The Pet Connection Lennoxville  Our mission is to help as many animals that are facing death as possible. We welcome in animals that have no chance, are destined for euthanasia, and give them the medical and emotional care they need. If they can be adopted safely to new homes, we search for the perfect match; if they cannot be adopted to families due to illness, personality, etc. they live with us and we become their home and treat them as our own for as long as they need us. The Animal Nutrition Centre Our mission is to provide quality service, advice, and merchandise to our customers. We sell quality pet foods, accessories, and giftware; soy candles, decorative flags, handmade soaps, and much more. The Animal Nutrition Centre’s sole reason for existence is to provide the funding needed for the animals of The Pet Connection Lennoxville. How the Pet Connection Lennoxville was born: In 2010, Jennifer Young left her career as a journalist to dive in to the world of animals. It was then that she realized just how badly so many animals needed help. While managing the store, The Animal Nutrition Centre, for two years, she began helping animals that needed it and those animals lived and stayed on the premises for Young to care for daily. Animals that were discarded. Animals that were abused. Animals facing death at shelters due to overcrowding, health or adoptability. In 2011, The Pet Connection Lennoxville was born. While at the same address as the store, The Pet Connection became its own entity and separate from the daily work of the store. The Pet Connection became a place where animals who had no one else to help them came to live and were the responsibility of Young. All animals receive all necessary medical attention and are given the emotional care they need. The expenses were paid for by Young with the help of her friends and fundraisers only. In 2013, the store was for sale. While this was expected to be the end of helping animals, and Young was expected to return to her career of journalism, she decided to purchase the store to be able to continue The Pet Connection Lennoxville and use all profits from the store to help as many animals as she could, while continuing to provide a home for the 12 animals she had living with her. With no funding from the government, and no funding from municipalities, all expenses for all animals; 50 on average per day, is obtained solely by sales in the store and fundraisers held. While they have two different missions, the store is the only source of income to help all the animals, many who have called The Pet Connection Lennoxville home for many years. The store must pay its operating expenses: rent of the space in the building ($4900 mn), employees, insurance, goods…and all profit is used completely for what the animals need. On average, our animals’ needs demand $3000 to $4000 per month (food, vet, necessities). Our Vision: To date: over 1,700 animals have been saved from death and given a second chance at life and a forever home; whether it be in the perfect match of a new family, or they called The Pet Connection home. We hope to continue to help as many animals as we can while helping control the pet overpopulation problem and continue our campaign of education on responsible pet ownership. Our plight: The pandemic has hurt us greatly. With decreased sales in the store, new loans have had to be taken; loans coupled with the original loan still due for purchasing the store, we are unsure of how topay for. With less income we cannot help the number of animals we usually would, and want to, and we find it very difficult to continue to pay the hefty expenses our 49 animals with us right now need. We have had to lay off employees; employees who were very important in helping us take care of all our animals, with no financial ability to hire new staff. Now, with only 4 of us left (all family) to manage the entire store and keep it running as profitable as possible, and to take care of our 49 animals, the pandemic has left us with a questionable future with a possibly traumatic end for many of our animals who call us home who cannot be adopted due to personality, age or health. Our team: We are a very small team that does the work of numerous. Myself, Shannon (my daughter-in-law), Logan (my son), Destiny (not blood but family now), and two part time volunteers; Nathalie and Amy. We run a store and care for 49 animals daily. Our hope: To get some help to pay back our extra loans we have had to take to be able to survive this pandemic and be able to continue to offer a home for our animals who need us. One of many Cameos: This is Jack. Jack came to us as a puppy. He was abandoned because he destroyed the house when his owners were away. While with us, Jack was a Houdini and we had to create an adapted bed for him to actually keep him secure and safe when we were not with him. Jack has actually been adopted 5 times. Each time, his new owners were made well aware of his severe separation anxiety, yet, he was returned each time due to “eating the door”, “destroying the bathroom”….all due to his separation anxiety when left alone. Each time he was returned it only instilled his separation anxiety, yet he refrained from showing any signs of it while he was “home” with us. In 2018, after being returned yet again for the same issue, I decided that his constant returns were damaging to him psychologically, and actually worsening his anxieties, so now Jack is part of our sanctuary team, with others with similar stories, who look to us as his masters, his providers, and his home. We very much love this old Beagle/Basset mix and he has actually come to many schools with me to help young children learn proper behaviour around animals. He and the others, depend on us to be able to continue our mission. <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/57831349_1623813398401116_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="57831349_1623813398401116_r.jpeg" /> How can people help our animals: We have started this Go Fund Me: Our Facebook page is: The Pet Connection Lennoxville.  <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/839062636127240"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/839062636127240" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.facebook.com/groups/839062636127240</a></a>  Our address is: The Pet Connection Lennoxville, 1730 Wellington South, Sherbrooke, Quebec, J1M 1K9. Our paypal email address is [email redacted]

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Quirks Initiative

The Pet Connection Lennoxville

The Pet Connection Lennoxville

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