Helping Out Pets Everyday

Margaret and her HOPE organization are amazing. We had a stray cat come into our yard and have a litter of kittens. Once the kittens were old enough, we found homes for a few but were unable to rehome the last two kittens and the mom, and were unable to keep them ourselves. After calling numerous shelters in the area and being shot down, or asked to pay exorbitant amounts of money in order to «surrender» the cats, I reached out to HOPE. Margaret immediately started making arrangements for the mother cat and her kittens to be fully vaccinated, spayed, and microchipped. We fostered the cats during this time, then turned them over to Margaret and HOPE for them to be adopted out. Once she took possession of the cats, she took great care to be sure they were housed together until they can find homes. I loved that this gave them a better transition period, rather than being abruptly removed from each other. I am so grateful to her and her whole organization for their help and compassion, and know that they will take great care of «our» cats and find them loving and safe homes.
I highly recommend anyone looking to adopt/​vaccinate/​neuter/​spay contact HOPE. They are honest and caring, and will go to great measures to help pets already in homes as well as make sure strays and homeless animals are put into wonderful homes.
Margaret, thank you again for all your help and support all along the way!

I have had the privilege of watching the HOPE volunteers for the last 3 years, as I work at the Upland Petsmart, and the volunteers are there every Sat. and everyday people come in twice a day to take care of the cats in the adoption center. Everyone involved with this rescue is a committed lover of animals, who’s first concern IS the animals. Margaret Coffman has always been very polite, BUT her FIRST concern is the animals, and not whether or not people like her, or agree with her decisions on the placement of the dogs/​cats in her care. I recently adopted a wonderful 7mth old puppy from HOPE. Even though they knew me, I still needed to go thru the adoption process. I filled out the required forms, had an interview, submitted to a home study and THEN received my beloved Charlotte. Even if they had decided against the adoption (I would have been heartbroken) I still would have understood that it was what they thought was best for Charlotte. As far as Margaret standing up for inhumane practices at the Upland Animal Shelter, what would you expect her to do? It is so easy for people to criticize, yet what are THEY doing to save animals? Margaret and her group of dedicated volunteers are putting their words into actions, and I am very proud to know them. Instead of criticizing, go volunteer to foster, donate money, towels, food, toys or give of your time on a Sat. from 10 – 2. May God Bless Margaret and all of the precious volunteers at HOPE.

H.O.P.E. and its volunteers are wonderful people just trying to help homeless pets in need. Yes their adoption rules are strict, but coming from someone who has fostered, bottlefed and spent many sleepless nights trying to help poor kittens who came from irresponsible pet owners that didn’t alter their cats, the last thing I want to see is my hard work in caring for these orphans is for them to end up in the hands of irresponsible pet owners that won’t provide them the quality life they fought so hard to have.
A+ to the entire team for their efforts. Let’s all remember that no individual is perfect. Volunteers try to do their best and we should commend them for their efforts even if somehow a volunteer makes a mistake.
I ask others what have you done to help solve the problem? Gave one pet a home? Try finding homes for hundreds or even thousands.

The only reason I give two stars and not one is that I don’t believe in penalizing the whole group because of their president, Margaret. She’s rude, vindictive, and seems to have a personal vendetta against the Upland Animal Shelter.
First, we received one of our cats through HOPE. Yes, we filled out pages and pages of application, but that I don’t mind since I know they want to place the animals correctly. However, the foster-​mom brought the cat over without our knowledge when we thought she was just going to look over the house. She just dumped the cat into the living room! Our existing cat went NUTS and this newer cat has always been a little afraid — even now, a couple of years later. I’ve read countless books on the subject of introducing cats and everything this volunteer had done was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! And we’ve never been able to undo it.
What I especially dislike is the on-​going offensiveness of their President, Margaret. We’ve had both personal and e-​mail communication with her and she seems very self-​righteous. She spends WAY too much time criticizing the Upland Animal Shelter — almost with enthusiasm. She’ll point out how great HOPE is, how they rescue animals, and how awful the old shelter was. HOPE sets up the Adoption Fair. Hope takes animals that no one else will (not in our case, see below). HOPE does this. HOPE does that. I DO understand that HOPE is an all-​volunteer association whose mission is to rescue animals, but Margaret seems equally eager to point blame at the shelter. THAT I do not condone nor appreciate. I’ve visited there and find the staff to be friendly and very concerned about their charges. I think her time (and energy) would be better served working together with the shelter (which she already does) instead of finding fault in such public methods.
We found a cat outside of our home and went to HOPE to find out what to do with her. Margaret just made us feel like less than animal-​lovers since we did not immediately take the cat in. We already have three cat — all strays or adoptees. If we take in a fourth, the first cat that we adopted from HOPE (see above) would probably leave home. Nevertheless, we felt a little guilty that we couldn’t take her in. We ended up bringing her to the shelter because that was our only choice. Instead of the lecture from Margaret, I would have appreciated a simple «I’m sorry. We have no ability to foster right now. I’d suggest the shelter where at least she’ll be safe.»
We’ve previously donated to HOPE. We DEFINITELY won’t anymore. I just can’t get over Margaret’s rudeness and self-​righteous attitude and vendetta against the shelter. However, I will say that if you want to adopt an animal and have the money to donate to HOPE, it is a good organization. However, stay away from Margaret.