I’ve been working through some trial software to identify grant opportunities for the Retreat and found the Rachael Ray Foundation works specifically to save domestic animals. It looked like a nice fit for us so I started to investigate further. One of the requirements for grant application submission is to be a member of Best Friends. Best Friends is a network of shelters and rescues and again it’s a nice fit for the Retreat. One other requirement is also to join the Shelter Pet Data Association (SPDA). The SPDA maintains statistics on each shelter’s activity and therefore requires you to upload monthly your numbers of your animals by category — intakes, transfers in and out, deaths, etc.
The Retreat uses a simple data base program, To Your Rescue which creates a record for each cat we have on hand. We enter medical data and key milestones and its report generator provides the information the SPDA needed with no effort. I’m expecting that by participating in these two organizations, Mandarin’s Retreat will gain some needed credibility as a responsible rescue and open up opportunities to share information, ask questions or yell for help with similar organizations. I don’t like re-inventing the wheel and I’m willing to ask for help. Knowing where or who to ask is the key, of course.
Anyway, should you want to check out these two organizations here are the links: Best Friends https://bestfriends.org/ and SPDA https://shelterpetdata.org/
In other happenings at the shelter, we have released all the named kittens to perpetual Kitten Day Care in the Retreats offices. You forget just how much chaos seven young kittens can produce. I’m currently looking for the battery cover of my computer mouse. The cover was removed and the mouse remained on my desk. How the kittens accomplished that is currently unknown. Here is a picture on the kittens plus two sister cats eating supper last night.
