Const. Khoa Hoang and his family are making a difference for the animals through their support of our Breaking Ground Building Campaign.

As a child, Constable Khoa Hoang and his family arrived in Canada as refugees from Vietnam. Even though his family arrived here with very little, his parents taught him the importance of helping others in need. Many years ago, the Hoangs started the "Annual Hoang Family Charity Garden Party," to raise funds for local charities. Const. Hoang continued the tradition this year in support of the Breaking Ground Building Campaign. He was thrilled to be able to match the proceeds raised by his family's party with his own donation to help tomorrow's animals.

Const. Hoang understands just how much we need a new shelter for the animals. His cats, Kiwi and Mango, were adopted from the OHS. Because of the generosity of Const. Hoang and his family, their name will appear on our donor wall, in our new building.

A new, expanded OHS clinic will allow us to bring more animals back to health and to find them forever homes.

One of the many important areas in the new facility will be the clinic area. The design of the clinic is key to the number of animals the OHS will be able to return to health in the future. The primary role of the clinic is to sterilize all animals prior to adoption. Once this large task is completed, clinic staff are freed to perform other surgeries and procedures on animals that restore them to health and make an otherwise unadoptable animal adoptable. Our clinic and staff are able to do most surgeries on site. Setting broken bones, suturing wounds, amputations — you name it, our clinic staff do it all. The most common procedures are dental though. It simply isn't realistic to adopt an animal that needs significant dental work, and by the age of seven, most need it. If this can be done in-house, while an animal is under anaesthesia for sterilization, then many more animals can be helped to find forever homes.

The clinic in the new shelter will be larger and this will allow the space for two operating tables and two "wet" treatment tables. This configuration will not only allow the space for volunteer veterinarians to help us with our work, but will allow our own vet to work much more efficiently. She can operate on one animal while a second is being prepared for surgery on the other table. When she is finished with one, all she has to do is change her gloves and begin work on the other table!

Anna Janigan, on left, pictured with her sister Patricia Kelly, was so moved by the stories of dedication of OHS staff, she decided to more than double her pledge to the building campaign.

Anna Janigan wasn't expecting to be so moved. She, along with dozens of other donors who had pledged over $5,000 to the campaign, was invited to be recognized in a pin ceremony at the OHS annual general meeting in June. Ms. Janigan had pledged $10K in August of 2009 and she and her sister dedicated the cat waiting area in memory of their parents. Her sister had had two cats from OHS, and they both believe in the work of the OHS.

Then came the AGM. While waiting to receive her pin, Ms. Janigan watched the OHS honour OHS staff members receive awards for their exceptional performance or long-service awards. Ms. Janigan was surprised to find herself moved by the stories of the commitment, hard work and dedication to the animals and the work of the OHS during the presentation.

Mindful of the fact that all of the funds have not yet been raised for the new shelter, and inspired by the work of our staff, Ms. Janigan decided on the spot to more than double her gift and dedicated the board room in the new building to her parents. "I decided that not only the animals desperately needed this building, but that these hard-working people deserved the right shelter to help the animals in. I knew I could do more, so I did!"