Letter from Heather 

Dear Friends:

HALO Animal Rescue has continued to grow year over year, and this last year was a big one! Not only did we move into a second offsite adoption center (Metro Mall Adoption Center), but we also hosted 15 events, spent 90 days sponsoring pit bulls to increase adoptions of bully breeds AND found homes for 7,040 cats and dogs. It is always amazing to see how much more we can continue to do, and how much we can do when we all work together.

On February 14, we participated in the PetSmart Charities Be My Valentine National Adoption Weekend, where 101 lucky dogs and cats found their new furever homes. Next month, we’ll be at the PACC911 Paws Around the Fountain adoption event on March 29, and we hope even more pets can go home with new families. Throughout the year, keep an eye out for dates and times that HALO will be participating at events around the Valley. We’ll also continue to keep you updated through this newsletter.

In January, we reached out to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s MASH (MCSO Animal Safe Haven) Unit to assist with some resident cats who were still looking for homes. Some of these cats needed a little extra exposure to the public to find the homes they were seeking. We were able to take 19 cats from MASH, and within just a week, two found homes. Read Bridget and Sandy’s heartwarming story to see how we helped.

One way that you can help and be part of the happy homecomings is by volunteering or becoming a foster pet parent for HALO. We rely so much on our dedicated volunteers and fosters, and certainly can’t do this without you! Just since the beginning of the year, we have placed 134 pets into foster care (53 were born in our care) and have since  adopted many of them into loving families. Unfortunately, we only have about a fourth of the foster homes needed to provide housing for all the pets on the waiting list, and in a few short weeks, the shelter will begin seeing large numbers of kittens who need foster care. We definitely need your help! If you can provide a temporary home, especially for larger dogs with puppies, we need YOU! When pets come into Maricopa County Animal Care and Control and we know they need time in a calm, loving home, our foster team quickly flies into action. Read more about how you can get involved in this issue.

HALO Animal Rescue is not a for-profit organization; we are for-purpose! Our goal is to help pets find homes. In 2014, we did that for more than 7,000 pets, and we want to help even more this year. If there is any way that you can contribute to that goal, please get involved. There are so many ways you can help, and we welcome every one of them!

Heather Allen

President and CEO

HALO Animal Rescue

HALO Matches Pets and Valentines

As part of the PetSmart Charities Be My Valentine National Adoption Weekend, HALO participated in a parking lot event at the Arrowhead PetSmart store on Saturday, February 14. With cats inside and dogs outside, HALO helped 17 pets find their furever valentines that day at the store. However, the special pricing and occasion led more people to adopt at the PetSmart Deer Valley Everyday Adoption Center as well, and 24 pets went home over the weekend. In total, 101 pets from all HALO locations met their purrfect match in just two days. That’s true love!

A dog asks to be adopted during the PetSmart Charities event.

One of the lucky adopted dogs at the event on Saturday.

Debbie Barker, HALO's volunteer & foster coordinator, helps show a dog during the event.

Finally Purrfectly Happy

On January 29, Heather Allen and Kim Zikmanis decided that it was time to try other methods to help adoptable cats find homes. While HALO Animal Rescue was currently experiencing a cat shortage, they knew that there were other groups who had available cats in the community. HALO partnered with Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s MASH Unit shelter to bring 19 cats to HALO, where they had a better chance of finding a home.

With that group of 19 cats came Bridget and Sandy, two white sisters who had been rescued long ago. When Bridget and Sandy were young, their ears and tails had been cut off, and they had been rescued as part of an abuse and neglect case. They quickly found a new home, where they lived for 10 years. However, their owner was no longer able to care for them, so they found themselves back at MASH, nearly 14 years old and in need of a home together.

“It’s always more difficult to find a home for older cats, let alone two older cats who need to stay together,” said Heather Allen. “But we knew that Bridget and Sandy needed a home, and we wanted to try to get them the attention they deserved.”

By February 2, Bridget and Sandy had been transported to the PetSmart store at Desert Ridge, where HALO showcases available cats year-round. That’s where their luck changed. Laurie Sandblom, an employee at the Banfield Pet Hospital inside the store, saw the two girls and fell in love.

“I saw them together in their kennel and I knew they would be the right fit for my family,” said Laurie. “I immediately wanted to make them safe and happy and let them live out the rest of their lives with me.”

Laurie contacted HALO to see if she could make special arrangements to get Bridget and Sandy after she moved into her new home, just a couple days from then. After a pre-adoption on February 5 and a quick delivery, Sandy and Bridget were on their way home.

“They have found their favorite spots in the sun, on smooshy cat beds, and of course my bed too,” Laurie said. “I fear I am losing the kitchen counter battle and I don't even care.”

Bridget (back) and Sandy relax on Laurie's bed and on the kitchen counter.

Bridget and Sandy are settling in to their new home and learning to feel safe and confident again. They are showing more and more of their personalities, and are even wild women sometimes, chasing toys and running around.

“Thank you to HALO for helping me adopt these two cotton balls of love,” Laurie adds. “I’m so happy to have these two angels in my life.”

Laurie and her daughter Natalie greet Bridget and Sandy for the first time.

Want to Help Out? Get Involved!

Ash, a 4-year-old pit bull, waited patiently to find a home. She had been picked up by Maricopa County Animal Care and Control as a stray, and she was pregnant. When HALO staff saw her in the kennels, we knew we could help.

Dogs and cats like Ash enter the County’s shelter every day. Pregnant, alone, scared, they need someone to help them and keep them safe. For HALO, that means finding a calm, loving foster home where the puppies (or kittens) can be born and weaned outside of the noisy shelter environment. Once they are old enough to be fixed, the puppies come back to the shelter and are almost always adopted within days. The mom dogs or cats also come back to the shelter, are fixed, and can then find their permanent homes.

Ash did find a foster home with one of our dedicated foster parents, and she gave birth to nine puppies, who were all raised in the foster home and then adopted out to loving families. But for Ash, the wait was a little longer because she was a larger breed dog. Many people are reluctant to foster large dogs or pit bulls, or don’t step in as a foster at all because they aren’t sure what they need to do. But HALO needs your help, especially for large breed dogs with puppies!

Ash gives some love to one of her puppies.

We need people to foster large dogs, dogs of all sizes with puppies, cats with kittens, and dogs and cats who may need to recover from an illness or who just may need some extra time to relax and socialize outside of the shelter environment. We provide food, dishes, litter, bedding and all you need to care for these pets. All you have to provide is love and a private space for them. Please call HALO today at 602.506.2239 or email foster@halorescue.org for details and next steps!