And a successful one, at that.
Nearly 750 dogs saved and adopted. Close to 580 cats. All sorts of hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits and even some farmyard critters for good measure.
With that kind of a menagerie rolling through their doors on a regular basis, you can bet there are going to be costs associated— with veterinary bills some of the highest.
That’s where Roxanne Rath and the recent second annual purse auction came into play.
Rath put together the initial event in 2020, asking for folks to donate new or gently used purses for auction. All told, that first time around brought in 180 purses and raised $2,900.
But the seed was planted. And 2021 went beyond the pale.
A total of 563 purses donated. A Facebook auction group with over 1,700 members, each perusing the hundreds of potential purchases. And when all was said and done on Mar. 6, a total of $8,863 raised to support the Rescue.
“It was amazing, it was really good to see and we can’t thank Roxanne enough,” said Jasmin Wenarchuk with Running Wild Rescue. “Our vet bill is really up there right now. We’ve gotten a lot of tough cases, dogs that needed leg surgery, cats that were a little bit sicker than they should have been with upper respiratory issues. So our vet bill is up around $20 grand and that $8,000 really helps.”
Running Wild was one of the few business that didn’t see a drop-off in action when it came to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, if anything, it was just as busy as ever.
“We still kept going through COVID, sadly dogs still need to be saved and cats still need to be rescued,” Wenarchuk said. “So we’ve kept going and our numbers turned out really good, all our animals found homes. We haven’t really been stuck on anybody for the moment, there are a few scared cases that might take a little bit longer, but other than that we’ve been able to keep doing well throughout COVID.”
Things might have slowed down a bit recently with the warmer temperatures, but that’s all going to change really quick.
“It is baby season, so I can only imagine what we’re getting soon,” Wenarchuk said.
With that in mind, fundraising ventures will continue.
A furnace raffle by Thiessen Contracting is currently underway at $25 a ticket, with a prize of a new furnace, $3,000 cash or a bathroom reno for under $5,000. Only 400 tickets are being printed.
An Easter cookie-kit fundraiser is also underway, with kits available as of Apr. 1
For more information, be sure to visit the Running Wild Rescue Facebook page.
