Nicholas James Alexander – Mar 13, 1978 – Nov 9, 2024
Photo’d building sheds for Bootleg Wildfire Survivors July, 2023. Relief Angels partnered with Tzu Chi volunteers.
We have been helping animals impacted by natural disasters since 2005. We expanded to include Klamath County in 2020. After 4 years of trying and failing to find a pet rescue to partner with, our Vice President at the time, Nicholas Alexander, suggested we launch our own. He and our Executive Director, Valerie O’Dai, spent hundreds of hours researching every possible statistic of comparable communities with comparable available resources. After they were satisfied that they had a solid game plan, the board agreed to launch for Klamath, Lake, Harney, and Grant Counties. Val would direct the southern 2 and Nick would direct the eastern 2 counties. Tragically, 8 days prior to the official launch of the pet rescue, Nick was killed in a car accident. In light of the unexpected heartbreak and loss, we decided to limit our initial launch to strictly Klamath County and rename it after the man who first came up with the idea. Thus, giving birth to The Nicholas Project.
We officially launched November 17th, 2024. Between then and December 31st, 2025 we have rescued 758 animals! We are 100% foster home based and rely on the generous residents of our community to care for all of these animals. We were full by January 2025 and have maintained an average of 115 animals in our care at any given moment for all of 2025. Daily maintenance, routine medical care, and emergency services add up very fast! As of 1/1/26, we have not received any formal grants for operation. We have received support from other rescues such as Fences for Fido and Oregon Dog Rescue when we were extremely overwhelmed. In February of 2025, only 3 months after we launched, during Snowmageddon of Klamath County we rescued more animals in a singular month than most rescues intake in an entire year! This reinforced the clear correlation between Disaster Relief and the obvious need for a pet rescue in the Klamath Community.
The average cost for a person to own an animal is shockingly high. The following numbers are what the average pet owner would pay if they did everything that we do for every animal in our care over the course of 1 year.
CATS
| MEDICAL | Exam $65 |
| Microchip – $50 | |
| FVRCP + Luk initial – $15 | |
| FVRCP 1 year booster – $25 | |
| Luk booster 1 year – $55 | |
| Rabies – $22.00 | |
| Feline Spay – $175 | |
| Dewormer – $30 | |
| Flea/Tick – $40 | |
| MONTHLY CONSUMABLES | Food – $40 |
| Nail trim – $12 | |
| Litter – $25 | |
| COMMON POTENTIAL COSTS | Ringworm – $90 |
| Upper Respiratory – $75 | |
| Eye infection – $30 | |
| Irregular Heart ProBNP – $75 |
Cats – Full spectrum if everything is needed – $824 !!! ($310 of these potential costs are ones that we incur more often than not). 80% of the cats that come into our care require some form of the forementioned potential costs. Thanks to our AMAZING vet, The Happy Pet Vet, Lakeview Animal Hospital, along with medicine donations from other vets in our community, we are able to save extensively on our costs. We average around $300 per cat in medical costs. We still average the $65 per cat per month for general monthly consumables.
DOGS
| MEDICAL | Exam – $65 |
| Microchip – $50 | |
| Dewormer – $40 | |
| Flea and Tick – $45 | |
| Bordatella – $25 | |
| DHPP initial – $30 | |
| DHPP 1st booster – $30 | |
| DHPP 1 year booster – $30 | |
| Lepto Initial – $25 | |
| Lepto 1 year booster – $25 | |
| Rabies 1 year – $22 | |
| K9 Spay – $225 | |
| MONTHLY CONSUMABLES | Nail trim – $12 |
| Monthly food – $50 | |
| Treats – $35 | |
| Toys – $50 | |
| COMMON POTENTIAL COSTS | Antibiotics – $75 |
| Wound Care – $50 | |
| Ringworm – $90 | |
| Parvo/Gardia/etc – $1,000 |
Dogs – $612 total average medical costs + $147 of Monthly average expenses. Again, Thanks to The Happy Pet Vet and other vets in this community offering us discounts and donations, we have managed to keep our general medical expenses for dogs to also around $300 per dog. Our monthly expenses to house dogs is significantly higher than our cats, sitting around $150 per dog per month!
With an average of 50 dogs and 65 cats in our program at any given moment, we spend approximately $11,725 per month on basic consumable needs for our animals. We desperately need more food donated. We do not receive any formal grants to cover this expense and without donations from the community, we will run out of funding within 2 months.
None of these estimates include miscellaneous costs such as water, electricity, cleaning supplies, collars, leashes, trash disposal, kennels, carriers, catios, litter boxes, scoopers, bowls, blankets, towels, teething puppy collateral damaged slippers, etc.
Thus far, we have only explained our basic and common expenses. We have also stepped up to cover extreme emergency medical expenses for unowned animals that do not deserve to die just because their owner’s abandoned them. Lovable pets such as Lugnut, Richy, Annie Sue, Penny Lane, Beatty, Loki, Ruger, Howler, Chunk, Smeagle, Gecko, and so many more have received thousands of dollars of medical care in order to be granted a second chance at life. They are now living their best lives! Most have found their forever homes and now have the opportunity to live out their lives loved, cherished and giving their furever families a joy without words.
Our most up to date information can be found on our Facebook page. We are all 100% volunteer and could really use some additional help on the technology/administrative side of things. We do have about half of our animals at any given moment listed on Petfinder and PetPlace try to keep it as updated as possible.
For more information on The Nicholas Project and how to get involved click here.
To View our adoptable pets, please click here.