celebrating no-kill, year one.

technically, teen girl & i have been volunteering
with the amazing rescue organization austin pets alive!
for almost a year.

[realistically, seventh grade has dramatically diminished our capacity
for putting in volunteer hours, but we occasionally help out
the apa! adoption counselors at our friendly neighborhood petsmart.]

regardless, thanks in large part to apa!, austin just hit
the one-year mark of being a no-kill city for homeless pets.

[no-kill is defined as a minimum of 90% of homeless pets
coming into the city shelter leaving alive to forever homes.]

the austin city council declared yesterday as no-kill day
in austin to honor the occasion.
austin is also currently america's biggest no-kill city.

in 2011, the austin animal center — with the help of apa!, the austin humane society,
& dozens of other volunteer rescue & foster groups — had an average
91% save rate, with a total of 5,541 dogs & cats avoiding euthanasia, including:
3,224 dogs, 2,317 cats,
1,032 bottle babies [animals too young to be weaned],
256 parvo puppies & 132 barn cats.

so let us raise a glass — or a tail, as the case may be —
in celebration of austin, texas, the music capital of the world,
& the best place on earth to be a helpless, hopeful critter.


image source: our own apa! adoptee, skipper inkspots,
with bone & duckie, on the recent occasion of his first birthday,
without whom our pack would be incomplete &
merely 5,540 austin-area pets would have been saved last year.