Pass The Zyrtec

Pass The Zyrtec

Throughout the summer, many of the dogs here have had irritating skin flare ups that we feel we can at least partially attribute to their heightened exposure to pollen and yeast. Spending our days in this idyllic environment can have its drawbacks, as many of your sniffles and sneezes can attest to, and as these guys romp through the wilds of the sanctuary, who knows how much of it they’re bringing back on their skin. So I wanted to let you know one thing we’re doing to help that you can join in on. We have spray bottles of a special vinegar and water mixture in both houses. Every day, before we leave, we’re spraying that on a towel and wiping down the dogs to control the pollen and yeast on their skin and coat.  We’re nearing the end of the pollen time of year, but it’s certainly not over yet, so hopefully this will help the dogs be a little less itchy in the future.

How Do You Beat the Heat?

 

 

The Dog Days of Summer are Here!!!

The sun is out and someone has turned up the heat these past few days so we are enjoying it the best way that we know how - pool time! We have one pup in particular that could very well be part fish (try putting that info on Petfinder...) and her name is Lucy! During Lucy's stay at the sanctuary she has learned that she is a great swimmer and loves to lounge in the water but there are also the days that her inner puppy emerges and the result is lots of pouncing and zoomies! Please check out the clip below to see what we mean:

 

 



Lucy has also showed her teachers how smart she is by demonstrating that learning can be fun too! Lucy has opted to learn her lessons in our weekly sanctuary class from the pool this week. She is learning the value of being calm while there are other dogs and activitiy occurring outside of the fence. As you can imagine, this is a skill that is difficult for certain dogs but essential to existing happily at the Our Companions Animal Sanctuary. Lucy looks like she is an excellent student.

This gal is beauty and brains all wrapped into one petite package!

 

 

May the 4th Be With You!

May the 4th be with you!

Princess Hera

What small dog wouldn't idolize Yoda? 

“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.”

– Yoda

(...Zoey agrees)

The Sanctuary Celebrates Earth Day -All Week!

Earth day/Earth Week is something that we enjoy celebrating at the Our Companions Animal Sanctuary. Each year we strive to do some small acts that will greatly impact the Earth and our local community and this year was no different! We had a lot going on during the week, please read how local people are helping out the Sanctuary and the Earth!

Road Clean Up:
We were lucky enough to have a few Earth conscious girls cleaning trash from the roadways that the dogs frequently walk. This not only made it so that the roads were cleaner for our dogs but for many local dogs that also use these back roads as their means of exercise! Thanks girls!!

 

These great girls picked up bag after bag of trash

on the roads near the Sanctuary!



 

Fraternity Ground Work:

Another group that stopped by during Earth week were 8 young men from the UConn Fraternity, Alpha Kappa Lamba. They helped with a lot of outdoor projects and even helped us move some wood chips that we have been hoping to add to our trail! What a great help!!

 

From building this cart to spreading woodchips to

the Sanctuary trails, they were so helpful!

 



Wildlife Management Class Presentation:
You might not have known this but we have been working closely with a Wildlife Management group from UConn this semester. They have chosen the sanctuary to be their project and have researched all aspects of wildlife and environmental issues here at the sanctuary. They were able to report on creative and helpful solutions that might be able to assist us with any problems that occur at our location. They did a lot of hard work and covered a wide variety of topics. These topics were of great interest to our feline guest/audience member, Frankie, who couldn't get close enough to the screen. We are so grateful for these students!!
 

 

Frankie posing and listening intently to learn more

about Wildlife Management at the Sanctuary

 

These events have been so great to host and we are so grateful for all of our wonderful volunteers! Earth week is important to all of us and impacts our animals tremendously. So if you were able to stop by and hang a colorful paper flower on our wall, read the informational posters in the cottages, make a birdfeeder for the local birds or if you just picked up one piece of trash off of the ground, we thank you!!

 

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.

Do what you can!

-Sydney Smith

 





Dillon, a current guest at the sanctuary

I want to share these adorable pictures of Dillon taken today with one of our fantastic volunteers, Sheila! Although he may come across aloof at times, Dillon is really coming around and certainly has a playful side to him! He had a good 20 minute play session today with Sheila who had him racing around my office chasing the rainbow string toy. The last picture I call his  "post workout" shot! After his playtime he jumped into his kitty bed where is he sound asleep as I write this. He makes me laugh everyday!

Spring at the Sanctuary

                                                    It's Spring Time at the Sanctuary!

The ice has thawed and all manner of living things are out and about here at the Our Companions Sanctuary in Ashford.  Everyone here, including the dogs, the cats, the staff, and the volunteers, are soaking up the sun and breathing in the fresh air after this long, cold winter.

 

Eagle Scout Project to Benefit Homeless Dogs

During the Autumn of 2014, Boy Scout Ryan Rancourt of Chaplin Troop 440 completed his Eagle Scout project and what he did was very empathetic and thoughtful.

The goal of an Eagle Scout Award is to better the community through a well devised project that shows off leadership skills and promotes teamwork. Ryan’s focus was to create raised Kuranda- style dog beds to donate to local CT animal shelters. These elevated beds will provide comfort, keep animals from sleeping on cold, hard floors and are easy to keep clean. Staff from Our Companions met with Ryan and had a chance to see the prototype that he had created and knew that these beds would be a hit!

Ryan’s project started by hosting a Halloween dance at his local school where guests brought pet supplies or monetary donations as their entrance fee. These supplies were given to Our Companions Animal Sanctuary to use for the animals in their care and helped raise funds needed to build the dog beds. Once the party was over and the money was raised Ryan and his troop purchased materials from Home Depot and scheduled their building event.

Here is the rundown of supplies that were donated. How impressive!

156 Cat Food Cans
14 Dog Food Cans
10 Paper Towel Rolls
3 Boxes of Dryer Sheets
5 Laundry Bottles
2 Bleach Bottles
4 Boxes Garbage Bags
2 Dishwasher Liquid
1 Cat Bed
1 Cat Tower
$90 Stop and Shop Gift Cards

This Eagle Scout had a well thought-out plan and decided to host a “how to build a dog bed” clinic one week prior to the building event. During this clinic he discussed the plans he had in place to create the dog beds, safety topics to prevent injury and discussed what each participant would work on during construction. This would prove successful as his fellow troop-mates would know what was to be expected and would allow them to work in a timely, effective and organized manner when the big event took place.

The building project was triumphant due to Ryan’s diligence and leadership skills. The beds were constructed as planned and there was even time to grab some pizza to celebrate! These beds are sturdy and well-built and they are even autographed by the troop. Our Companions helped spread the word to various shelters in CT and found that the response was beyond welcoming! After reaching out to shelters that could use these beds it was finalized, three beds were donated to the Glastonbury Shelter, three were donated to the Portland/Middletown Shelter, three were donated to the Berlin/Cromwell Shelter and one was donated to the Manchester Shelter.
These young men are wonderful, full of compassion and love. They have created bedding for dogs that otherwise might not have a bed and by doing so have bettered the lives of these wonderful animals as they await their forever home. Undoubtedly the animals are grateful to Ryan and Troop 440 for their kindness, a kindness that will surely have a positively ripple effect for both canine and humans alike.

Our Companions and homeless pets everywhere are proud of you, Ryan!

 A local shelter dog enjoying her new bed!

 

 

A Grateful Heart is a Happy Heart 

Love Notes to the Dogs at the Sanctuary

It’s obvious that we love our volunteers at Our Companions since they are the heart of our organization and the compassionate providers for our focal point, the animals! It is our volunteers that provide the dogs interactive walks and training and our kitties play sessions and assist with behavioral exercises. We cannot ever fully express how much we love those that provide love to our animals! It was this happy feeling that spurred the idea to have our volunteers share some of their thoughts and memories of being at the sanctuary. We started our love notes project at our second birthday party in October by having attendees write short memories or well wishes for the animals in our care. This project didn’t end when the cake was finished though as it spread into the holiday season, a perfect project for the season! What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving and all of the following holidays than by thinking with intent what it is that makes our precious creatures special and loved by all. In fact, it seems to perpetuate that feel-good spirit that is so important during the holidays. Our volunteers jotted these notes down on some brightly colored paper and all of the notes were compiled in a quilt-like fashion that proudly hangs on the bedroom walls of the cottages. Our animals will be able to take their specific well wishes along with them to their new homes when they end up moving out as a sweet reminder that we are always here, loving, supporting and rooting for them! While the boards are hung for all to see we are always happy to add to them. During your next trip to the sanctuary feel free to leave a love note for some of the sweetest pets we know!

**Special thanks to OC Volunteer, Tina Gould who compiled the notes on their boards. They are so beautiful!

Here are some quotes from our volunteers:

"Gypsy, you are such a graceful and beautiful dog with a heart of gold. Your forever home is just around the corner, who could resist you!"

"Romeo, you are such a sweet, handsome boy! I hope your soon to be forever home has all soft grass for your sensitive feet!"

"Aggie, you are a terrific jogging partner and the best cuddler!"

"Johnny, you are the sweetest dog EVER! You've come such a long way and deserve the best of everything!"

"Lucy Goosey- my Saturday night date- my pittie girl that barks with a message but it the gentlest girl here. Be happy my girl!"

"Gidget, you are such a goofy girl, always bringing a smile to my face!"

"Hera- the little princesss. A pure gentle snuggle bug. Happiest when getting a belly rub!"


Check out some more up-close love that was left for our big guy, Johnny!

 

 

                                            Christmas Lights Go On at the Sanctuary

By Krystal Makowski

What a SUCCESS!

The magic all took place on December 7th, 2014 where our wonderful volunteers came to our Holly Jolly Lighting Event with their holiday spirit in tow to transform the sanctuary into its annual scenic display of snowmen and twinkly lights. It’s so beautiful that I dare you NOT to drive past the sanctuary blasting your most merry music with a hot cocoa in your mitted hand – you won’t be able to resist!

Our volunteers are full of love all year long as they dote on our amazing creatures so when the holidays come around and they step up their beautiful hearts to include creating a winter wonderland for all to see then it is a true thing of beauty. Please feel free to grab the kids –furry or human and check out the site for yourself.

If you happen to live closer to the North Pole and can’t make it to our wonderful little spot, then please enjoy some of the pics. We are so excited to show the world what we can accomplish with some donated lights and some hard work!

Birthday Party

The sun was shining, the birds were singing and all of creation was celebrating the amazing, hard, involved, fun, impacting work that has been done at the sanctuary over the past two years. Can you imagine?!?! Two whole years that the sanctuary has been caring for cats and dogs as they wait for their forever families to find them  -what an awesome reason to celebrate!  We partied with some fun games that spurred some great conversation about a multitude of the beautiful creatures that have graced out buildings over the past few years. When party-goers weren’t chatting with fellow volunteers they are writing “love notes” to the current pups and kitties, checking out the pet-o-lanterns that were carved by volunteers and their families, or enjoying some snacks under our brand new pavilion! It was so great to see so many volunteers in attendance and was another reminder as to how lucky our organization is to attract the best of the best! Please enjoy some festive pics of our party! We hope to see you at the next party!

                Fall Clean Up Day

One again, the weather tried to thwart our plans to clean up the sanctuary but our dedicated volunteers were not giving in!  Despite the soggy conditions we were able to complete a variety of projects and prep the sanctuary for the Fall and Winter months ahead.  Some of the projects that we were able to tackle include clearing the path to the trail so that our dogs have safe passage to their adventurous walks, mowing and weeding near the houses, raking all of the leaves from the play field, moving a bunch of donated outdoor furniture to the pavilion, etc.

We are so grateful for the amazing people that were willing to show up and help us make these projects happen! The animals now have a clean and wonderful place to call their  own until they are welcomed into their forever homes!