Week 33 - Rescued Critters Food Drive

Hi Folks,

With 17,000 pets to care for, PACC has the right manager in the right place at the right time.

Shari Mollencopf, a volunteer, restocks bins with donated dog food at the Pima Animal Care Center. PACC staff members and volunteers make regular trips to shelters, distributing more than 600 pounds of food a week to homeless pet owners.

Photo: Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star

Since she arrived at PACC in July, 2017, Executive Director Kristen Auerbach has moved ahead quickly to make a dent in a perplexing problem. When it comes to pets, homeless folks have them, but not much else. And they adopt them from PACC, Craigslist or pick up strays on the street.

Kristen decided to offer booties to protect their dogs feet from the really hot pavement and roadways around the city. This opened the door for more help for the homeless such as social services, pet food and medical care for their pups.

The article focuses on Kristen’s success in caring for at least 1,370 pet owners through the Pups in Boots program. A goodly number in a little over a year. But there was one homeless guy who didn’t quite get with the program and ended up loosing his dog. This one disturbing story took up a significant segment of the article, too.

Here’s what I think. If an idea is saving over a thousand street dogs pain and suffering, in addition to helping their owners take advantage of some social services, then that idea should be supported not subverted with “one” human failing.

Read the article and if you agree with me, let’s start adding some booties to our Sunday donations. They are a great way to help PACC achieve more success in protecting homeless pets with homeless people.

Here is the link to the Arizona Star article:  Booties for Pups

By the way, a single booty costs around $2.00. Of course, 4 booties are what one dog needs. 

This week we donated 72.2 lbs. of pet food and $75.00 in cash and one check.

See you Sunday,

Peter

Week 32 - Rescued Critters Food Drive

Hi Folks,

72 Participants x $1.00 Each x 

52 Weeks ÷ $0.90 Cost Per Pound of Pet Food = 4,333 lbs. Donated to PACC in One Year

That’s how I came up with our Miles Neighborhood PACC donation goal. Well, it turns out the formula never took into account how generous and involved in animal welfare my neighbors really are. We just finished our second full quarter and the results indicate that we will crush that proposed goal. The graphic below speaks volumes.

We are now at Week 32 with 20 more weeks to go and there are 52 participants, not 72. In the first year of One Can A Week, we donated 9,203.5 lbs. of food to the Community Food Bank and $1,953.38 in cash. Even with fewer participants, we may match or surpass those numbers. It’s going to be fun to watch the weekly results pile up. This week we donated two large stainless steel bowls, a huge white blanket, one small pet bed, 75.7 lbs. of pet food and $57.69 in cash and two checks. See you Sunday, Peter

Week 31 - Rescued Critters Food Drive

Hi Folks,

Two Wins for Miles Neighborhood Today

A couple of years ago, TDOT (Tucson Department of Transportation) developed, with some fanfare, a web submission form that would help speed and organize pothole repair all over the city. March 4^th I submitted the form with an attached pdf listing all the potholes and adjacent home addresses. Within 24 hours I received two Repair Request numbers which meant, to me, the potholes would be fixed soon.

A day later I got an email from someone who wanted to know what direction I was driving when I made the list. My friend David said,  “You should have replied, I was driving east and hit a pothole, then I drove a little further east and hit another pothole.”

Wish he had told me that really funny idea back when I wrote my response. I was serious at the time and answered the person’s question accordingly. Then I heard nothing. In mid-March I called to check on the progress and the person assured me the supervisor was on it. Called again the next week and the supervisor was still on it.

On my early evening walks with Cody and Haley, I often run into Richard and Mary Fimbres walking their two Boston Terriers. Generally it is a hi and bye, but this particular time in late March, we stopped to chat about potholes. Richard told me to email him everything. On April 2^nd, I got an email from Diana Alarcon, the Director of Transportation apologizing for the lack of details “on when they will be out to repair the pot holes.”

On Friday, April 5^th, a team repaired half of Miles between Highland and Santa Rita. Strange, as was the excuse we gave them. They only paved one section at a time, this Friday it was the 1100 to 1200 block.

Today, they were back again but finished Miles all the way to Vine and then turned right (south) to fill the potholes next to my driveway.

While they were on Miles, I walked over to the crew and motioned I wanted to say something. The truck driver tooted the horn so the guys would look up. I gave them a thumbs up and shouted thank you. They shouted back, “Thanks.”

My neighbor, Mr. Aguilar was standing on his porch as I turned (south) on Highland. “It’s about time,” he shouted. I thought, you know, I don’t say anything negative to folks doing the job. It’s never about criticizing folks or displaying one’s frustration. The potholes were being fixed for my neighbors and that is all I care about.

And here's the second win ...

Notice the gold-colored coin in the plastic bag hanging off the table? That's Sacagawea. My neighbors are always surprising me. Can't wait for the postage stamp with the upside down bi-plane. But I'll keep that surprise to myself.

We donated a small dog sweater, a large bed sheet, 53.4 lbs. of pet food and $61.75 in cash and two checks.

See you Sunday,

Peter

Week 30 - Rescued Critters Food Drive

Hi Folks,

Second quarter results are in

Sunday was the end of our second quarter and the totals are really surprising. We have donated nearly 80% of our annual goal of 4,333 lbs. of pet food and we have 22 more weeks to go. So we’re crushing it, as they say.

Take a moment to review the numbers below. You will see that consistency is the key to our success. There are a few strong weeks, but the average weekly donation patters really add up.

We’re having fun now.

See you Sunday,

Peter