Independent Animal Rescue of Durham

I have many friends who are animal lovers like myself.  I am not a dog person or a cat person. I love both.  I may lean toward kitties, but I would never turn my back on a dog in need.  So this blog is a special topic for me and for my friend Tiffany who suggested I write about the Independent Animal Rescue of Durham. 

I have to admit that I had never heard of IAR until Tiffany told me that is where she and her sister adopted their cats.  So I looked up IAR’s website, http://www.animalrescue.net/homepage and was pleasantly surprised at what I found.  Independent Animal Rescue of Durham is an organization 100% run by volunteers.  That means every penny raised goes to the programs IAR runs.  Those programs include a foster program, a community spay/neuter program, the Coalition to Unchain Dogs, a feral cat program, and a dog behavioral training program.  You can read in detail about these programs on the website. (http://www.animalrescue.net/programs)

The one that I want to focus on is the program that takes a lot of love to run: the foster program.  According to IAR’s website:

IAR rescues animals that are found as strays or originate from the local shelters that are in danger of euthanasia. We place these animals in loving foster homes and pay for all vet care and animal supplies. Once the animals are ready for adoption, we screen potential adopters and create a match so that the animal will be adopted into a loving forever home.

You can imagine the costs associated with this program.  IAR covers the costs for vet care and food and can also pay for other supplies needed for the pets such as bedding, toys, etc.  Often the foster parents will help reduce IAR’s costs by providing those items themselves.  The foster parents will care for the animals until they are adopted, which could take several months.  Some foster parents have gotten pretty creative in developing interest in their foster pets.  For example, Tiffany told me

We found out about IAR through UstreamTV, which was featuring a rescue kitten cam. We would watch all the time. IAR has a few foster moms that put up cams online live, and you can watch them play and sleep all day.  One foster mom cam was named Bosley and The Spice Girls.  They were so much fun to watch. And it turns out they were local. Well my sis and I had fun watching the girls so much. IAR then had adoption events at Petsmart in Durham and Stephanie went and visited them a couple of times. Sapphron and Bosley got adopted, but Nutmeg and Ginger had yet to get adopted, so we talked it over and decided we wanted to adopt them.

Tiffany described the adoption process as “pretty easy.”  The application is on the website.  Folks who want to adopt have to go through a screening process to make sure that they will provide good “forever homes” for the animals.  Tiffany also said, “The costs are pretty typical with other organizations and county shelters. They have most of their shots and are spade and micro-chipped, which is included in the cost, and if you get two pets, the price is discounted.” 

The kitties that Tiffany and Stephanie adopted were rescued from a Johnston County animal shelter.  Their names are Nutmeg and Ginger (hence the Spice Girls nickname).  They even had fans from their time on the kitten cam.  “When we first adopted them, some of their fans sent gifts and Petsmart gift certificates for toys for them. It was really nice of them.”  I’m sure those fans will be happy to know what a great home the Spice Girls found.  You can follow their exploits in their new home on Stef’s blog at http://kas3dot0.blogspot.com/.

As with all of my friends when choosing an organization to feature here, I asked Tiffany why she would suggest supporting the Independent Animal Rescue of Durham.  “They open their hearts and time to lost and abandoned animals - even from shelters to prevent from euthanizing animals. I feel they really care, and the foster moms are great to the animals.”

If you would like to learn more about volunteer opportunities with IAR of Durham, you can find all the information you need here: http://www.animalrescue.net/volunteer.

Again, if there is a charitable or volunteer organization in the Triangle area of North Carolina that you would like to see profiled on my blog, please let me know.

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season!