Two clicks daily could help Wayside Waifs win $35,000

Now is the chance to have your voice heard in the ASPCA/Rachael Ray $100K Challenge. From August 15^th through August 31^st, you will be able to cast your vote daily on Facebook to help Wayside Waifs win the 2013 Community Engagement Award. The shelter with the most votes will win a $25,000 grant. Funds will be used to life saving services for abused, abandoned, and neglected animals in our community until they find their forever homes.

It’s as easy as this:

1)      Visit Wayside Waifs Facebook page daily and click on the “ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge VOTE tab located near the top of the page.

2)      Cast your vote for Wayside Waifs. (Anyone 13+ with a Facebook page can vote up to once per day throughout the contest.)

3)      Once you have voted, tell your Facebook friends and ask them to vote too. Every vote counts so don’t be afraid to ask more than once for their assistance.

Thank you for putting us one step closer to winning this critical funding.

Fox 4 will award one local charity $10,000. Now through September 9^th, you can cast your vote for your furry family member’s favorite charity – Wayside Waifs.

1)      Bookmark the Fox 4 contest page under your internet favorites and visit it daily.

2)      Login by creating a username or by using Facebook login. Then, click on the “Vote” tab.

3)      Click on “vote” dot below Wayside Waifs logo and Susan Hiland’s photo. Then, click on “Save Vote” at the top of the page.

4)      After your vote has been counted, tell your friends on Facebook or Twitter.

On behalf of the nearly 7,000 dogs and cats we serve annually, thank you! Your support will make a difference.

What Is Heartworm?
A heartworm is a parasitic worm that lives in the heart and pulmonary arteries of an infected animal. Although it is not contagious, heartworm disease is spread from animal to animal through the bite of a mosquito. When an infected mosquito bites a susceptible animal, baby worms called “microfilariae” enter the new animal’s tissue and begin to migrate into the blood vessels. It can harm an animal’s arteries and vital organs. Heartworm is a serious and potentially fatal disease.

Who is at risk?
Although heartworm is more common in dogs, cats can also be infected. Dogs over the age of six months are at the greatest risk. Outdoor cats in areas with high concentrations of mosquitoes may be at a greater risk for the disease. Heartworm can be especially life-threatening to kitten and older cats.

Did you know Wayside Waifs test all animals in our shelter for heartworm? Cody is an 8 year old Shepherd dog currently available for adoption at Wayside.

What are the symptoms?
Several hundred worms can live in a dog for five to seven years. Symptoms can include: labored breathing, coughing, vomiting, weight loss, and fatigue after only moderate exercise. Some dogs however may exhibit no symptoms at all until late stages of infection.

Since a cat is not a natural host for the heartworm, fewer and smaller worms survive. But those that do survive can cause severe health problems for cats. Symptoms can include: a persistent cough, breathing difficulties, depression, loss of appetite, weight loss, and sporadic vomiting.

How can I prevent heartworm?
Ask your veterinarian to test your pet for heartworm and discuss the best way to protect them. Vets can often prescribe safe and inexpensive medicine to prevent heartworm. For dogs, this often means giving them a pill once a month.

Treatment options
While treatment for heartworm disease in dogs is possible, it is a complicated and expensive process, taking weeks for infected animals to recover. There is currently no effective treatment for heartworm disease in cats.

If you notice your furry family member exhibiting any of the general symptoms described above, be sure to contact your veterinarian right away.

Wayside Waifs is starting a new blog feature called Wordless Wednesdays. Each Wednesday, we will feature photos with a theme. Perhaps it will be volunteers, long-term waifs, or fun animal photos. Today’s blog post features adoption success photos you submitted to Wayside Waifs via social media. We love them so be sure to keep tagging us when you post!

After more than 150 days at Wayside Waifs, Dollar finally found his person. Within minutes of meeting each other, Dollar was giving plenty of hugs and kisses. #100KSaved #100KChallenge

In the last six weeks, Wayside Waifs has challenged Kansas City to help us find loving homes for hundreds of homeless dogs and cats in our community. Your adoptions are helping us qualify for grant funding to ensure our emergency shelter and rescue services continue to be available for animals that need them.

This past weekend, you answered the call once again through Adoptathon. Wayside would like to give a big thank you to 106.5 The Wolf and all the incredible Kansas Citians who came to out to adopt.

YOU can help Wayside Waifs in one more way simply by sharing your adoption success. Your entry in the ASPCA/Rachael Ray $100K Challenge Photo Contest could help Wayside Waifs win up to $5,000. If you adopted from us between June 1 and July 15 – you are eligible! It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

1. Take a photo of your newly adopted pet

2. Go to www.aspca.org/100kphoto

3. Submit your photo and fill in the form. YOUR photo could help us save more lives!

Please don’t delay – the deadline to submit your photo is this Monday, July 15^th at 10:59PM.

A panel of ASPCA judges will select 40 photo finalists to compete for prizes. Then, the public gets to cast the deciding votes between July 22^nd and August 4^th by liking and/or repinning their favorite photos on Pinterest. Likes count as one vote and re-pins count as two. Sixteen winners will be selected and grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 will be given to the adoptee’s alma mater. Plus, winning submitters will receive an ASPCA t-shirt and water bottle!

106.5 The Wolf and Wayside Waifs are proud to present the 2013 Summer Adoptathon on July 12-14. The event will feature live broadcasts all day Friday featuring some of Kansas City’s most listened to DJs – Roger Carson, Codie Allen, Wes Poe, and Shotgun Jaxson. This weekend only, all pet adoptions are just $25. Plus, fees will be waived on all additional pets adopted. All adoptable animals are spay/neutered, microchipped and current on vaccinations. It’s the “purr”fect time to find your furry friend.

Wayside Waifs will be open special hours for this weekend’s adoptathon:

• Friday, July 12: 6 a.m.-8 p.m.
• Saturday, July 13: 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
• Sunday, July 14: 12 p.m.-6 p.m.

Check out some of the grrreat dogs, cats, puppies, kittens and bunnies looking forward to meeting you.

The Adoptathon is just one of Wayside Waifs’ anchor adoption events this summer to help the shelter compete in the 2013 ASPCA/Rachael Ray $100K Adoption Challenge. Our goal is to help 1,831 animals in our community find loving forever homes by the end of August.

 The adoption fun begins this Friday at 6am! We hope to see a lot of The Wolf Pack fans participating.

From June 1 through August 31, Wayside Waifs is competing in the ASPCA Rachael Ray $100,000 Challenge. As Kansas City’s largest and most comprehensive no kill pet adoption campus, we set a goal to help find “fur”ever homes for 1,831 animals this summer. But we can’t do it alone!

What is the ASPCA Rachael Ray Challenge?
The goal of the challenge is simple – to increase pet adoptions across the country. Wayside was one of 50 shelters nationally and the only one in the Kansas City metro area chosen for this competition. More than $600,000 in prize grants are available with funds ranging from $5,000 to $100,000. In this contest – every animal wins!

How can Wayside win a grant?
When you adopt a pet from Wayside Waifs, it puts us closer to winning one of several major grants from the ASPCA. These grants will continue to fund life-saving medical care, rescue missions, animal behavior rehabilitation and ultimately help more animals find their forever homes this year.

Throughout the summer, visit our website to learn more about pet adoption specials.

Share the mission
Another way you can help Wayside win grant funding is by getting social with us. Just follow us on your favorite social media site(s) – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, or Pinterest. Please be sure to engage with us by sharing, liking, or retweeting our content. Your participation helps spread our mission to other perspective adopters.

Community Engagement
Tell your friends why you love Wayside by using #WaysideWaifs in your social media posts. When you generate social media posts about the Challenge, please use #100KChallenge.  When you share your adoption success stories, please use #100KSaved in your post.  This will allow these posts to appear on the ASPCA/Rachael Ray $100K Challenge Facebook and Twitter feeds and will also help us in the competition.

Together we can make a difference in the lives of abandoned, abused and homeless pets!