November 2012 SHELTER SHORTS is a monthly newsletter intended to keep Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelter volunteers and

supporters connected. With everyones hectic schedules, we know it is often difficult, if not impossible to attend monthly meetings or to work at all of our fundraisers. Everyone is invited to submit articles for the newsletter. To do so, please call Bev at 608-326-2914 or email her at wyalusing2012@gmail.com. Monthly meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of every month at the Prairie du Chien City Hall. Meetings begin at 6:00 p.m. Please use the back door. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, December 20. The December meeting will be at Huckleberrys Restaurant and will be our annual Christmas Party. More information on the Christmas Party can be found further in this newsletter. In an effort to make Shelter Shorts more attractive and user friendly, the layout will change. Brian Cipra and Bev will work together to design a new look for Shelter Shorts. The new design will hopefully be ready by the December issue of Shelter Shorts. The list of members will no longer be included in SS. Renewals and new members will be listed in the month that membership dues are received. Donation amounts will no longer be shown. Upcoming Events and Fund Raisers Wake Up Santa will be held in the Community Room of City Hall on Saturday, December 1. We will wake Santa up promptly at 8:30 a.m., followed by breakfast and an assortment of activities, including Santa Bingo, Pin the Nose on Rudolph, Santa Says, Santas Secret Gift Shop, and Santas Workshop. The volunteer list is nearing completion, but if there is anyone who would still like to help, please know that we will not turn anyone down. Wake Up Santa is a fun event to help with. We will meet at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. We will turn the Community Room of City Hall into a Christmas Wonderland on Thursday afternoon, November 29th at 4:30 p.m. Everyone is invited to help. According to Jill, registrations are starting to come in. Tractor Supply Gift Wrapping and Bake Sale is scheduled for Saturday, December 15th from 9 a.m. 3 p.m. If you can bake your favorite holiday treats for the bake sale, please reply to this email or call Bev at 326-2914. They can be dropped off at Tractor Supply that morning at 9 a.m. Please have them packaged and priced to sell. We will also sell home-made dog treats, dog tugs and slip over the collar holiday bandanas. Pet Food Pantry donation boxes have been out in the community for about 2 weeks. Personally, I was afraid that the pet food pantry would never take off. The box in Piggly Wiggly is the only one that I monitor a few times a week as I am in there often. For the first week, the bag of dog food that I put in was the only thing in the box. I had put off checking on the other boxes because I was afraid that they

would be empty. I could not have been more wrong. The people in this community are awesome! I would like to thank any of you who donated food, promoted it in any way, or allowed me to put the boxes in your business. Prairie Cinemas box was full as was the box in Tender Care. I stopped in at Southwest Vet, True Value, Piggly Wiggly and Tractor Supply on Saturday morning. When I walked into Southwest Vet, I could not believe my eyes. The box was filled and the bench on which the box was setting and the floor in front of the bench was also full of pet food. True Value had 5 large bags of pet food and Piggly Wigglys box was also full and there was $10 cash in the box which I used to purchase 1 bag of dog food and 1 of cat food. Tractor Supplys box was a bit disappointing as there were only 2 small cans of cat food in their box. I had to run into Piggly Wiggly again on Saturday afternoon, and there was one more bag of cat food. To date, I have collected 382 pounds of dry cat and dog food as well as many cans of pet food and 2 large bags of rawhide chews and milk bones. This morning, Sue Rider sponsored a free skate at River City Roller Rink with admission being a donation of pet food. Our mascot, Chance (aka Linda Bedward) was also on hand to skate with the kids. Sad to say, that my grandson, Tristan, Kaitlyn, and 3 of Sues nephews kids were the only ones to participate. My dogs Vegas and Nicki were also present. Vegas got to burn off all of her excess energy by running with the kids as they were skating. Tristans first time on skates was a huge success and I know we will be back. Vegas and I demonstrated the fine art of canine jump roping, and we surpassed our previous record of 14 rotations with a total of 28. She was awesome to say the least. Thanks to Linda and Sue for giving up a Saturday morning and also to Sue for offering the use of the rink. On Friday evening, December 7, the PdC Area Girl Scouts will have their Christmas Party at Hoffman Hall. The Girl Scouts will bring pet food donations to the party. Santa, Chance, Bev and her therapy dogs will be in attendance to accept the donations and hopefully get a picture for a newspaper article. Pet food will be delivered to the food pantry on Thursday or Friday of this week. Again, thanks

to everyone who donated to this program which I hope to continue throughout the year. Rivers and Bluffs Christmas Party will be held at Huckleberrys Restaurant on Thursday, December 20 in conjunction with the December meeting. We will order off the menu at 6 p.m. with the meeting to follow while our food is being prepared. Everyone will be responsible for their own meal and tip. If you would like to participate in a gift exchange, please bring a gift with a value of $10. If you bring a gift, you will go home with one. We will also be collecting pet food for the pet food pantry at the Christmas Party. Please RSVP by replying to this email or by calling Bev at 326-2914 or Jill at 326-4870 by Friday, December 15th. The party is an excellent time to renew friendships and enjoy each others company without working at a fund raiser. I hope to see many of you there. Dog Obedience Classes will tentatively start on Saturday, January 5. Classes will be held indoors at Tractor Supply and will last for 6 weeks. Class time is 10 a.m. Dogs must be current on all vaccinations and be on a topical flea and tick treatment. Cost of the class is $60 and all proceeds will benefit Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelter. For registration information, please call Bev at 326-2914. Class size will be limited. Nelson True Value will be revamping their pet department in the near future. Donna Teynor and Oscar asked me if we would be interested in doing some type of event to promote it. We could do a food stand, dog demonstrations, or basically anything we would want to do. This promotion will be held in January. I told them we will discuss it and I will get back to them. Bingo Anyone? There were a number of positive responses to the question of using Bingo as a fund raiser for RABAS. More research will take place and I hope to have a report concerning cost of equipment, date and location availability, regulations, bingo license cost and requirements, number of volunteers necessary per game and any other questions prepared by the March meeting. Adoptions, Losses, People Looking for a New Pet, Pets in Need of a Forever Home Dale and Clara Huston sadly said good-bye to Patches, a stray cat they had befriended. They finally had tamed it enough to get it into a pet carrier so it could be vaccinated and spayed. But Patches was diagnosed with a fatal feline disease and was euthanized. Because of Dale and Claras loss, they adopted the one remaining cat that Tender Care needed a forever home for. Clara says their new addition is a perfect fit. This adoption is the 12th cat that Tender Care has found a home for in the last few months. Congratulations to Dr. Jami and her staff. Brenda Wilson also just acquired a new kitten. It was a stray living near Brendas home. Brenda made the decision to make the kitten her own and give it a forever home. Brenda and the kitten are very happy with this decision.

Don and Eileen Klatt are looking to provide a forever home to a small to mid-sized adult dog, ideally about 4or 5 years old, house trained and with no separation or barking issues. If you know of a dog in need of a home, please reply to this email. Tender Care Animal Hospital is looking for a home for a lab mix. This dog will need plenty of tender loving care and lots of socialization and some training. Ongoing Topics Phoneraiser please continue to save your old cell phones and ink jet cartridges. Drop them off at Tender Care Animal Hospital or bring them to the monthly meetings. We recently received a check from Phoneraiser for $55.44. Thanks, Donna for taking charge of Phoneraiser. U.S. Bones Please continue to order cat and dog treats from USBones.com. They donate 25% of each order placed to RABAS. A check was received for $6 from U. S. Bones. Dr. Donna Higgins Wildlife Photo Gallery is on display at her office downtown Prairie du Chien. The 12x12 wildlife prints in borderless clip frames are available for $35 each. Donna will donate $25 to RABAS for each print she sells. They are beautiful and would make an excellent Christmas present. Kwik Trip Gas Cards continue to be our best fund raiser to date. From October 23 through November 14, our profit on the Kwik Trip Cards was $474.00. This is approximately $6,000 annually that we are raising without any expense, very little time, and no one is buying things they really do not want or need. Thanks to everyone who continues to support us through the purchase of these cards. I would like to encourage more of you to help us reach our goal of an animal shelter through the purchase of these cards. Cards can be delivered to you on the same day or the next by replying to this email or by calling Jill at 326-4870 or Bev at 326-2914. Cards are sold in increments of $25, $50 and $100 and make excellent Christmas presents. Remember, we make 10% of the cost of the card. Thanks also to Jill for her time in keeping track of the cards and deposits. www.riversandbluffsanimalshelter.org is Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelters website. Thanks to Randy P. for keeping this website up to date. Therapy Dogs International teams continue to make a difference in the community. Kathy and Digger brighten the lives of the residents weekly at Prairie Maisson. Deb and her dogs Jasmine and Sami visit Bluff View 2nd graders every Monday and Tuesday to encourage the love of reading. Bev and her dogs have received approval to start visits to Wyalusing Academy. Visits will start the first week in December. Paula and Maggie remain on medical leave. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers so they can soon return to what they love doing enriching the lives of others less fortunate.

Volunteer hours will be collected by Randy P. at monthly meetings or you can email your hours to Randy at repaske@gmail.com. Planning Meetings will be held in conjunction with board meetings on the 2 nd Thursday of the odd numbered months. Treasurers Report Current Balance November 15, 2012 - $109,792.96 Checking Account Balance - $8,950.25; Total C.D.s- $100,842.71
One thing to note if we do not have land by spring of 2013, we will need to repay the George Family Foundation back the $10,000.00 that we received from the Foundation 3 years ago. It was given to us with the stipulation that it would be used for land purchase and that we would have 3 years to purchase it.

Membership Renewals Memberships are good for one year. There are 5 different levels of membership: $5.00 student; $15 Individual; $25 Family; $50 Sponsor; $100 Patron; $500 Benefactor. Some members choose to donate a fixed amount every month. Thanks to everyone for your financial support. Donations All donors are recognized in Shelter Shorts and a thank you note is written. Sharon Willoughby & Bryce Hinsch New Members and Renewal Memberships Membership renewals are current through November 15th. Sharon Willoughby & Bryce Hinsch Bev Pozega
Reminder: Annual memberships should be renewed 1 year from the month in which you joined.

Continued Monthly Pledges Don & Eileen Klatt

Thanks to everyone who volunteered this month. Thanks to everyone who supported us through donations, and memberships. There are many jobs that continue to get done without recognition. . River and Bluffs Animal Shelter Membership Form Student - $5.00 ____ Sponsor - $50.00 _____ Individual - $15.00 ____ Patron - $100.00 _____ Family - $25.00 ____ Benefactor - $500.00 I would like to make a monthly pledge of : ________ per month for a total of $_______ per year. Name:___________________________________ Address:_________________________________ City/State/Zip_____________________________ Email:____________________________________ Phone Number:______________________ Please mail membership form to: River and Bluffs Animal Shelter PO Box 421, Prairie du Chien, WI 53821