TUESDAY JULY 20 2004

NOON UPDATE

We've got to do something to raise enough money to hire enough people

     The dog work is getting done. This includes feeding, vet visits, walks to (and play time in) the park, continuous kennel cleaning and special daily caregiving for each and every dog (including brushing, checking for ticks, hugging, petting and sweet talking). The dogs are happy, clean, healthy (or getting healthy), and they all know they are loved by everybody here at Straydog.

     We don't need to hire more employees to do the "dog work." We've got a great crew. We're covered. We even do all the mowing and weed eating ourselves now, saving what used to cost us $365 per week having an outside mowing crew do that work.

     Right now enough donations are trickling in to keep us about three weeks ahead, which is not a very big cushion, but at least we keep going as we always have (and always will ... somehow).

The tremendous amount of office work is what's not getting done

     We need:

(1) At least one full-time person searching for and writing requests for grants and doing the paperwork for the matching gift programs that many of our contributors are taking advantage of;

(2) At least one full-time person acknowledging contributions with thank-you letters and "in memory of" letters, which we're way behind on now because we have no time;

(3) A full-time person writing letters of request for donations to dog food companies and other companies selling dog supplies;

(4) A full-time person who would spend all his or her time writing about Straydog to newspapers and magazines, calling into talk radio and talk TV shows when the topic has anything to do with homeless animals, mentioning www.straydog.org, etc..

(5) A full-time computer/Internet tech (an IT person)--our webcams have been working only sporadically for the last couple of weeks, and I can't fix them, and my son, Joe, can only get down here for a few hours every Sunday afternoon. Joe fixed them this past Sunday afternoon, but they're on the blink again! The PC that runs our satellite Internet hook up is filled with viruses that have slowed it down to a crawl. Joe's trying to locate another used ("free") PC, which should fix the webcams also.

 People call in and email in suggestions all the time

     Please go for it, I keep answering them. I'm so busy from five a.m. till 10 p.m. seven days a week (except for my Saturday two-hour lunch date with my 95-year-old father) that I'm just barely able to keep the "show" running.

     We really do appreciate everyone's ideas and suggestions for raising money and making Straydog a better place, but with an office staff of none, we're scrambling each and every day just to get through each and every day.