The Way Of The Paw is a Colorado nonprofit corporation and 501(c)(3) public charity formed in January 2011. Our goal is to be a rescue organization for cats and dogs who are suffering needlessly as strays or in overcrowded shelters.
For the immediate future, we plan to operate as a rescue network of volunteers and foster families. The rescue network will coordinate to take care of the rescued animals and work to adopt them out to forever homes in the Denver, CO metro area.
For the long term, we hope to establish an animal sanctuary in the Denver metro area, where rescued cats and dogs will have room to roam before being adopted out to forever homes.
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Make all unwanted Colorado pets wanted
Rescue
Create positive working relationships with local & regional shelters to rescue all breeds of dogs & cats in immediate danger of euthanasia.
Rehab
Provide room to roam, lots of love, socialization and the training needed to rehabilitate the rescued dogs & cats.
Re-home
Adopt rescued dogs & cats to forever homes. Be a resource in the community helping to maintain successful adoptions.
Renew
Play an active role in helping to keep Coloradans informed on issues of animal welfare and safety. Provide education and resources on the value of adopting shelter pets, the importance of maintaining healthy pets, and the need for spaying & neutering.
Narrative Description of our Activities
from our 501(c)(3) application to the IRS
The Way Of The Paw was formed in January 2011 by the husband and wife team of Shelley Parker Minyard and Bill Minyard. Shelley has dreamed her whole life of operating an animal rescue and sanctuary, and in January 2011 we took the first concrete steps towards fulfilling that dream. After incorporating, and beginning the first few steps towards organizing and running the corporation, we decided to expand our board of directors and adopt a formal set of bylaws. In February of 2011 we expanded the board of directors to include Lauren Piner, and adopted a formal set of bylaws for running the corporation. Shelley was made president of the corporation, Bill was made treasurer, and Lauren was made secretary.
Our president, Shelley, has been working the last few years as a buyer for the Tattered Cover Bookstore. Through that work, she has developed significant experience with business operations and management, as well as a network of clients and acquaintances who may have interest in supporting an animal rescue nonprofit. Shelley has also been volunteering for the last year at Maxfund, a local nonprofit animal shelter. Our treasurer, Bill, runs his own business and has a variety of skills, including experience with building a website, managing finances, and coordinating people with varying skills. Our secretary, Lauren, also runs her own business. She also has volunteered at Maxfund, and has extensive experience there and elsewhere with animal training and behavioral issues.
The goal of our corporation for the next few months and years is to operate as a cat and dog rescue. Shelley will be volunteering full-time this year, and Bill and Lauren will be volunteering part-time to get our animal rescue up and running. Over the course of the winter and spring of 2011, we will be developing relationships with potential fosters, volunteers, donors, and professional and business partners. These relationships will be our network of supporters for rescued cats and dogs, and Shelley will be the primary person developing and coordinating this network.
Animals will be rescued primarily from local Denver-area shelters in cases where they would otherwise be euthanized because of limited space. We will also accept animals relinquished by the general public that are otherwise in danger of becoming strays or being euthanized, as well as animals that are already living as strays.
One of the key pieces of our network will be the group of foster families for our rescued cats and dogs. Each potential foster family will fill out an application, and be interviewed by Shelley to determine their interest in and suitability for fostering, and to determine how many foster animals they can reasonably (and within Colorado licensing limits) accommodate.
Another key piece of our network will be a group of veterinary medical doctors. We will work to find vets who are willing and able to offer reduced-cost service for our rescued cats and dogs, including mandatory spay or neuter for reproductively capable animals. Whatever reduction in fees we are able to negotiate will be treated as donated services, but we will provide necessary veterinary care for all rescued animals independent of costs. We plan to operate as a limited intake rescue, and will only euthanize animals that have terminal illness or chronic pain with no hope for improvement.
Because we anticipate significant maintenance and veterinary costs per rescued animal, we also anticipate a significant need for donations from the community at large. We will charge a nominal fee for the adoption of each rescued animal of about $100, but anticipate that the average cost for care for each of these animals will be about $200. The difference between this cost and fee will be made up through donations to our cause. Our immediate fundraising efforts will consist of appeals to friends and acquaintances through word-of-mouth and direct mail efforts, and of events organized by our directors and other committed volunteers. Our first major fundraising event will be a dinner in the spring of 2011 celebrating the opening of our operation to the first rescued animal.
Before we rescue our first animal, however, we will work diligently to develop relationships with local pet stores and “doggie day cares.” Our primary aim from those relationships will be to provide physical locations where rescued cats and/or dogs may be shown to the public for adoption. Secondarily, any donations in-kind of pet food or pet supplies will be welcomed. Independent of these physical locations, we will work to develop a searchable database on our website including pictures and descriptions of animals available for adoption. We will also link this information to online adoption networks like Petango.com and Petfinders.com, as another route for showing our rescued cats and dogs to the public at large.
Finally, on an ongoing basis we will develop a network of volunteers who will be able to help our cause in ways other than fostering animals. These volunteers will help with fundraising events, marketing, and with the animals. Volunteers will also help by transporting animals between adoption locations, foster homes, and other community settings where rescued animals may be shown to the public.
In our more long-term vision, we hope to develop our rescue operation and funding support enough to contemplate buying and/or building an animal sanctuary for rescued cats and dogs. A key component of our organizational mission is to make rescued animals feel wanted and “at home” even before ultimate adoption to forever homes. As a rescue, we aim to meet this mission by giving animals that “home like” experience in foster homes, showing animals to the public at pet stores and events for only short periods of time.
As a potential animal sanctuary in the future, we plan to develop dog runs and cat rooms with plenty of “room to roam.” For dogs, this would include “indoor-outdoor” runs and runs for small groups of 2 to 5 dogs. For cats and dogs both, this would involve minimal time spent in solitary crates, and more time in social interaction with other rescues and with people (staff & volunteers). Overall, our goal is to follow the appropriate steps to building an animal sanctuary in a way that is ideal for the animals and help educate the public in the hopes of decreasing the number of animals that need places like The Way of the Paw.