Saturday, March 05, 2011

Tara and squirrely go home - Flurry is back!

OK...so I must apologize for not keeping up lately - it has been difficult with all the activity!

Flurry is all better and came back to take Squirrely's place who left last weekend. Squirrely will be living with two dogs and a cat. Tara went home Wednesday night. She will be living in Atlantic City with an older woman who recently lost her cat to illness. She is very excited to have Tara. She will be the only pet and will be lavished with attention!

Below is sweet little Midget who arrived yesterday. Her owners were living with family and had to move out and subsequently Midget arrived at the Shelter. She is older - at least 10 - and her adoption fee is only $8.00. You can tell by the holiday paper in the background that she has been with us for some time now. She lived with a dog and another cat so will be fine with other animals. Because she is older it is even more important to watch for signs of stress with the move from the Shelter to PetSmart. Initially allow her to have her own space until we know she has adjusted.

Earlier this week I received an e-mail that Violet was intimidating Flurry and appeared to be scaring her. If you ever observe behavior like this please do what you can to ensure it does not continue. If need be put the aggressive cat alone in a cage and close him/her off from the others and note your observations in the book. This is a very stressful situation for a cat to be left in.

Six rolls of brown paper were brought to the store yesterday. One was still left over from the last batch. Five were placed in the manager's office so there should be two presently in the adoption room.

As most of you are aware volunteers from Animal OutReach show case cats from our Shelter on weekends at PetSmart. Initially the volunteers were transporting the cats to and from the Shelter each weekend day. Shelter staff now are bringing the cats to the store early Saturday afternoon and picking them up late Sunday. The large stainless steel cage is wheeled into the adoption room overnight Saturday. Needless to say this is added work for the volunteer cleaning Sunday morning - thanks guys! I have advised staff that they are to empty the cage of all articles and clean it Sunday afternoon when the cats are picked up.

Kitten season has begun. This sounds like fun when you first hear it but in actuality it is a nightmare for shelters. Yesterday afternoon the first, of what will surely be many, kittens arrived - three kittens not even a week old were brought to us from a gentleman who found them under a bush on his property. Fortunately overnight he was able to trap the momma and now the kits will be nursed. PLEASE tell anyone who will listen to spay/neuter their cats!!! Tell them...if you are feeding outside cats you must take the next steps...TRAP, NEUTER, RETURN. There is a multitude of both low cost AND no cost alternatives for people throughout this county. Have them call the Shelter for help and for information. Last year in the month of May alone we took in 167 cats and kittens.

As you may have read in the paper this week 22 of the 58 dogs seized from Goshen Road were signed over to the various shelters where they are temporarily housed. Our Shelter has four of the twenty-two. I am happy to say that three of the four are already adopted!! There is another hearing scheduled for March 11. Let's hope the remaining dogs are signed over at that time!

The following days still need coverage this month...
Friday, March 11, AM
Monday, March 14, PM
Thursday, March 17, AM
Friday, March 18, AM
Friday, March 25, AM
Thursday, March 31, PM