Fyims Incorporated

Fix houston trap-neuter-return community cat initiative:our fix houston initiative has kept 110,000 animals out of our shelter or anyone else's by providing free spay/neuter services to areas of houston that do not have access to basic veterinary care. The fix houston program is the first of its kind in houston, creating a public/ private relationship with the city. According to city intake /euthanasia data at barc, fix houston has had a major impact in the areas where we have focused our efforts. The fix houston initiative has provided more than 5,500 free spay/neuter surgeries since its creation in 2013. This has prevented more than 110,000 births. The fix houston initiative includes a targeted tnr program that has stabilized community cat colonies in the zip code with the highest rates of citizen complaints and turn-ins to animal control, according to city data. To make this work, we systematically "block walk" neighborhoods to identify areas that need spay/neuter help, cat colony management, food assistance, and animal support. In this way, we are building the working relationship that has long been missing between shelters and the community. We serve both - the community cat population and the owned animal populations. The trap neuter release (tnr) feline program of fix houston has provided trapping, neuter surgeries, and vaccinations for thousands of community cats, preventing births and stabilizing communities. We also provided thousands of pounds of food to community cat colony managers and loaned free traps to the community. We are extrtemely proud of our unique "fraidy cat" program that saves a strata of shelters cats that number in the millions nationwide and have traditionally been doomed. There are "friendlies" that are the easiest to adopt out and at the other end of the spectrum, there are "ferals" that are totally unsocialized enough and comfortable outside that they can be released. The cats that are not able to function as wild because they have been indoors, or are too old, or injured or have some deficit but range from shy to completely terrified of humans and unsocialized are "fraidies. And they are rountinely killed because, until our program, there was no path through any shelter for them. We have created a systemitized program to socialize them, graduated hundreds of them, and published and presented on it in scientific circles. The nyspca has implemented our program in all five boroughs of nyc, it is so effective and unique.we created the first ever private/public partnership with the city of houston - healthy pets healthy streets (hphs) - we have provided thousands of free cat spay/neuter surgeries, microchipping and vaccinations for pets of low-income, underserved communities of houston (the city funds the dog portion of hphs.).

Thinking outside the shelter program:the goal of our "thinking outside the shelter" program is to keep animals out of shelters. We achieve this in two ways: supporting families through difficult times and enabling them to keep their pets; and by spaying/neutering and returning healthy community cats. Keeping animals (owned, or community) out of the shelter system is a win for everyone. We assist families with low-cost vaccinations, flea and heartworm prevention, and de-wormer. We have provided more than 75 tons of food to low-income community members through our standing pet food bank -the longest running pet food bank in houston. Collars, leashes, crates, puppy pads and other necessities have also been provided to hundreds of people for their pets. When owners are struggling to keep their pet because of challenging behavior, we provided behavior and training support to enable them to keep their pet. We provided free or low-cost boarding on a temporary basis to act as a bridge for pet owners until they could secure housing to allow them to reclaim their pets. Creating a new system to shelter people with pets in disasters:we are connected to the houston community in significant ways. The executive director serves on the city animal shelter (barc) advisory board, and during hurricane harvey, ffl was asked by the city to manage the entire animal response at the largest city shelter, containing 10,000 evacuees. In the first 24 hours, ffl registered and triaged 671 animals. Through the duration of the storm, we registered, treated, and housed more than 1500 pets with families. We successfully conducted emergency sheltering in which people could stay with their pets for the first time in u.s. History. This proof of concept set a national standard for how to successfully keep pets with their evacuee families. In partnership with other organizations, ffl produced a nationally (and internationally) available manual on how other communities may replicate the lifesaving crisis response practices we created.