The
2008 People's Pets Calendar is on Sale! Only $20.00 per calendar. Hurry while
supplies last. Contact manager.hhs@speednet.llc to order yours today or call 989-356-4794.
HHS Adoption Story Makes
Headlines Shelter Manager Natalie Francis showcased her
wriiting skills when she entered the Iams' "Home for the Holidays" essay
contest and won a prize of $500 for the HHS! Natalie told the story of
Maggie, an 8 year old shepherd mix who she found one cold morning tied to
the shelter's driveway gate by a short leash. Maggie, frightened and cold,
had become so tangled overnight that the shelter staff had to use scissors
to cut the poor girl free. Her sad story turned happy with the shelter
staff working hard, they gave Maggie the best holiday gift of all- a
family of her own.
Third Annual Gala The HHS
raised just over $15,000 on Feb. 3, 2007 at the Gala, which conicided with
our 25th year anniversary! What a way to celebrate! There were 200 people
in attendance at the event, held in the Holiday Inn with dinner, dancing,
and live and silent auctions.
First Ever Strut Your Mutt The
HHS raised close to $1,200 on October 8 at the mutt march. We had a modest
group of walkers- about 18, but all enjoyed themselves on their 3 mile
walk through downtown.
It's Romper Room at the
HHS

We had so many kitten all in seperate cages that Natalie
decided to make the second caged cat room into a cage-free kitten colony.
Kittens only under 4 months of age are allowed, they are vaccinated and
FIV/LEUK tested before they can enter. Hopefully this will encourage
people to come in and visit the kittens, too. So far, the reviews have all
been great! The kittens having a blast and in the afternoon, as you can
see, they sleep.
We Love You AAACU Alpena
Alcona Area Credit did a quarterly fundraiser for the HHS, it included
selling dog bones at the teller windows and collecting donations of pet
supplies. They presented a check for $849.33 to the HHS in October.
Thank You Citizens' Bank!
In October, Citizen's Bank presents the HHS with a check for
$315.00 and a box full of food and products just for the animals. This was
all from a fundraiser they did in September.
Thanks Bolenz! Their summer
2006 watch battery repairs resulted in a huge donation of $800 to the HHS.
128 Shelter Pets get
"Fixed" Beginning Monday, 10/17/2006 MSU vet students and 2
MSU staff lead by Dr. Valerie Chadwick set up a mobile spay neuter clinic
in an airplane hangar and completed 128 spay/neuters for animals of NE MI.
Ninety six shelter and rescue animals benefited from rabies and feline
leukemia tests. Local Veterinarians Dr. Ryan Knight and Dr. Danielle
Knight also stopped by to support the effort. It is estimated that all of
the services delivered saved the participating organizations $12,800.
County Reduces Funding, Increases
Euthanasia In November 2005, Alpena County announced that
due to serious lack of funds in the county budget it would no longer be
bringing animals to the Humane Society, but will be holding strays for up
to 10 days at the county facility and then euthanizing all unclaimed
animals. Because of budget issues the county-run Animal Control facility
cannot provide veterinary services, but will euthanize animals in need of
medical attention. If you lost your dog, please call the Animal Control
Officer directly at (989)-354-4128. Dennis is the Animal Control Officer
who picks up strays and he runs the county's holding facility. Though
Animal Control does not offer regular viewing hours to the public, you can
request to see if your pet is there. It is important that you back call
often! Please also visit the Humane Society facility and website just in
case your lost pet made it to our shelter.
Kitty Independence Day On
November 5th, we had 22 cats go to new homes!
Feline Pine In September 2005,
we began using Feline Pine in our litter boxes. It's highly absorbent
(less odor), cleaner, less dusty and safer than the clay we had been
using, environmentally friendly and inexpensive.
HHS Starts Food Bank Program - Fall
2005 Now that we are feeding Science Diet, we can still
accept donations of food, but we are sharing those donations with local
families who need help providing food to their pets.
HHS teams up with Science Diet - Fall
2005 Science Diet generously offers to provide food for all
shelter animals. The HHS needs only to pay the freight - the food is
free. This means our pets will get quality food, and perhaps, more
importantly, consistency in their diet. Thanks Science Diet!
A Dog-Jubilee at Riverfest
2005 The first ever Pet Games/Dogs in the Park had a huge
turnout of participants and spectators. There was the agility competition
for novices, the agility demo where "pro" dogs got to show off on an
advanced course, a frisbee toss competition, and the pet show where a
basket of tiny kittens won the judges hearts to earn the plaque and title
for "Cutest." Winners in all events received engraved plaques. It was a
great day all around.
Fur Bowl 2005 a HUGE
Success!! Friday the 13th was a great day for the HHS with
about 130 bowlers coming out to play and bringing about $10,000 (yes, ten
thousand!!) in donations! Thanks to everyone - the bowlers, the donors,
the volunteers and Thunder Bowl Lanes for making it happen!
Cat Community Phase One. April 10,
2005. Home Depot has built us a special cat room so our
long-term cats won't live in cages anymore. They have lots of space in the
sunny room to play, and new screen doors!
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| Here are several of the cats enjoying the new Home
Depot walkway within minutes of installation. |
This is the fabulous cat-tree created and donated
by Karen Klimczak of Cat Tree Creations. You can see how much they
love it! |
Better Digs for Cats and Dogs
- Spring 2005. Coming soon, a kennel sponsorship
program which will allow animal-lovers to make the life of a shelter pet
of their choice even better.
Pre-Adoption Spay and Neutering - Spring
2005. Thanks to a terrific cooperative program with MSU,
we are spaying and neutering more of our pets before they get adopted.
This means more relaxed, contented and healthy pets at the shelter, a
100% guarantee that these pets will have no unwanted litters, and that
their adoptive families won't have to pay for any of the surgery. It's a
good deal for everybody involved.
New Clothes Dryer - March
2005. Finally we have a brand new super-capacity clothes
dryer donated by County Commissioner Tom Male! Barb Knotts, a regular
volunteer who does tons of shelter laundry is thrilled - now full loads
get dry in minutes! This means we can wash and use more towels and
blankets every day.
New Driveway - April
2005. After a long, wet winter our driveway was looking
pretty bad. Wayne Frantz is donating the time and materials needed to
grade and re-gravel it. Thanks Wayne!
On-line Donation Option - March
2005. Now you can donate on-line via Paypal using your
bank account or credit card.
Valentine's Gala. Perfectly Lovely.
On Feburary 12, 2005, we held our first gala ever. With
the help of donated decorations from Wedding Shoppe, the civic center
looked stunning. Over 200 guests showed up in their finest for a night
of dining and dancing. Volunteers from Powerhouse, all dressed in suits
and sparkling gowns provided valet service and coatcheck. The live and
silent auctions were fun for bidders and spectators and the event netted
over $14,000 for the shelter! What a smashing success.
December's Good News
Adoptions are UP yet again. Our first ever Adopt-A-Thon
was attended by many pet seekers and 3 rescue organizations: us,
Lifelines for Canines (from Hale), and Elk County Animal Shelter. Many
lucky dogs, cats, puppies and kittens found new homes. Several pet
owners brought their own pets just to try out Janet Olsen's agility
course. Paul from Paul's Pet Care Services offered grooming help to
attendees and more than 20 volunteers (and the entire shelter staff,
too) devoted the better part of their Saturday to work the event.
We had dogs out at the mall on 2 Saturdays while people were getting
photos with Santa, and for the first time, we had dogs with the
Salvation Army bellringers- the animals that went got adopted.
Thanks to Animal Kingdom and Cash and Carry Feeds, we had remote
adoptions of cats at Animal Kingdom. The cats were at the store, and
store employees cared for the cats and handled the adoptions, too. Cash
and Carry donated a Cat and Kitten discount feed care package for the
new adoptive families.
November's Good News
Between November 1 and November 22 we took in a whopping
43 animals and had placed 3 different dogs in foster care - all of which
were adopted by the end of the month. Also by November 22, we had found
homes for 24 of our pets, once again averaging more than one a day! (to
compare, in 2001 we placed 11, in 2002 we placed 13, and in 2003 we
placed 2). Things are improving constantly!
The Valentine's Gala was still in the planning stages, with
committees actively working to get sponsors and prize donations.
Our November fund raisers were successful and included the Civic
Center craft show, the Halloween No Show, Blue Jean day (by FIA), the
Nieman's sign, and sales of the Pet Calenders, bookmarks, and our new
HHS license plate frames.
October's Good News In
October of 2004 we found good homes for 33 of our pets. We took in 30
new animals, including 10 from Animal Control. We had 9 lost pets which
we returned to their owners. Cynthia, Natalie and Alisha all attended
educational seminars to further their expertise in shelter management,
animal care, and adoptions. Cynthia announced a plan in which she hopes
to have all of our animals spayed or neutered before they go to their
permanent homes, and she intends to have this in effect by February of
2005.
Halloween Costume Event A
Success Everything went well! The hall of the Center
Building was packed with kids, families and dogs in costume and
everybody had fun with it. We had 20 costume entries and raised $161 for
the shelter. We sold raffle tickets, pet calenders and had many trick or
treaters watching the costume parade.
People brought dogs dressed as fairies, super heroes, ladybugs,
pumpkins, kings, witches, and hot dogs, too. Our overall winner was a
dog-owner combo of a 50's girl walking her poodle in a poodle skirt.
Volunteers included Erica Kelly, Kathy Mc Veety, Dr. Mary Ann
Carlson, Joy from Staples, Michelle from National City Bank, Karen
Hebert from the City of Alpena, and Cathy Gilbertson from 1st Federal.
They all worked very hard and made the event what it was.
Adoption Fee Increase Our
new fees, as of October 27th are $60 for cats and $110 for dogs. This
includes the vaccinations, vet visit, microchip and grooming for dogs,
FIV/leukemia testing for cats, 30 days of pet insurance for all animals
and either a full spay/neuter or, if adopting and unaltered pet, a
coupon for $25 off the surgery. The total adoption package value for
dogs is $170, and for cats is $117. The adopter saves $60 on the
adoption.
Special Needs Dogs Find
Homes In October alone, we treated/placed the following
special needs pets: Roo, a
Mini-Pin who needed expensive hip surgery.
Rookie, who spent a week in the
animal hospital hooked to an IV Hoss,
A.K.A. Buck, who received leg surgery to replace a dislocated pin
Dedication of Dog
Room
On Saturday, October 16th,
visitors packed the halls of the HHS to honor Michele Sherill-Mix for
her compassion and care of the animals of the Huron Humane Society.
County Commissioner Michael Nunnely led the dedication ceremony with a
touching speech about Michelle's charitable and loving spirit. Many of
Michelle's family and friends attended the event in her honor. The
ceremony concluded with a group prayer and a tour of the newly
dedicated dog room.
Freedom Path Becomes
Official October 16, 2004 marked the official ribbon
cutting and inauguration of the Freedom Path, a dog walking path
designed and built by 18 year old Shaun Burnham. Burnham, who worked at
the HHS in the work-release program invented and implemented his design
after he heard a visitor express a desire for a walking area. Cutting
the ribbons were Alpena's Mayor John Gilmet and Jerry Fortier,
Alpena Township Trustee. Sgt Jerry Broad who heads up Alpena's Inmate
Work Program, and Matt Gillard, the 106 District House Representative
took "Rookie" on a the first lap around the path.
Community Chip Day On
October 9th, we microchipped our first pets and are now including
Microchips in the adoption of every shelter animal. We are also offering
the service to the public for a bargain price of $30. It takes just
minutes and could save your pet's life.
Go Girls! On Saturday,
September 18th a group of 4th-grade girls from All Saints Catholic School
raised $200 for the shelter. After seeing the Alpena News Insert about the
HHS, the girls decided to hold a bottle drive. These ambitious girls
planned and executed the entire event themselves, from the organization,
to the collection and even to the delivery of the donated funds. Of course
their families helped with the driving! What an impressive group of
dedicated and well organized girls! Way to Go!
Bike Winner
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Tracy Freeman won the bike raffle of September's Pets to Go Show.
He and his mom also helped handle and transport pets to and from the
mall. |
September's Good News In
September, we found good homes 24 of our pets! We have also had several in
foster homes. We received our AVID Microchip equipment and have added more
services for the pets and people of Alpena.
Want to see who still
needs a home? Show Me Adoptable
Dogs Show Me Adoptable
Cats Take Me to
Petfinder
August's Good News In August,
we found good homes 38 of our pets and took in 54 new ones!
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