Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 4 minutes If kittens don’t receive appropriate handling and socialization early in life, they can develop undesirable habits. Here’s how to help tame their behavior. Mollie was turned in to the shelter when she was approximately 4 weeks old, a singleton with no mom in sight. She languished in a cage until we saw her photo posted, […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Who doesn’t love being told a story? Dogs and cats are no different. Here’s how shelter reading plans can improve pets’ chances of adoption. Imagine you are housed in a shelter, suffering loud noises from other anxious animals and smelling scents that definitely aren’t from a home. You enjoy little social interaction and are confined […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes On the morning of November 8, certified veterinary assistant Samet Kaplan left his three-bedroom mountain home in Magalia, California, for the 30-minute drive to work at the Chico Hospital for Cats. The sky was cloudless and blue. “But just as I reached downtown Chico, I looked in the rearview mirror and all I saw was […]
Reading Time: < 1 minutes When veterinarians and technicians go to conferences, it’s not all lectures and luncheons. In Orlando, Florida, last week, the Cat Nap Cafe offered VMX (Veterinary Meeting and Expo) conference attendees a chance to get their feline fix away from home, playing with cats and kittens in the exhibit hall. All the cats were available for […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Margaret Slaby loves animals, so for a time she worked in animal care at a shelter in Monterey County, California. But after two and a half years, she had to call it quits. “I saw a lot of older cats didn’t make it out of the shelter simply because they were older, and it just […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last year my husband and I did something incredibly rewarding: adopted a senior pet. We wondered if Peach, a little 8-year-old Poodle rescued as a stray, would find it challenging to adapt to life in a new home with us and our Labrador Retriever mix, Rio. But the adoption coordinator suggested I feed Peach canned […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes You’re contemplating adding a kitten to your multi-cat household, and the holidays are fast approaching. There’s plenty to think about with this scenario. How will your stable, tried-and-true household kitties adjust to the newcomer? Will the kitten get into trouble, especially with decorations, food, and unknown people thrown into the mix? Will you be able […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Recently I volunteered with my husband and two nieces at a special place: Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. It’s the largest no-kill animal refuge in the United States, spanning nearly 3,700 acres of red rock canyon near Kanab, Utah. Hundreds of employees care for roughly 1,600 dogs, cats, horses, pigs, bunnies, parrots, and “wild friends.” Most […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Spring is the time for new beginnings, flowers, sunshine, and kittens. Yes, kittens. Spring and summer are known as kitten season, for good reason. It’s the time of year that the tiny cats-to-be are born and, at the appropriate age, go to their new homes. Before you bring one of these cute kittens home, learn […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The photo on social media shows a box of young kittens. The text says, “Kittens abandoned. Fosters needed.” You look up the rescue group and find they are local to you. Fingers poised over the keyboard, you ask yourself, should I foster? Having fostered kittens for a number of years, I’ve faced this scenario more […]