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Best Strut Your Mutt in 16 years!
 This year's 16th Annual Strut Your Mutt, underwritten by Kennebunk Savings Insurance, raised more than $60,000 for the Animal Welfare Society's Sadie Fund, a medical fund dedicated to providing necessary medical care to the thousands of pets needing our help each year.
New sponsors, new walkers and a healthy competition between teams resulted in a more than $7,000 increase from last year's walk!
See the photos from the day and be sure to vote for the 2011 "Face of the Strut!"
If you missed the big day and would like to make a contribution to the AWS Sadie Fund, you may do so online or by sending your donation to AWS Sadie Fund, PO Box 43, West Kennebunk, ME 04094.
Thank you to EVERYONE that made this day such a great success! So many lives will be impacted by your gifts and we are so very grateful!
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New hours at AWS! A good fit for adoptions and volunteer opportunities!
 The Animal Welfare Society is now open for adoptions and visits:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
11:00am - 7:00pm
Saturday and Sundays
11:00am - 4:30pm
Offering evening and weekend hours makes it more convenient for the public to meet or adopt shelter pets. It has also increased the number of hours volunteers can put in doing laundry, dog walking, crafting and socializing cats.
Come check out the night life at AWS!
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Finding homes for AWS pets is a full time job!
You may wonder how it is possible for the AWS to find thousands of homes each year for the pets who come through our doors.
The number one way that we promote our furry friends is on our website. From January 1 - August 31, 2010 our website, animalwelfaresociety.org, had 399,349 unique visitors with each visitor looking at an average of just under three pages. By far, the most popular page is "Adopt Dogs" coming in with 242,405 (yes, that is just shy of a quarter of a million!) views, and the "Home Page" getting about 20,000 fewer hits with 222,282 views (and there are still 4 months left in 2010!).
 In addition, we keep our information current on FaceBook where 1,472 people "like" us, 121 people follow us on MySpace, on PetFinder.com our pets get more than 1,000 page looks every week and on DownEast Dog News Online, AWS has a page to feature available dogs!
Whew!
Weekly, we submit our "Pets of the Week" to ten media outlets and our Calendar of Events to 21 print publications and internet sites, as well as issue Press Releases to local media with AWS news and events.
Bi-weekly Shelter Co-manager, Bobbi Allen and AWS Humane Educator, Lona Anges host a program on Biddeford Public Access Channel, "AWSome Paws". They discuss animal welfare issues and topics, feature adoptable pets, and promote Animal Welfare Society services and programing.
 Our Mobile Adoption Team, better known as MAT, spends many hours
working with the adoptable dogs and bringing them to events and retail
locations. It is a super way to highlight the individual dogs as well as
shelter services, like our behavior helpline and obedience classes.
Regularly, one of our Senior Animal Care Technicians, Jocelyn Layman,
or Program Coordinator, Gail Crowell are invited to talk about upcoming events on Coast 93.1 and WPOR radio or feature available
pets on WCSH, NECN and FOX23. In the upcoming weeks, the Portland Press Herald will highlight AWS available pets with their online weather forecast.
 Annually, Volunteers and Staff represent the Animal Welfare Society at
more than 50 events throughout the state and we offer a monthly program
at the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine in Portland.
How can you help spread the word about our available animals? Forward this e-newsletter to friends & family! Tell everyone you know about AWS and the great things that are happening for animals!
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Your Help Needed!
Placing so many cats requires lots of supplies!
Can you help to re-stock our cabinets?
A huge MEOW to you if you can!
We are in need of:
Cat Litter
Canned Cat Food
Frontline
Kitten Milk Replacement (KMR)
Fabric & Batting for our crafters to make comfy cat beds
Gift cards to local pet supply stores
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The AWS Mission Statement:
"The Animal Welfare Society, a non-profit organization, exists to
provide humane shelter and care to companion animals temporarily in
need of housing, to assist in disaster response, and to further the
cause of responsible animal adoption and ownership through education
and public awareness. The society actively promotes kindness, the
elimination of cruelty to and neglect of all animals, and the lifelong
commitment of people to their pets."
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Did you know?
The Animal Welfare Society hosts Birthday Parties in the Humane Education Room. Looking for a unique venue for your child's party? Parties for up to ten children include a behind the scenes tour of the shelter, interaction with adoptable pets, a craft, games and more. For more information click here. To check on availability call Lona at 985-3244 x 109. |
"A Special Breed of Crazy"
the life of Biddeford Animal Control Officer, Garth Russell.
Freelance photographer and AWS volunteer, Cheryl Rau specializes in commercial, documentary, and fine art photography.
AWS has benefited from her work, in fact, some of the photos in this newsletter came from the months she spent shooting the AWS staff and volunteers in action. If you want an insiders view of an ACO's job, this photo essay profiles the challenges and joys of Garth's work.
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Dog Obedience at AWS, a class for every dog.
BASIC OBEDIENCE
OCT 2 - NOV 6 Saturdays 9 - 10 am OCT 27 - NOV 29 Wednesdays 7 - 8 pm
NOV 2 - DEC 7 Tuesdays 7 - 8 pm
S.T.A.R. PUPPYOCT 18 - NOV 22 Mondays 7 - 8 pm
BASIC OBEDIENCE GRADUATE SERIES
OCT 28 - NOV 11
Thursdays 7 - 8 pm
Additional classes include:
THERAPY DOG INFORMATION & SKILLS
CANINE GOOD CITIZEN
AGILITY TRAINING
Call 985-3244 x 111 for more information or class availability
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With foster homes bursting with kittens, 9 Satellite Adoption locations helping to house and adopt out up to 2 dozen cats at a time and the five AWS cat rooms full, we had to think outside the box and find a way to get the 300 cats and kittens into their new homes! 
Aft
Hats off to the management team for taking the risk, the staff and 