FIDO Indy

Today was such a beautiful, sunny day, and our volunteers came in ready to work! We are very grateful they did because it ended up being quite a busy summer day.

Before we even opened our doors at noon, we already had multiple clients checked in and waiting. By the time we closed we had served 35 clients. It was a great way to start off the week!💚

Helping Good Humans with Dogs

A client reached out to one of our Spanish interpreters, Laura, because a stray dog appeared in their neighborhood. The dog was thin and covered in flies. His ears were bloody from fly strike. He needed help.

The family wanted to help the dog, but they already have four other dogs of their own. They asked if FIDO Indy could take the dog. FIDO Indy is not a traditional foster/adoption rescue or shelter. But we are nonetheless maxed out already with 7 dogs we are trying to get into a rescue partner.

So we asked Laura if the family could hold onto the dog with FIDO's support. Laura is loaning the family her own inside dog training crate and assisting the family with the standard legal steps to find an owner. FIDO Indy is providing flea treatment, dog food, a collar and leash. This will get the family through the weekend and buy some time to either find the owners or line up a shelter placement.

Sometimes, it's just a quick stop-gap solution that gets a dog off the street, out of harm's way, and alleviates suffering. But when you have everyone stepping up, inconveniencing themselves, and working together to do what we each can, it sure is easier. In other words, it takes a village.

We are so grateful for Indy Neighborhood Cats.

FIDO Indy and Indy Neighborhood Cats (INC) have had a strong working partnership for many years now. Where there are dogs in need, there are also cats in need. We live in the same world of non-stop, overwhelming need. To that end, we partner jointly on the FIDO Indy/INC pet food pantry and new client registration.

In prior years, FIDO Indy assisted thousands of house cats with spay/neuter, cat food, and other cat supplies. Last year, FIDO Indy made the strategic decision to focus our resources on dogs only. This would have left a huge void in our city for cat support. Despite the overwhelming job INC already has to provide trap-neuter-return for tens of thousands of community cats, they stepped up last year to address this impending large void. If house cats are not fixed and fed, they and their offspring often end up on the street as unowned, reproducing community cats. INC now schedules, transports, and funds house cat spay/neuter surgeries every week. They also fund all the cat food purchases for our joint pet food pantry.

The entire team of INC staff and volunteers work non-stop to address the flood of cats that fill our city. It's a very hard, often thankless job. The calls for help never end. We are now at the peak of kitten season, with thousands of litters of kittens everywhere. INC has also stepped up to fill the void of kitten placement.

At this time of peak stress, we want to put a shout-out of support to Dawn, the Executive Director of INC. The calls for help to her phone never stop. Sometimes it's about emergency medical care for a cat, sometimes it's for another litter of kittens out there with no mom. Day after day, Dawn keeps the INC organization up and running and keeps saying "Yes, we can help", once again for another cat in need. It is a huge burden and we are so grateful that Dawn and the entire INC team are here for our city.

(Photos show just a few cats that INC has helped FIDO with recently.)

Meet Faith (left) and Soel (right)!

Miss Faith is the momma of sweet Soel, and boy was she ready to not have any more puppies! So yesterday her and son were picked up by our spay/neuter transport team early in the morning to go to one of our partner clinics to get fixed, microchipped, and up-to-date on their vaccines. Then our PM spay/neuter team dropped them off back at home for a happy reunion with their family!

We are grateful for our partnerships that help dogs that we can't otherwise reach.

Today, we assisted Mel, a Harm Reduction Specialist with the Damien Center. Mel not only helps her at-risk human clients, but she also extends her help to their dogs.

Today, we filled her van with dog food and flea treatment so she can provide these supplies to her clients, many of whom are homeless. We will also be working with her to extend our partnership to spay/neuter scheduling and transport for the unaltered dogs of her clients.

We are all in this together. Working together is the only way we begin to get ahead of all the need in our community.

Happy Fourth of July from all of us here at FIDO Indy!

We hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!