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honor of his mother who passed away several years ago, assembles a great group of mu-
sicians on a Sunday afternoon and for about four hours they just play their hearts out and
people come and have a great time. Our second fundraiser is an Elegant Evening of Fun,
held in June. For this event we generally have a local celebrity performer like Kezirah and
the Fuzzy Rojas Band who come and entertain. It's turned into a major civic event, atten-
dedbyas many as 250people.” Many individuals andbusinesses donate money orprovide
goods and/or services that can be raffled or auctioned off to raise further support.
Not every animal that comes to PAWS can be saved. Each loss is heartbreaking for
the team but they balance those experiences with the satisfaction of seeing animals turned
over to good, loving homes. “People often don't recognize the dogs when they see them
the second time after their rescue,” John says. “If we give them good consistent care for
as much as two or three months, they just turn into beautiful dogs again; but it sometimes
takes that long.” The PAWS team tries to make each adoption a celebration, posting pho-
tos on their website and providing the new family with a pet 'passport.' These documents
record the animal's medical care and hopefully encourage the new owners to keep up the
veterinary visits.
“They are fantastic, dedicated and sincere,” says local Linda Wilson. “They walk the
walk, not just talk the talk. Every volunteer is a super humanitarian.”
Paula Bowers, co-owner of Jungle Creek recalls, “About a year ago, our dog Suzie
went missing for five days and we were worried sick. We stopped in at the PAWS table at
La Feria and showed them a picture. One of the ladies said 'she looks like a dog that was
brought in not long ago.' Within minutes someone brought Susie down and we couldn't
believe our eyes! My husband and I (and all the volunteers at PAWS) shared tears of joy.
We are so grateful for all their hard work and caring. This is just one of the many, many
things that PAWS does to help and support our community and stray animals. Thank you
PAWS!”
The PAWS Group is small, with five Board Members and some volunteers supporting
their work. “Everybody does everything,” Valerie says. “We all pick up after each other,
we all help one another, and we're on email or the telephone all the time. It's a daily, almost
hourlyjob. Wewouldbeforevergrateful foranybodywhowaswilling tohelporvolunteer
in any way. We do have some good volunteers, but it's very time consuming, and more
people would always help.” One of their dreams is to have enough assistance to be able to
begin an education program in local schools to teach children about caring for their pets.
“It really does have to start with the youngest generation,” John says, “the changing of
cultural attitudes towards animals.”
“It will happen, we hope” Valerie adds, “We're just not quite there yet.”
They feel humbled that PAWS has been recognized as the best non-profit organization,
and appreciate the support it represents. “We're very proud and thankful for the acknow-
