Operation Pets Alive!

3rd Annual United Pet Rescuers Conference Convenes March 29-30!

Want to learn more about advancing No Kill goals in our community? The 3rd Annual United Pet Rescuers Conference will take place March 29-30 at Lone Star College-Montgomery. This is a great opportunity for networking with local Animal Welfare groups, for education and resources. Residents, rescuers, and shelter workers are all invited!

Conference topics will include basic animal welfare issues, legal and operational topics, fund-raising, marketing, and getting to a No Kill Community. The keynote speaker Friday will be Mark Barone, artist and creator of ‘An Act of Dog’. A documentary that shares his journey to paint 5,500 dogs, the number of pups euthanized in our country’s shelters daily ~ all to raise awareness to the plight of homeless pets.

Registration is just $40 for the 2-Day Conference and includes dinner Friday evening, breakfast and lunch Saturday. The conference is FREE to attend for Lone Star College Students and Animal Control Officers/Municipal Shelter Staff (must show credentials).

United Pet Rescuers (UPR) was formed to provide education and networking opportunities to all pet lovers, residents, rescuers, and shelters in Montgomery and surrounding counties. The upcoming conference is hosted by: Lone Star College-Montgomery, the student group Maverick Pets Alive!, Texas Litter Control, Texas Animal Society, Animal Shelter Volunteers of Texas, and us at Operation Pets Alive! Sponsors include the Petco Foundation, Rummy's Beach Club, Michelson Found Animals Registry, and more!

Head on over to see a schedule of topics and speakers, and register at: https://unitedpetrescuers.org

Love Abounds
Can you share a little to help our medical pets in need?

Operation Pets Alive! finds itself caring for numerous pets requiring much, much more than just routine vetting. Within the last couple of weeks, we have been dealt with an unusually high number of animals requiring immediate emergency care for broken bones, mangled faces, a gunshot wound and other life threatening conditions. Our sweet foster pets are suffering through leg amputations, eye removal, femoral hip surgery, stitching up open wounds and live-saving treatments that have run up our medical bills. Just in January alone, veterinary medical care has expended much of our resources and some are still waiting for surgery appointments. These little guys need lots of love, prayer and help, and so do we. 

Would you consider honoring or celebrating a loved one with a gift that will keep homeless pets hearts beating? Your gift will greatly impact the lives of many of our shelter and OPA animals in need. Thank you for considering lifting up our precious patients in prayer and support!

Support OPA ~ Join Us for Upcoming Events!

OPA to Host AristoCats Prom Boutique!

DAZZLE on Prom Night for bargain prices, all while supporting our homeless pets! Prom season is coming and Operation Pets Alive is thrilled to partner up with Candlewood Suites in The Woodlands to host our first ever AristoCats Prom Boutique, March 30, from 1-6 pm, all to benefit our life-saving work! 

We invite you and your teens to shop for totally affordable prom fashion (nothing over $25)! Select from almost-new and gently-worn gowns, short dresses, wraps, shoes and strappy sandals, purses and clutches, jewelry, accessories and more!

Candlewood Suites in The Woodlands in located at:
17525 St. Lukes Way, The Woodlands, Texas 77384

Donations Needed!

Help us get ready for our upcoming Aristocats Prom Boutique Fundraiser! Do you have no-longer-needed, almost-new (or gently-worn) gowns, short dresses, wraps, shoes, sandals, purses/clutches, jewelry, and/or accessories, suitable for prom wear? 

Then, clean out those closets and help us raise funds for our homeless pets! Head on over to our event for all details, and a list of Drop Off Locations for your donations:
https://www.facebook.com/events/332550410721585/

Email us with any questions OR for more event info:
fundraisers@operationpetsalive.org

Willie’s Grill & Icehouse to host a Spirit Night to benefit OPA!

Join Operation Pets Alive Monday, April 1, 2019, from 4-10 pm, at Willie's Grill & Icehouse in The Woodlands for a #SpiritNight!

Bring family and friends, enjoy fab food and drink (and YES, crawfish is IN season), mention to your server you are dining to support Operation Pets Alive, and Willie’s will donate 15% of your meal ticket (before tax and tip) to help our homeless pets!

Willie’s Ice House and Grill is located at:
16846 I-45 S, Conroe TX

Thank you Willie’s Grill & Icehouse for supporting schools and non-profits in your community!

Puppy and kitten season is upon us! Both the Conroe Shelter and Montgomery County Animal Shelter are seeing an uptake in litters of puppies and kittens. Plea after plea are put out for adopters, fosters and rescues to step up and help, yet despite combined efforts, we see little relief in sight. Operation Pets Alive is seeking to expand both our Dog/Puppy, Kitten/Cat Foster Teams, so we can continue to answer the call to save lives while working towards a No Kill Community.

As a rescue who partners with both the Montgomery County Animal Shelter (MCAS) and the Conroe Animal Adoption Center (CAAC), the availability of foster homes directly impacts our ability to help these open-intake shelters. Puppies and kittens wait in overcrowded shelters for us. Pets with medical needs wait. We also have a number of pups in boarding that need foster homes. While boarding is not an optimal solution, it is a temporary solution, and frees up kennel space for those remaining in the shelter who are most at risk for euthanasia. All our pups in boarding have been assessed for good temperament and suitability for our Transport and/or Local Adoption Programs. If you have ever thought about fostering, make NOW the time to take that jump. 

When you foster for OPA, you will not be alone. You join a family of dedicated fosters, willing to walk you through every step. We have short-term and longer-term fostering opportunities. Fostering is so important ~ it helps us learn more about each pet, and how they do in a home environment. It readies them for adoption to loving families. In 2017 alone, OPA rescued over 3,125 pets from our local shelters, and from within our community, plus impacted the lives of countless other through our Core Programs. But we need help, from you in our community, to keep saving lives!

If you’re ready to be part of the solution for a No Kill Montgomery County, drop us an email letting us know what type of foster(s) will best fit your family situation.

Can’t foster, but want to help? 
New Volunter Orientations  are held monthly, beginning at 6:30 pm at the South County Community Center in the Woodlands (2235 Lake Robbins Dr.). Our Volunteer Coordinator will go over the countless ways in which you can help support our homeless pets, and life-saving Core Programs.
Check here for our schedule: http://www.operationpetsalive.org/get-involved.php

OPA Celebrates 400th Pups On Trucks Transport
Over 3,500 lives have been saved through OPA’s ground transport program since 2011.

Wednesday, August 29th, 2018, OPA celebrates a special milestone ~ Our 400th Pups On Trucks transport, and we’d love to have you join us! Our ground transport program gives deserving shelter and community dogs second chances at loving homes, through partnering Rescues and Shelters, in areas of the country where there exists a higher demand for adoptable pets.

The 400th Pups On Trucks transport will begin loading at 10:30 am, and and depart at 11 am, from the parking lot of Blue Pearl Veterinary Clinic located at: 1646 Spring Cypress Rd, Spring TX. Come see our ground transport in action, bid our pups farewell, and enjoy cake and refreshments!

Since OPA’s inception in 2011, we have transported over 3,500 pups ~ most of them shelter dogs, overlooked, or whose lives were at risk in local shelters. To date, this year, we have transported almost 500 pups to our partnering shelters and rescues, where forever families anxiously await to adopt.

Our Pups On Trucks Transport program relies on so many to help make it happen. Our thanks go out to our dedicated fosters, our hard-working Transport Team volunteers, our veterinary and shelter partners, and our transport partners at P.E.T.S. LLC. In addition, we so appreciate all the adopters, on the receiving end, who give these pups the wonderful homes and families they so deserve! And lastly, we thank you, our supporters ~ your donations fuel these life-saving transports!

To make a donation towards our Transport Program, just click the Donate button on this page.
Please include a note in the ‘Instructions to seller’ that your donation is for ’OPA Transport Program’

Petco Foundation Invests In Lifesaving Work of Operation Pets Alive!
Grant of $90,000 over two years will extend efforts to save more animal lives in Montgomery County.

The Woodlands, 8/6/2018 – Operation Pets Alive is both thrilled and grateful to announce it has been awarded a $90,000 grant over the next two years, from the Petco Foundation, to support our life-saving programs. This grant will extend our efforts to minimize local shelter intakes through our spay/neuter program, and maximize live release rates through our adoption and transport programs.

We are an all-volunteer nonprofit organization dedicated to working with people and government to provide life-saving, no-kill programs to Montgomery County through innovations that:

            •           Raise community awareness;
            •           Reduce the number of dogs and cats that enter our shelters;
            •           Increase the number of dogs and cats that leave our shelters alive

Since our inception in 2011, Operation Pets Alive has helped over 15,300 homeless dogs and cats from Montgomery County find a safe place to land. From humble beginnings of only 107 dogs and cats adopted our first year, OPA adopted 1,401 dogs and cats last year. Our transport program moved 222 animals to our partners in 2011 and 950 last year alone. So far this year, we have altered, vaccinated and released over 540 community cats, and provided a low-cost spay and neuter for over 175 pets of Montgomery County residents. In our capacity as a partner to both local shelters, we have assisted with over 64 medical cases from the Conroe Animal Adoption Center and 243 medical cases from the Montgomery County Animal Shelter. Many of these cases involved surgeries in the range of $1500 each to mend substantial injuries that otherwise might have been cause for euthanasia.

The Petco Foundation investment will help our County continue to move forward to increase our live release rates at both shelters. A compassionate, forward thinking community does not limit their focus to education and health of their human citizens. We also care about our four-legged family members.

Marcia Piotter, our President shares, “As an all-volunteer organization that is funded solely by donations, we are so thankful for the support of the Petco Foundation. We look forward to putting this grant to work in furthering our life-saving goals in the most cost-effective way possible. Each day, lives truly hang in the balance and this will allow us to tip the scale in a positive direction.”

You can read more about the Petco Foundation, here: www.petcofoundation.org