Thank you for your donation to PAWS of Grays Harbor. Your donation helps animals in the community find their forever homes and helps us care for their needs while they patiently wait for the next big steps in their lives. Your donations to PAWS of Grays Harbor are tax deductible. Our tax ID is 23-7174196. If you have any questions please call the shelter at 360-533-1141 x7 or email director@pawsgh.org.

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THAT ONE

There is a good chance you have heard the Starfish story and its variations before, but it is worth repeating. An older man comes across a young boy on a beach after thousands of starfish are stranded, having been washed up after a big storm. As the child came across a starfish, he would pick it up and gently throw it back into the ocean. The older man, perplexed, reminds the boy that there are miles and miles of beach with thousands of starfish lining the sandy shoreline - that he can’t possibly make a difference for all of those starfish. The child listens carefully, then picks up another starfish to return it to the ocean. “I made a difference for that one,” he tells the man. Some version of the story take it a step further - the older man starts to help throw starfish back into the ocean and the pair are joined by more individuals who help until all the starfish have made it safely back into the ocean.

Such is the nature of animal sheltering and rescue. Those of us who live and breathe this work on a daily basis realize how impossible it is for one small shelter to save every animal in need - despite the fact that we desperately want to do just that. In times like these, where the need for our services far outpaces our capacity to help, it can be discouraging to think about all of the animals needing our help. Instead, we refocus on what we can do - even if it is just “that one”.

Our goal as a team as we wrap up 2024 is to celebrate some of the individual success stories such as JoJo, who spent just over a year at our shelter before finding an adopter and Hellena, a senior pooch abandoned and rescued from certain euthanasia. We also celebrate medical success stories such as Michaelangelo, who was left on our doorstep needing a leg amputation, and Poppy, a stray puppy in need of specialty eye surgery. Maybe you even had the opportunity to meet talkative Felix and his bonded buddy Calvin before they finally found their family. Likewise, young Kalliope and her best friend Bean made their way to a new home after their original adopter’s health needs necessitated special care.

These are the joyous stories that fuel us here at PAWS of Grays Harbor, especially as we face new challenges ahead. As a nonprofit, we are accustomed to the practice of doing much with little. Unfortunately, the gulf between what we need to function and what we receive in donations continues to widen. As families in our community struggle to make ends meet and as generational giving habits change, donations wane. Likewise, a decline in long-term volunteers requires us to use paid staff to provide reliable animal care. It is no stretch to say that while our community desperately needs our services, we cannot rely on community donations to keep us operational. In this, we are not alone as many private animal shelters and rescues nationwide face similar difficulties.

We have a small budget to begin with and there are no easy places to cut expenses to make a significant impact on the shortfall. In considering personnel cuts for 2025, I made the case to our Board of Directors for the biggest possible cut with the least amount of impact on daily animal care - the elimination of the Executive Director position. What this means is that our remaining 4 staff members (who are all exceptional leaders in their individual ways) are taking on new administrative tasks and our Board of Directors will fill in the gaps. It will be difficult, but we hope to someday be able to rebuild this position. Right now, our priority is survival and serving the homeless pets of Grays Harbor as best as we can.

We always need your support of to continue our mission. Even the smallest donation can save “that one”. Join us on the beach for our quest to save as many as we can. We cannot do it without you. For your contributions through the years, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being a part of our family and helping us keep our doors open to animals in need of a safe space.

Always and forever for the animals,

PAWS of Grays Harbor

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