We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to our fundraising campaign; it is so very very much appreciated.

We are still in a critical position right now due to the vet bills and need to urgently raise some funds to pay them off. If everyone just donated $2 or $5 and they also asked their friends to do the same, we would be able to get our vet bills up to date and to hopefully renovate the facilities.

Please spread the word as we really do need your help. Either through PayPal using our email address happypawshaven@bigpond.com or via our bank, the Bendigo Community Bank in South Grafton BSB 633000, Account 130786031 and our account name is Happy Paws Haven Inc. All donations over $2 are tax deductible! Thank you. We are an ACNC endorsed registered charity. Our ABN is 79928920087, CFN 23496.

We urgently need more volunteers

If anyone who is in Grafton or nearby we really need help urgently. If you could help by asking if anyone is able to volunteer even just four hours on any day of the week it would be great. Maybe animal lovers who don’t have a family nearby could come and spend time helping us. Any time from NOW would be wonderful. Any time would be awesome. This is our very busiest time; we are open seven days a week as usual.

We are as always looking for volunteers who are passionate about animals. Please could you help us to find more volunteers. Clarence Valley Volunteering is trying to assist us too. We urgently need additional volunteers to help us care for the animals, walk the dogs, groom the cats and to share their love. Dress in your oldest clothes, jeans and a T-shirt is good, with work boots or sneakers and bring a snack and a drink. Cuddling and playing with the animals is compulsory.

We need people to help with office data entry skills and admin skills.

We need people to help with our fund raisers for the love animals.

There are all sorts of things that need to be done….

And every bit of help counts. Come and visit to see what we do.

Come and help us with the animals and/or fundraising for their care.

Happy Paws Haven volunteers and members meeting  

Our next volunteers and members meeting will be our first for the New Year and will be held on Sunday February 10. We had a great meeting last Sunday; we have just started the ‘Gain and Retain’ program with Hancock Creative. All our meetings start at 2.30pm and finishing by about 4.30pm. If you would like to become a member of Happy Paws Haven, contact happypawshaven@bigpond.com to get a membership application to fill out, bring it to the meeting. You will need to bring $20 membership fee. We need new ideas for 2019 and beyond. We need a new fund-raising team, people to write our animal stories and what we do for social media so come and join us and contribute to the Team at HappyPaws Haven where all ideas are good ideas.

Our intake

We are only taking in animals in crisis now, due to our shortage of funds. We balance our intake with our rehoming rate and our capacity to care based on our funding and cash flow. We have already reduced our intake significantly. Our current adoption rate stands at 92% for dogs and 67% for cats. We have no plans to increase numbers at all. We will not rescue or accept any more cats until we have served the two years required by the court. We are already down to 60 cats and 50 dogs here at Happy Paws Haven. This will give us the opportunity to rebuild a centre of excellence.

Rescues and surrenders

We are limiting the number of animals being rescued as you know. We are getting lots and lots of calls daily asking for help but we have not the funds and volunteers at the moment to take any more. It is all about our capacity to care and we are at our limit currently.

Adoptions

We have had eight dog adoptions and two cat adoptions so far for 2019. Due to the weather, and the holiday period our adoption rate has slowed down a little but I am sure that it will pick up again now that the kids are back at school and the summer holidays are over.

Now for the Cats and Kittens for adoption this week:

We get all cats vet checked prior to adoption to make sure that we comply to the standards required by any pet shop. We have adopted out well over 1200 cats over the last 12 years and only a very very small percentage having developed any illness as a result of the change in environment but now we are being extremely careful. All our animals are microchipped, immunised and desexed as soon as possible after they arrive.

Rissa is a member of Rianne’s beautiful litter of five kittens. Four are torti girls and Rico who has already got a home the only boy. Their story is we were called to the aboriginal community in Maclean early last year they were having a problem with some community cats who were continually breeding and their kittens. So we caught all the kittens and the queens put them into foster care and then got them all desexed. We returned all but one of the queens after they were desexed and kept all the kittens. Rissa is a lovely torti fluffy young female, very affectionate, demanding loves cuddles and happy to be stroked and picked… up just a very beautiful loving cat. They are all desexed microchipped and immunised now ready for their new homes.

Tala came from Lismore, she was found with another queen who had a litter which were found in extremely poor condition. We had to put the mother down as she had battled so hard to keep her babies alive she could hardly stand and her liver and kidneys were failing. The vet felt it was the best thing and kindest thing to do as she was just so very sick. Tala took over as a surrogate mum and bought up the kittens as if they were her own. When they were old enough our wonderful foster carer bought them to Happy Paws to have the vet work done. All the kittens were rehomed so it is Tala’s turn to find a very special home for a very special young lady. Tala has a lovely affectionate nature, gets on with other cats. She loves living indoors, out of the weather with a window ledge to watch the world go by. She has been desexed immunised and chipped and is ready for her special new home.

Heilki is the daughter of Helsa. Helsa and her kittens were found in Townsend, not far from the Pacific Highway overpass in March 2016. We received the call to come and get them as they needed to be moved due to dogs nearby. One of my volunteer foster carers spent several days making sure we had mum and all her babies. She had been observed with six but we only were able to find four. They have become the H team and are beautiful, playful mischievous affectionate young cats ready to go to lovely new homes. They have been immunised, desexed and micro-chipped.

Now for the Dogs for Adoption for this week:

We get all dogs vet checked prior to adoption to make sure that we comply to the standards required by any pet shop. All our animals are microchipped, immunised and desexed as soon as possible after they arrive. All dogs are also tested to make sure that they do not have heart worm. We have rescued and adopted out well over 1300 dogs over the last 12 years.

Bandit came from a foster carer who had rescued him when he was only six months old, he had been hit by a car and no-one had claimed him. He was just too young to be put down so she spent the money to have him all fixed and now he is as good as new. She wanted to keep him but she has horses and he liked to chase them. Not a good combination at all as she was afraid he would get kicked and injured again so she came to us for help to rehome him. When out on a run with the others, he got caught up in a fence so had a couple of stitches which are now taken out and is healed is all healed up. He is a lovable goofy young dog and would make a loving family pet. He gets on with other animals and loves humans, a really lovely family dog.

Tiny is a beautiful Roti Shepherd cross who is fine with most other dogs. He came up from Sydney as his owner’s landlord would not let him have him stay at the shop where he lived upstairs. He has a great nature but can be possessive of food when another dog hovers around his dish when eating although this has become much better. He is fine with humans as he lets me take his bowl away and give it back without a drama. He loves to play ball, loves the water, especially in our splash pools. He is house trained but is dominant dog when in his own yard so needs an experienced owner with a firm fair but loving hand, like all dogs and children need consistent rules and boundaries. He is desexed, immunised, heart worm tested and micro-chipped ready for his new home.

Neo has gone from pillar to post, home to home, and has never had a stable environment. A young person got him as a pup and as he started to grow was not allowed to keep him so he gave him to a friend, the friend was not allowed to keep him either so gave him to a friend who then gave him to his father who already had two dogs so bought him here. Like all Staffy’s he much prefers to be with his human rather than share but he is learning as he is living in a yard with multiple dogs, in that way we can give him time out when he needs it. He is now chipped, immunised and desexed. He has a lovely nature and would make a great family dog; he could live with an older bitch if there was another dog.

HappyPaws Haven is open seven days a week for animal adoptions. Phone: Sally on 0419 404 766 or 6644 9936 seven days a week, email sally on happypawshaven@bigpond.com or visit HappyPaws at www.happypawshaven.com.au