Open Your Heart

After ten years of working on behalf of shelter animals, Open Your Heart will be phasing out our rescue and adoption operations. We have, in effect, put ourselves out of business! When Open Your Heart first began working with shelter cats and kittens in February of 1995, we were one of only a handful of animal rescue groups in the entire state. Animal shelter staff had no one to turn to when every cage was full and more animals arrived at their door. The shelters in our part of the state suffered from reputations as death row facilities. The prospect for an unwanted pet was bleak, indeed. Enter Open Your Heart. In a time when most shelter animals were sent home with little more than a rabies shot, we required all of our animals to receive full deworming, testing for feline leukemia and FIV, an examination by a licensed veterinarian, and spaying or neutering prior to adoption. Two years later we added spaying and neutering of kittens as well (the first group in this area to do so), so every animal that went to a new home was altered before adoption. We befriended animal control officers at all of the shelters in the area and encouraged them to call us before putting an adoptable cat or kitten to sleep. We campaigned for better treatment of shelter animals and better understanding of shelter workers. We shared our bylaws, articles of incorporation, volunteer manual and fundraising ideas with other fledgling animal rescue organizations so they could build on our success. Today central Jersey is a very different place for shelter animals. Not one shelter in our area succumbs to euthanizing unclaimed animals after the state-mandated 7-day holding period has elapsed. Pet adoption groups compete for space at area pet stores and every Saturday features at least three adoption events within a ten-mile radius. Once we were the only adoption option for animals in Montgomery Township, but we have passed that torch to Animal Alliance, which now steps in to foster and adopt every dog and cat that enters that facility. We have helped Somerset Regional Animal Shelter evolve into an exemplary municipal shelter that now finds homes for every adoptable dog and cat in its care. We have given hundreds of families their feline best friends and improved the reputation of animal shelters as a whole. Truly we have much to be proud of. It is time to move onto new adventures. We have bequeathed our wealth of experience and knowledge in animal sheltering to a new generation of pet adoption groups. We continue to work closely with the Somerset Regional Animal Shelter in Bridgewater, and in exchange, they have agreed to find homes for any former Open Your Heart cats whose owners can no longer keep them. Many of our former volunteers now assist that shelter and other animal groups in the area. Thanks to your generosity and support, we have amassed a bit of material wealth as well, and we are now working hard to distribute those assets to organizations that will continue our mission. Our plan is to fund a wonderful new cat area in one of our local shelters, where the feline residents won’t have to live in cages but can nap in the sun and play all day until their new families come along. This way, we can continue to help shelter animals find new beginnings; though we are closing our doors, our legacy will continue to assist needy animals for years to come. On behalf of everyone at Open Your Heart, I would like to thank every one of you for your support of our mission over the past ten years. The world is indeed a much better place for shelter animals now, but it has become so because of you. Open Your Heart counts all of you as friends and wishes you the very best in the new adventures in your own lives. Best wishes, Shelley Schlenk Shelley (Wester) Schlenk President, Open Your Heart

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