Helping Our Pets Cross the Rainbow Bridge at Home

Thank you to all of our donors – new and existing! You are the reason we are successful and you are the reason we help the angels cross the Rainbow Bridge from home. Here is our latest report for you. We love every single one of you no matter the amount given to us. Every amount helps in some way. Remember that 100% of your donation goes to helping our babies. We have very little overhead costs and what we have we pay for out of our own pockets.

As many of you know, we lost our Spice Girl to the Rainbow Bridge on February 8, 2018. It is ironic because that is the same date, but in 2016, that Nikki fell and suffered her traumatic brain injury. What you probably also know is that our animal hospital gave her twice the amount of pain medicine that she should have had, and she was in no pain to warrant any pain medications anyway. That is another story for another time, but the moral of the story is to be sure your vet knows your wishes and asks you before they administer a narcotic to your beloved baby. RIP Spice Girl – November 17, 2004 – February 8, 2018. Run and play with Sugar Bear, Champers, Mimi Girl (her Mama), Guido and Phish.

As we always do, we like to state our mission here and the reasons you wonderful donors have donated your hard earned money to us.: 

SUGAR’S GIFT, INC.:  Our mission is to provide hospice, euthanasia and end-of-life veterinary services for terminally ill pets in their own homes. This allows them a comfortable, peaceful setting, where they have lived and been loved, to cross over the Rainbow Bridge with dignity. Our services overcome conditions that could be due to the pet’s inability to be moved or treated at a facility, or due to the owner’s inability to leave the home.

Our 10-year old Yorkie, Sugar, passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2013. We made sure she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge from home with comfort, dignity and peace. Sugar’s Gift to your Little Angel is to allow them the same privilege: Sugar is helping them cross over the Rainbow Bridge from home, with the help from others who have donated funds to make that happen. Every Little Angel should be able to spend their last moments in the place they are most comfortable – at home. 

SUGAR’S GIFT, INC. is the only non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization in the country whose mission is to help terminally ill pets cross over the Rainbow Bridge from home with comfort, dignity and peace.

We have had several large donations since our last report, and most of them choose to remain anonymous. I would love to tell you, though, that these are true angels to Sugar’s Gift. All of you as donors make a huge impact on our operating costs, but there are a few special individuals who have gone over and above their calls of duty to us. You know who you are, and we love you - and give thanks for you every single day, more than you’ll ever know.  And to our recurring donors, Patricia A, and those Anonymous donors, those recurring really help us in our cash flow and our projections of how many babies we can help at any time.

Thanks to those of you with donations from your gift cards, too! That number has increased, and we thank GlobalGiving for helping to spread the word about Sugar’s Gift to their audience. It tells us that our reputation is beginning to spread via word of mouth, too, and sometimes it is even more than my heart can take. I cry every time we receive a donation, because it tells me that you all believe in our mission, too. That is what makes our hearts full. Thank you.

Every one of those donations is precious to us, and reminds us that our mission is reaching further and farther than we even know. If it was not for GlobalGiving, our reach would be more limited. Thank you, also, Global Giving for the opportunity to partner with you.

We have badges from GlobalGiving now that show we are fully vetted and one of their top organizations – thanks to all of you! Those pictures are shown in this report. So, again, we have reached a new level of rewards status with GlobalGiving, being a Superstar now. Superstar status gives us the opportunity to be featured in GlobalGiving’s social media, possibly being mentioned for a grant from a corporate sponsor and myriad other incredible chances for exposure to all the GlobalGiving donors that we would not have otherwise. We have continued to ramp up our training with GlobalGiving’s tools and courses to make us better at what we do and to help the angels more. 

Unfortunately, recently, we have had to really screen our calls from those who want our services. We have put a new disclaimer on our website, because we refuse to serve owners who are simply “tired of medical bills, tired of their pets or tired of the trouble their pets are.” We can’t and won’t serve those types of owners. We serve owners who are low-income, elderly, homebound or their pets are too sick or painful to move.

As I write this, we are working with P.A. from Bradenton because her baby is too large and painful to move. We are helping her, and because it isn’t a low income situation, she is willing to cover the cost in a donation to Sugar’s Gift. We are happy to help in any circumstance, as long as euthanasia is warranted, and someone isn’t just looking for a handout, when the just want to get rid of their pets. That will not happen with us.

A special thank you to C.S. and P.S. – who have asked to remain anonymous, for their generous donations to us recently. They support us and we love them. We love all of our donors – every little bit helps. These 2 wonderful supporters go over and above what most donors give, and for that they have our hearts forever.

You, as our donors have helped us to pursue our mission, and we can't thank you enough! As always, we ask that you please spread the word to others who love animals to see if they would donate to our special cause. Every person’s donation goes toward the next baby’s Rainbow Crossing.

Our goal is still to help one pet per day cross over the Rainbow Bridge with comfort, dignity and peace. It costs us approximately $1,000 to help one pet. We expect that once our presence is known, we will need to fund one pet per day by the end of the first year. By the end of 2022, we hope to be not only in the Sarasota/Bradenton region, but also in all of Florida. Then, by the end of year 2023, we want to be nationwide. We have already received requests from San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, Kansas City and Austin, TX to rollout to their cities as we can.

If you are not on our email list for our newsletters, please let us know if you would like to be added. 

Thank you, again, for your support for Sugar's Gift - but, more importantly, thank you for helping all the angels who really need your funding to help them cross the Rainbow Bridge with comfort, dignity and peace.  Again, please feel free to share our information with your family and friends, or anyone who loves their babies as much as we do.

Links:

• The Rainbow Bridge Poem
• Our Website