Karma Cinema!

Hopalong Animal Rescue is of four non profits being featured in August at the New Parkway Theater in Oakland! They are a great group of people who have renovated the place and started this "pay what you want" offering on select days.

A one minute video created by our stellar volunteer Monique will be running before each movie showing for the entire month of August. 

Each audience for every movie will vote who they want the proceeds to go to, and 30% will be donated to the winner!

Go see a movie and tell your friends!

Volunteer at PetSmart Pinole

We have a lot of shifts available for our cats at Pinole PetSmart. These cats are available for adoption and cuddling! Volunteers usually go once a week and cuddle, scoop and feed. There's a room the cats can go and play and where volunteers can socialize with them. This is a great chance to get your kitten fix!
Shifts are available every day except Sunday. Please be in touch with me!

Social Time!

So, we've got a venue (Hive Cafe in Oakland)- now we just need a time! Fill out an even SHORTER survey than last time and we'll have a date! This isn't commitment to attend, but we'd like to get a feel of a) when would be best to have this event, and b) about how many people would come. As always, feel free to email me with any questions/comments.

Also, kids welcome, especially those who help us foster- we consider them crucial members of the Hopalong family!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Many Animal Wednesday!

Hi Fosters and Volunteers and Volunteers who Might Be Fosters Soon,

Hope everything is well with you! If you haven’t heard, we have lots and lots of dogs and puppies who need foster homes. If you’ve thought about fostering in the past, this is a great time. If you know anyone who might want to foster a dog or puppy, send them this way- we’re very welcoming! We’ve got small adult dogs and medium/large breed puppies, and foster-to-adopt is a-ok with those guys. Spreading the word is also a great help: we have an ad on Craigslist that’s an easy way to get the word out.

This is also a great time to adopt a kitten- it’s that time of the summer when kitten adoptions slow down. All of you have done a great job fattening up these kittens and socializing them, now we need to remind people that the kittens are out there. Tell your friends to check out our website, visit our petfinder or “like” us on Facebook.

Spreading the word takes just a minute but is an enormous help and we really appreciate it. Another thing that doesn’t take too long (and tastes good!) is eating pizza! Tomorrow (July 25^th) is our first FUNdraiser with California Pizza Kitchen. You and your friends (and acquaintances) can print out and bring in this ad to the California Pizza Kitchen in Emeryville on Bay Street and eat away. For every diner that brings in the ad, Hopalong gets 20% of the check! (Make sure and say “hi” to the Hopalong volunteers while you’re there!)

After you eat at CPK, you might want to burn off some of the cheese and dessert: We’re moving stuff across the parking lot from our storage unit to our office on Saturday, July 27^th and really need some help. We got very short notice about this move and there is a LOT of it. If you’ve got an hour to spare, we’d love if you could move a load or two!

A quick thank you to the people who have brought in dry kitten food- the kittens have already eaten it and say thank you! We asked them to slow down, but they’re still asking for more! Sheesh! Also, thank you to the great volunteers who came in on Saturday to learn how to screen prospective dog adopters. This promises to be a giant help. More classes in the works! As always, opportunities on the blog including a bunch of drives. Also coming soon, our first volunteer & foster social- I have a meeting tomorrow with a potential host. Yay!

Thank you, all, for everything.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Lauren

Opportunities

• Driving! We've got dogs and they need rides! For sure we will need drives Thursday, July 25th, Friday, July 26th and Monday, July 29th. Please let me know if you're available. Minivan available!
• Weekend moving party: This Saturday, July 26th, we are moving our storage unit back into our office. We need a few gung-ho people to shuffle stuff around (some heavy, some not). Even an hour helps!
• Cat Cuddling: Both of our sites (PetSmart in Pinole and PetCo in Emeryville) have shifts available. If you live close to either of those sites and want to pick up a weekly shift for kitten love, let us know!
• Fostering! We have *so many* dogs that need fostering, it's kind of ridiculous. The puppies are included below, but there are adults, too. And if you like kittens better, well, we've got those, too! Have some summer fun with these guys! Contact me or Erica.

Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday

Hi Fosters and Volunteers!

I hope you are well and this weekend is speeding by for you! Thank you all for participating in the “do you want to hang out with Hopalong Fosters and Volunteers” survey- if you haven’t, here’s your shot! Preparations are underway and I’ll have updates for you soon.

I’ve got some long term dogs to talk about today: first, congratulations to Maddie (the tripod) for leaving the building! Thank you to Kris and Lanie for keeping that sweetheart for so long. Second, please take a second to check out and share Chico’s profile (pictured, left). Chico is a really wonderful guy whose adoption donation has been reduced for the simple reason that he’s getting overlooked.  He’s a good hiker, a fast study, and crate trained. Like Maddie, this is one of those dogs leaving us shaking our heads and wondering why the best ones stay with us for so long!

I know it’s a little early to plan your dinner for next Thursday, but we’re partnering with California Pizza on July 25^th, August 22^nd, September 26^th and October 24th. Any diner who presents this flier will have 20% of her check donated to Hopalong! You can help even if you can’t eat at CPK those days- spread the word by passing out fliers, forwarding this email or linking it on your social media sites. The flier is also available right from our homepage if you want to direct someone there. This fundraiser only works if a) you bring the flier and b) you eat at CPK on one of those days so spread the word and bring a friend and an appetite!

Speaking of eating, the kittens say thank you for the yummy grub that you’ve donated! It seems that this batch of kittens came with bottomless pits for stomachs, though, and they’re now asking for even more dry kitten food. Anything you’ve got helps, at least until we figure out how to get them to California Pizza Kitchen!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Jack London Square adoptathon this weekend. It was a great success!

Thanks all, and as always, have a great afternoon/evening!

Best,

lb

Eat for Hopalong!

Wow, there's an offer that's pretty hard to pass up, right?

Hopalong is partnering with California Pizza Kitchen in Emeryville (5614 Bay St) one Thursday a month for the next few months. All you have to do is bring a flier and present it to your server and Hopalong gets 20% of your check! Help Hopalong by eating pizza and by sharing this with your friends, family and social networks.

You can print out the flier here or come by the office and we'll print them for you.





Stop by any time on these dates and don't forget to bring the flier!

• July 25
• August 22
• September 26
• October 24

Coming Soon: Hopalong Volunteer and Foster Socials!

In cased you missed it, we're very close to instituting something I've been trying to establish since volunteers and fosters first started giving me feedback: Socials!!

This will be a chance for everyone to get together “off the clock:” get to know each other, share stories, advice and just hang out. I've gotten lots of good responses already and I’m hoping everyone will take about 3 minutes to fill out this Very Short survey. 

Once I get a sense of what people will like to do, I’ll get the details figured out and we can start hanging out!

Weekly Update!

Happy Wednesday, all!

First of all, I’m really happy to share that we’re one step closer to getting our Foster and Volunteer Socials together! Volunteers and Fosters have both mentioned that they would like to have regular-ish get-togethers where they can hang out when they’re not “on the job.” To make sure these events are how you like them, please take a quick survey to help make them fun!

Next, Sam reports that about 20 kittens have gotten adopted from our Marin site, Woodlands Pets in Mill Valley, since they started adoptions in mid-June! Thank you, Stacy, for coordinating this! Doc, the puppy, was adopted after a brief run in with a fox tail. It’s foxtail season, guys, so watch out! (Pro tips on foxtails here: http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/foxtail-grass-and-your-dog)

Last, a couple quick opportunities: we’ve got mobile adoptions coming up Saturday, July 20^th and Saturday July 27^th. These both need drivers and handlers. Holler if you’d like to help get dogs adopted either of those days! We’ve got cat cuddling and animal care slots at the office pretty much daily.

And one more quick call out for dry cat food. Thank you all SO MUCH (especially Nina and co!) for keeping us in wet food. The kittens tell us that whichever we stock up on, they want the other! So if you’ve got a second to ask your local pet store or a spare couple dollars for a small bag, kittens say thank you!

Thank you all, and talk to you soon!

Weekly Volunteer Update

Hi All,

From all of us here at Hopalong, we wish you a very happy and safe 4^th of July! The office will be closed until Monday. In the meantime, some Pro Tips for you and your furry guys:

• It is safer to keep your pets indoors and at home during Fourth of July celebrations. Keep your pets in the house (even indoor/outdoor dogs and cats).  Resist the temptation to bring your dog to fireworks shows.
• Pets can be startled by the loud noise of fireworks. Once the festivities begin, keep your pet in a safe room where he can feel comfortable. If he is crate trained put him in his crate covered with a blanket to make him feel secure. 
• Block outside sights and sounds by lowering the blinds and turning on the television. Play soothing music in the background to counteract the cacophony during the "rockets' red glare. 
• If your pet seems overly anxious, you may need to skip fireworks displays all together.
• Avoid scraps from the grill. While tempting to our pets, any sudden change to your pets' diet can cause stomach upset. Keep open adult beverages out of reach.
• Many of the things we use on the 4^th of July can be dangerous to animals. Keep insect repellant, matches and lighter fluid away from pets. Only use special sunscreen that is intended for animal use. Keep your pets away from matches and lighter fluid. They can be extremely irritating to the stomach, lungs and central nervous system, if ingested. 
• Update your microchip information today! Should your pet get scared, escape and run away this is a great way to get him back. Collars and tags can fall off and microchips are only as good as their most recent information.

Some quick updates: We had some awesome adult cat adoptions this week! Cody and Savannah both got adopted at the mobile adoption at Your Basic Bird. Thanks Cat Team for your hard work. Thank you to Alexia, Anne, Erica and Katie for doing some last minute drives recently. (If anyone is ever game for a drive, we always need help in this department!)

We've got some fun stuff coming up and lots of room for volunteers. There are still spots for dog handling at the adoptathon at Jack London Square on July 13^th and the mobile adoption at Pet Food Express on July 20^th.  Also, if you or anyone you know is interested, we are accepting applications for our very first internship. Check out the ad here.

We’re hoping to be able to take more animals into the program this month and you can help make this happen. Kittens right now are usually shorter term commitments as they’re coming in a little older. We’re also hoping to pull some puppies- everyone loves puppies! If you can’t foster, think about spreading the word to your friends. We've found that the absolute best way to get more fosters is word of mouth. Talk it up, post it on your Facebook page or other social media and work your magic.

Thank you, everyone, for all of your time.