As COVID-19 and coronavirus become household words, no one seems to escape the impact of this global pandemic, and yet our shelter continues to go on thanks to the efforts of our wonderful staff, volunteers, and community. In March, even as social distancing became more strict, we still saved over 40 animals, and we had a record-breaking month of volunteer hours donated to the cause. That is thanks to you, our neighbors and friends.
When we saw that we would need to move more of our animals into foster care so they could get the needed love and nurturing while reducing the amount of people at the facility, we put out a call for foster families. Our foster family list was nearly empty. So we made the call for fosters out on our website and social media, and boy, did the community answer! Over half of our animals are in foster now, with many of them in foster-to-adopt situations as their fosters can’t help but fall in love with them (they really do blossom in a home setting!). We have more fosters than we can supply animals to, and that is incredible because we know we can continue to take in more surrenders and strays and not worry where they will go. There will be room for them and they will be safe, thanks to our community.
Up until we had to close our doors to the public and volunteers, we had incredible support from our volunteers, who were buzzing to come in nearly every day and staying for hours at a time to help with whatever tasks they were asked to complete. Their humility and generosity has been amazing, and we truly look forward to when we can safely open our doors to volunteers again on May 1st. Until then, we hope you wonderful volunteers stay in touch with us from the safety of your homes! We have opportunities for you to keep helping from home, too, if you’re interested.
Beyond all of this physical support, the community has also been amazing about our online fundraisers. We’re focusing more on individual animals and projects now instead of large, single goals, and the support has been so encouraging! Between getting insulin for Jo, a tooth pulled for Mittens, or our many mothers and kittens spayed and neutered, you keep making things possible for the SPCA of Hancock County. Together, we are a community, and together, we can save these innocent animals we so long to protect.
