CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER 2022
President’s Message
Hello to all our dear Friends and Supporters,
Christmas is almost here, and we’re still very busy every day taking calls about stray animals, requests for help with stray cats and kittens, and requests for help with re – homing, and other requests for help. We recognize that sometimes advice can be enough to help save a precious life or prevent a pet from being surrendered to a pound. We do as much as we can to help, but it’s challenging as these constant requests come on top of our core work, which is to rehabilitate and find new loving homes for our own rescued pets. This year we have continued to focus on maintaining our current rescued pets, and helping other animals in need, through our outreach programs and our usual telephone support to callers. We remain very constrained by a shortage of foster carers, limited funds and limited fundraising support. Unfortunately, we can never rescue more animals than we have the foster carers for, nor the funds to support. It is a continual challenge to find cat foster carers in particular. Foster carers provide a temporary loving home for our pets whilst we are seeking their forever home. If you have room in your heart and your home for a foster pet, we would love to hear from you.
Many of our rescued pets have ongoing manageable medical conditions, and this requires a big commitment of time and resources to care for them day to day, and to cover veterinary treatment, especially specialist costs, which have increased significantly since COVID. Sydney Pet Rescue & Adoption has a NO KILL policy, and we do whatever it takes to look after our rescued pets and to keep them until a suitable forever home can be found. Some of our rescued furbabies need to remain with us because of their level of disability and care needs. IZZY and CHOO CHOO are two of our foster cats who have had a challenging time this year, IZZY underwent a big surgery at the end of 2021 when she had a sub ureteral bypass (SUB). She then needed revision surgery, which unfortunately left her with a new renal condition. Then she developed Inflammatory Bowel which means she needs a special diet. Izzy needs periodic treatment for her renal condition, IB, and periodic SUB flushes to ensure the SUB implant is working properly. She periodically needs subcutaneous fluids which I give her at home. Overall, she doing reasonably well, but her IB and renal condition tends to need periodic treatment. She is a brave and gentle little girl and a good patient. CHOO CHOO has recently recovered from a suspected blockage from a bladder stone, which required admission to University of Sydney Veterinary Teaching Hospital. He also needed a review by the veterinary Ophthalmologist, and was discovered to have degenerative retinas which means he has low vision. Also he recently had a flare up of Inflammatory Bowel. He is a beautiful boy and fortunately a good patient who is mostly doing reasonably well. We urgently need to raise funds to help with Izzy and Choo Choo’s veterinary treatment. Izzy’s 2 unexpected surgeries alone at the end of last year, were about $25,000. If you can help with even a $5 donation, we would be very grateful. Please see options to donate below.
I would like to thank all of our kind foster carers, volunteers, and Committee, our supporting vet clinic, University of Sydney Veterinary Teaching Hospital, and our corporate and individual supporters. A big thank you to Pet Circle and Royal Canin who kindly send us a lovely donation of cat and dog supplies periodically. This has been a great help with feeding our rescued pets, and also helping to feed homeless street cats. Special thanks to our fundraising volunteer Amanda who has been a wonderful support with running online auctions and sales of items through Marketplace this year. Special thanks to Lucy our Facebook Co-ordinator and Committee Member who helps with various critical administrative jobs. Special thanks to Beth our long-time supporter who sends out receipts and thank you cards. Thank you everyone for believing in us, and supporting our rescue efforts. It is only with your support that we can continue our vital work for the animals.
Wishing you and your furbabies, peace and joy at Christmas, and may there be more joy in the world for all animals, and those who care for them, in the New Year.
Michelle Alber – Founder and President
Thank You to our Corporate Supporters
Recent Adoptions
Our lovely rescue dog PATCHES was recently adopted by her foster carer Tom.
Patches was surrendered by her owner who was about to be evicted. Patches had been underfed and was quite underweight at the time of rescue. With Tom’s TLC, Patches got back to a normal weight, and blossomed. You can see a gorgeous video on our FB page made by Tom showing their adventures together.
Sweet furbabies YODA and ASH are in the process of being adopted by their foster carer, Bronagh. These little munchkins were rescued just before Christmas 2020. We rescued them as tiny kittens, along with their mumma, Mia, who turned out to be FIV positive. Fortunately, Mia’s foster carer adopted her. Yoda was previously adopted, but the new owner turned out to be allergic to cats so he came back into care. Poor YODA developed a severe dental condition and needed to have all of his teeth removed by a dental specialist. He has done well and eats normally. Ash developed a less serious dental condition, and recently needed a tooth out. Ash has needed preventive dentals annually and routine dental care, to ensure he does not lose any more teeth.
Outreach Program
We have continued to provide support for various animal sanctuaries we helped throughout the bushfires. We collected animal supplies mostly through supporters we have gratefully connected with on Marketplace and Buy Swap & Sell. Pixie from Jerabat Springs travels 4 hours either way from Braidwood to collect supplies for themselves and A Place of Peace Animal Sanctuary. See photo.
Kindly Animal Sanctuary travels 8 hours either way from Armidale. Sydney Fox and Dingo Rescue travels from the Southern Highlands. It’s a massive effort by all these sanctuaries to come and collect supplies from us and shows how needed this kind of outreach support is.
Thank you to our kind supporters who have donated pet supplies to help our own rescued furbabies and the animal sanctuaries we support.
We were lucky to find a lovely emergency cat foster carer, Lisa, to enable us to help Anna, who is a victim of domestic violence, and her 2 furbabies, Cole and Austin.
Anna was in crisis accommodation and unable to find accommodation for herself, for various reasons including that she had 2 furbabies. Cole and Austin are doing well in foster care, and Anna visits them regularly.
Special thanks to Lisa for reaching out to help at a moment’s notice.
We have also recently been able to help a man who is blind, whose wife recently died. He was left alone, in conditions of poverty, with a large number of cats. Our lovely new volunteer Annie and partner Tom visited this man and his cats, and rescued Salem and Mister Mister. Annie and her parents kindly donated some fabulous prizes for our recent Christmas Auction which raised funds for urgent vet care for these 2 furbabies. A big thank you to Annie and Tom and Annie’s parents for supporting these furbabies in their time of crisis. Animal Welfare League kindly pitched in to help with food and flea and wormer for the other cats who remain in desperate need. This man still needs more emergency foster care for his other cats. If you can help, please call Michelle on 0403 254 960.
We also helped a private rescuer earlier in the year with 2 of her rescued cats who needed critical, life-saving treatment. We were left with more than $14,000 worth of vet bills for specialist care, and no help to raise any of that money back as was promised. It will probably take us more than a year or 2 of hard work just to try and raise those funds back. Sadly, people let us down, and make us think twice about helping the next person who asks for urgent help.
In Memory
We farewelled our dear friend and long term supporter Sid Jackson earlier in the year.
Sid was a tireless rescuer and supporter of many different kinds of animals over the years. He had a special love of pigs.
Here is one of our favourite photos of Sid and piglet Petunia. Sid’s wife Jenny is a beautiful lady, a dedicated rescuer and foster carer over many years. She is also Sydney Pet Rescue & Adoption’s Secretary.
We are especially thinking of Jenny and Sid at Christmas.
We will never forget Sid and his kindness to so many animals.
Fundraising News
CHRISTMAS AUCTIONS
Congratulations to the winners of our 2 Christmas Auctions, which were run to raise funds for Salem and Mister Mister’s urgent veterinary treatment. The 3 night Beach House Stay was won by Tom Brady, and the Wild Dolphin Swim was won by Michelle Alber. We raised $2000 from the auction. This was only possible due to the kind donation of auction prizes by Annie, Salem and Mister Mister’s foster carer, and her parents. With other kind donations, a further $1010 was raised to help Salem and Mister Mister.
SPRING AUCTION
We ran a Spring Auction on facebook, and raised just over $2000, which was used to help with vet care for our rescued pets. Thank you to our kind supporters who donated auction items, participated in bidding and helped us promote the auction. A massive thank you to our Auction Co–Ordinator Amanda who worked tirelessly to make the auction a success.
MARKETPLACE SALES
Michelle, Amanda and Victoria have been working hard all year to sell pots, plants and other items on Marketplace and various Buy Swap & Sell websites. We usually make about $100 – $200 per week on sales. Thank you to our kind supporters sourced through Marketplace, who have donated items for us to sell.
ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS
Thank you to our long term supporter Melissa for continuing to help with fundraising through the sale of Entertainment Books. If you would like to help by buying or selling some Entertainment Books, please email us on info@sydneypetrescue.com.au
Wishing all of our kind volunteers and supporters and their furbabies a merry Christmas and a happy holiday.
