PENDLETON — The Pioneer Humane Society/Pendleton Animal Welfare Shelter is vying in a national fundraising tournament to come out as top dog.

The local humane society and the no-kill shelter it operates have made it to the “Furry 4” in March Muttness. The Humane Society of Southern Arizona hosts the tournament, patterned after college basketball’s March Madness to determine a national champion. Instead of hoops, shelters vie for donations.

“We have never done this before,” said Shaindel Beers, vice president of the organization’s board of directors. “We get invited to lots of things, but we’re a small rescue shelter … we don’t have any full time employees. So some fundraisers are just way too big for us. But this looked fun, and I thought sure, we’ll do it.”

She brought it to the board, which agreed with her to jump in and at least try.

The tournament began March 1 with 64 shelters across the United States. Pendleton in Round 1 faced off against the Humane Society of El Paso in El Paso, Texas.

“To be honest, I freaked out when I saw we were against El Paso,” Beers said, because the city has a population of almost 700,000. Pendleton’s is about 17,100.

Beers said she even contacted the tournament organizers to make sure the matchup was correct. She said she found out a computer selects the competitors at random. But she also said organizers assured her size does not always matter. Last year’s winner was a small no-kill cat shelter.

“So that was really crazy,” Beers said. “We totally knew we were the underdog, so we used that in our social media.”

It worked. When the round closed March 3, El Paso reported raising $4,222.69. Pendleton won with $4,728.12

“I was just thrilled,” Beers said. “I did not think we could beat El Paso, they are just so big.”

And Pendleton has continued knocking off the competition.

In Round 2: Thrilling 32, Pendleton faced off against the Floyd County Humane Society in Floyd, Virginia. This time, Pendleton was the big dog against little Floyd, population about 725.

Still, the small town gave a doggone good showing, raising $1,431.44, just not enough to oust Pendleton, which brought in $1,699.81

Pendleton in Round 3: Snuggly 16, took down the Animal Friends Humane Society of Hamilton, Ohio, $2,019.47 to $1,701.16.

And in Round 4: Excellent 8, Pendleton again took down a bigger player, but with its smallest dollar amount so far.

The Gulf Coast Humane Society in Corpus Christi, Texas — population about 326,000 — raised $836.83, while Pendleton raised $931.48.

Now Pendleton takes on Hermitage No-Kill Cat Shelter and Sanctuary in Tucson, Arizona, in the Furry 4, which began Thursday, March 17, and ends Saturday.

Hermitage looks to be Pendleton’s toughest opponent yet.

In Round 1, Hermitage faced Stray Rescue of St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Stray Rescue raised $22,054.21 — more than what PAWS has raised through the tournament so far. But Hermitage raised $24,885.81.

While Hermitage has continued to trounce its opponents, its fundraising also dropped to an average of $4,551.48 across the last three rounds.

Still, Beers said, Hermitage appears to have donors with deep pockets.

Spreading the word

To generate interest in supporting PAWS, Beers, who handles most of the social media for the organization and shelter, has been posting on Twitter and Facebook about animals the shelter has rescued.

“We’ve had great stories,” she said, including about Astrid and Butch and their five puppies.

PAWS received tips about people feeding a female dog with puppies that lived in a junk yard behind the Pendleton Walmart.

“There’s a junk yard there,” Beers said, “and this gentleman had the mother dog, father dog and five puppies under his RV.”

The man agreed to let PAWS rescue the whole lot, and the shelter took them in Feb. 21, when overnight temperatures were again dipping into single digits.

“He surrendered them, so we’re really grateful for that,” she said.

PAWS has worked to find homes for the dogs, and the father dog, Butch, was a bit of a worry. He is old, Beers said, and blind, and perhaps even hard of hearing. But a family took him in Tuesday, with the goal of rehoming him.

“We’re really hoping it works out with him because they have another blind dog, and they know how to work with special needs dogs,” she said.

She also shared the story of Grunter, who needed surgery for a torn ACL.

The estimate for the surgery was $1,000-$1,300, Beers said, and a donor gave an even $1,000.

Kennedy Veterinary Services, Milton-Freewater, did the surgery, and Beers and her husband and son picked up Grunter on March 15 and brought him to his foster home.

Beers said PAWS is grateful for the donation, and she stressed every donation matters, no matter the size.

And sharing content from PAWS on social media also helps.

“If people share our social media posts, it makes a huge difference — not just in donations, but getting lost animals home, getting pets adopted, etc.”

The stories help connect people to the animals and the work of PAWS and that attracts donations. Beers further explained PAWS has to rely on social media for promotions because the operation is so small it does not even have an executive director, let alone someone to head up media relations.

“We have around five part-time employees and lots of volunteers,” Beers said.

As of Wednesday, March 16, the participating shelters nationwide had raised more than $207,000. To support PAWS, visit hssaz.org/marchmuttness-2022 and click on the PAWS logo. The Furry 4 round runs until 8 p.m. Saturday, March 19.

If Pioneer Humane Society/Pendleton Animal Welfare Shelter prevail, it moves to the championship starting at 8 a.m. March 21 and concluding 8 p.m. March 23.

The Pioneer Humane Society and Pendleton Animal Welfare Shelter have made it to the Furry 4 in the March Muttness Tournament, in which 64 animal shelters nationwide compete to out fundraise one another until there is a champion.

Rounds last 60 hours each, from 8 a.m. the day they open to 8 p.m. the night they close two days later.

Round 1: All Tails In! 64 March 1 to March 3

Round 2: Thrilling 32 March 5 to March 7

Round 3: Snuggly 16 March 9 to March 11

Round 4: Excellent 8 March 13 to March 15

Round 5: Furry 4 March 17 to March 19

Round 6: Championship March 21 to March 23

As of Wednesday, March 16, the participating shelters raised more than $207,000. For more information and to support PAWS in the tournament, visit MarchMuttness.org.