AuSable Valley Animal Shelter will host its first annual “Blazin’ the Trails for Waggin’ Tails” horse trail ride on Saturday, September 6, 2008. All proceeds to benefit shelter animals. Entry fee: donation of $20 per person, $10 for kids under 12. Ride is about 20 miles long. Meet at the Four Mile Road Trail Camp at 9 a.m., dinner at 6 p.m.; drawings and bonfire at 8 p.m. Bring your guitar and voice for songs around the fire. RSVP by calling the shelter at (989) 348-4117.
The Board of Directors will meet Wednesday, September 10 at 3:30 p.m. at the shelter in Grayling. Members and volunteers are encouraged to attend and the public is welcome. One seat will be up for election at the November Annual Meeting of the Members. Members in good standing who are interested in serving on the board must send a signed note of their intentions to run to the board no later than October 1, 2008 to be included on the ballot. The shelter's mailing address is listed at the bottom of the page. Any questions regarding duties and obligations of board members may be directed in an email at mcruley@i2k.com. A copy of the shelter's bylaws are available upon request.
The shelter's Big Garage Sale held August 8-10 raised over $2,000 for our shelter animals! We were thrilled to see so many bargain hunters and shelter supporters come out to the fairgrounds for this event. A lot of you also got to visit our new shelter for the first time and were very happy with what you saw. That really makes us happy! We couldn't do what we do without YOU!
Thanks to everyone who helped organize and run the sale, and those who helped clean up afterwards. We donated a lot of the leftover goodies to the Commission on Aging, St. Francis Thrift Shop and River House Shelter. Special thanks goes to our board vice president Patty Redinger for all her hard work! And, finally, thank you to the Crawford County Board of Commissioners for letting us use the red barn for this sale.
AuSable Valley Animal Shelter has its own website, allowing us to show you even more pictures and videos of our pets! Visit ausablevalleyanimalshelter.org!
The “Please Stop Littering Fund” is a new program to help spay local cats and reduce the amount of unwanted litters in Crawford County.
A female cat, left unaltered and roaming, can produce more than a hundred kittens in her lifetime, and her kittens will do the same if they remain unaltered.
When cat owners have their girls spayed they no longer have to endure the yowling during heat cycles, which is the biggest reason they let them out of the house. The girls meet up with unaltered males, who may instinctively travel from a mile or so away. Not long after, cat owners find themselves with a litter of kittens they don’t want to deal with.
Over the years, we have been heartbroken to find kittens abandoned on our doorsteps and elsewhere, often in frigid temperatures or soaked by rain and often very sick. Animal abandonment is not only inhumane, it is illegal, no matter what the cat owner’s circumstance. We want to help stop this from happening NOW!
The most often mentioned reason why owners do not have their pets spayed or neutered is affordability. This new program will help low income cat owners afford surgery. While everyone at AVAS would like to help alter all companion animals, the “Please Stop Littering Fund” is exclusively for female cat alteration at this time. AVAS is currently working to arrange a low cost male cat clinic.
Through the program, the cost will be $20 to the cat’s owner with the remaining cost of the surgery to be paid through the Please Stop Littering Fund. Owners of female cats wishing to take advantage of this opportunity should come by or call the shelter at 348-4117 as soon as possible to receive a voucher for the low-cost spay. Surgery will be performed by Grayling Hospital for Animals. This program is limited to residents of Crawford County, MI and will only last as long as funds last.
To help keep this fund from depletion, donations may be made to AVAS, P.O. Box 384, Grayling, MI 49738-0384. Be sure to write “Please Stop Littering” in the memo area of your check.
Grayling Auto Repair #1 lived up to its name and won the number one spot during the 4th Annual Horseshoe Tournament to benefit our shelter. Grayling Auto Repair won the very first year of the tournament and the traveling trophy adorned their front window for a whole year! Aaron Weaver and Tom Lurack pitched their way in nice fashion to the top during the event held August 2, 2008 at the Swamp II in Frederic, MI with our hosts Bob and Linda Krajewski. Event organizer Mary Becker said she was pleased with the final amount raised of $904.50. Mary also organizes the annual snowmobile fun run and is perhaps the only one right now praying for snow! Thanks to Mary, Bob and Linda, everyone who participated, our team sponsors and Fay's Motel for donating a gift certificate for one night's stay in their jacuzzi suite for one of our drawings. MEEEOOOOOW and WOOOOF WOOOOF to you all!
It's not wonderful enough to have this free website to help us find homes for hundreds of dogs and cats awaiting adoption at AuSable Valley Animal Shelter, now the Petfinder.com Foundation has accepted our shelter to participate in their new "Sponsor-A-Pet" program!
Go to any one of our wonderful dogs or cats on our Pet List and notice the new "Sponsor-A-Pet" box. Click on the line to learn more and you will find a number of ways to help homeless animals. OR just click on "Sponsor Me" on any pets biography and help pay for the care and feeding of that animal through a highly secure electronic donation. It will only take a few minutes to make a donation using your credit or debit card!
We are so proud to be part of this new program and sincerely hope some of you are able to help sponsor a pet to help defray our growing costs at our new facility. Remember, we have gone from 13 kennels to 27 kennels, as well as an increased cat population. The animals are counting on you for your support!
Our beautiful new shelter is located in the northwest corner of the old Crawford County Fairgrounds. Entrance is east off of Old US 27, a few miles north of the city of Grayling. We hope you will stop in and visit us soon! Our hours are listed at the bottom of this page.
We continue to raise funds through various events and activities, but we really need monetary donations to the building fund to help pay off the $400,000 loan ASAP! (Yes, the project went over our original budget) All donations are tax-deductible as we are a 501c3 nonprofit organization and not a county funded agency. Donations may be sent to: AuSable Valley Animal Shelter, "Building Fund", P.O. Box 384, Grayling, MI 49738-0384. DONATIONS ARE ALSO NEEDED FOR DAILY OPERATION EXPENSES. Thank you!
You can help out the shelter animals by choosing the Animal Shelter of Crawford County (our corporate name) when you shop online through www.igive.com and www.buyforcharity.com. Just go to each site and sign up to shop and have 1-35% of your purchase donated to our shelter! Registering at either site is fast and easy. Hundreds of merchants everyone is familiar with are participating in this new way of fundraising and we hope you will sign up today! We would like to thank supporter Sherri Fairbanks for introducing this concept to us!
If you would like to help feed the animals, we accept donations of the following dog foods: Pedigree Adult Small Crunchy Bites, Purina Adult Dog Food (in the green bag only) and Diamond Brand Adult Dog Food. We also accept donations of Whiskas brand dry cat food and kitty litter. We try to keep all the animals on a steady diet of one brand of food to avoid digestive problems, so we prefer sticking with these brands. Donations of clean old blankets, pillows and towels are always welcome, as well as toys and treats for both cats and dogs. We accept return deposit beverage cans and bottles AND your Spartan UPC labels for redemption. The UPCs can be mailed to us at our P.O. Box address. THANK YOU!
Many people are visiting northern Michigan for outdoor activities. We believe some lose their pets, but don't know to come to the shelter to find them. Many of our newest arrivals are very nice dogs that have obviously been well cared for by loving owners. If you or anyone you know has visited or passed through the Grayling area and lost a pet, the shelter wants to hear from you! Let us know about your lost pet and be sure to check our Pet List to see if your dog or cat is posted there. He or she just may be waiting for you at our shelter right now! We love to find new adoptive homes for the dogs and cats, but we would really like some happy reunions, too... for the PET'S SAKE! Call us at (989) 348-4117 or email us at: wedare2care@provide.net and let's have some happy reunions
There are several animals on our Pet List available for adoption, many of which have been altered, a few are waiting to be spayed or neutered, and most of them are completely up to date on their shots. They are all wonderful characters! Be sure to take a look at all of them!
Spayed or neutered pure bred lap dogs $150
Spayed or neutered Large, Medium & Small dogs are $125
Spayed or neutered adult cats $75-$100
Spayed or neutered kittens $75-$100
Unaltered pups, adult dogs and cats $75-$100
Unaltered kittens $50
Remember... Michigan Law states all animals adopted from shelters must be spayed/neutered. If you adopt an unaltered animal from us, YOU MUST have it spayed or neutered within the time frame you agree to on your signed adoption agreement. IT'S THE LAW! Part of your adoption fee will be a $25-$50 deposit which you will be refunded once you show us proof of alteration from a licensed veterinarian within your agreed to time frame. To do otherwise would be to break the law. We follow up on the adoptions from our shelter of all unaltered animals. The best thing you can do for your dog or cat, besides loving it, providing shelter and food, is to have them SPAYED OR NEUTERED!
Shelter hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Sundays & many Holidays. After hours appointments can often be made to fit your schedule.
We have joined the list of approved Grayling area charities at The Charity Guide at http://www.charity-charities.org/
