Weekly Email Archive

7/3/13

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 

6/28/13

First, happy summer! We hope you all are enjoying summer, whether with your families, your friends, your furry ones, your baseball team or all of the above! We are doing what rescues do in summer- rescuing! You’ve probably figured that out by the volume of emails you’re getting and I’m sorry about the quantity- this is definitely a high volume time all around. It’s also a high volume adoption time, so every bit helps, really. Let me tell you, we’re high volume thankful to each and every one of you!

Some quick thank you’s: Thank you to Mikul for taking some awesome pictures of long term office cats! How glamorous does Pishi (left) look? She’s still looking for a foster home and we’re hoping this will help. Thank you to fosters Lorraine and Sarah who had an interesting experience this minute with some self-described Hot Guys!

Next, quick updates: We’ve got quite a few opportunities coming up, including new ones. Most are on the blog, or you can always call or email me (I love hearing from you!).  Many are also in the database, available for self-scheduling. We’ve also got a ton of animals that need lifts (when will they learn to drive!). If you’ve ever thought about driving or have free time, please let me know and I’ll add you to the list of people who get driving requests. Some of the cool stuff coming up:

·         We’re looking for some people for the July 13^th adoptathon at Jack London square. We need transporters to/from the event and dog handlers (maybe cats, too, not sure yet). 
·         California Pizza Kitchen in Emeryville has offered us the proceeds from some of their meals. If you’re interested in talking up Hopalong, we’ve got one Thursday a month that needs filling each month from July to October
·         Dog screening/adoption counseling Training- This is an awesome opportunity (if I say so myself). Since I’ve started, I’ve been wanting to start doing trainings to help make more opportunities available to people and, of course. Erica and I have been working on this one: I’ll be holding a training soon for people interested in screening adoption applications that come in for Hopalong dogs. This is an opportunity that can be done from home or the office.

And of course, more animals means more fostering opportunities! If you’d like to foster and haven’t in a while or know someone who might want to join the Hopalong family, just let us know!

Fosters and volunteers make this place run and once again, thank you for everything you do. We really, really appreciate it.

6/21/13

Hi fosters and volunteers,

I missed you dreadfully last week, but sometimes your county needs you. Yes, I had jury duty. I’m back, though, with updates and opportunities.

I know you’ve already marked your calendar for the 20^th Anniversary Celebration on October 12^th, and you’re probably wondering “where is my invitation?” Well your invitations are in the works: the e-version should go up soon and the mailings will go out in a month or so. Elves are working behind the scenes on getting this ready, but if you feel you have skills that you’d like to use towards this event, please let me know. We’re still looking for one or two more people for the event promotion committee, someone to manage invitations and a live auction coordinator.

If you can’t wait for October, we’ll be at an adoptathon on July 13^th at Jack London Square from 10-3. We still have positions open for dog handlers, drivers and setup/breakdown. This is a super fun event, so even if you can’t come, tell your friends and family!

We’ve also been working behind the scenes on some other new and cool stuff. Some is very proto-new-and-cool and still needs a lot of your help. First, if you have video-making-editing skills, we’d love to know about them! We’re looking to assemble a cool “thank you” video montage with pictures of adopted animals. This sounds like rocket science to us, but we know that to some of you, it’s a piece of cake. Next, are partnering with California Pizza Kitchen in Emeryville: patrons will be eating and drinking for good! We will be looking for people to staff the table, probably on Thursdays, to ensure that 20% of proceeds make it to Hopalong! And lastly, we are expanding our volunteer opportunities at the office to include a daily animal care position. I get asked a lot about hands-on experience with animals and the dirty work of shelters. This is your chance to learn what animal care is like or, if you already know what it is, a good chance just to get a little dirty!

Just a little nitty-gritty detail stuff:  It’s summer and you may find yourself with an extra moment on your hands. It might occur to you, “oh, I wonder if Hopalong needs me!” The answer is YES! Then you might think, “oh! How do I know? Where do I go? What do I do?!” Here are some easy ways to find out what’s needed (besides calling and emailing me- I’m around and love to hear from you!): You can bookmark Current Opportunities on the Volunteer and Foster blog. You can double check your profile in our database (get there here) and make sure your preferences are up to date- that’s how I know who to contact with volunteer opportunities. And, if you’re feeling really fancy, you can schedule yourself for opportunities using the calendar on that database! If you’ve talked to me and told me what you like to do, I’ve marked your profile accordingly. After this, you’ll find that there will often be open slots you can just plug yourself right into- for example, dog handling at that Adoptathon! (Bonus points for people who self-schedule after this email!) And, of course, if you’re REALLY feeling the summer, the shelters are bursting with animals- this is an excellent time to foster!

Special thanks this week to Anne who jumped in to drive AND clean cats, to Steve for last minute coordinating and to Mark and Lisa who have been through the “ringer” lately, fostering a longterm dog and a litter of kittens with some hairloss.

Thank you to everyone, always,

Lauren 

6/4/13

I know it’s Tuesday, but it’s the Tuesday After Maddie’s which should be a National Holiday if you ask us. This is just a quickie email to thank everyone who worked Maddie’s and give you an update. A shout out to these volunteers and fosters who came to Emeryville and weathered the heat (see what I did there?) on Saturday and/or Sunday and Pinole on Saturday. Apologies if I missed anyone!

In the order that my software prints in: Gerry, Carol, Steve, Casey, David, Alley, Ricky, Hannah, Doreen, Galen, Erica, Alma, Marisa, Danielle, Anne, Andrew, Joanne, Ian, Trang, Nicki, Doug, Katie, Kathy, Pat, Elke, Jill, Shelby, Leslie, Kristin, Jen P, Kris, Valerie, Dawnielle, Laura, Liz, Jen B, Rick, Ben, Melinda, Tami, Melka, Laura, Julie, Katie, Lanie, Tina, Maria and Renee. Thanks also to all of the kitty and dog fosters whose animals got adopted this weekend.

It was an honor to work with all of you, really. You were professional and fun and Hopalong and the animals are lucky to have you!

And of course you’re probably wondering who got adopted! Well, the final names are still coming in but it looks like grand total is over 40 animals! This is absolutely AMAZING and couldn’t happen without all of you.

Stay tuned- Wednesday email coming, well, Wednesday!

Best,

Lauren

5/22/13

Good Wednesday, All!

I’m just gonna start with the Hot News first: Fanta and Pistachio, our long-term black cats got adopted! Thank you Kathy for fostering these guys for so long.

Next up: thanks everyone who has jumped in for Maddie’s adoptathon shifts! We’ve got a few left: Check them out here and let me know. We can also rescue a few more dogs in time for the Adoptathon, but need a few more temporary fosters- let me or Erica know if you can foster for a week or two!  Maddie’s is a huge opportunity for the animals and for the public to get to know Hopalong, so thank you dog and cat people, volunteers and fosters for making this such a success!

This Saturday was our flyering blitz and it was GREAT! Our volunteers created a database of over 250 places to plaster with flyers and brochures and the folks who came out this weekend hit over 70 of them! This is an opportunity anyone can participate in anytime, anywhere! The flyers are available online to download and print- post them just about anywhere you think someone like you might see them! If you’d like to come pick them up at the office, we’ve got them here for you, as well.

Thank you everyone, and have a fabulous afternoon,

lb

5/15/13

Dearest Volunteers and Fosters,

This will be a slightly longer weekly update, so bear with me!

This Saturday, May 18th is your chance to do something totally and completely different while helping out. We’ve prepared Brand New Flyers to post all over the East Bay. We’ve done all the leg work: printed the flyers, sorted the brochures and picked targeted places to post. We’ve even sorted these places by neighborhood. All you need to do is stop by the office and pick up some brochures and flyers and go home and hit spots in your neighborhood.  Stop by the office Saturday between 9:30 and 10:00 or between 11:00 and 11:30 and pick up flyers and pastries!  (If you’d like to post flyers and don’t want to come to the office, that’s fine, too, just let me know!) If we haven’t met, this is also a great chance to say “hi”- I’ll be here handing out pastries and flyers and just generally being friendly!

In case I haven’t mentioned it in a day or two, it’s kitten season! We could really use more cat/kitten fosters, and as always, kitten food, especially dry. Contact Samantha (samantha@hopalong.org) if you’re interested in fostering.

Don’t forget the Maddie’s Adoption is coming up June 1^st and 2^nd. We’ve still got plenty of spots for dog handlers, transporters and set up/break down. This is a Really Fun Event!

And, we like to plan in advance: Hopalong is gearing up for our big 20^th Anniversary Celebration October 12^th. We have a number of event planning needs: helping with our silent auction, storytelling video promos, media outreach, event coordination, task-list tracking, RSVP management, etc. Speak up if you’re interested!

This week’s thank you’s go to Mobile Coordinators Steve, Casey, Andrew and Melinda for coming in on Saturday: we’re working on improving our mobile adoption process for everyone involved- volunteers, fosters and adopters. If you’re involved in dog mobiles, stay tuned for new and improved guidelines/training.

Thank you again for all of your hard work- it’s been a great week and it’s going to be a fabulous month.

Best,

Lauren

5/8/13

Good Afternoon Volunteers, Fosters and Other Dear Readers,

It is that time- Maddie’s Adoptathon! If you haven’t participated before, this is a Bay Area wide event: adoptions are free to qualified homes in order to give more shelter animals a second chance. We will have tons of animals for adoption and rely on volunteers to make this event a success (it always is!). So, if you are free June 1 and/or 2^nd, please let me know now! We’ll have all kinds of positions available- we’ll figure out what’s a good match for your interests! The event takes place at Bay Street in Emeryville and runs all day, both days. If you can only come part of the day, that’s fine, too!

Okay. These guys are adorable, right? There are five of these lab mixes, they’re 3 months old, they’re arriving on Friday, and they’re looking for foster! We really don’t want to board them- what puppy wants to go into boarding?- so if you’ve got space for even one of them, even for the weekend (but we bet you’ll end up loving them for longer), please let Erica know (Erica@hopalong.org)

Marilyn (the boy cat) got adopted this week! And special thanks to Clarissa and Danielle for their hard work on our flyering project. Save the date: May 18^th is our flyering blitz. I provide the coffee and donuts, you provide the footwork- getting flyers out in your neighborhood!

Thanks everyone. As always, there are tons of opportunities to help on the current opportunities page on the blog and if you’re the crafty type, I’ve added some DIY projects as well. And we always, always need kitten food!

Thanks guys, this has really been a successful week!

Best,

lb

5/1/13

Hi everyone,

It’s been a very busy week around here and volunteers and fosters are really stepping it up: we are all very grateful.

Couple new opportunities:

·         Cat cuddling at the office in the new office cat room. We’ve got spots almost daily for cat cuddling and cleaning. Let me know when you’d like to come in.

·         Maddie’s Adoptathon June 1-2nd. Planning ahead for this one, because it’s an all-hands on deck kind of affair. More details will be coming soon, but go ahead and start letting me know if you’re free either or both of these two days, as I can guarantee that we will need you!

And have you heard about the CatVidFest? It’s one of those newfangled internet-meme types of things happening on May 11^th in Oakland and Hopalong will be there.

Cool adoptions this week: Two kittens at Your Basic Bird who were literally there less than ½ hour before getting adopted! This may be a new record.

New feature on the blog: Donation Wishlist! (I know I’m demanding, but now that I’ve gotten you used to the Volunteer Database, bookmark and start checking out this blog on the regular! I’m keeping this as up-to-date as possible in order to keep the emails to a minimum. Feedback welcome.) This week, we’re featuring KITTEN FOOD requests. Those things are already eating everything in sight and we’re just warming up!

Special thank you’s to Joanne for a couple last-minute drives, to new volunteers Alexia and Julie for stepping up for PetCo shifts! Also thank you to foster Ben for taking that crazy cute hound. Right??

Have a great rest-of-week,

Lauren

4/24/13

Happy Wednesday, Volunteers and Fosters!

It appears we’ve reached the cusp of kitten season. The office is taking a deep breath and getting ready- if you hear anything, that’s just us going “KITTENS!!!” Dog volunteers/fosters, don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten you, but this week we’ve gone to the cats!

Thank you very much to Volunteers Danny and Kathy who made the cat room habitable: we have cats (adults for now) there and have opportunities for two cat cuddlers a day to come in and socialize. If you’re interested, shoot me a note (lauren@hopalong.org) and we’ll get you in here! We’ve also got some spaces available at our PetCo site in Emeryville: please let me know if you’re interested in socializing/cleaning there.

We had a fabulous week of adoptions: Barley, the last spaniel puppy and PB, Miles, JoJo and others!

This week we welcomed six new volunteers who left orientation ready to start tabling at events, fundraising, handling dogs and more. Say “Hi!” them when you see them around!

We have lots of other opportunities available on the blog- don’t forget to check there if you’re looking for a way to help out. And thank you for your continuing willingness to help make our new database work- it’s really coming along!

4/17/13

Good afternoon fosters and volunteers,

There are a couple of cool things coming up. First, the Bay Area Derby Girls (local Roller Derby club) have offered us a chance to promote Hopalong at their events. This is so incredibly awesome, I can’t even begin to explain the awesomeness! Mark your calendars and raise your hands if you’re interested in tabling May 11, June 15, July 13 and/or Aug 17^th. Second, some of you have asked about the upcoming Oakland Cat Vid Fest on May 11^th and the answer is yes, we’ll be there!

To find out about ongoing opportunities- when you’re sitting at home thinking, how can I help Hopalong- check THIS PAGE. If you have an RSS reader this is the page to add, or you can just bookmark it. I will be keeping it updated with ongoing and up-to-the-minute opportunities. If you want to know what’s behind this door and what you can do about it, you’ll have to click the link!

Some of you are getting really great at logging your hours. Others of you, well, you know who you are.

Exciting adoptions this week: Luna, the 6 year old tortie and 8 of 9 puppies! (Erica had a wildly successful adoptathon on Friday! Thank you to the fosters and volunteers who helped out!)

Thank you again for all of your continuing hard work.

Best,

Lauren

4/10/13

Dearest Hopalong Fosters and Volunteers,

I hope you’re enjoying the new, lower volume of emails- don’t worry, you didn’t fall off of the list! I’m working on targeting people in smaller groups based on activity preference: if you like to drive, you’ll get driving emails, if you like to do office work, you’ll get office emails, etc. That being said, it’s REALLY important that you either get into the database or contact me and let me know what you like to do so you get your updates!

If you've never considered driving before or have driven in the past, we're really short on drivers, especially during the week. Please contact me if you're interested (lauren@hopalong.org). You might even get to use the Brand New Van!!!

Next item is much more fun (and we love to have fun!): tomorrow night (April 11^th) is happy hour at Farley’s. Every month Farley’s donates a portion of their proceeds from Happy Hour to a nonprofit and tomorrow Hopalong is up! There will be a cat mobile there as well. The event is posted on facebook; please share around! The event will be from 5-9 PM and Farley’s is located at 33 Grand Ave in Oakland.

Lastly, thanks to Volunteer David who pointed out that I’m slacking on letting you know who has been adopted! (Don’t worry, he said it much more nicely than that!) Some exciting recent adoptions included 2 black cats: Shadow (!!!) and Chatter, and some longer term dogs: Scarlett, Penelope, Cashmir Picante and Chip!

Hope you’re having a fabulous week and enjoying this heat,

_________________________________________________________________________________

4/3/13

Dear sweet and wonderful volunteers and fosters,

I hope all is well with you and yours. I’m so thrilled to keep meeting all of you!

Things are picking up here- I will be hosting my first volunteer orientation Friday at the office, and if you have any feedback at all that you’d like to give me, I’m all ears! Saturday, Samantha and I will be heading over to BACS to have Hopalong’s first kitten foster information session.  Kitten season is just about here- if you’re not in touch with Samantha yet about fostering this is a great time to let her know you’re ready. If you’ve never thought about fostering kittens, this is also a good time to do so! She can be reached at Samantha@hopalong.org

The other big thing going on right now is Farley’s, pictured at left. Thanks to awesome volunteer Mari, Farley’s, a café in downtown Oakland has generously donated their window space to us for April. Juliet and Mari decorated the window early this week with pictures of adoptable animals, Hopalong info, etc. This is a majorly awesome opportunity: Farley’s is a high traffic spot! We have two openings for volunteers: THIS FRIDAY NIGHT (April 5) is First Friday in Oakland and we need at least one person to join Mari in tabling. Next THURSDAY, APRIL 11, Farley’s is hosting happy hour, and proceeds will go to Hopalong! We will be having a mobile there, and also need volunteers for tabling. Please let me know if you are available to help with this, any time after 4PM (can be later).

I’ve put these and some other volunteer opportunities up on the brand spanking new blog http://hopalongvolunteers.blogspot.com/p/current-opportunities.html. Don’t forget to check this and log your hours! http://www.hopalong.org/?page_id=2896

Feel free to contact me any time, for any reason. And thank you again!

Lauren

_________________________________________________________________________________

3/29/13
Dear Fabulous Volunteers and Fosters,

First, let me thank you again for the very warm welcome you’ve all given me. I’m really getting a sense of how lucky I am to be working with such a kind and generous group.

I will be starting to send out weekly emails and, at the same time, reducing the amount of emails you get daily. This may take a little while, but you should look for important info in these emails, like the following!

As you (hopefully) saw in Erica’s earlier email, we’re about to be in foster home crunch. One of the biggest things that you can do to help us is to get the word out about fostering. We have foster fliers that we would like to get out and about, and since I can’t be everywhere at once yet (working on it!), hopefully I can harness the amazing power of numbers of this list. I’ve uploaded 3 flyers onto THIS PAGE. They should open in nice downloadable PDFs that you can print and post. If you don’t feel like printing at home, that’s fine, too- we’ll have some copies of each on Karen’s desk in the office.

You’ll notice that the page is something you’ve never seen before, because it’s brand new, and very much a work in progress: Our brand new Volunteer and Foster blog! (I promise it will get prettier.) Stay tuned because I think you’ll like what’s coming!

Finally, at the bottom of the flyer page, you’ll see a link to track your hours. This is the same link that is on the For Volunteers page on Hopalong’s main site. We are gearing up this data base and it’s time to get everyone in there, and this is NEW- including fosters.  We’ve been informal about tracking volunteer hours for a while now, but it’s very important for grant purposes as well as to grow the program to have a good idea of our service hours. I’d love it if you write me back to let me know you’re out there so I can put you in the database, but if not, you’ll eventually get moved over there anyway. I’m more than happy to help you learn the system, and if you absolutely positively hate computers and databases, I can still accept your hours on paper; please make sure they get to me.

Banshee and happy adopter!

 That’s all the coordinating that I’d like to do this Friday, and I’m sure you’re done being coordinated, so here’s my weekly shout-out: Thank you Deb, Jean and Ellie for a great meeting Monday! These ladies came in on Monday evening and filled me in about all things foster. Pro tip: roll up the carpets!

Have a great weekend, everyone, Happy Easter if you celebrate it, and if I don’t see you before Monday, GO A’S!!!