FIDO’s goal for this year is 200 fence projects to free at least 400 dogs from the end of a chain. We are pretty much on-track to meet our goal so far. A lot of that is due to John, our new fence program leader, who is knocking out the projects. The only issue now is the national steel shortage. Because the chain-link kennel panels we use are made out of steel.
But FIDO is not one to give up. Nope, we find a way. We have 180 panels on indefinite back order. We have already made the circuit in the Indianapolis metro area and donut counties, buying up all the panels in stock from all the local farm and home box stores, including Orscheln Farm & Home who always gives us a great deal. But because we are cranking out the fence projects, we keep running through the fence panels.
So we did a little research across all Orscheln stores in the state. We found a large number of panels in stock at 3 of their stores in far southern Indiana. So we rented a 26 foot box truck, hitched a 10 foot trailer to our FIDO truck and headed south yesterday at 8:00 am. We crossed the Ohio River bridge to pick up the box truck in Owensboro, Kentucky, then headed back to southern Indiana to make the circuit of stores to pick-up a total of 127 fence panels, completely filling the box truck and trailer.
Big, big thanks to John and Jerry who worked their tails off yesterday loading the goods. We rolled back into Indy last night at 9:00 pm well-stocked with materials for the next 50 or so fence projects. Despite our volume discounts, fence panels are not cheap and we go through a lot of them as we free over 400 dogs from the end of a chain each year. We are the only group in the Indy area that works in this way to give dogs a new lease on life to run, play, and simply be dogs.
If you appreciate our determination to keep helping dogs like Roxy (shown in the photo) despite any obstacles that get in our way, please consider donating toward our fence program. We thank you and the 399 other dogs just like Roxy thank you.