Focus on FOGAS What's In This Issue: Friends of Georgetown Animal Shelter

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                            February 2021

                Focus on FOGAS

What's In This Issue:
  Hello!
  Who We Help
  Featured Friend
  Upcoming Events
  The Shelter Food Pantry
  Donate
  Sharing and Growing

Hello!

Hello and happy 2021 from Friends of the Georgetown Animal
Shelter to all our wonderful members and supporters! We
recognize that with the inability to host in person events, we need
to improve upon our communication to our members, supporters,
and volunteers. To remedy this, we have decided to publish a
periodic newsletter to let you know what’s going on. In this
edition, we want to provide some insights into the Shelter and
share success stories to show you the value you provide.

2021 is now here and is carrying on where 2020 left off!
Unfortunately, COVID is still with us and will be for quite a while
yet. We have to adapt so that we can continue our mission to
support our City Animal Shelter and our four-legged friends in
residence. In this issue of the Newsletter we have items on
forthcoming fundraising events, some insights on the Shelter, a
Shelter Friend and a Shelter Pet or two.

Thank you for your support - you are making a huge difference!

                      Who We Help

                                    Tinkerbell is a senior dog of 13

whose owner had to go into
                                      assisted living. She is a
                                      labrador retriever mix. She
                                      has arthritis and is also deaf.
                                       Losing her home has come as
                                      a terrible shock to her and she
                                      really needs a comfortable
                                      home with kind people to see
                                      out her days. Tinkerbell is a
                                      great example of the animals
                                      FOGAS tries to help.
                                      The FOGAS 2020 Annual Report
                                      includes stories on a pair of
                                      recent FOGAS-funded lifesaving
                                      surgeries made possible by
                                      your donations.

                    See all current Shelter residents

The Shelter has mainly dogs and cats but other temporary
residents have included rabbits, guinea pigs, roosters and, new
this year, a pair of pot bellied pigs! No one could say life at the
Shelter is boring! As many of you know, the Shelter has
maintained it's no-kill status for many years now, enabling lots of
Shelter residents to find new homes.

                     Featured Friend

Nigel Wingate
Meet Nigel, a Georgetown
Animal Shelter Volunteer and
member of the FOGAS Board.

Nigel has been a regular dog
walker at the Shelter since 2017
and has been with Friends
since 2019. He has a dog,
Boston, and a cat, Bella,
both rescued from the Shelter,
as well as an ex-street cat
named Catdog.

All three are seen in the second
photo, with Catdog giving out
his instructions for the day.

Speaking of volunteers, the
Shelter is always in need of
volunteers. Opportunities are
many and varied, including
walking dogs, working with
cats and, in more normal
times, helping with adoption
events and cheering up care
home residents with a Shelter
pet. The Shelter continues to
accept applications for new
volunteers. However,
opportunities to get started are
delayed until training becomes
safe again.

Visit the Shelter web site to learn more about Shelter volunteer
opportunities - link at the end of this newsletter.

Friends is also always in need of Members and Volunteers. Click
the button below to see the many opportunities available.

                   Become A Member or Volunteer

                  Upcoming Events

  FOGAS is participating in Amplify Austin Day 2021! Amplify
  Austin is the biggest day of giving in Central Texas. Over a 24
  hour period, this year March 4th - 5th, Amplify Austin brings
  the community together to give to local non-profits. In 2020
  this campaign raised $12.3m for hundreds of local
  organizations. Click the link below to visit our Amplify Austin
  page.

  Click the link below to visit FOGAS Amplify Austin

                     Visit FOGAS Amplify Austin

We are hoping to host additional events later this year. We will

announce events and fundraisers when we can confirm the
details. Continue to follow our newsletter for future event
announcements.

Test

            The Shelter Food Pantry

Helping People and their Pets
It's been a very tough time for large numbers of people, many of
whom are animal lovers and may be struggling to feed themselves
as well as their animals. The Shelter came up with the idea of
opening a Pet Food Pantry. Community donations have provided

large amounts of pet food so that people struggling to provide for
their pets can contact the Shelter for assistance. Please click the
link below to see the Pet Food Pantry page.

                           Pet Food Pantry

                            Donate

Your Donations Matter!
Given the lack of fundraising opportunities at the moment, it's
more important than ever to encourage people to donate so that
the essential work to support the Georgetown Animal Shelter can
continue. Every donation means more support and care for the
shelter animals in Georgetown.

All proceeds are used for shelter enhancements, advanced medical
care, and additional supplies and equipment in excess of the
shelter’s budget. Here are a few examples of projects that FOGAS is
helping to fund in 2021 and beyond.

    Improved HVAC for the kennels to help cool the dogs in high
    summer
    Temporary kennels for when we run out of room, preventing
    two dogs having to be crowded into one kennel
    Replacement of worn flooring in the cat room to help
    minimize the spread of disease
    Replacement kennel drain covers, reducing the danger of
    injury to dogs
    Several other projects are either under way or soon will be

See our Annual Report here for a graphical representation of where
the money was used in 2020

Make An Online Donation

Did you know that when you buy something from Amazon, you
can automatically donate a portion of the price to the charity of
your choice at no cost to you? Simply shop at smile.amazon.com.
Click this link to carry out the easy setup process. You can find
FOGAS listed as Friends of the Georgetown Animal Shelter.

               Sharing and Growing

Growing Our Membership
We hope you enjoyed reading the first edition of Focus on FOGAS!
Please feel free to pass it on to whomever you think would be
interested and encourage others to become members and/or
supporters. The more members and supporters we have, the more
we can do to help our outstanding City Shelter and the animals

that depend on it.
Thank you!

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