RSPCA Give to Get Them Home campaign starts nationwide at 5am tomorrow
RSPCA's nationwide Give to Get Them Home appeal is happening tomorrow. For this one day only, every donation to RSPCA will be doubled, thanks to dollar-matching partners Peter Alexander, Elanco, Royal Canin and generous individual donors.
The appeal comes at a critical time for RSPCA South Australia, with the charity currently caring for 504 animals in its shelters and supporting the foster care of another 385 animals in the homes of volunteers or on trial adoptions.
Around 70% of the total 889 animals are not yet available to adopt for a range of reasons, including:
- Too young to wean and desex
- Under (or awaiting) vet treatment
- Under (or awaiting) training to modify undesirable behaviour
- In protective custody as part of ongoing prosecution cases
- In emergency boarding while their owners deal with personal crises
In the last 12 months, RSPCA SA placed a record number of 3784 animals into foster care - a 37% increase on the 2758 animals fostered in the previous year. The decision back in 2019 to make community care the primary model for animals that cannot yet be adopted has delivered huge welfare benefits for those animals.
Among them was a very special four-month-old Maremma puppy named Sundae.
"Like most animals that come to us, Sundae required some special care - all funded by donations, of course – before we could set about finding him a good home," said RSPCA SA spokesperson Carolyn Jones.
"He was surrendered to us by owners who loved him but were struggling with both accommodation issues and the challenges of caring for a dog with significant disabilities.
"His young age and beautiful temperament, combined with an absence of any other medical issues, all worked in his favour in finding him a good home, but obviously it takes a very special person to open their heart and home to an animal with special needs….and in Sundae's case, those needs are considerable."
Surrendered to RSPCA SA in April, Sundae was born with malformed front legs that prevent him from walking without assistance. Despite his mobility difficulties, Sundae was as keen as any pup to move about, and care was needed to protect the skin on his front legs from injury.
"Our vets advised that if the nubs on Sundae's front legs were injured, they could easily ulcer and become infected, a medical complication that would have stymied this pup's progress," Carolyn said.
"So staff kept him indoors with them in their offices and allowed him to crawl about on soft padded surfaces, while they set about finding some customised wheels."
On 18 May Sundae was fitted with his first canine wheelchair, a momentous day on his long path to a new, more independent and active life. By this time, he was living with RSPCA foster carer Anastasia Puzanova - and he wouldn't be returning to the Lonsdale shelter.
"Sundae is what we happily call a 'foster fail', meaning his foster carer decided she couldn't give him up and opted to adopt him," Carolyn said, adding that Sundae recently upgraded to a bigger wheelchair that Anastasia reports "he loves to adventure in".
Sundae shares his new home with a menagerie of animals. Anastasia and her partner, Amelia, also have Mooncake (another Maremma), a Chihuahua named Hoek, two cats named Truffles and Napoleon, seven chickens, two rabbits, two guinea pigs, two snakes and a bluetongue lizard.
"It's the kind of happy outcome we want for all our animals, it's why we all do what we do," said Carolyn.
"This Thursday's Give to Get Them Home campaign is just that - the more funds we have, the more we can invest in perfectly imperfect animals like Sundae so that they receive the care and treatment they need from our expert teams, and can find their forever homes."
