boss.
Remie. Betty. Roger. Buddha. Dacotah Marie.
These are the names of just some of the animals that have been a part of our Cares Fund over the past eight years. Created to help pet guardians facing urgent but overwhelming veterinary expenses, the Animal Aid Cares Fund provides financial assistance for emergency medical or behavioral care. To do so, Animal Aid works in collaboration with local veterinary clinics to offer each partner practice the ability to submit at least one grant request per month, at their discretion, to cover costs up to $500.00 per grant. In 2014, we further developed the Cares Fund by establishing Helping Hands grants, which support animals adopted from our shelter whose health or behavioral conditions make their adoptions more financially challenging to their forever families.
This year, we’re expanding the Cares Fund to include more veterinary partners across Portland so that we can be a resource to pets and pet guardians throughout the city. We’ve also broadened our program to incorporate assistance for behavioral care, because we know that, right beside medical expenses, behavior concerns are one of the leading reasons for an animal to be surrendered to a shelter.
Since 2011, the Cares Fund has provided more than $33,000 in lifesaving grants. But we need your assistance to continue making our assistance possible: Will you help us reach our goal of raising $10,000 for the Animal Aid Cares Fund?
Unlike the cats and dogs in our shelter and foster program, we can tell you very little about most of our Cares Fund recipients beyond their names and what brought them to one of our partner clinics: Dental extractions.Urinary blockages. Bladder stones. Heart problems. Ear Surgery. Knee surgery. Hematoma surgery. Splenectomy. Growth removals. Foreign body removals. Bites. Broken limbs. The list goes on.
With names like Chuck Mantooth, Sassafras, and Little Boss, it’s no stretch to imagine their personalities. We’ll have to settle for imagining them, too, because the moment when their journeys crossed paths with our rescue was brief. That’s okay, though, because that’s what the Animal Aid Cares Fund is all about: Quietly stepping in to assist those in need, and just as quietly stepping back out, so that those animals and their humans can get back to the work that matters most—caring for each other.
The need never stops—in fact, every day it seems to grow—and the job of caring for a community takes a community. Can we count on you to care, too? Whether you’re able to give $5 or $500, your contribution to the Animal Aid Cares Fund helps pet guardians like your neighbor, or your friend’s neighbor, or the person you sat by on the bus ride home, or the family you stood next to in line at the grocery store, or perhaps, as we’ve found to be the case, someone you’ll never meet at all.
We don’t know who will need the Cares Fund next or when exactly they will need it, but we know without a doubt that they will need it. And when that moment comes, we’ll get to learn their name and their need, and much of the rest will be left to the imagination—to envisioning what the years after that moment meant for those animals and their families. One thing is certain, however: Because of your support, because you chose to care, that moment will be life-changing.
On behalf of all of us at Animal Aid, thank you for supporting our rescue, the Cares Fund, and animals in need throughout our community.
Warmly,
Paige España
Director of Operations
P.S. If you are able, please consider becoming a sustaining donor to the Animal Aid Cares Fund with a monthly contribution to the program. With a donation of $50 a month (less than $2 a day), you can provide one additional lifesaving grant per year to an animal in need of urgent care.
