SARASOTA – Our Y hosted its first annual Get Your Mutt Movin’ pet walk and expo, Saturday.
“Every time that we do any kind of event it contributes to our wellness plans, we have summer camps, we have a lot of youth development plans going on right now but throughout this whole pandemic I think everybody has depended on their best friend, their dogs and stuff like that,” said Event Coordinator and Membership supervisor of Our Y, Pamela Peters.
The event allowed pet owners to safely exercise and have fun with their four-legged friends in a variety of ways, including walking a mile track, completing an agility course, or browsing over local businesses offering a variety of pet novelties, all while raising money for Satchels Last Resort Animal Shelter and Sanctuary.
“We take dogs and cats with nowhere else to go, and it’s usually because of breed, medical conditions, or behavior and we differ from other shelters in that we specialize in the rehab part of it,” said Founder and Board President of Satchels, Paige Knoebel. “So we rescue them we do whatever we have to do to make them feel better and they stay with us until they are adoptable, we do adopt about 80 or 90 percent of the dogs we take in, and these were all last chance dogs that would’ve died, dogs and cats, if we wouldn’t have taken them,” said Knoebel.
For one pair of pet owners, Satchels helped them when they most needed it
“We came across satchels when my mother in law had to go into assisted living and nobody would take the cat, and Satchels did”, said Murray Miller. “And Murray was allergic,” said Lisa McDonnell. “And I am highly allergic to cats so they were the only ones who were willing to take the cat,” said Miller. “Took him with open arms,” said McDonnell.
Founder of Satchels, Paige Knoebel says any help for the non-profit is always beneficial.
“We put the non in non-profit, so anything we can do to raise money is incredibly valuable for us, the more money we raise, the more animals we can save, and it’s just as simple as that so its been a nice day for us, people have been really kind,” said Knoebel.
For more information on health and wellness through Our Y, you can visit their website here.
Or helping out our furry friends through Satchels at their website here.