I first want to welcome Kim Boshela (VP) and Dani Christ (Secretary) to the KGARL Board. I look forward to working with them in the upcoming year in addition to our returning board members Deb Silber (Treasurer) and Michele Shipman (Member at Large).

We hope to continue to increase KGARL membership in 2009. Melissa Bowler joined at our January meeting and became our 1st new member this year! We are confident she’s going to be a great asset to KGARL! We recently received 3 new applications so we’re off to a great start!

During 2008 the Board took a hard look at the cost, both in time and money, of fostering and placing animals. We fostered and found loving forever homes for 12 dogs and 11 cats at a cost of more than $250 per animal. Their average time in foster care was approximately 4-1/2 months. We helped a total of 167 cats and 53 dogs at the King George Animal Control Shelter at an average cost of less than $10 per animal. Our assistance included transports, pulling for individuals (2 dogs and 3 cats) and rescues (4 dogs and 5 cats), providing medical care (24 dogs and 6 cats), etc. I’m so excited to tell you that the euthanasia rate for dogs at the shelter dropped from 41% in 2006 to 12% in 2008. The rate for cats dropped from 80% to 18%. It became very clear that KGARL can help more animals by working closely with the shelter and other rescue groups. In 2009, we plan to continue our focus on moving animals from the shelter to other rescues. Special thanks go out to Dani Christ and Vicki Tate who spend countless hours contacting rescues and arranging transports. Please read Dani’s article on page 5 for more information on what made these drastic decreases possible.

Finally, we have some wonderful fundraising events coming up. You’ll see us again at the King George Builder’s Show. We’re in the early stages of planning our 2nd Annual Trails & Tails Dog Walk and the OFB’s are busy planning the 2nd Annual Poker Run. I encourage you to come out and volunteer a couple of hours – we have a lot of fun and the animals of King George benefit tremendously!

I’m excited about the upcoming year and believe that with your help, KGARL will continue to make a difference.