Fetch Your Best Attire: It’s the 2022 Evening of Pawsibilities

This year, Second Chance celebrates 35 years of saving lives, so it’s time to get our pawty on–will you join us? Our 22nd annual gala, the Evening of Pawsibilitiesisn’t far away! It’s coming up on September 24 at the Embassy Suites in Cary, so paw-pare yourself for an evening of food, friends, fun, and furry pals!

The year’s event features:

  • Decadent drinks, dinner, and desserts, including vegan and gluten-free options!
  • A live auction, with amazing prizes like vacations, high-end jewelry, and more!
  • Hundreds of silent auction items, which you can bid on remotely if you’re unable to attend the big night in-person!
  • An exciting high-value raffle prize: a $1,500 Amazon gift card! And, you need not be present to win!
  • A Wine Pull featuring luxurious wines (you may score a $100 bottle for $25!) and a brand new Coffee Pull for those looking for a new brew!
  • Free photo booth fun with four-legged friends.
  • Our second annual “Wags With Swag” pet costume contest!

While our auction items are not yet ready to be seen, added to a “watch” list, or bid on, event tickets are on sale and bidding accounts can be created FREE if you will be bidding from afar. Space is limited, so purchase your tickets HERE today!

It’s Our 35th Annifursary!

Petco Love Invests in Second Chance To Save Cats in Rural Counties

Raleigh, NC (June 6, 2022) – Second Chance Pet Adoptions has just received a $6,000 grant investment from national nonprofit Petco Love in support of their lifesaving work for cats in rural counties in central North Carolina.

Petco Love is a national nonprofit leading change for pets by harnessing the power of love to make communities and pet families closer, stronger, and healthier. Since its founding in 1999, Petco Love has invested $330 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. And Petco Love helps find loving homes for pets in partnership with Petco and more than 4,000 organizations—like ours—across North America, with 6.5 million pets adopted and counting. 

“Our investment in Second Chance Pet Adoptions is part of more than $15M in investments recently announced by Petco Love to power local organizations across the country as part of our commitment to create a future in which no pet is unnecessarily euthanized,” said Susanne Kogut, president of Petco Love. “Our local investments are only part of our strategy to empower animal lovers to drive lifesaving change right alongside us. We recently celebrated the one-year launch anniversary of Petco Love Lost, a national lost and found database that uses pet facial recognition technology to simplify the search for lost pets.”

“While Raleigh’s county shelter, the Wake County Animal Center, is well-networked with rescue organizations like ours, rural shelters in counties like Montgomery, Granville, Franklin, and Johnston have fewer rescue partners and much less funding,” said Lisa Imhof, Senior Director of Operations at Second Chance Pet Adoptions. “To get more cats out of those shelters and off the euthanasia lists, we prioritize them in our shelter pulls, but at an increased cost to our organization since those shelters are forced to do less vetting of the animals what with their more limited budgets. Petco Love’s investment in our organization will ensure we can rescue, vaccinate, spay/neuter, and microchip 150 cats who need—and deserve—a second chance to find love.”

Second Chance, Raleigh’s oldest no-kill animal rescue, is a nonprofit organization that has saved (and found adoptive homes for) over 16,000 stray and abandoned cats and dogs since its inception in 1987. In addition to finding local forever families for approximately 850 homeless animals each year, Second Chance also sends an additional 400 dogs per year to rescue organizations up north (where they then find permanent homes) and funds the spay/neuter surgeries of hundreds of feral and unowned cats each year.

###

About Petco Love

Petco Love is a life-changing nonprofit organization that makes communities and pet families closer, stronger, and healthier. Since our founding in 1999 as the Petco Foundation, we’ve empowered animal welfare organizations by investing $330 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. We’ve helped find loving homes for more than 6.5 million pets in partnership with Petco and organizations nationwide. Our love for pets drives us to lead with innovation, creating tools animal lovers need to reunite lost pets, and lead with passion, inspiring and mobilizing communities and our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners to drive lifesaving change alongside us.  Join us. Visit petcolove.org or follow on FacebookInstagramTwitter, and LinkedIn to be part of the lifesaving work we lead every day.

2022 Racing for Rescues Breaks Records, Raises Over $55,000

It was a misty Sunday morning when everyone lined up for the starting horn. People and dogs alike, in their waves of starting times, ready to make that 5K trek through Dorothea Dix Park. And what a day it was!

Second Chance’s yearly Racing for Rescues 5K/fun walk is an event that many of our supporters look forward to every year, both as a community event and as a way to raise funds for the oldest no-kill rescue in Wake County. But this year, it seems the community had a little extra love for Second Chance and our animals: the 2022 race saw a record number of registrants with 580 runners and walkers! That beats our 2017 record by over 20 people! Considering how unpredictable the past few years have been, we were both stunned by and grateful for the turnout.

Finally, the number everyone has been wondering about: how much money did this year’s event raise for our kitties and pups? Thanks to our generous donors, fundraisers, raffle ticket buyers, sponsors, and registrants, we were able to raise over $55,000! Yes, you read that right! These funds will go towards supporting Second Chance’s mission of championing homeless cats and dogs in our area to find forever homes as well as promoting responsible pet ownership.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the park, participated virtually, or donated in lieu of being able to attend. Your support is greatly appreciated, and we cannot wait until later this year for our next big event, the Evening of Pawsibilities gala/auction! Save the date (September 24) and keep your ears perked, as more details about ticket sales will come in early July!

The Mini-Challenge is BACK! Ready, Set, GO!

With just 10 days left until Racing for Rescues, we’re bringing back the mini-challenge: a week-long burst of fundraising for cats and dogs who need a second chance. In addition to the overall fundraising awards, the mini-challenge awards will be handed out at the 5K race/fun walk on May 1. (Can’t join us or need to leave early? That’s OK! We have a virtual event for remote participants, and even in-person participants needn’t be present to win.)

Ready? Here are the details for the challenge, which runs from April 22 to April 28 (ending 11:59 p.m. Eastern on April 28):

  1. The fundraiser who receives the highest number of gifts$20.00 or more April 22-28 (NOT the largest amount of funds, but the largest number of individual gifts) will win a $25 Starbucks gift card AND a Chuy’s Tex-Mex restaurant gift card for dinner for two!
  2. All fundraisers who receive at least 5 gifts of $20 or more April 22-28 will be entered to win (in a random drawing) two FREE registrations (shirts included) for next year’s Racing for Rescues event!

And YES! These prizes are in addition to our other fundraising prizes up for grabs (three $50 Target gift cards, one $250 Diamonds Direct gift card, and free 2023 Racing for Rescues registrations/shirts). Learn more about those prizes and how to win them by clicking HERE and scrolling down to the fundraising prizes section.

The Fine Print:

  1. Eligible contributions must be made directly to your fundraising page or must be in the form of a check or cash with an indication that the money is for your fundraiser.
  2. Eligible contributions include gifts of $20.00 or more per donor, and the donor cannot be you if it is for your fundraiser (you are, however, welcome to donate to someone else’s fundraiser and have your gift count towards their total). For example, if two of your neighbors donate $20 each to your fundraiser, both will count for the challenge; if your mother donates $20 three times, only one gift will count for the challenge; if you donate $20 to your own fundraiser, the gift will not count for the challenge; if you donate $40 to another fundraiser, that gift will count as one contribution for them.
  3. All online donations must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 28. All checks and cash must be received by Second Chance (address below) by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday, April 29. You’re welcome to add these funds as an offline donation if you have a JustGiving page so your total is accurate, but the checks/cash must be received by our organization to count towards the competition.

The How-to:

  1. If you haven’t already taken this step, register to run or walk in-person or remotely and select the option for “Yes, I would like to help raise more money for animals in need!” when asked about fundraising.
  2. We’ll email you all the info you need to create your fundraiser, or if you’d like to set up right away, you can create a Facebook or JustGiving fundraiser. While you don’t have to edit your page from its pre-set defaults to begin receiving donations, sharing your story–and photos–with your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers will get them to donate more!
  3. Ask others to support you. You can share your fundraiser’s link with everyone you know! You can email or text the link or post it on your social media pages.

“Racing for Rescues” 2022 Registration is Now OPEN!

Second Chance Pet Adoptions Receives PEDIGREE Foundation Grant for Hearts to Home Animal Transport Program

The 2021 Numbers Are In!