Letter from the Executive Director!! #2

Good Morning, Afternoon, or Evening!! (depending on when you are reading this)

I hope all of the locals are enjoying the rain we have been getting. It has been an extremely busy past couple weeks. We had a great time out at Water's True Value with our dog adoption event! Maddie and McKenzie, our two sweet little mother and daughter duo, got adopted!! Everyone is extremely happy for them and their new family and we are even happier that they got to go together!

We had a great turn out for our 2nd to last Bow Wow Basics Dog Obedience class. We had quite a few puppies and a couple of adult dogs. The class started on the 7th and will continue until the 21st. We have another that will start on September 11th, it will be held at Hammond Park between 6pm and 7pm in the Shelter House. These classes give you a good basis for starting to train your puppy or adult dog. Sit, stay, down, heel, etc. Our instructor is amazing with dogs. If you want to sign up for the classes, please get in contact with me and reserve your space today!

We are still looking for new members for our Board of Directors. So if you are looking to give back to the community and the animals who live here. This is a great way to do it! We fundraise, educate, and give back to the community and its animals. We would love to have you apply and join!

Coming up we have an exciting event! September 8th we will be participating in Coldwell Bankers 'Home for your Pet'. The Humane Society of the Flint Hills, Friends of the Emporia Animal Shelter, and Emporia Arts Council will be downtown with Coldwell Banker, 608 Commercial St. We will be raising money to cover operating costs of the shelter as well as helping FEAS raise money to cover the medical costs for the shelter. EAC will be doing face painting as a puppy or kitten for a donation that will all go towards the shelter. Coldwell Banker will also be doing a donation drive, and has copies of our shelters wish list. As time gets closer I will share more information, but I really hope to see you all down at the Great American Market.

I would be remiss to not mention that the Emporia Animal Shelter is open Saturday - Wednesday 11am -3pm. They are closed on Thursday and Friday. They have so many wonderful cats and dogs who are looking for their forever home.

Remember Adopt! Don't Shop!

Caitlin Flood
Executive Director
Humane Society of the Flint Hills

Letter from the Executive Director #3

Hello World!

Wow! It has been a crazy and mildly hectic past few weeks at the Humane Society offices. Our computer is officially back up and running so hopefully I won't be away for so long again!

This past weekend we had an amazing time at the Great American Market. We were working with Friends of the Emporia Animal Shelter, Coldwell Banker, and Emporia Arts Council to raise money for the Emporia Animal Shelter. A huge thank you to everyone who came down and donated to this amazing cause. We had two gift baskets that we drew for after the Market was over. So huge Congratulations to Kaila Mock and Jess Penn!! They are our two winners!

Our next big event is of course our Dog House Build! We will be building these dog houses on Saturday September 29th between 9am and 1pm. We are extremely thankful to the 10 ESU athletes that have volunteered their time and will be coming to help us build dog houses. We are still taking donations to go towards buying materials for this event.

The Humane Society of the Flint Hills will also be at the David Traylor Zoo's Safari Edventure! We will be teaching kids about what an animal shelter is, what does it take to be a responsible pet owner, and why should you spay/neuter your pet. We are super excited to be able to talk to the kids in the community and help them learn about animals and their care. This will be taking place October 4th and 5th between 10am to 2pm. If you would like to sign your class up to attend please contact the David Traylor Zoo about how to go about this. We hope to see you there!

It's been fantastic talking with you all again! Please remember, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out to me (Caitlin) at 6220-342-4477 or email me at director@humanesocietyflinthills.org .

Have an exciting and wonderful day,

Caitlin
Executive Director

Letter from the Executive Director!

Hello Everyone!

Wow! This has been a whirlwind two weeks on the job and with this blog up and running! As this is the beginning of the month of August, I thought that I should do another Newsletter/update/talk post (I don't know what to call this letter format).
School will be starting back up soon and everyone's life will get super busy. The Humane society is just as busy this month! We have dog adoption events, dog obedience classes, and an awesome fundraising event being held in our honor by Beard Team Kansas! These guys are a not for profit organization that raise money for different organizations in our community. They recently decided that the Humane Society of the Flint Hills would be the organization they are supporting this go a round! We are extremely grateful that they would honor us in this way, and we hope to see you at all of their fundraising efforts!
I have also been preparing for other upcoming events and trying to drum up some new board members for the Humane Society (if you know of anyone who might want to join our board of directors, please have them contact me)! In between all of these other activities, I have also been typing up new blog posts to keep you guys informed and up to date on what we at the Humane Society are up to! I hope you guys have been enjoying the content so far (let me know if you think I should write about  a specific topic or if I need to add to something).
I'm sure you are thinking, "Okay Caitlin, you have told us about all of these events happening in August and the upcoming months. Why haven't you given us any dates and times?" That is because I was waiting to add drama and suspense for my new announcement! I have added an 'Future Events' page to our blog that will be the master list of future events! I will still give you a what's coming next month post at the end of each month, but this will be updated on a regular basis, removing past events and adding new events as they are announced.
Well I have a dog adoption event I need to finish getting ready for, so I will sign off! Please remember that if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me by email at director@humanesocietyflinthills.org or phone 620-342-4477!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and week! Until next time,

Caitlin
Executive Director
Humane Society of the Flint Hills

Edit:
P.S. I figured out what I'm going to call these! 'Letter from the Executive Director' Look for more of these in the Future!

August Upcoming Events

Hello fellow animal lovers!

It’s your friendly neighborhood Humane Society Executive Director here! The sun isn’t quite shinning, but I’m sitting here in the office praying for rain! What we got Sunday morning was not nearly enough!

I figured I’d give you guys an update on next months upcoming events!

·        August 5^th through 11^th Water’s True Value is having a “Dog Days of Summer” Sale! They will be doing a pet supply sale all week. But on August 5^th, 8^th, and 11^th between 1pm and 3pm the Emporia Animal Shelter and Humane Society will be out there hosting a Dog Adoption Event! We won’t know until closer to the day whether we will have any animals to take to the event, but we will still be there with adoption posters and information about how to adopt or even foster an animal! Also they are letting us keep a cat condos out there all week so we can try to get one of our wonderful feline friends new homes too!

·        August 7^th starts our next dog obedience class! We still have spaces available for this class! It only runs three weeks and starts at 6pm. These classes usually last about an hour. It will help your dog learn some basic commands and maybe even a trick or two! These classes take place at Hammond Park in the Shelter House on State Street. These classes only cost $35, which you pay the day of the 1^st class. But don’t worry if you can’t make it to this class we have another one starting of September 11^th. Please contact me at 620-342-4477 or email me director@humanesocietyflinthills.org.

Our 1st Blog post/ Introduction to our new Executive Director!

Hello!

I thought I would take the time this first new newsletter from the Humane Society of the Flint Hills to introduce myself. If you haven’t already guessed, my name is Caitlin Flood and I am the Humane Society’s new executive director. I am taking over for Judy Dieker, who has decided to retire after 10 wonderful years with us! 

I was born and raised right here, in beautiful Emporia, KS. I graduated in December 2015 with a Bachelors of Agriculture in Animal Science. I decided it was time to move home in August of 2017, and before becoming Executive Director for the Humane Society, I worked for the Emporia School District.

I have always loved animals, and cared deeply about their wellbeing. In August of 2017, I made my 1^st visit to the Emporia Animal Shelter after many years. After moving home I had decided I need a dog of my own! Peggy (she is the shelter manager and a very nice lady) allowed me and my dad to wonder back through the kennels to look at the dogs available for adoption.

I noticed him right way, a small white and gray pit mix who had a happy smile on his face, even though you could see every vertebrae and rib he had. I of course looked at all the other dogs a couple times but I couldn’t stop coming back to him. The shelter had named him Arnold, a perfectly nice name just not for him (in my opinion). We went back out to talk to Peggy about him, and she offered to take him out on one of the runs so we could meet him. He had only been at the shelter for about a week, and was reserved but also extremely excited to meet new people. He was the sweetest dog and I had confirmed what I already knew, he was my dog. 

We filled out the adoption form and waited the 24 hour period before we could pick him up. I was the 1^st person to show up that day. I refused to let anyone else get my dog. We brought my parent’s dog Angus (also rescued from the shelter), to meet him. Because “Arnold” would be moving into his house and they needed to get along.  The shelter staff got “Arnold” out of his kennel and let him out on a run with Angus. They got along fine and the staff member signed off on him going home with us! 

Anybody who has ever boarded a dog in a kennel knows that a dog gets a particular smell about them after spending any amount of time in one. So, the 1^st thing we did when we got “Arnold” home was give him a bath. He to this day is not a fan of baths. The next thing I did was schedule an appointment with the vet’s office to have him checked out, and get all of his shots given to him. It was as they were taking information to schedule the appointment, they asked for his name. I had been thinking about a new name for him because he was not an “Arnold”. I had even gotten a few suggestion for the same name after people had seen pictures of him. So without any hesitation I told the nice lady on the phone his name was Petey. 

I’ve now had Petey for almost a year and I couldn’t love him more. He is a sweet heart. He loves cuddles, playing outside with my parent’s dog Angus, walks, and being around his family. Because that is what he is, a part of the family. And we wouldn’t trade him for all the money in the world!

Here is a picture of Petey (White face w/ gray patch over one eye) and Angus (Brown and white dog in the back)!