Pet Talk

    We are very excited to announce that we will be giving away free fur coats to the first 25 people who adopt a kitty from us on May 29th!   Yes, it’s true, every single one of these kitties comes with their own fur coat and you don’t even need to pay extra for it! 
    On Saturday, May 29th, from 10 am to 1 pm, we will be set up on Market Square, in front of Beals Variety, to do an adopt-a-thon.  We have literally dozens of cats and kittens that have been in foster homes who are now old enough to be re-homed and we invite you to come visit some of the cutest little critters you have ever seen. 
    These kitties are all healthy, they are very friendly and social, several of them have been living at my house, in fact all the board members and staff of the shelter have been fostering animals, as well as several foster families who have been very kind to offer their assistance.  So these kitties are just as lovable and healthy and friendly as can be.  I hate to give mine up, they are so darn cute!  I go home at night and sit on the floor and kittens climb all over me and they roll around on the floor and they chase each other’s tails and they squeal in delight as they wrestle each other.  They are just so much fun!
    We may do something else that day, haven’t decided yet, but maybe a bake sale, maybe sell a few t-shirts, but the most important reason for being “on the street” is to find good quality homes for these beautiful animals.  Where it’s Memorial Day weekend, maybe we’ll have some beans and potato salad for you to buy to take to camp, as I bet you’ll all be headed to the lakes that weekend!
    Please join us on the 29th and if you would like to adopt before that, call Heather at the Shelter at 532-2862 and she can tell you what we have for adoption and maybe even arrange for a private visit.
    While it’s been a very trying time for the Shelter and staff, dealing with quarantine, the expense of the treatment, losing so many beautiful animals, it’s also been a time of rebirth.  The Shelter has a new set of operational protocols, thanks in part to Coastal Humane Society who gave us a copy of their new procedures – no sense reinventing the wheel when they went through exactly what we did and built their new operations manual as a result of their education.  
    The Shelter also recently changed adoption procedures so that the Humane Society is no longer “eating” the cost of spaying and neutering, because that expense was drowning us.    
    We’ve had an opportunity to take a long hard look at our adoption guidelines and while we have not changed our formal adoption policy, we have change the process so that you may actually be able to adopt “same day” instead of waiting 24 hours.  This is assuming that we’re able to reach your landlord if you rent, to make sure they’ll let you have a pet, and reach your Vet for a reference, but so many times we asked someone to wait several days to be approved and now we are focusing on getting the healthy animals into good homes just as fast as we can.
    We are researching the “meet your match” program and hoping to be able to become a “meet your match” shelter in the near future.  This program simply identifies the personality of an animal and gives it a color code based on personality.  Then you fill out a profile that helps us determine what kind of animal you think would best fit your household.   If you are old, like me, and want a docile animal that does not eat your toes, you might fit the “purple” category so we would recommend cats that have been determined to be purple cats.   That doesn’t mean you can ONLY have a purple cat, but it’s a fun way to try to match the right animal with the right home.  This will reduce the number of animals returned to the shelter because they just “did not fit” into the household.  
    So many exciting things in the future, so many reasons to keep going, no matter how hard it may seem when you are experiencing a crisis, as they say, God never closes one door without opening another, and I am certain that doors will be opening for us every day.
    Join us, support our efforts, become a volunteer, a foster parent, or just come adopt from us on May 29th, get your free fur coat. Fluffy will wear it well, but on a cold winter night, I’m sure she’ll share.