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The Dog Sanctuary is a-go! 

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I'm writing to you from the center of my dog-pack, at the grand table of the main Sanctuary A. We've grown so large but didn't plan for exactly how we'd manage once we split locations (in July). The Sanctuary stands on stilts, and requires reinforcement in the foundational layer. We're being challenged to see if we can fix our problems, maintain our two locations, and feed all our dogs even better food. The challenges, the things we need to do, plans that need to be made, stack higher than ever. We need to reinforce the structure, and re-design the system. All the way down to the recipe for the dogs!


A bunch of puppies! Too many!


Little Aly on Sanctuary B!

 

Everything seemed okay and we were in-budget for all the dog operations when I went to Texas for 1 week. It was right around when I lost my passport and couldn't get back to the Sanctuary, things started to go bad. A few people had quit just before this, and our schedule manager had not returned from her trip either! She was in charge of making the schedule. I had to then create a schedule myself from Texas for all the people rotating still there on the Sanctuary. Some others who were employed didn't show up for a week. We also had only budgeted that I was gone for 1 week, and I had to send money to the Sanctuary so they could eat! There wasn't enough food, so the people and the dogs suffered for it. We were short on rations and general support.


My biggest lesson looking back: There should be back-up dog food stored always for situations like this. And, I should have asked for more help from our community.

Perrita eating on other Sanctuary



We had a very difficult series of months starting with the rainy season which began roughly in May. It was at this time we were being threatened, by neighbors who didn't want us to have so many dogs. So we made a negotiation, where I agreed to move half of our dogs in a month. This was when we had to put the pedal to the metal and find land, materials, funding, and do-the-impossible which was to meet that request reasonably in this timeline, which we managed to actually do. What a MIRACLE we got done with your help, and one other special person.


Thanks to Daisy, from the San Marcos Foundation, we were given an alternative land to use to make the split from one Sanctuary into two. We had already started our fundraiser and were able to successfully get half the dogs there on time. Woohoo! ::wipes sweat off brow:: 🥵

All puppies needing homes!

Absolutely amazing we were able to do it.

Thanks to fast fundraising, a huge community support, we did what was needed for the safety dogs. However we are only just beginning!


Get ready for walks!

 

We're in a tight spot: we need to rebuild, restructure, and rehire.

I don't say this lightly: Perros Libres needs some serious support as of late. We've had a some criticism for some of our greater flaws, and that's weighed a little heavy on me. I will lay out some of the main complaints, which I respect and have gained a lot of knowledge from.

  1. Not all of our dogs are sterilized, which has led to puppies being born. (big problem and high priority to change rapidly!)

  2. Food nutrition content is not high enough (low quality kibble, need more iron/meat, and vitamin B12). We're already working on this closely.

  3. We don't have every type of vaccine for all dogs. We should be able to get vaccines more easily, for the various kinds for all the dogs.

  4. Volunteer conditions have been very difficult, downright awful! We're working on this daily as well!

I would say these are the most simplified and direct complaints that I wholeheartedly agree with, and will dedicated my full attention to improve and change.


I admit, I am very flawed as "the leader" of dogs AND people: I'm still learning this. Please forgive my mistakes, my ignorances, and my inexperience which have created these problems. I see these are stepping blocks to our fullest understanding of WHAT is really needed on a Dog Sanctuary. 

That's not all! I've also been very stubborn, lazy at times even, and had plenty of days I was getting really exhausted with people! I'm no prince charming either, when the dogs (or me) are having a bad time.


Old motivational poster I made XD

...but I don't bite! Haha. 😬

 

We'll be needing new volunteers!

In the not-so-far future our schedule opens up, we always need to be planning ahead to make sure there are enough people employed at the Sanctuary. We need around 6 people to run this place effectively: 3 full-time and 3 part-time does it just fine.


So, full-time people are paid employees. This is how it works:

500 Quetzales for 5 days of work. That's the equivalent of only $65/week USD which, honestly, is pennies. This is how much we're able to afford on our non-profit budget. In our last blog we talked about our finances and left a detailed spreadsheet of the last 3 months of spending. Employees are becoming a big piece, we need constant full-time people.


It's almost a Catch-22...

That's the two elements of our biggest challenges right now: staffing, and budget. Staff need to be paid, but there needs to be money to hire them in the first place! There's only money if we keep these dogs healthy, and we need hands to make that a reality! It feels like we constantly have to "catch-up", and constantly asking for help from volunteers.


Where are our super-sponsors? Who can help us get the budget we need to keep this place going?

This is the golden-question. A Dog-Sanctuary can only operate with a consistent budget: something we have never had. We've never had a super-sponsor who can help us keep operations consistently running flawlessly. We seek the aid these dogs will need, and won't stop searching until we find it.

Puppies!

 

Thank you to everyone who still believes in us.

This has been a hard year. It's like only 2/3rds done, and honestly: I pray we will make it through. I pray every day for these dogs.



The Lord is my shepherd, and the dogs are my sheep.

I won't give up on these babies. I love them too much.


We can use your support right now.

The Dog Sanctuary works to maintain its ability to remain here in Tzununa, and we're working harder than ever! If you think we're doing a good job, show us your support with a share, comment, like, shout-out, or donation today! Donate button below!




Thank you for your donation!

Thank you everyone for reading all the way to the end!

If you did, you deserve a high-five! And libertad por los perros!

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This is a time of great challenge!

Surely as time ticks on, we are working harder and harder at the Dog Sanctuary.

With the split into two locations, our work has doubled.

I know it, my volunteers know it, and you know it.

A lot of people have quit on us.



Let me explain why:

List of complaints:

  1. There is no proper shower (on the site).

  2. Conditions are often dirty.

  3. Our schedule is hard to maintain (too few people).

  4. Not everyone is splitting the work "evenly". Communication issues between them.

  5. Half of our staff are off-grid (no phones!)

All this stuff is 100% true and why we have a hard time keeping people to stick to our schedules and plans. 

...

So what can we do about this?!

I've spent a lot of time thinking about these issues.

There is a clear path ahead: but it requires a lot of work, and fundraising.

We even spoke about it some months ago, but then when we got the threat to the Dog Sanctuary, we had to change priorities and make the "Emergency build-a-shelter Fundraiser!"


It's time to show everyone how we used our funds for the fundraiser! We raised to this day (in the fundraiser platform for this last quarter):
$8724.65 USD

That funding has finally been fully used. It was able to keep us afloat while we worked on developing the new location, along with it's workers, materials, and dog needs. We were able to provide:

  • 2 1/2 months so far of full-time dog care for ~64 dogs over two locations.

  • A full [and paid] staff of 6 people for the entire time (with small variations). Weekly food budget for the volunteers/staff, and daily meals for the staff as much as we could afford.

  • Extra food/medicine/and all expenses for the dogs food over the two months. At the same time, this was done not just by volunteers but by almost exclusively the staff, whom we needed because our main volunteer stream had been temporarily frozen.

  • Guatemalan labor force (just a couple guys 😆) that helped us work for the 2 months we've been building the next location, moving materials, and clearing land.

  • All the materials for the construction and development of the new Sanctuary location.

Rather than just tell it to you, I'll provide a simplified budgetary breakdown of all the finances and expenses of the last two months. We could use either an accountant, or an accounting software at this point!

 

Accounting and Accountability are huge for organizations like us! Here is the big expenses report for our last 2 and a half months:


Financial Report June/July/August 2023 - "Emergency Build-a-Shelter" funds


Employees

Dog Food

Human Food

Building Materials

Laborers

Utilities/. Other

Dog Medicine

6/12-6/18

900

1900

400

1200

625

445

250

6/19-6/25

1500

1900

700

3662

625

200

350

6/26-7/2

1700

1900

800

​1049

1150

400

750

​7/3-7/9

2400

1900

700

1289

1475

600

0

​7/10-7/16

2700

1900

400

1700

1275

350

200

7/17-7/23

1000

1900

550

1845

1400

300

250

7/24-7/30

1200

1900

400

450

1400

175

400

​7/31-8/6

2400

1900

400

350

0

300

200

​8/7-8/13

3600

​1900

400

200

0

245

0

TOTAL:

17400

19000

4750

11745

7950

3015

2400

Ultimate total:
66,620 Quetzales =
approximately $9,076 (at 7.3:1 mean conversion rate)
 

Chonk says: "cool numbers bro!"

 

So, in conclusion; the fundraiser was a success! But we yet need a consistent income, to keep operations afloat.


I created the projected goal of $8000 USD because knowing our budget, this amount I knew could cover at least 2-months of non-stop work at the Sanctuary covering absolutely all expenses. However, with all the materials and unexpected costs, we did go over a little more. but the funding lasted an extra 2 weeks longer than we planned.


That's called amazing budgeting skills! Thank you for ALL the donators who made it possible. I hope this helps everyone see more how our funding is used, and as a newly recongized 501 (c)3 non-profit all of our newly reported taxes are 100% public information. So that means finances are 100% accountable and accessible through the IRS and to the public. That's how a proper charity should work!
We do this for little puppies like this guy :)

 

So...what now?!

Well, we have to raise money again!

Such is the life of the non-profit organization. By being 100% donation based, we have to fundraise constantly to have enough money. Now, expenses are higher than ever. With more employees and less volunteers, we need to be able to pay the small salaries we offer the employees and keep things staffed.

So, we will start a new fundraiser to budget out the rest of the year. I haven't taken the time to do the math and calculations of how much we will be projected to need, but I will do this soon as possible to then post the fundraiser and start raising more money quickly. We are going to need it very soon!

So in the mean time, if you can help support us to get through this next week while I return home to Guatemala, we would REALLY appreciate it. Your assistance is needed.


Below is our "donate" button if you can help us with some extra funding at this time. Our primary need is dog food: your donations will be able to help us feed the dogs this week!


----------->


 

That's all for today folks!

I'd like to explain more of our goals and our situation that needs a LOT of improvement. But for now, we'll keep it short.

Thank you for all your support, and libertad para los perros!

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It's time to fortify, reinforce, and strengthen the new Dog Sanctuary!


Perrita gazes at rainbow on Fundraiser day!

We're standing at the crossroads, the place where we have to make our biggest decisions. We're spending day-in-day-out, no joke, making the two locations work in tandem, in a constantly-rotating schedule. This is no easy task. We've had 6 people working full time (not counting myself, the 7th) keeping the Sanctuaries watched, attended, and dogs fully cared for.

Money has been needed faster and more often than ever before, as paying multiple full-time staff members has totally changed our budget system. For manpower alone, it seems to cost twice-as-much to operate two locations as one, even with the same amount of dogs. Volunteers are no longer enough, and I dreamed of having a full-time paid staff to help fill the basic and common needs of everyday for both locations.


Only thanks to our recent fundraiser has the following been possible:


Somehow, since July 4th when we moved in, we've operated these 2 locations non-stop for over a month with full staffing.

Thank you to the donators, sponsors, and supporters who made that happen!!! 😁

The amazing Sian with a puppy

 

The truth is, without the volunteers and employees combined, we'd have not been able to make it this far.

The destiny of Perros Libres used to feel as if it was all in my hands, and if I just accidentally let go, it would fall to pieces. I easily managed the work of 3-4 people on my own on a daily basis before having the team we have now.

Without this whole team, there could not be a Perros Libres of this size. We would have had to do what all the other Sanctuaries had to do: close or minimize. We did not minimize, like was suggested, but instead divided and expanded. Thanks to the help of many this is possible.

So my biggest challenge lately: is building the happy team.

Many have complained over the years how tough this job is. Jeez, no kidding. This work is not for the feint of heart, but instead the hardy and robust. We are dog warriors. Warriors for peace, equality, tranquility, and prosperity for the dogs.


Very happy Athena on my bed


 

We vaccinated more puppies! Everyone's up-to-date!


Aaron giving Multi-vaccine


With a lot of previous help and education, we give our own vaccines!

Thanks to the Dox Project for donating all these vaccines and first showing us how!

Thanks to Casa Suli's Animal Foundation for having donated us a fridge so we can keep vaccines cold! This is a real group effort! We certainly have had a lot of people on our side.

Thank you to:

  1. Diego

  2. Carolena

  3. Sonny

  4. Lucas

  5. Hugo

  6. Valeria

  7. Elli

  8. Lara

  9. Angus

  10. Rhiannon

  11. Sian

  12. Esteban

  13. Stephi

Without ALL of these people we would have not been stable and structured. This has been almost the entire time for the last 2 months, with everyone in-and-out in different time frames.





 

Mange & Kennel cough: Dang! We've seen these two a lot.

There's always new illnesses to handle: we've seen kennel cough and a new wave of mange from some unfortunately neglected puppies who really need some serious fresh mange-treatment. Look at the photo below and see one of the worst cases of mange I've seen on puppies:



Puppies with bad mange

Don't worry: we're on the case!

We've got a whole plan with these babes and are gonna take excellent care of them. We will update on their progress as we go. Always more work to do!

We use a special combination of natural medicines in the treatment of mange that we find more effective than the typical treatment with antibiotics. We have done every single kind of mange treatment I've nearly ever seen, and we will explain this and show examples with our update on the puppies condition.


 

We completed the fundraiser!!!

The money raised for the "Emergency build-a-shelter" fundraiser has been a success. We had raised over $8,000 USD to take care of the Sanctuaries, and make a basic structure on the second that the doggies can live in safely. It's quite a ways from where we want it to be, but we've done SO MUCH in the last month and have a lot more infrastructure (and running water!) I've got a video here where you're looking through some of the new fencing built with our funding and a tiny sneak-peek into the new Sanctuary space.



The money raised has been used, effectively, maintaining both sanctuaries at the same time and provided us tons of materials and funding for the workers mainly: now I don't just mean the Guatemalan laborers who help us build, but the whole team who is now our rotating-staff of workers. This includes people from different areas: our team is very multi-cultural!



 

We need help to fund next month! If you can support, please consider donating today!

This is the difficult truth that has dawned on me, with my best efforts at organizing our team and fundraising and raising budget: our staff and sanctuary is not sustainable currently, and we are in need of funding to be able to get through August into the next month.

We've never had such a large group of people working with us at one time. We need your aid to keep it moving!

Once again, we stand at the crossroads. Waiting to see which way we turn, and how we perfect our system and organization to maintain care of these dogs. We sincerely, and most truly, need your support now more than ever to survive these difficult times.


If you're of sound ability and wish to help us maintain our dogs, feed the babies, get medicine for the puppies, get puppy milk, buy more wood, hire people to help us build our facilities, and keep food on our table and in our doggie-bowls, please aid us today. Here is the donate button below.


Please friends, if you can help us today, we humbly ask for your help today.




Happy Gamma-Goo!

 

Lastly, our apologies to our sponsors who have not received update emails in awhile!

Our sponsors are HUGELY important to us, as you guys are our life-blood and the reason we are able to stay here. We value your time, your attention, your spreading-the-word of our cause, and your support infinitely. We promise to start sending out sponsorship emails this month of August to update all of our sponsors, and sincerely hope you can forgive the time that has eloped. Our focus has been keeping the animals safe, healthy, and happy and I'm so honored to say that is going incredibly well.


Thank you everyone.

Libertad para los perros.


Y Buenas noches!



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