A New Non-Profit

Dante has found his calling in life which he described to me over the phone. He has decided to found a new non-profit organization: Animal Daycare.

Now, before you snort, I have to say that he has thought his plans out quite well. In fact, it reminds me of the basic plan of a no-kill animal shelter, although he plans to offer other (reduced cost) services to those who have pets as well. He even has his funding all planned out.

He will offer boarding services to people who need to leave their pets and go on vacation. He will offer a variety of grooming services to those pets (and knowing him also to the other animals in the shelter who don't have owners) including hair dying services to dogs. I asked him what color he would dye them. He says, pink, blue and green. I thought this was ridiculous. Then I saw the Kelis video "Bossy" with the green poodle. Apparently he's ahead of his time.

He will house these animals in a large house with ample grounds for frolicking around. He's going to have a huge indoor room for the birds to fly around in. He's already estimated how much room he's going to need. It was a damn good guess. When owners come to leave their pets with him, they have to sign two forms. One form tells "the dog's names, what kind of food they like to eat, what their owner's name is, their owner's phone number, the dog's birthday, stuff like that." I gave him the new terminology of "admission form".

The second form, he sighed, was "if they get sick, and I mean really, really, really, really sick, you know? Really sick. Well...if they get sick, then the owner signs the paper that says...you know...that, well, we can take them to the doctor." I thought he was going to have a put-down/killing policy there for a minute. I then introduced him to the term "emergency release form".

"How are you going to pay for all of this? It costs a lot of money to buy food and make sure you have a vet on call and things like that."

"Oh, I'm going to have an animal fundraiser," he said. Apparently he's picked up a new term from Mom. He then describes that he'll charge a flat admission fee to get in and he'll have carnival-like games for people to play like the basketball throw, pick-up ducks, balloon busting and such. He's going to have a mascot (currently his little poodle Sugar Pie at Nana's house) and then someone to dress up in a dog suit and work the crowd. He's going to get McDonald's to donate kids meals to the children who come. I told him about the 50/50 contest, and he thought it was brilliant and would use it at his fundraiser. (A 50/50 contest is where you buy tickets $1 apeice or $5 for 6 and at the drawing, you split the pot with the house if you win.)

He wanted to know if you had to go to college to start an animal daycare/shelter. I said no you didn't. If you worked hard enough you could start right up. But you'd have to convince people to fund you by showing them how well you'd worked out the plan. He thought this was preferable to going to college. I'm not going to argue with him. Unless he just has a burning desire to be an accountant, I'm not going to push it on him.

I told him that I would be his first donor. For every dollar he puts away in an account for Animal Daycare, I'll match him dollar for dollar. He was very gracious and said "Thank you" in the most professional way possible. We'll open the account in the fall when I go in for a visit. Then I'll teach him how to write a professional thank you for your support note to his donor. :D

--Virgil