Greetings Volunteers,
Save the date for the Volunteer Appreciation Party – Saturday, April 26th at 11am! Back by popular demand, come join your fellow volunteers in the B&T Pavilion for time together, a delicious brunch, mimosa bar, raffle, and a good time celebrating!
Shelter update: We currently have 221 animals in our collective care. 160 are at Marin Humane: 55 animals in foster and 105 animals in the shelter/Kitty Corner, including: 16 dogs, 10 puppies, 50 cats, 1 kitten, 9 rabbits, 6 guinea pigs, 7 rodents, 2 reptiles, and 4 birds. 61 animals are with the Hopalong Foster Program: 20 animals are in the Oakland office and 41 are in foster or offsite adoption sites!
Adoption update: Who else looks forward to Wednesdays because it’s adoption slideshow day?? 
We look forward to making them every week! There’s nothing like celebrating all the adoptions from the previous week to set the tone for the coming week! A special shout out to this wonderful adopter who came in last week and adopted all of the birds and chickens/roosters in our care. Woo-hoo for all those who adopt, not shop! We still have lots of amazing animals waiting their turns, and you can meet them on our site, tell all your friends :)! Enjoy the Adoption Report, too!
Hopalong happenings: A few months back we got a call about a scruffy and scrappy terrier mix mom and her puppies. The babies were quickly adopted to various forever homes but the mom who was severely under socialized remained. She was named Coconut and placed with one of our dedicated long-time fosters with the plan to house her until she was able to go up for adoption. The stay was extended with the foster making it her mission to help this mama dog build a foundation of trust and live up to her full potential as a confident canine companion. The foster, Bobbie, had her own pup who had never been a big fan of other dogs, generally keeping away from the various fosters that shared her home. To everyone’s surprise, during the course of Coconut’s stay, the two dogs found in each other a kindred spirit and grew to become the best of friends. Bobbie realized that Coconut was already home and decided to officially adopt her! We’re so happy to see Coconut and her canine sister living their best lives together! We look forward to hearing about their future adventures!
Volunteer High Five to Debbie Fazio! “I’d like to give a well-deserved Volunteer High Five to Animal Care Volunteer Debbie Fazio! Debbie comes in once or twice a week as a ‘cat cleaning’ volunteer. When she’s done with all the cleaning related tasks, she always asks how else she can help. It might seem like a small thing, but it’s so appreciated … because there’s usually something extra we need help with! So, Debbie dives right in and tackles the dirty dishes, litter pans, and even sweeping and mopping the floors! Debbie helps out so much with a variety of little tasks that left undone really become unbearable for the staff. Thank you, Debbie, for your delightful disposition and eagerness to step in to help at a moment’s notice!” ~ Kyle Dunlop, Animal Care Supervisor
Pet sitter/dog walker list: We are in process of updating the Home Care/Pet Sitter List as we’re receiving calls for recommendations as people start making vacation plans. The list is for staff and current volunteers (who’ve been active at least three months) to market their independent services to the public. If you would like to be added to the pet sitter/dog walker list please provide the following info to ohbehave@marinhumane.org by March 11th: 1) your name; 2) service(s) provided: for example, pet boarding, pet sitting, pet visits, dog walking, etc.; 3) locations covered: for example, Marin, Sonoma, Novato only, etc.; 4) contact info: phone &/or email address.
Adorable bunny video! Enrichment time for the shelter bunnies! Our team creates entertaining items for the bunnies using recycled cardboard that’s safe for the bunnies to nibble, shred, and toss to their hearts’ content. It’s super cute to watch and keeps them happy while they wait for their forever homes! And we have LOTS of bunnies waiting for their forever homes right now! Check out this video of the bunnies enjoying their own enrichment :).
B&T needs your help! We’re looking for someone to help schedule volunteers-in-training with their mentor in the B&T department. This volunteer job can be done from the comfort of your home and should require 2-3 hours per week. We’d also like this volunteer to feel comfortable using email and understanding how to use (or willingness to learn) a Google calendar. If interested in learning more, please contact me at calexander@marinhumane.org.
Volunteer High Five to Rosemary Oliveira! “I’d like to give a BIG Volunteer High Five to Dog Pet Pal, Rosemary Oliveira! Rosemary not only coordinates the weekly Shelter Dog Enrichment sessions and walks the shelter dogs, but she is also now taking Karma (a long time shelter resident) to Family Dog 1 classes! Karma is a young, energetic German Shepherd mix, who initially had some dog reactivity issues. Veteran Dog Pet Pal Rosemary said, I can handle this and marched into class. Rosemary reports: “Karma is doing great in class! It’s a full class of 8 or 9 other dogs. And a couple of them are barkers. But Karma is hanging in there. She is getting so solid with looking at me when something starts to happen, all the work of the DPPs seems to really help her manage the busyness of class! Karma is the queen of the mark bucket. She likes putting her paws on it and then she checks things out, then looks at me. Most of the time she looks back at me on her own which earns her a treat. Today during class, dogs were barking, and she actually went to the bucket and did 2 paws up on her own! She got a jackpot of treats for that!” Thank you, Rosemary, for taking the time to attend the 6-week series of classes, to continue working on the positive reinforcement training, all of which support Karma on her road to excellent behavior choices and to getting adopted . We so appreciate EVERYTHING you do for the shelter dogs!” ~ Jane Aten, Shelter Canine Behavior Coordinator
Tails of Marin: Enrichment is a word one hears a lot in the dog behavior world. When dog people hear the word “enrichment,” they often think of things like food puzzles and Kongs. By definition, enrichment is the action of improving or enhancing the quality or value of something. I often think about the questions that come up when working with dogs. What does the dog in front of me find reinforcing? What do they find enriching? Learn more in this week’s Tail of Marin piece, “Why pets need enrichment.”
Sabbatical presentation: Come learn about my sabbatical trip to the Wild Horse Rescue Center in Florida at a brown bag presentation on Thursday, March 13 at 12pm. This presentation will take place in the Auditorium in the Whittell building on the Marin Humane campus. Hope to see you there!
Happy last week of February!
Candace
