Shelter Shorts October 2013 SHELTER SHORTS is a monthly newsletter intended to keep Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelter

volunteers and supporters connected. With everyones hectic schedules, we know it is often difficult, if not impossible to attend monthly meetings or to work at all of our fundraisers. Everyone is invited to submit articles for the newsletter. To do so, please call Bev at 608-326-2914 or email her at wyalusing2012@gmail.com. Monthly meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of every month at the Prairie du Chien City Hall. Meetings begin at 6:00 p.m. Please use the back door. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, October 17th. Dog Obedience Classes It is now past mid-September and I have not started classes yet. My hours have changed and I now work 9-5, and it would be almost impossible to get home and then back to town by start of class time at 6 p.m. October will be busy with fund raisers the first two weekends and I work the last two weekends, but I am thinking of having classes on Saturday mornings in November. Kwik Trip Gas Card Sales from August 15th through September 19th totaled $2,450.00 for a profit of $245.00. This is close to a new low for a month since we started selling the cards two years ago. Again, thanks to those of you who continue to support RABAS with little or no effort, other than buying something you need gas and food. Your support is greatly appreciated. Please remember, that this is an easy way for those who want to help our very worthwhile cause. Purchasing gas using the Kwik Trip cards is very convenient you can swipe the card right at the pump, thus saving time by not going into the store and possibly saving money by not being tempted to buy the KT donuts that are sitting near the cash register. As we hopefully reach our goal of land acquisition by the end of this year, Kwik Trip card sales will play an important part in our fund raising for a building. If you want to help us reach our goal of an animal shelter by purchasing the Kwik Trip cards, please reply to this email or contact Jill, Donna or myself before filling your tank. A reply to this email or a phone call will result in delivery of your cards on the same day or the next (Jill 326-4870, Donna 608-379-2112 or myself 326-2914 or 306-1260). Again, thanks to everyone who supports Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelter through the purchase of these cards. If you have purchased them in the past, but no longer do so, would you please reconsider doing so again? Jack-o-lanterns are finished and oh so cute. These will be an easy sell at McGregors Fall Festivals (if there are any left to sell by then). There are only 14 left to sell out of the original 28. Prices are $15, $20 and $25. Once again, thank you Phil and Deb Dwornik for donating all of the materials and also for your time. Total profit from these will be $480. McGregor Arts and Craft Fair in October Thanks to everyone who offered to volunteer at our booth. We are still in need of large cookies to sell. If you can bake a batch or two of cookies, please let Jill or me know. Please label them if they have nuts in. The cookies we are asking for should be large and individually wrapped or placed in a sealed sandwich bag. We use cup of batter per cookie. We also put a slight indentation in the center of the cookies so they bake all the way through which is a tip we learned from ace cookie baker Alexis Burns years ago. We will need cookies for both weekends. If you can bake cookies, they can be taken to our stand on Saturday morning

or if you contact me, I will make arrangements to pick them up. We will also sell dog treats, dog tugs and cute catnip filled cat toys made by Kathy Paske. At Thursdays meeting we had decided not to sell cheese curds this year. A few of us wanted to, others did not and some were undecided. Randy P stopped in and talked to Katie Ruff at By the Spoonful in McGregor about cheese curds. She will order fresh, prepackaged (12 oz. per bag) from Waukon. We will charge either $4.50 or $5 for these. We will only order 25 bags per weekend and when they are gone they are gone. Katie also offered to donate the profits from any curds that she sells on Saturday to RABAS. I am also hoping to have daffodil bulbs there to sell as they sold fairly well last year. I am ordering them this morning, so I hope we will have them in time. If not, that means I have more to plant myself. We will also have Dr. Donna Higgins 2014 Wildlife Calendars for sale in McGregor. Shihatas Apple Fest Food Stand We were offered an opportunity to sponsor the food stand at Shihatas Apple Fest the first weekend in October. I have always wanted to do this as I think it could be a money maker (if the weather cooperates). I had thought about doing a baked potato bar or walking tacos, but after discussion at Thursdays meeting, we decided to just do brats, hot dogs and possibly hamburgers. We will also sell water, pop, chips and small containers of apple sauce. Thanks, also to those who volunteered to work at this event. Villa Louis Carriage Classic Wine and Cheese Event was fun and an easy way to earn a very generous donation from Mike and Shelly Rider and VLCC. We appreciate this great opportunity and their support. Thanks to those of you who helped with the Wine and Cheese Event. Phoneraiser Thanks to everyone who saves their inkjet cartridges and old cell phones for RABAS. Thanks also to Donna Heilmann who takes care of shipping these items to Phoneraiser on a regular basis. Pampering for Pets Thanks to Ashley from Mist-ified, LLC for running this promotion for RABAS. I just received an email from Ashley and she said that she will be giving RABAS a check for $350.84 from her Pampering for Pets promotion. Thanks also to Paula for coordinating this with Ashley. We also received a generous donation from someone who I believe wishes to remain anonymous to pay for advertising. We hope to get a picture of Ashley presenting a check to Jill our treasurer and I will do a small article for the Courier Press. Hopefully, other businesses will think of ways to help RABAS as Ashley, Donna Higgins, VLCC and Pizza Hut have. Once again, thank you Ashley. Thanks to everyone who participated in Pampering for Pets. Guest-Server Night at Pizza Hut was scheduled for Tuesday, September 17th. Even though we were not as busy as we have been in other years, we made $328 in tips. Pizza Hut will match that so our total profit will be $656 for 3 hours of time for 5 people. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to be a guest server Randi K, Merilee, Dr. Jami, and Jill. Thanks also to Pizza Hut for sponsoring this event for RABAS and to all of you who came out to dine in at Your Hometown Pizza Hut. Dr. Donna Higgins 2014 Wildlife Calendars Donna has offered RABAS a possible way to raise funds without much effort. Her beautiful 2014 Wildlife Calendars have been printed. Donna suggested that we set up a table in front of her office on Saturday mornings this fall from 9 a.m. noon. For every calendar that we sell on Saturday mornings, she will donate the entire cost of the calendars to RABAS. Bob and Diane

Witt and their dog Molly sold 46 calendars on Saturday morning, Sept. 7. My dogs and I set up there the following Saturday and sold 9. The people at the Farmers Market said it was not as busy as normal on the Saturday I was there. (Or it may be that I am not the sales person that Bob and Diane are). There was not much sidewalk traffic on the morning I was there. I do have to say that everyone that I asked to buy a calendar did buy one. These beautiful calendars are also an easy sell. We will sell them at McGregor and also at Shihatas. Thank you, Donna for this great opportunity. Randy Paske will be there on Saturday morning, Sept. 28 th. We can set up at the Farmers Market where there may be more business. If there are any more volunteers who would like to help out on a Saturday in October, please let me know. If you have a friendly dog, please bring it along. Dogs are a great way to get people to stop and look and hopefully buy. If all else fails, trip the potential customer with your dogs leash to get them to stop. Mexican Buffet at Huckleberrys Restaurant is set for Wednesday, October 30th. Because this is the night before Halloween, Bird suggested that we do a pet parade of dogs in Halloween costumes. At Thursdays meeting, we talked about the costumed pet parade. We decided not to do it as we felt mixing food with dogs may not be a good idea. We also felt that people off the street might bring in their dogs and it could turn into a dog free for all. But if anyone who helps that night would like to be in costume, please do so. Randi K said she will be in her clown costume. We will need people to bake desserts for this. If you can bake a pan of brownies, a cake, batch of cookies or your favorite dessert, please let Bev or Jill know. If you can do so, please bring them in a disposable container if possible. The aluminum pans with covers on work well for this. If you bring a dessert in a pan that you would like to have returned, please make sure your name is on it. We had decided not to do an auction (live and silent) at the Mexican Fiesta, as we want to build that up every year to be bigger and better for Pasta for Pets. Merilee is already working on this. But I still feel that we should do something to raise additional funds. When Jill and I volunteered at the Villa Louis Carriage Classic, we noticed that they did a Bucket Raffle on Saturday night. Many of the things they had were nice items donated by individuals. We will try the Bucket Raffle. We will not solicit businesses for this. But if you can donate anything for it (it could be a craft item that you make, a favorite dessert, something new or like new that you have had in your closet for years and never used, or something purchased for a minimal amount), please let me know. We will then have small containers in front of each item. People will buy tickets and place them in the buckets of the things they would like to go home with. The more tickets you purchase, the better your chances are of winning. We will also do a 50/50 raffle. Phil came up with a few ideas for a catchy name for the Mexican Buffet which included the word Fiesta. We all liked the word fiesta, but could not come up with a word to go with Fiesta. Randy P suggested we just call it Rivers & Bluffs Mexican Buffet or possibly Rivers & Bluffs Mexican Fiesta. The menu will be an all you can eat taco bar and desserts and will include milk and coffee. If you can help bake for the meal, make or bring something for the Bucket Raffle, or help bus tables, please let me know. Adoptions, Losses, People Looking for a New Pet, Pets in Need of a Forever Home I am not aware of any recent successful adoptions. But I am aware of the number of cats and kittens in need of homes. Every week I am overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from people who need to find homes for new litters of kittens or adult cats. Many

of these phone calls and emails involve young kittens who just happen to show up at someones house or shed. I feel that we as an organization need to do something to help people in this situation. I am not sure what. I still feel education and spay and neuter clinics are the answer. I also feel that we need to come up with a fund raiser specifically to raise money for people such as those who have contacted me this week. A number of them said they would foster the cats/kittens until a home can be found, but they cannot afford to pay for vaccinations and spaying and neutering. I think this would help these people who feel they do not have a way out and at the same time be good PR for this organization. I do realize that we will not be able to help everyone, but even if we could reduce the number of feral cats and kittens it would help. Many of these cats and kittens are being cared for (fed) but they are not spayed or neutered, so the population continues to explode. Your thoughts, anyone? Therapy Dog Teams Kathy Paske and Digger and Paula Gutzmer and Maggie continue their regular visits to Prairie Maison. Everyone at the hospital as well as Prairie Maison is so excited and happy to see the dogs. I think the staff enjoys the visits as much as the residents and patients. I regret to say that my dogs and I have not done any therapy work since August. Land Acquisition Nothing new to report. I will keep you informed of any news. Pounds Off People and Pooches (POPP) Weekly Dog Walks I believe that dog walks will continue as we move into fall. I thinkit is dark by 7 p.m. now, but I think they will continue until it is too cold or it gets dark even earlier. The dog walk starts at 6 p.m. We meet just east of the Villa Louis and north of the Sculpture Park. There is a parking area there for cars. Please bring water for your dogs as well as bags to pick up after your dogs. Dogs must be leashed and flexi-leads are discouraged. Paskes, Digger, Jill, Scooter, Tristan, my dogs and I walked tonight (Tuesday). It was very pleasant walking. Please keep Donna Heilmann in your thoughts and prayers. She was hospitalized Monday evening, September 16th for an emergence appendectomy as her appendix had burst. She went home on Wednesday but was back in the hospital on Thursday and she is still there. She is making progress and today (Tuesday) was the first time she was allowed to have any nourishment since last Wednesday. I am not sure how long she will be hospitalized. Where did the month go? Hopefully by the next months Shelter Shorts I will have learned how to put the newsletter in the more attractive format. Wish me luck. www.riversandbluffsanimalshelter.org is Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelters website. Thanks to Randy P. for keeping this website up to date. Volunteer hours will be collected by Randy P. at monthly meetings or you can email your hours to Randy at repaske@gmail.com. I would like to thank everyone who has helped us this past month and to those who continue to volunteer and support us financially through donations and memberships. I know it seems that I am continuously asking for your help with baking, gas cards, volunteering at various fund raisers and supplying things for silent auctions. Your help is much appreciated and greatly needed if we are ever going to have an animal shelter for this area. If more people could offer to help with just one fund raiser or bake one batch

of cookies, it would certainly help relieve the workload of the ones who help with every fund raiser and event. My driving force is the number of phone calls and emails that I receive on a weekly basis from desperate pet owners who have pets in need of a forever home or from people who have found stray animals and have no means to help these animals in need. They have now where to turn and I wonder what happens to the cats, kittens, dogs and puppies in need. Many of these people are good people forced to make difficult decisions. Please help us to help them by volunteering in any way that you can so Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelter will become a reality. Treasurers Report Current Balance as of September 19th, 2013 $133,743.78, which includes a total of $127,745.21 in 4 CDs at Peoples State Bank. Membership Renewals Gary & Kathy Koch Sponsor Deb Cross Single New Members Peggy & Kurt Smith Family Seth Sanders - Single

Donations Kathy Quamme in memory of Bonnie Homuths dog, Seamus Tammy Olson in honor of Brenda Wilsons birthday Paula Gutzmer Donna Higgins calendar sales Dorothy Messner in memory of Adam Heiring Tanya Johnson Fennimore dog swim donation Don & Eileen Klatt monthly donation All membership payments and donations are current through September 19th
Reminder: Annual memberships should be renewed 1 year from the month in which you joined.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered this month. Thanks to everyone who supported us through donations, and memberships. There are many jobs that continue to get done without recognition. . River and Bluffs Animal Shelter Membership Form Student - $5.00 ____ Sponsor - $50.00 _____ Individual - $15.00 ____ Patron - $100.00 _____ Family - $25.00 ____ Benefactor - $500.00 I would like to make a monthly pledge of : ________ per month for a total of $_______ per year. Name:___________________________________ Address:_________________________________ City/State/Zip_____________________________ Email:____________________________________ Phone Number:______________________ Please mail membership form to: River and Bluffs Animal Shelter PO Box 421, Prairie du Chien, WI 53821