Finding Solutions: Local rescue helps find fur-ever homes for pets
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A local rescue centered around rescuing and re-homing homeless and abandoned animals needs your help.
Team Stinkykiss is holding a fundraiser to raise money for the dogs in their care while also looking to renovate what would be their first facility.
The non-profit is finding solutions in how they can continue to help even more dogs.
Gretchen Iakovidis with Team Stinkykiss says it’s been a busy couple of months post-Helene.
“Many of our fosters lost their homes, and fences just like the rest of the community. So not only did we lose fosters because they couldn’t take in more fosters, or keep the fosters they had, but many people in the community weren’t able to hold on to their dogs so it was a clash of everything going on at one time,” said Iakovidis.
Team Stinkykiss is a non-profit rescue that is completely foster-based.
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They rescue and re-home all dogs no matter their condition.
Just like Emma, who has Lymphoma.
“She’s a senior dog and to date, her vetting has been about $10,000. We don’t say no to any dog who needs medical care. We will do whatever we can to take care of these dogs,” said Iakovidis.
She says the adoption fee does not cover all the care they give to these dogs. That’s why fundraising is critical.
They have a fundraiser going on right now on their Facebook page.
“It’s an online auction we do them quarterly, but it’s our biggest fundraiser of the year. It’s how we get most of our funding,” said Iakovidis.
The money they raise from this is also going toward renovating their first facility.
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“We can do things like transition dogs out of the shelter into our building so that we have time to find a foster whether it be through community outreach, through fosters we already have, and not have to worry about we don’t have room for this dog,” she said.
She says ultimately the building is going to allow them to help even more dogs.
“We would love to help out with hoarding cases. But again, we are limited by the fosters, whereas if we had this building available, we could pull in those dogs and have time to find fosters for those dogs,” said Iakovidis.
If you would like to take place in their winter auction, you can head to their Facebook page.
You have until Sunday night at 9 p.m. to place a bid on an item.
They currently have 17 dogs with fosters and four in hospice with what they call “forever fosters.”
They say the number of dogs they can help depends on how many fosters they have.
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