Friends of Long Beach Animals (FOLBA), established many nine lives ago in 1989, is Long Beach’s most venerable pet-welfare and philanthropic organization.
The organization again lived up to its name on July 6, when they donated funds to The Little Lion Foundation and its subsidiary, The Long Beach Little Paws Project kitten nursery, to buy their very own Ford Transit to shuttle their furry little charges back and forth to vet appointments and rescues.
“We were spending $700 a month renting a van, and we’re like, this is really stupid, it’s a waste of our money—we should try to purchase one,” Little Lion founder Claudia Mari
e said.
Little Lion reached out to FOLBA for financial assistance to purchase a used vehicle, and the FOLBA board was glad to help.
“We just couldn’t say no!” FOLBA president Lauren Campbell said.
“We transport a lot of kittens, and we’re building a lot of partnerships to help us—for example, Helen Woodward Animal Center, which is a huge nonprofit located in San Diego County,” Marie said. “They’re also going to the Humane Society of Berkeley, to Sonoma Valley and Silicon Valley, and we’re doing an ASPCA transport to Washington State, in Seattle.”
The van will also roll into areas of Long Beach where residents need assistance with keeping their pets healthy.
“Our vet techs can do vaccines [from the van] and give services to community cats,” Marie said. “There will be a workshop at the end of the month for vaccines, microchips, flea meds, and community animals.” (See Just fur fun and fur-ther education for details.)
Little Lion has fostered and adopted out blind kittens, kittens with physical disabilities and illnesses and discarded newborns. Last year, FOLBA gave the Long Beach Little Paws Project a sizable donation to help fill the nursery’s formula bottles and pay for medical care of a sadly considerable number of severe cases.
Story By Kate Karp, Long Beach Post
