New Etsy store raises funds for Operation Pets Alive

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- If you’ve been hoping to bring a furry friend to your home, look no further than Operation Pets Alive. (OPA) They have the cutest, cuddliest, and most lovable dogs and cats looking for forever homes. However, until these dogs and cats find a permanent home, they rely on the time, effort, and raised funds that OPA provides to keep them healthy and loved. This led OPA to coming up with a new, creative way to help raise money for the organization through the popular online commerce website called Etsy.

Operation Pets Alive is a non-profit, all volunteer organization based in Montgomery County and works closely with the Montgomery County Animal Shelter, local boarding facilities, and area veterinarians. OPA’s main goals are to raise community awareness, limit the number of dogs and cats entering the shelter, and increase the number of dogs and cats leaving the shelters and to go into foster or forever homes. Marcia Piotter, who currently serves as president of OPA, created the organization in December 2010. Her vision and reason for starting OPA was to stop the euthanizing of healthy dogs and cats due to lack of space and low funds.

Since OPA relies solely on donations and funds raised through various events, a new source of funding was recently developed—OPA opened an online store through Etsy. Since Etsy’s main focus is on handmade or vintage items, OPA put together creative volunteers to craft and sell handmade items such as aprons, painted magnets, pet beds, potholders, and more.

“It’s a creative way to raise money, and it offers people a different way to volunteer with us rather than fostering or giving a direct donation,” says Susan Long, who created and maintains the Etsy page. “If people are buying items or spreading the word about our Etsy store on Facebook, then they are in fact volunteering by supporting OPA and getting involved.”

100 percent of the money made from the Etsy store goes directly to OPA’s costs for vet visits, supplies, and programs that OPA organizes. These programs include adoptions, Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and Pups on Trucks. TNR is a way to help stabilize feral cat colonies by humanely trapping feral cats and transporting them to a veterinarian. The cats are then neutered and vaccinated. While under anesthesia, the vet humanely removes a small part of the tip of the cat’s ear, to signal to other vets and shelters that the cat has been neutered and vaccinated. The cats are returned back to the place they were trapped and then released.

Pups on Trucks, a program organized every two weeks by OPA, takes ten to fifteen healthy, adoptable dogs out of the Montgomery County Animal Shelter and gives them temperament testing. If they pass, the dogs are placed in foster homes and visit the vet to be heartworm tested and brought up to date on vaccinations. After two weeks, the dogs are then transported to New England, where there is a shortage of adoptable dogs in shelters. These so-called “Dixie Dogs” from the south are highly publicized in the north, and the dogs usually find their forever homes within a few weeks.

OPA adoption events are hosted almost every weekend at either the Petco at 10864 Kuykendahl Road next to Trader Joe’s or at the PetsMart on 1488 at 2978. The next upcoming events are Saturday and Sunday, June 8th and 9th from noon to 4:00 p.m. at Petco.

Help OPA spread the word of their new Etsy shop through social media! Become a fan on their Facebook page, “Operation Pets Alive” to see all of OPA’s success stories.