thepawandfeatherplan

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Copy of e-letter sent to Gov Beshear, re: Ky New Hire Dept is a Waste of Taxpayer Money, and Should be Dissolved

To the Office of the Governor, Good afternoon. I own a small nonprofit pet rescue based in Louisville, Ky. $2300 were earned via a successful Give For Good Louisville fundraiser this past Oct. (I only fundraise twice a year by the way). With this money, I hired the rescue's first part time, much-needed employee, Diane Dickey. This was a moment of great pride for me and my rescue. Diane works approximately 8 hours/week at $15/hour. She really needed this type of job and her help has been, well, very helpful. The process of understanding all of the rescue's requirements with municipal, state and federal government tax departments was overwhelming at first. I invested significant time and energy in researching everything, and setting up the mandated online accounts (KY one stop, EIN verification, e-mints, etc), and thankfully had a friend of the rescue set up a pay spreadsheet for me that calculates and auto-populates deductions to be withheld from Diane&

Short Case Study: Jill, One Example of a Great Pack Leader

Jill and Todd are the PAFP adopters of Gracie, a 1 year old Bichon Frise. They also own a purebred 4 year old Rottweiler, George. They adopted George from Metro Animal Services after he had been at the shelter for a month, and before that, he had been at another more rural shelter for some time as well. When George first went home with Jill and Todd, he had some undesirable tendencies that needed to be addressed. When I went to process the adoption for little Gracie, at Jill and Todd's home, Jill shared with me a short, great-pack-leader story. Here it is, in Jill's (paraphrased) words: It was probably just a few days after we adopted George, when one day I gave him a pig ear. He was laying on his dog bed enjoying the treat, when I had to enter that vicinity for something. -George growled at me, as if to say, 'don't come near me and my treat.'' T his dog could kill me if he wanted to, crossed through my

5 Ways PAFP Rescue Regularly and Gratuitously Helps in Our Community! #giveforgoodlou

This document highlights some of Paw and Feather Plan's work, and how it positively impacts the lives pets and people in and around the community, and abroad (Brazil shelter once/yearly, etc.). I do hope this list motivates individuals to donate $10< on 09/15/2022 for Give for Good Day. 😊 This is a big day not only for this rescue, but also for 500+ other nonprofits across Louisville. There will be many random BOOSTS to donations throughout the day via several Community Foundation Sponsors ... so please participate ! If you don't donate, there'll be nothing to boost. And if you do donate, your $10 could instantaneously become $1010! #LiveGenerously #InstantKarma List of 6 Ways We Help Out On the Regular: 1.) Free counseling services (typically via email or phone, these can be quite lengthy calls!) to pet owners in distress, wanting or needing to surrender pets. -On average I assist 4 people/weekly with this gratuitous service. I cannot help everyone

A Look at Returns, from the Foster-Based Perspective

Returns Are No Fun, No Matter What. When someone returns a dog, it can make you feel defeated. Most of the dogs we take in are chosen by me. That in itself is a huge undertaking: imagine walking through rows and rows of kennels of homeless dogs, all in need of help, and being able to choose only 1 or 2 to rescue. -It's hard! Being objective helps tremendously, but more often than not, empathy is a grand part of the choosing-equation. My background in shelter work makes it impossible to not look for key kennel card details like: arrival date and income-type (stray, return, surrender). For instance, if I see that you've been sitting in a cage for 6 weeks, and the doggy next to you has been sitting in his cage for a few days, I'll instinctively want to help you - the long-timer. Although, oftentimes this is impossible; the long-timers can have traits that make them harder to adopt out, things like their energy level, dog-compatibility, or even their

Find a New Way, Or Multi-Task to an Early Grave!

The Wednesday morning before Memorial Day Weekend I opened my eyes to everything spinning. "No, no no!" I gasped as I covered my face with a pillow. I knew it was vertigo, or as in Portuguese, l abarintite, or labarinto en Español for any language-lovers out there. Never had I experienced vertigo, but I knew what it was, as my mother and grandmothers have had it. And I'll never forget the day I awoke with this condition since it coincided with a holiday, and several upcoming scheduled meet and greets for dogs in our care at that moment. -As of that 'Vertigo Wednesday,' our 6 foster puppies were 8 weeks old and ready to find their forever homes! -Mommy dog was still with us of course (although she had an adopter lined up thankfully). -And I had 3 or 4 other adult dogs in foster care with awesome fosters, so I was in the process of: photographing and listing pets for adoption on Petfinder.com, talking with and screening potential adopters, scheduli

Dear Sweet Pea, What I'll Miss Most About You

Dear Sweet Pea, I miss you. I miss you in the morning~ the act of gently pulling your sheet off of your partially-covered cage and saying, "Hello Pretty Bird," in a soft voice was routine. I miss quickly working to serve your morning chop, and refreshing your water. Just like a human toddler, you weren't very patient! I miss all of the sounds you'd make, even your blood-curdling scream you'd do every couple of days. I do not miss the stressful moments that sometimes caused (family arguing- not screaming, just arguing!) , or resulted from, the blood-curdling screams, but I miss the savage nature of the actual screams. You would scream out when Fabricio or Sam would raise their voices with me. Right when you felt the tension rising, you'd start. To the contrary, when I raised my voice with either of them, you would never get stressed. I'll miss that feeling of always 'having someone on my side' in the hom