Part of the family animal sanctuary
Our Philosophy
"We operate under the belief that our pets are a "part of our family"
and have been throughout human history. They deserve
our love, support, caring and respect just as any other human
member of our family deserves. Understanding how pets touch our
lives helps us all to be better people to each other and to the
four-legged members of our family."
Off the ground
PART OF THE FAMILY ANIMAL SANCTUARY, INC. was the idea of one person, Dolores Vaillan-Cook, a practicing family psychotherapist with a love of animals and a driving need to help the discarded and forgotten.
It turns out that cats, more than dogs are in great need of help. Too many cats are thrown away like garbage, left to fend for themselves, abandoned all because of insensitivity and irresponsibility.
Dolores decided to volunteer at a local "shelter" where she soon found that more cats are euthanized than adopted out. The case was not the same for dogs. She saw this as unacceptable for cats and tried to influence change in policy, but the administration wouldn't listen to her ideas. Her only recourse was to start her own group eventually and in the meantime link up with groups that fit more with her philosophy. There is no shelter in Saco/Old Orchard Beach area but there are people who care about cats. She found a volunteer for Friends of Feral Felines (FFF), who taught her techniques of live trapping feral cats. She contacted other small emergent rescue groups in the area to connect with their activities and to find help, but found that most were so overwhelmed and understaffed that they could offer little help to get her started. One out of many good things coming from this early education was to clarify local needs and also to identify what her background in psychotherapy could bring to an organization.
Leaps and lurches
The process of linking with other groups and spreading the word finally began to succeed. The southern Maine organization, Friends of Feral Felines www.feralfelines.net was looking for foster homes and Dolores began taking in their cats in late 2002. She established satellite adoption sites. By this time she was given tax exempt status by the State, and "PART OF THE FAMILY ANIMAL SANCTUARY, INC." became official. As word of her work spread, more volunteers approached her to rescue, rehabilitate, foster and adopt, so that as of August 2004 over 250 cats and kittens have been adopted out. All of these were spayed, neutered, treated, vaccinated with FFF paying the vet bills, but the trapping, rehabilitation, socialization, daily care and medical treatment and fostering was done by Dolores and her group. The learning process through these activities for Dolores and volunteers has been tremendous and is being documented and includes:
-differing nutritional needs for felines in various stages of growth and condition,
-daily medical care procedures and analyses,
-determining personalities of cats through their choice of feline friends and interactions,
-care of orphaned kittens,
-fostering techniques that work and don't work with feral felines,
-and adoption successes and what makes a successful family match.
The future plan and goals
To date rescue and rehabilitation has not stopped for a second, and goals have been set for the near and far future:
1. First item of business is to increase adoption sites while maintaining a volunteer base to care for the in-house colony.
Internships with students from University of New England's Environmental and Psychobiology programs has begun.
2. Other activities include fund-raising through membership solicitations, grant-writing, etc.
3. We need a shelter with a diagnostics lab and cat-friendly accommodations for our rescues.
4. We will provide our adoptees with support systems and educational seminars on the latest medical and behavioral research. Because each family has its own personality, it is important to understand the personality of the potential adoptee so that it is a match with a family. And each cat that is rescued may need patient socialization before and after an adoption- particularly if it is a cat that was abused, abandoned or injured and needed special healing at the shelter.
Therefore education about care, feeding and communication is an important role for a shelter.
5. To help depressed areas of Maine without easy access to clinics and shelters, we want to start two-week outreach programs, providing caring groups with helping hands and materials for renovating shelters, with superficial treatment of shelter animals and with access to a traveling clinic for a day or two of at-cost spaying and neutering.
6. To educate the public about the connection between animal abuse and human abuse and to design school programs to foster the philosophy of pets as "Part of the Family".
The last word
PART OF THE FAMILY , INC sets itself apart from other shelters in that we aim to be a no-kill facility unless there is no medical hope for the animal. We will go as far as is medically possible to save an animal just as we would for any member of our family. We take our role seriously even though we realize the immensity of this burden. We view it as one unwanted animal at a time, and what we want to do can be done with the help of like-minded supporters who believe as we do that the way we treat our pets is the way we treat each other. Once you love an animal, respect it and care for it and receive that love in return you will understand why we exist and why we are named PART OF THE FAMILY ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Part of the family animal sanctuary
c/o Dolores Cook
22 Sunrise Avenue
Saco, ME 04072
(207)-283-0690
(207)-885-9438
Email:
partofthefamilymaine@hotmail.com
Adoption fee is $70.00 for an adult cat, and $100 for a kitten. Part of the family animal sanctuary is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible. If you would like to find out about becoming a foster home please call us for more info, Foster homes are needed
Click here for a list of pets at this shelter
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