LUVERNE, M.N. (Dakota News Now) – They may not be the hardest-working staff, however they certain do know good customer support. They receives a commission in love and a spotlight and their workplace is within the entrance of the shop.
“The people here at Ace take fantastic care of them. I mean, the best care ever like they were their own pets,” stated Cat Application Processor with the Tracy Area Animal Rescue, Tina Petronek. “But they’re exposed to more people and the workers are interacting with them, the customers are interacting with them, they begin to relax, their personalities come through and that’s when they get adopted.”
The partnership between ACE and the Tracy Area Animal rescue started after the shop obtained their new retailer cat, named Ace.
“It crossed our mind. We’re like, ‘You know, I wonder if there’s anything more we can do for them.’ It’s an awesome organization, so Beth contacted me and said, ‘Is there any way that we could put a couple of cubbies up in the front of the store? Just get the traffic that’s coming through.’ Absolutely. We’ve got room for them, let’s put them up,” stated Operations Manager Renita Enninga.
They celebrated one 12 months of internet hosting cats final Wednesday and within the first 12 months, it’s been a success.
“The very first kitty came in and that one was adopted in I think less than 24 hours. That one was quick and we went, ‘Hmm, this just might work,’” Enninga defined.
Like most animal shelters and animal rescues, Tracy Area Animal Rescue has seen a better variety of animal surrenders in the previous few years, making it harder to function.
“We are not government funded. We have to search out for grants and apply for grants, we have to ask for donations, we have to do fundraisers. When we adopt out a dog, we come close to breaking even on the vetting costs. For cats, we never break even. We’re not making any money. We’re just trying to do the right thing and get these animals in good homes. The expenses seem to increase. They’re not going down anytime,” Petronek stated.
In complete, 32 cats have discovered new properties. It has proved to be an efficient solution to take care of the cats, help the work of Tracy Area Animal Rescue and permit prospects and staff to fulfill the cats.
Even although issues have been tough, the work they’ve been doing with Ace Hardware has been useful even outdoors of the adoptions.
“The more exposure we can get, the better. More people hear our name, that means more people come to our events, more people are adopting, more people are looking us up on Facebook to see what other animals we have or how they can donate,” Petronek stated.
“It started with just one,” Enninga recounted. “We thought maybe we’ll adopt two or three of them out. Luverne’s a small town. How many people really need a cat? It turned out to be a great success from the get-go. People loved them. We’ve got people that just come in just to visit with them and people that never wanted a cat have now adopted a cat.”
This unlikely spot has offered sufficient assist to permit Tracy Area Animal Rescue to do much more.
“It’s amazing. I can’t thank the residents of Luverne enough. The reach has been far and wide, but the Luverne residents have really helped sharing it, getting it out there, letting people know that we have them here. Word of mouth spreads quick when there’s somewhere to come see kitties. It’s been way more than we imagined,” Enninga stated.
“That means a lot. That means we can help a lot more animals because if we didn’t get them adopted that quickly, our fosters would still have them in their homes and they would not be able to take in more,” Petronek stated.
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