July events, Gulf Coast Aid, and a New Pup

We have a number of great events coming up in the next two weeks--including a gallery event this weekend, the first No Fleas market on the 24th, a July 29th happy hour at Capdeville and a volunteer training session on the 31st. We'll get to that later, but first we have a few updates--and a new pup to introduce.

If you watched Anderson Cooper on CNN last night, you probably heard about the Louisiana SPCA's Gulf Coast Companion Animal Relief program. Next week, The Sula Foundation will be providing volunteer support to staff the program's locations in the outlying parishes. We also want to thank Ellen Gilmore at Best Friends. After The Sula Foundation contacted her at the end of May, Ellen began working on ways in which Best Friends could most effectively partner with the broad needs of those affected by the economic hardships of the oil spill. On July 1st, Best Friends delivered to the SPCA a 20 ton donation of dog food from Del Monte, which was immediately available for distribution to area shelters. You can read more about Best Friends' efforts, and their First Home Forever program, at their website.

Perry swims at Canine Connection.

Meanwhile, Perry, our recent transfer from the LA-SPCA, has run into some unexpected trouble. He's certainly been coming out of his shell, thanks to the attention of his foster parent and the staff at Canine Connection. But the more active he became, the more we began to notice periodic limping, which has been diagnosed as Medial Patellar Luxation. As you might imagine from the number of syllables, this is an expensive problem to solve, requiring surgery on both legs to correct the architecture of his knees.

About the same time that Perry was being diagnosed, little Sanjay dropped, almost literally, into our laps. We won't go into the details, except to say that we were faced with a choice that made it easy to bend the rules a bit to accept a dreaded puppy even as we were beyond capacity. And why did we name him Sanjay? Last month BAD RAP, in Oakland, asked us to judge a naming contest for a little of puppies they had just taken in. (They also donated 10% of the contest proceeds to the Sula Foundation. Thanks guys!) One of the winning names was Sanjay (you can read all about the pups and their names here), and it must be a lucky name, because within a week he'd found a home and shed his name to pass it on to our little guy. Sanjay is currently being treated for non-contagious mange, and playing with some of the best pit bulls we know.

With so many surgeries to pay for and dogs to help, we've kicked up our summer schedule:

Saturday July 17th, 11:00am-2:00pm
Open House at Gallery Rinard, 738 Royal Street
"Come meet the dogs"

Saturday July 24th, 10:00am-2:00pm
NO Fleas Market at Canine Connection
$10 Dog Wash, microchips, adoptable dogs and flea market

Thursday July 29th, 5:30-7:30pm
Happy Hour at Capdeville
2-for-1 Drinks; $2 off local draft beers

Saturday July 31st, 10:00am-1:00pm
Volunteer training--"Come learn more about The Sula Foundation, dog handling, and how you can help"
Location TBA