URGENT! We need 1-2 volunteers next Friday afternoon (10/29) at CHICAGO O’HARE International Airport (ORD). Please contact me a.s.a.p. if you can help us out for a couple of hours….

As Let’s Adopt! is growing worldwide we are in need of volunteers at major US airports to assist us receiving animals from our flight volunteers, AFTER they have passed through customs.
The airport volunteer will then take the animal and check it in for its connection flight to its final destination – its new home

It’s one of the most vital part of our operations, and with that also
a lot of fun and very rewarding:

• Time commitment is only few hours.

• You’ll need a vehicle to accommodate the kennel(s) or crate(s), depending on the size and number of animals to be transported.

• Meet with the flight volunteer at Arrivals

• Receive animal(s) and all necessary paperwork.

• Give animal(s) a quick potty/water break.

• Continue to designated cargo facility nearby.

• Check in animal(s) with airline (we do all the booking)

• Send them on their way and don’t forget to take pictures and videos for our community.

• DONE!

What’s in it for you?
Be a hero to our rescues and special needs animals, by providing this essential link to the Chain of Change.
What feels better than being part of a movement, saving lives and inspiring other? There’s nothing quite like it….

“BEing in the moment – BEing part of the movement - BEing The Change“!

Will you join us?

e-mail me at misha@myletsadopt.com

URGENT:
We need 1-2 volunteers next
Friday afternoon (10/29)
at CHICAGO‘s O’HARE
International Airport (ORD).
Please contact me a.s.a.p. if you can help us out for a couple of hours. BE part of our movement!

Thank You!

Misha

BE The Change

Dear Friends Of Let’s Adopt!

Cheeta during initial critical treatment

Cheeta was rushed to our clinic last week with a totally destroyed leg.

The damage was so great that it had to be amputated.

Cheeta recovering- finally a safe place to cuddle and exhale

She is now a gorgeous three legged kitty.
…
Hairy Steak (named that way because Peke sees her as a potential lunch) had an equally tragic story.. she fell into a semi-empty pool and she was left there for two days.

By the time she arrived,  she was in a coma and blind.

Hairy Steak’s first steps recovering
Lots of care made her get out of her state and she is now an amazing kitty as you can see in the pictures.

snuggle time “zzZZzzzZZzzZZ”

Bearing in mind that they are very good friends and have gone through so much, we were keen on re-homing them together.

UPDATE: Cheeta + Hairy Steak have been adopted to TEXAS!!

and moved with the help of a flight volunteer!!!

kisses goodbye….

Thanks to all of you who are making our mission possible.
As you can see, we are all volunteers with no federal grants or deep pockets. We finance all of our rescue missions with kind contributions to our Simba Fund + out of pocket.
What’s unique about Let’s Adopt! is that we have zero overhead. Every single cent of your contribution (after PayPal fees) goes directly the care of our animals!
Chances are that most of the funds you see listed on the Simba Fund Chip In, have already been spent and put into action.

Thank You for your continuous support and making our global vision a reality.

BE The Change
Misha Dee

Whenever you visit our blogs, you might have noticed
the Let’s Adopt Community Map to the lower right of your screen.

Put yourself on the map and start saving lives.

What is it all about?
Very simple – The Map connects YOU to the rest of the Let’s Adopt! Network worldwide!

This is the place to put your marker on the map, tell us a little about yourself or copy the code to of your Facebook badge and let us know in what capacity you can support us.
For example: foster, transport, flight volunteer, action calls, etc).

Misha Dee

Create Your Badge

SAVE THE MAP and you’re all done.

Need a step-by-step?

:. sign in or register with Google
.:. Go to the map at
http://bit.ly/LetsAdopt-Network-Map to add your pin to the map.
.:. zoom the map,
.:. click the blue pin and drag it to your location.
.:. add your information, and be sure to SAVE the map when you’re done.

Easy – Yet such an important step to connect with others.

Share the map and invite all your fellow animal activists, rescuers, and volunteer friends and family, so we can truly build a tight network and react fast in any sort of emergency rescue situation.

Become part of the solution.  Join Let’s Adopt! USA today.

BE The Change!

Misha

Please SHARE/RT

We are in urgent need of flight volunteers to the US, Canada (Montreal, Toronto), Germany and Holland.
Please get in touch with

Viktor: v.larkhill@googlemail.com

or contact me via

misha@myletsadopt.com

Thank You!

BE The Change

~Misha

Here’s an article by Viktor about how it works and why we are relocating animals to other countries.

Let’s Adopt! is Looking For Flight Volunteers for Angels Without Wings

Since its conception almost 2 years ago Let’s Adopt! has always been a pioneer in animal welfare related issues. We have introduced, singlehandedly, the concept of foster homes in Turkey. We have, for the first time in homing animals, put down rules other than the stupid documentations they ask for in shelters, gas bill, electricity bill, residence papers… We have, more than any bureaucratic nonsense of filling forms and providing that you live where you say you live, made sure that our dogs and cats actually LIVED INSIDE HOMES, not gardens and factory properties. We have insisted that the family should have another companion animal to adopt one from us. This is to make sure that they are aware of the responsibilities and requirements of an animal. Also, a great way to see how they care about their existing animals. We never agree to adoption of pure breeds simply on the basis of their blood. We make sure that the family adopts a stray first to be able to own a Golden Retriever or a Rottweiler.

And most of the time we have succeeded. The failures always happened when, out of the goodness of our hearts and naivete that we still
carry inside us for the goodness of people, we made exceptions.

No more exceptions, ever! Our rules are chiseled in stone and won’t be broken.

But, then there is something that really breaks our backs: The crisis and the way it effects thousand of families in this country and around the world. This is one of the reasons why there are so many abandoned animals, not only here but all around the world. Yet, people in Europe and North America still have the necessary funds to take care of their animals where the animals are seen as a part of the family and not accessories that look good near the fire place.

Why do I ramble on? Because that is what I do to ask for your help again, as you need to know why we do the things we do and need the
things we need?

We have declared that due to the non-existence of adoptions in the current climate we have a massive backlog of animals who need homes.

Not only that, we are experiencing an influx of animals which we had homed and now are being returned to us after months of being home dogs. Imagine the total destruction of the animals, imagine the damage the family makes their kids go through, imagine the state we are in…

Give Our Dogs Wiiiiings

Friends, though not every day of the week, we receive emails from our members in Europe and North America where people tell us that they are moved by the stories and struggles of our animals, asking us whether it would be possible to adopt them outside the country. After careful consideration, Skype conferences and many emails, we come to a decision.

It is all okay until when we need to fly our babies out, after their legal requirements are fully met;  chips, bloodwork when necessary,
vaccinations, fulfillment of a certain age etc.

This is when we need you. Many of you are professionals, many of you take trips outside the  country for business and for leisure, many of you study in foreign countries or visit friends and family who live abroad. Be our flight volunteers!!! Fly with one of our animals,
provided that there is the perfect family waiting for them on the other end and take part in the joy of knowing you have placed a life
in need in the safest of hands.

Get in touch with me a couple of weeks before you are due to fly and hopefully we will have  a dog or a cat for you as your flight
companion.

Go on, give us wings…

Viktor Larkhill
v.larkhill@googlemail.com

Can you help Sookie get to her forever family?

Sookie is a gorgeous 25-pound black and white girl from Istanbul who is somewhere around a year old.

She has a family in Germany who has been approved to adopt her, and she also has a family in Canada who has been approved to adopt her.

So what’s the problem?

Sookie needs to hitch a ride.

We are looking for anyone travelling between Istanbul and Canada or Germany who can take Sookie with them. She will travel with all the appropriate paperwork, of course, and it will cost you nothing more than your time to help Sookie get to her new home. Someone from Let’s Adopt! will meet you at the airport in Istanbul with Sookie and her paperwork. Then she will travel in her crate in the cargo area of the airplane until you both reach your destination.

Help us spread the word. Share this post on your Facebook profile and with your friends. There must be someone among us who will be travelling from Istanbul to Germany or Canada in the coming weeks.

For more photos of Sookie, click here.

And to read about my own experience with transporting Lucy from Istanbul to Chicago, click here.

Please get in touch with us in the comments section if you can help Sookie reach her forever family. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

After 15 years in animal welfare as a rescuer, full-time volunteer, foster, mentor, and trustee of a grassroots rescue group in Berkeley, CA, volunteering for big established shelters, smaller shelters, no kill/kill…
I just had enough of turning in circles.
Here I was 15 years later, deeply disappointed by the lack of understanding of volunteer and shelter management by the last shelter I volunteered for the past 6 years.

I wanted change!

Each year we’d wait for the first litter to hit the shelters, and within weeks, there was mayhem, kittens/puppies everywhere. People “miraculously” found them under their porches, in their garages, no idea how they got there, but they always knew exactly how old they were
I was tired of listening to the excuses from people. It was always the animal’s fault, well if you didn’t count the allergies, baby on the way, boy/girlfriend moving in.
People are treating animals like a piece of furniture, the latest fad. Once out of fashion, they’re discarded.
Latest bold example are the little toy breeds, filling up the shelters all over the country right now. Thanks to Hollywood bimbos clutching them in front of cameras like purses – their airhead fans want to be like them, so instead of a frontal lobotomy they get a chihuahua or a pug or other little cutie.
These might be small animals, but they still need attention, affection, exercise, and yes, they live 10 years or longer. Cats can live over 20 years.
Are people not realizing that? Why is that?
Is it that the cute puppy or kitty is too tempting and they’ll agree to anything just to take the cutie home TODAY?!
I’ve held hundreds of adoption counseling sessions, and am still amazed how people setting themselves up to fail as responsible guardians.

So, what makes Let’s Adopt different?
Let’s Adopt is about awareness and holding humans accountable.
We are not in the business to build yet another shelter.We are here to change the system.Saving lives by educating humans, changing legislature, building local communities of animal lovers from the inside out.
Each of you can contribute to our mission by joining our network on Facebook and help us grow.
We want to connect a rescuer with a foster home, and get the animal directly into its new home.
Our adoption rules are a little different than the standard “fill out application- be approved-pay & good bye- whew“.(rescuers out there, you know exactly what I mean!)
We want to educate the adopter, and ensure that s/he understands beforehand the responsibility and the gift each animal coming through Let’s Adopt! is.We want to find forever homes. Nothing less will be good enough, and we have no issue turning applicants down. Our history in other countries prove that we’re on to something. Check out the Turkey based main page at blog.myletsadopt.com
Let’s Adopt! is not about moving a large number of animals, but about finding quality homes, educating communities and saving lives not even born yet.

The city I currently live in has it’s municipal shelter about 30 minutes from downtown.The Humane Society is a 10 minute drive.

Guess where prospective adopters will go browse for animals.
Guess where most animals are dying just days after arrival.
This needs to change!!!
I am tired of hiding the city’s dirty little secret with my tax dollars, while charity is sucking dry the donation pool. Easy, with 6 figure marketing budget.
Animal Rescue is big business.

When I went to a workshop at a Humane Society, the person leading the workshop started the day by saying… “Hello, my name is XXXXX XXXXXX, and our mission is to put us out of business….” >
Well, needless to say that after 7 years they are still up & running and probably still using the same line.
What has changed in the area? Nothing!
The municipal shelters are still overwhelmed and underfunded. The HS does good work, I don’t want to take that away from them.

However, 40 thousand animals are being killed in my metro area each year.

This is an outrage.

Which leads me back to the answer of the original question.

Why I am with Let’s Adopt!?
Because we’re here to change the game. To make to officials a bit more uncomfortable, ask tough questions and ultimately bring change. True change.
You can do this as well.
I will soon post some resources I am currently collecting for YOU to use in your community. How to start petitions, get measures on your local ballots, start a spay/neuter program… just to name a few.
So, stay tuned for that!
Meanwhile don’t forget to join the US network on Facebook.

Feel free to introduce yourself in the discussion section and share some of your local issues. Start a dialog with our virtual community…

Here’s to real change – for the animals!

One Love!
Misha

I woke poor Lucy up from her nap in her kitty condo to take this recent photo!

Turkey is an amazing holiday destination, but my holidays often end up having to do with animal rescue. Somehow I did not notice how many stray dogs and cats there were in Istanbul during my first trip to Turkey in January 2006. During my most recent trip in November and December 2009, my heart was broken almost upon arriving. There were homeless animals everywhere, and what stood out to me most was the number of cats and kittens. I think I cried at least once every day during my 14 days in Turkey because of the overwhelming sadness I felt for the animals.

Sure, there are some kind souls who leave food out for the stray animals. But the fact that these animals need to be spayed and neutered at a bare minimum seemed to be lost on the handful of Turks I engaged with about the issue. These animals also need proper medical care and loving homes with warm beds, but you have to start somewhere. There is no perfect solution, but I believe that TNR (trap-neuter-release) of homeless animals combined with public education on animal welfare are two ways to make a lasting impact.

I have been amazingly fortunate to have lived in many countries and traveled to many more. I have witnessed the plight of homeless animals in many different places, and I know that even my birth country of the United States still has much room to improve on this issue. We all have to start somewhere, and if we can collaborate and work together to create a better world for people and animals, we will make a lasting change.

I was born to a mother who had a Basset mix dog named Myles who slept in the playpen with me from the day my mom brought me home from the hospital. She tells me that my father’s family was howling for her to get rid of Myles before I was born, but there was no way that was going to happen because dogs and cats are fine with children. Children just need to be dog-proofed and cat-proofed! They have to be taught how to respect animals, and I am both lucky and grateful that I grew up with the opportunity to share my life with animals.

Love for animals brings with it a keen awareness of their plight. You can look the other way, but that is not going to change anything. Instead, I have struggled my entire life to understand how to fix the problems I see. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when I realize I can not solve it all myself. I can not take in every single animal that needs a home, and it is very easy to drown in my tears and give up because the problem is too big. There is too much suffering. But I am not willing to give up. So what can I do? I can lend my voice to the voiceless, I can volunteer my time with rescue organizations, I can transport animals from shelters to rescues and foster families, I can foster animals, and I can TNR and feed the feral cat colony in my own neighborhood. But most importantly, I can join forces with others who are trying to solve the problem.

On December 6th, I met three kindred spirits at Istanbul airport. They were bearing two beautiful cats, and they were trusting us to bring those cats to America. I had found Viktor and the Let’s Adopt! community on the Internet before our trip to Turkey. I usually read up on local animal rescue groups to see how I might be able to help while traveling, and I made an offer to transport any animals who might need a ride to Chicago. As fate would have it, Viktor took my offer. One kitten was going to a family in West Virginia who had been in Turkey the month before and had adopted her but were unable to take her with them at the time. The other cat was Lucy.

As Viktor said as soon as he met my fiancé and I, the goal of Let’s Adopt! is not to send animals overseas. But there are some cases which require such drastic measures. Disabled animals have fewer chances of being adopted even in countries where people are used to companion animals, but imagine their chances of being adopted in a country that does not have a tradition of keeping companion animals inside the home. Beautiful Lucy had lingered in a crate at the vet clinic for 10 months. She is an older cat, and she has no teeth. She had no prospects for adoption in Istanbul. Enough was enough, and Viktor made the decision to send her overseas before her spirit was broken entirely.

I have transported animals in Australia from the shelters to the airports, and I have transported animals in America from shelters to rescues. My wonder dog, Mr. Claus (who also happens to have his own health challenges), moved from Sydney to Cincinnati with me. He had to travel in the cargo hold, so I had never transported an animal in the cabin with me until we brought Lucy with us. The journey could not have been easier. Lucy was an angel, and one particular woman in the flight crew was outstanding and even moved the woman seated next to Paraag and me so that we had more room with Lucy. The woman was elderly, and we had a complete language barrier. She was telling the air hostess that she didn’t mind at all and was asking questions about Lucy. Her interest and kindness were contrasted by two cranky gentlemen who did not like the idea that there was a cat in the cabin. One of the gentlemen who was two rows in front of us and on the other side of the plane was complaining of severe allergies. I didn’t understand the Turkish being spoken, but it was pretty clear (and pretty amusing!) that the air hostess was telling him to deal with it and put on a mask. She handed him the mask which he proceeded to take off an hour or so into the flight. I guess the allergies weren’t so bad after all…

Lucy rode in the middle seat between us, and we gave her food and water several times during the flight. She watched the TV screen with great interest, and she purred as we stroked her. A few people stopped by our seats to ask about her, and I made a point of telling them all about Let’s Adopt!. I cried for Lucy on the plane. It’s hard for me to imagine her being without a home for so long. She must be one of the easiest cats I have ever met. Like every other homeless animal out there, all she needed was a chance. They are all good pets; we just need to learn how to be good pet owners.

Many of us love animals and work with our local animal rescue communities to help in any way we can. Transporting an animal from overseas might seem impossible or just too complicated. Our experience was an easy one. All you have to do is present the pet passport (provided by the vet, of course) to US Customs and Immigration so that they know the animal has been vaccinated against Rabies. It really is as easy as that. And the sound of Miss Lucy purring next to my keyboard as she bathes herself in the wee hours of dawn makes it all worth it.

So some people bring home carpets when they go to Turkey. We brought home Lucy.

If you are considering transporting a special needs animal for Let’s Adopt!, I would be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions I can about our experience. Just reach out to me via the comments section. Our community always needs flight volunteers travelling from Turkey to Europe and the United States, and there is no cost to you other than your time and effort. And the chance to help a special needs animal is priceless.

This is Lucy a few days after she arrived home with us. She decided she wanted an extra bed in the shelf of our bedside table!