Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!


Huh?  What?  It is 2014 already?!?  Where has the time gone?  It just seems like yesterday when we heralded in 2013. 
2013 was quite a year for us!  We had a lot of firsts....

1. First annual Bowl-A-Thon!  This event was a raging success!  We had amazing volunteers, raffle items, and support!  Special Thanks to volunteers Iris, Samantha, Ilene, Jeremy, Kathleen for the AMAZING baked goods, and Eric better known as DJ KDeuce for his time and energy.  We already have the second annual bowl-a-thon booked in April.

2. Our first annual "Cocktails for Kitties" event at McGearys.  Another Raging success!  We had a great time and Tess just makes it happen!  Thank you Tess, McGeary's staff, volunteers Chris, Sam, Sandy, Diane, Andrea, and Maria.  Special thanks to Kathleen for the incredible baked goods and DJ KDeuce for DJ service.  We had some very positive response for this event and we hope to do it again on 2014.  Stay tuned!

3. We had our first meet and greet using Face Time!  Clyde met his new Dad that way.  Very cool!

4. We attended PetaPalooza for the first time this year.  It was not a total success for us however it was quite a learning experience!

5. Little Grace started her blog this year and wrote about her story as an Orange Street Cat.  We have had other adoptees write their story as well and we are always looking for more!

6. We met new volunteers and now die-hard OSC family members Tina and Rob, Dave, and Kate.  How did we ever get along without them?

So, looking back, we had a great year!  We saved 86 cats and found incredible homes for 61 of them.  We spread the word about Orange Street Cats and our mission to over 2000 Facebook followers and we continue to meet new friends every day.   We love Benson's, Healthy Pet, and PetSupplies Plus.  These businesses open their space and hearts to us and we are FOREVER thankful!   (An extra thank you and hug to the folks at Benson’s who allowed us to put up a Christmas tree at the Colonie store for the 2nd year in a row!)  We also want to give Shout out to Travis of On a Limb Tree Care who has come to help us in the drop of a hat.  Frankly, we could go on and on…..we have had that many supporters!

There are many people that donate their time and energy to us....David Louis of Talk toYour Animals has done wonders with some of our cats.  We are so thankful for David!  Jennet Jones-Rau of Feathered Nest Studio has done some incredible design work for us.  Joanne Brady made sweet fleece blankets for us!  A very special Thank You to Tina and Rob who have opened their home to numerous fosters, hosted several successful garage sales, got us in touch with the “Albany Cap to Troy Tap” folks and spearheaded the NYS Tax and Finance year-end fundraiser!  Wow!  We absolutely love you guys!  So many people have come to help bottle feed and socialize the kittens and cats.  Our foster families could not continue without this group of tireless warriors!
And how can we forget, the magnificent folks who have adopted our cats!  We at OSC are huge believers in the “Magic”.  You all have found the magic with your new family member and we LOVE IT!  
All in all, we would like to send a great big THANK YOU to all who have donated time, money, food, litter, beds, linens, toys, carriers, medicine, and raffle items.  You have shared our stories, participated in our online fundraising events.  You have sent us positive thoughts, prayers and kind and encouraging words.   We are so proud and thankful for YOU, our supporters.  We could not continue this journey without all of you.  We LOVE you and may you all have a Happy and Healthy New Year!