Paw Prints —The Volunteer Voice
JUNE 2008 / MONTHLY nEWsLETTER FORtvar voluntEers
Paw Prints - The Volunteer Voice is a monthly publication for Tri-Valley Animal Rescue (TVAR) volunteers.
In This Issue:
· Number of Animals Adopted
· Volunteer Kudos
· Foster Homes Needed
· That’s Amore Planning Committee
· Fundraisers
· Wish List
· Help Wanted
· Contacts & Coordinators
· Calendar of TVAR Events
Do you have a story or event you’d like to have published in this newsletter?
Please contact Paw Prints Editor
Cindy Ferrin, at 925-828-8664, or
Thanks to the following contributors to this edition:
Shannon Chase
Terri Duncan
Cindy Ferrin
Linda Galisatus
Leslie Haas
Lisa Healy
Sue James
Carole Leschinsky
Kevin Metz
Susan Ruxton
Kathi Samec
Lisa Williams
Wish List
Donations of the following items (list was updated 4/08) may be dropped off at the East County Animal Shelter in Dublin, open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. We thank you for your donations.
Cat Items
Cat Litter (any kind)
Cat Litter Scoops
Cat Litter Pans
New Cat Beds
New Cat Toys
Small scale to weigh kittens daily
New Scratching posts
Dog Items
New Dog Beds
New Dog Toys (chew bones, squeak toys, balls, pull toys, etc.)
Dog Pens
Frontline or Frontline Plus Flea Medicine
Grocery store roll of clear plastic bags (for poop bags)
Big plastic watering cans (to fill outside dog bowls)
One inch nylon or leather leads and heavy choke chains in various sizes
General Items
Cash Donations for Medical Supplies
Pet, Retail, or Supermarket Gift Cards
Laundry Detergent
Simple Green Cleaner
Office Supplies
Paper Towels
Wet Wipes (anti-bacterial sheets)
Color Copier Paper to make flyers
Postage Stamps $.42 & $.27 (new rate)
Monthly Board Meeting
The next TVAR Board of Director meeting will be Tuesday, June 10h, (2nd Tuesday of each month). The location is Keller Williams Realty, 5994 W. Las Positas Rd. in Pleasanton (corner of Hopyard and W. Las Positas), from 6–8 p.m.
Contact President Lisa Healy at or 925-355-9039 if you would like to attend.
Volunteer Orientation
The next TVAR volunteer and shelter orientation will take place on Saturday, June 21st, (held monthly) at East County Animal Shelter (ECAS), 4595 Gleason Drive in Dublin from 1-2:30 p.m.
Questions regarding orientations may be referred to Deborah Thompson at or 925-461-9910.
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Volunteering
When a potential volunteer e-mails showing interest in volunteering, they now get an automated response inviting them to attend an upcoming orientation event.
For new volunteers who sign up to volunteer through our website or call our TVAR recorder, Cindy Ferrin is the contact. Cindy may be reached at 925-828-8664 or .
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Cat & Dog Foster Medical Supplies
For your convenience, the following volunteers may disperse medical supplies:
CATS:
Pleasanton
Nancy Shriver at 925-462-4157
Terri Duncan at 925-425-9022
Dublin/San Ramon/Danville
Carole Leschinsky at 925-829-0728
Livermore (Does Home Visits)
Barbara Finn at 925-455-8237
Castro Valley/Hayward/Dublin
Terri Duncan at 925-425-9022
DOGS:
Dawn McKeown at 925-362-0798
General Supplies for
Dog and Cat Fosters
Before buying supplies for your foster animals, please check with your foster coordinator. We stock many items.
Cat Foster Coordinators:
Terri Duncan
Linda Galisatus
Carole Leschinsky (kitten food and bottle baby expert)
Dog Foster Coordinators:
Patricia Oliveira
Lisa Healy
Susan Ruxton
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TVAR’s Mission Statement
Tri-Valley Animal Rescue (TVAR)is a nonprofit, all volunteer organization whose mission is to end the unnecessary euthanasia of homeless animals. TVAR cooperates with area shelters and rescue groups, primarily the East County Animal Shelter, to provide homeless animals with socialization, foster homes, medical care andthe opportunity for another chance.
2008 TVAR Officers
President – Lisa Healy
Vice President – Leslie Haas
Treasurer – Susan Ruxton
Secretary – Terri Duncan
2008 TVAR Board of Directors
Leslie Haas
Lisa Healy
Sue James
Dawn McKeown
Susan Ruxton
Larry Stein
Lisa Williams
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***** Fundraisers *****
Buy & Help TVAR Animals!
TVAR is now a registered organization at Buy For Charity, a website that gives a percentage of sales to nonprofits. Shop online from over 350 stores like Barnes & Noble, Gap, Office Max, 1-800-Flowers, REI, Orbitz, and more at BuyForCharity.com! Up to 35% of each purchase will benefit us if you select TVAR as your beneficiary.
Anytime you buy online, whether you are looking for airline tickets, flowers, clothes, music, or anything else… visit BuyForCharity.com, sign-up and shop away!
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***** Fundraisers *****
Free Money for TVAR by Using the Internet
By Susan Ruxton
What if Tri-Valley Animal Rescue earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Well, now we can!
Goodsearch.com is a new search engine that donates half its revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. You use it just as you would any search engine, and it's powered by Yahoo!, so you get great results.
Just go to www.goodsearch.com and be sure to enterTri-Valley Animal Rescueas the charity you want to support. Just 500 of us searching four times a day will raise about $7300 in a year without anyone spending a dime! And, be sure to spread the word!
***** Fundraisers *****
Vehicle Donation Program
Let TVAR and homeless animals benefit from donation of your old car, truck, van, trailer, RV or boat. It’s tax-deductible and easy too.
Call All Bay Vehicle Donations, at 1-877-700-4483 and ask for a free pick-up. They handle all the paperwork. Let them know that you want the proceeds to benefit Tri-Valley Animal Rescue.
Jeri Behymer is our coordinator for this program and she may be reached at or 925-468-1505.
***** Fundraisers *****
Make the Most from Your Donation!
Do you have an item you would like to donate but just haven’t gotten around to it? TVAR now accepts high-priced items to sell on eBay, with the proceeds helping homeless animals!
Volunteer Diana Mittelberger is generously donating her time to sell items for TVAR on eBay. Contact Diana Mittelberger at or 925-323-7989 if you have items that you are willing to donate!
***** Fundraisers *****
Escrip is An Easy Fundraiser
Looking for a free and easy way to help TVAR raise funds?
Simply go to www.escrip.com, register your grocery loyalty and/or credit cards and participating businesses will contribute 2-5% of your purchases to TVAR.
Escrip.com recognizes our group name as Tri-Valley Animal Rescue, not TVAR.
NOTE that for grocery loyalty cards, each time you make a purchase at participating stores, you need to swipe your card. Entering your phone number on the touch-pad will not activate the escrip donation.
· Apparel: Eddie Bauer, Macy’s, Outdoorkids.com
· Automotive: Big O Tires,
· Grocers: A.G. Ferrari Foods (agferrari.com) Diablo Foods, Gene’s Fine Foods, Lunardi’s Markets, Safeway, Whole Foods
· Newspapers: Contra Costa Times, San Ramon Valley Times, Valley Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury (for new subscriptions)
· Office Supplies: Office Max, Staples
· Pet Store: None
· Restaurants: Baja Fresh, Carrows, Claim Jumper, Coco’s Bakery Restaurant, Le Boulanger, Round Table
· Tax Service: Liberty Tax Service
· Travel: Club Cruise, mitchstuart.com
· Traffic: webtrafficschool.com, escrip.driversed.com
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Around TVAR
If you know of a volunteer who should be recognized in this newsletter, send an email with the person’s name and a short description to Cindy Ferrin at or call 925-828-8664. Submissions are needed by the 15th of each month for publication in the following month’s newsletter.
If you know of a volunteer who is ill and you would appreciate a card sent from TVAR volunteers, contact Cindy Ferrin at the above contact information.
Volunteer Information
By Lisa Healy
You can now get your TVAR volunteer name button through Zazzle on our tvar.org website for just $1.45.
Go to the "Shop TVAR" link on theleft side of the home page and that will take you to the Zazzle site to purchase TVAR items. You can also purchase personalized TVAR shirts, aprons and hats.
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East County Animal Shelter (ECAS) Information
East County Animal Shelter is located at 4595 Gleason Drive, off Camino Tassajara in Dublin. The phone number is 925-803-7040. Daily hours of operation are from 11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Animal Services
Phone Numbers for Lost & Found Pets
Danville 925-335-8300
Dublin 925-667-7763
Livermore 925-371-4848
Pleasanton 925-931-5100
San Ramon 925-335-8300
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TVAR Communication - TVAR Yahoo Groups
Keeping updated with TVAR happenings is as easy as joining a TVAR Yahoo Email Group. You can join just one or multiple groups. Here are the available groups and the corresponding addresses:
Tvargroup—General messages.
E-mail to join:
tvarcats—Cat Program messages.
E-mail to join:
tvardogs—Dog Program messages.
E-mail to join:
TVAR Adoption Days
Messages regarding weekly farmers market adoption events and other TVAR outreach activities.
E-mail to join:
TVAR Shelter Volunteers
Messages for those who work with shelter dogs or shelter cats.
E-mail to join:
NOTE: If you reply to a TVAR group message it goes to everyone in that group. If you wish to reply just to the person sending the message, forward the message to that person.
YAHOO Group Moderators
If you have questions regarding YAHOO groups these are the volunteers who can answer your questions or make updates.
Contact Terri Duncan at or
Tracey Quartaroli at
Contact Susan Ruxton at
NOTE: If you are on a TVAR yahoo group distribution list and change your e-mail address, you will need to re-subscribe to the TVAR yahoo group again.
/ 2008 TVAR Animal Adoptions
By Terri Duncan and Carole Leschinsky
Here is a running tally of all of TVAR’s adoptions made possible by dedicated TVAR volunteers. Last year all of our efforts resulted in 1045 animals finding new homes. Thanks for making a difference in the lives of homeless animals in our community.
Month / TVAR Cat Adoptions / TVAR Dog Adoptions / TVAR ’08 Total
Jan. ‘08 / 57 / 15 / 72
Feb. ‘08 / 40 / 11 / 51
Mar. ‘08 / 51
20 kittens, 18 teens, 13 adults / 20 / 71
April ‘08 / 55
31 kittens, 6 teens, 18 adults / 28 / 83
Year To Date
(thru April) / 203 / 74 / 277
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Now More than Ever, Fostering Saves Lives
By Terri Duncan and Carole Leschinsky
Kitten season is here, and loads of little furry bundles of joy are being altered and offered for adoption at PetSmart. Two Saturdays in a row, we've had adopters lined up at 11:30 a.m., waiting for kittens to arrive! It has been crazy!
Recently TVAR has been pulling many young kittens from ECAS into our bottle baby foster program. Fosters willing to bottle-feed are now full and ECAS will have to start putting them down. It is very sad--this will be the first time we have had to tell ECAS we cannot pull anymore. If you know of anyone able to help feed and care for bottle babies, please contact Carole Leschinsky at or call 925-683-1956.
Fostering Saves Lives (continued)
Foster homes provide homeless animals with temporary housing and TVAR provides the necessities, including food and medical care. To learn more about how you can become a foster parent, contact one of the volunteers listed below:
Kitten and Cats:
Linda Galisatus at or 925-961-0260
Terri Duncan at or 925-425-9022
Kitten Bottle Babies:
Carole Leschinsky at or 925 683-1956
Dogs:
Patricia Oliveira, or 925-787-5825
Lisa Healy at or 925-355-9039
Susan Ruxton or 925-337-4946
Kitten Adoption Assistance
By Terri Duncan
Kitten season is here, and some of our very first litters to come into foster are getting to the age to be altered and adopted. The great news is that there are adopters out there just waiting for these little furry bundles of joy!
Linda Galisatus and I would like to offer our assistance to help our kitten fosters adopt out their babies. Every adoption means space is available in your foster home to save another life.
TVAR website and craigslist.org: Please contact Linda Galisatus for picture-taking and bio-writing tips. Once you've gotten those pictures and bios to her, Linda can post them to the TVAR website and onto craigslist. Some of our most successful fosters adopt their kittens without ever leaving home!
Dublin PetSmart: Please contact Terri Duncan if you would like to bring your kittens to PetSmart on Saturdays, IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO STAY WITH THEM YOURSELF. Please let Terri know by each Thursday of each week if you would like her to adopt your kittens out for you on the following Saturday!
We're here to support you and help you out! Please call on us: Terri Duncan at 925-425-9022 or
Linda Galisatus at 925-961-0260
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Volunteer Kudos – Erika Shaffer
By Sue James
Erika Shaffer and her best canine friend Luke
Meet Erika Shaffer, Dog Program volunteer extraordinaire!Erika came through orientation last fall and has been dynamite volunteer ever since.
Erika can be found at the shelter almost every day walking even the most difficult to control dogs.She has been instrumental in getting many dogs adopted, including Bruno, Cocoa, and Penny (all pit- bulls that we all were concerned would never make it out of the shelter).
Erika is now helping new dog program volunteers “learn the ropes.” This is very important role for retaining new volunteers.Her warmth and caring ways are contagious to dogs and people alike.
She is also taking a leadership role in designing new shelter activities, never wanting to rest on her past successes.The shelter staff has welcomed Erika and has asked for her help with special-needs dogs.We are so happy Erika chose to donate her time and talents to TVAR.
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Did You Know?
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, twice as many homes in the United States have pets vs. children. Latest statistics show 60% of homes now has a pet, whereas only about 30% of household have children!
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Teen/Jr. Volunteer Kudos - Warren Harris
By Kevin Metz
He follows the rules most of the time!
Sure, sometimes he forgets to wear his volunteer name badge until reminded--his most common offense. Then again, forgetting is a common offense of any 14-year-old, so we give volunteer Warren Harris the benefit of the doubt.