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A remarkable accomplishment for our community and for Linda! THank you, ZooToo.com and especially Richard for your wonderful ideas and generosity! Congratulations to the winner, Randy Grim, and the community of St. Louis who is most deserving, gracious and generous.

ZooToo.com has invigorated our passion for our shelter and inspired us all to re-commit ourselves to do what is right and necessary for the animals in our community. Thank you for letting us be a part of your national shelter makeover. Keep doing what you are doing! :)

And the army marched right up to the TOP 3. Much luck everyone !!

Best of luck to you all!!! :)

congratulations guys for making it. :)

Congratulations to Linda, her staff and all of her volunteers for making it into the Fianl 3. You make the North Country proud.

I support the Jefferson County SPCA and sure hope that they can win this makeover. They are always there to take care of the animals in the communty whether it's in the day to day operation or when emergencies occur such as the two recent cases of cat neglect. They are able to do great things now, but just imagine what they can do with a "makeover"! Linda Miles and her staff and volunteers are so dedicated and professional with an amazing love of animals. Good Luck.

I recently moved from Fort Drum, NY and I definetly agree that they need a new shelter. They are doing a good thing for the soldiers leaving. I hope they win this makeover. Good luck.

We help out the Jefferson SCPA by taking care of cats at our local PetCo in Watertown; Thanks to all who help, and thank you most for those who adopt the kitties we would love to but can't right now.

We have several feral colonies that we care for in our harsh winters and thankfully our local vet has helped us when the SPCA lacked funds for trap/neuter/release.

I want to again thank everyone who has given their heart and energy to the SPCA in Jefferson County/Watertown, and to any and all other shelters.

Jefferson SPCA and zootoo.com it the news again today.
news10now.com
SPCA barn could be restored
Updated: 04/27/2008 03:55 PM
By: Web Staff

JEFFERSON COUNTY, N.Y. -- The Jefferson County SPCA says it will know in a few weeks if it will win a million dollar makeover from a contest sponsored by Zootoo.com.



SPCA Executive Director Linda Miles is flying to Florida, along with representatives from the other 20 finalists next month. From there, a final three will be picked to travel to New York City for the announcement of the winner.



The SPCA already feels it's won a big prize. Two weeks ago when Zootoo was visiting Watertown, it may have saved a historic structure from the wrecking ball.


SPCA barn could be restored
An old horse barn located next to the Jefferson County SPCA won’t be town down. Since it was built in 1895, it may also be eligible for a grant to be restored.


The barn next to the SPCA was once an old horse barn and was used for storage. During the tour, Miles told Zoo-too founder Richard Thompson the barn was no longer useful.



"We were going to tear it down and when he took one look at it and looked at the beams he said, 'No this is a historical site. You should not do that. You should fix it and turn it into a cat castle. A historic cat castle.' It was pretty neat," Miles said.



Miles says she's since found out the barn was built in 1895 and might be eligible for a grant to pay for restoration.

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Then the second story
www.wwnytv.net
Animal Advocates Begging Jefferson County to Get Involved in Cat Crisis

Animal advocates are begging Jefferson County legislators to get involved in the cat crisis that is hitting the North Country hard.

With the notorious cat house from Columbia Street, a house that was burned down last year where dozens of feline carcasses were discovered, and the cat problem a 90-year-old resident faced on Lansing Street, the growing problem with cats is public and blatant.

When people try to help out, the problem grows until it becomes too much for one, much less a facility, to handle.

There are several reasons the North Country’s cat population is spiraling out of control, but one of the main cited reasons is Fort Drum.

When soldiers deploy, pets are often left alone and can escape.

Those pets are sometimes not fixed to prevent cats from having litters.

Paula Bender, one of the co-founders of the Caring for Cats Foundation in Three Mile Bay, says that the facility opened with good intentions, but is over crowded with 61 cats.

“As we’ve found these abandoned cats, good companion cats, we’ve taken them in and put them up for adoption. We’re no longer going to be doing that. We are overwhelmed.”

To spay, neuter and maintain the cats is an expensive venture.

Caring for Cats has spent nearly $90,000 to take care of the felines, $14,000 for Watertown cats alone.

It was an expense the business was hoping the City of Watertown would reimburse them for, but so far the city has remained silent.

Caring for Cats will be going before the Jefferson County Legislature to ask for other shelters to be opened to housing cats or to build new shelters altogether with low cost spay and neuter programs

My son went to a birthday party yesterday where the little girl decided to have her guests bring items for the Jefferson SPCA in lieu of gifts for her. That amazes me as she is just turning 5. The publicity of this contest has brought our community together. Thank you for bringing light to the animals that need us! I got my cat at the SPCA before I had children and he is beautiful and healthy! I will never go anywhere else!

This is such an amazing opportunity for our ever growing community. My family, including our six furry friends, wish to thank zootoo for making this a possibilty. And although we hope that the JCSPCA wins- in the end it's the animals that win, and that's what matters most.

We visited the JCSPCA shortly after we moved into our home in 2000. We found the perfect cat for us. She was rescued by the JCSPCA. She had just had a litter of kittens and was left alone in the city to care for them. They took in all of them. Her kittens went fairly quickly to homes but she was left behind at the shelter. We were looking for an adult cat in need of a family. She is now part of our family. Without the help of Linda and her shelter Trinity would never have found us. This shelter is in need of this reward. There are so many animals like Trinity left behind by the military or pets not being fixed that run loose in our city. Watertown has grown so much in the past five years that our shelter can't keep up. Thanks for your help.

What a wonderful day. God was shining down on us with the beautiful weather and the amazing turnout, which occured even during Spring Break. I would love to thank the Zootoo crew for coming and seeing our shelter. It is ironic that in the few previous weeks to the visit that we had situations come up that stressed why we need the makeover. Linda and he staff were amazing and dealt with it all like the pros they are. What a dedicated group of people. I was proud to be there and cheer them on.

I have been keeping up with this whole race and i'm so excited that we made the top 20 by all the supporters in our community. Linda and her husband have been such an asset to our SPCA since i can remember. She has cope with so little space, and even from break ins. and loses. we as a community know that for a very long time now that we needed a bigger and better facility for all the homeless animals here. And to have the proper care that they need. I want to see our SPCA have the proper facility that they need to be able to care for the animals up for adoption. I will be praying for a win for our SPCA here in jefferson county. GOOD LUCK And GOD BLESS!

Linda and her staff at the Jefferson COunty SPCA work tirelessly and unsrlfishly for the animal in our sommunity. Recently they have had to clear out and care for cats from two houses with huge numbers of cats in them. Room at the shelter is at a premium and we have clearly outgrown our current building. The outpouring of support from the community has been wonderful. I watched as people visited the membership table at the ZOOTOO day and fill out the paperwork for membership. The shelter is gearing up for the fundraising season and Linda was on TV this morning, as she is every Monday morning, promoting both the kittens who are ready to be adopted, thanking the ocmmunity for our support on ZOOTOO day, and promoting the upcoming fundraisers! The old builiding at the shelter has served the animals well over the years, but with the growth of Fort Drum, having to close one wings due to aging we really need a new shelter. Ihope that ZOOTOO will be the answer to this need!

This shelter certainly has isolated their primary need in focussing on adoption due to the "transient" nature of the area and the army base as they explained. They also wished for an isolation unit and perhaps that may have helped them avoid the parvo outbreak.

Clearly their community supported this shelter and the volunteers are doing a great job. Good luck to them all.

this is a great artical.... i'm a Army wife, and we have lived in the watertownn area for 4 1/2 years and will spend at least 2 more here. Before Watertown we lived on Ft. Wainwright, Alaska. When Donnie moved up to Alaska he was unmarried and had to live in the very small rooms and was unable to have pets. he had to find someone that would take in Wade, his first cat... his sister steped up and took wade in for as long as Donnie was up in Alaska... We would check in and send things to Wade durring this time. After some time We moved into a place together...But never really knowing when or where he was going to go next, Wade stayed out of state. It was hard We both worked different shifts and the house was always loney.
Then in Febuary 2003, Donnie was getting home from a long night of working. He had picked up a "fancy" coffee on the way home, as he went to toss the paper cup in the dumpster he heard a little cry for help. It was a kitten, she was only a few weeks old so he had to jump in and help her out. When I came home after work... i fell in love with this all black fur ball we now call Poe. It is sad to think about whet could of happened if he did not hear her.
A few weeks later we were told that we would be moving again, to Ft. Drum, NY. Donnie went first and Poe stayed with me to help pack up the house. We were moving, making wedding plans, and plans for Wade to be shipped to NY. It was happy times.
New york was great..The base housing we had was our new home. The two cats had gotten to know each other. Shannon was born and I was preg. with Bridget. Then again our family grew. One night the garage door was now shut all the way, without us really knowing... we woke up to Frankie. Frankie was a very friendly cat, we made posters, called both the Jefferson SPCA and the vets on base....noone was missing a cat, and he was not chiped. Well the days passed...the more posters went up. this little girl saw what we were doing and came over to tell us that the cat was her friends cat...but they moved away. So cat count 3.
years past... two more girls ... and a house in Black River later. One night the cats when out and only 2 came back, this was over a year ago. We are still looking for Frankie but from our search we have made new friends with the people down at the Jefferson SPCA.
Durring the zootoo.com visit we thought we saw Frankie in one of the cages..it was not him... but seeing the hope and then the dissapoiment on the girls faces. We picked out a new cat, Whiskers (fks Bobby) cat count 3, again.
thank you, jefferson Co. SPCA
kelly and the girls

On August 23, 2006, just four weeks after both of my dogs went to the Rainbow Bridge within seven weeks of each other, I adopted Issi from the SPCA. She was almost 6 at that time. Truth be told, my heart was empty and while I had adamantly stated to my husband, "no more dogs", I actually started looking at the dogs on the shelter site almost immediately. There was something so special about Issi. She has turned out to be a real love. While she lived with three dogs prior to coming here to live with us, she has adjusted very well to living with six cats. They love her as much as she loves them. We discovered less than a year after adopting her, that she has lymphoblastic lymphosarcoma. We began chemotherapy last October. To see her, you would never know that she is sick. The day we found out, I had some items to drop off at the SPCA. I cried as I told Linda about Issi and she was very supportive. I have seen her a couple of times since then and always keep her updated on how Issi is doing.

Having lived with three other dogs, Issi very much enjoys being around her own kind. She and I had a wonderful time at the zootoo.com function on Wednesday, April 16th. I was totally amazed and so very happy at the turnout. What a wonderful community we live in. Even though I went by myself, I had plenty of people to talk with. Furmoms and dads have lots in common, that's for sure.

I belong to an online petloss chatroom group. I found these kind folks after the loss of my less than two year old kitty Drew. When I told them about Issi, they told me that God sends these furkids to me for a reason. He knows that I will love and care for them, even if just for a short while.

The other members of our family are our kitties: Foxy Lady, age 14; her son Six-Toes, age 13; Moose, age 4; and our feral babies: Pip, Sandy and Peekaboo, age 3. The feral babies are the children of an abandoned mama whom we named Maddy. Maddy disappeared in September 2006, but she took our love with her. Her other son Buggy, lives with friends of ours. Moose is a beautiful part Maine Coon who was in danger of being pts due to aggressive behavior. While he can still be a bit of a brat sometimes, seems all he really needed was a change of environment. Foxy Lady was also an abandoned mama whom I adopted many years ago.

I do all that I can to support the SPCA, whether it's monetary donations or items for their auctions and golf tournaments, as well as pet related items. I look at the website each and every day. I say a prayer every night for those precious furbabies to find loving and forever homes. The work that Linda and her staff and the volunteers do is above and beyond. Kudos Linda and God bless you and all the furkids.

Thank you Mr. Thompson for all that you do. The world needs more people like you! :)

drewsmama

As a volunteer for this shelter, knowing how much it needs many improvements, I greatly appreciate the opertunity that you are giving not just our communuty and our shelter but all of the shelters that are in the top 20. Linda does an absolute amazing job caring for the shelter through all of its ups and downs.

Richard, your visit and the response from my community made one of the best days of my life. I'm not often speechless, well I'd say I'm never speechless but yesterday took the cake. Thank you for being the man you are and for what you do. Linda