Greetings Volunteers,
We are SPEECHLESS! We asked, and you delivered: many trucks’ worth of deliveries, in fact! Last week, we put out an urgent plea for pet food donations to fill our pet food pantry. To say we’re blown away by the immediate and generous response would be an understatement. Over the past few days, truckloads of pet food have been delivered to us and we couldn’t be more grateful.
Hundreds of people in our community rely on our Pet Safety Net program to provide regular pet food and supplies for their beloved companions. Now, thanks to volunteers & our generous community, we can continue to make our weekly deliveries to food banks, social services organizations, and directly to people’s homes so they never have to worry about how they’re going to feed their pets. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!
Shelter update: We currently have 364 animals in our collective care. 270 are at Marin Humane: 103 animals in foster and 167 animals in the shelter/Kitty Corner, including: 27 dogs, 2 puppies, 57 cats, 62 kittens, 4 rabbits, 6 guinea pigs, 4 reptiles, and 4 birds, and 1 fowl. 94 animals are with Hopalong: 1 animal is in the Oakland office and 93 cats, kittens, dogs, and puppies are in foster or offsite adoption sites!
Adoptions update: It’s just another Wonderful Wednesday! We’ve been busy, so this week’s adoption slideshow is extra long. But that just means even more cuteness, so we aren’t complaining! Check out some of last week’s happy adoptions for a smile. Thank you to all the adopters! Here’s the Adoption Report with more details!
Hopalong happenings! Last July, we took a field trip to Lucasfilm’s San Francisco campus for a special kitten and puppy cuddling event! Thanks to our wonderful volunteer team (most are pictured here), Lucasfilm employees were able to join us out in the sunshine and enjoy the company of the kittens and puppies we brought with us. Everyone had such a great time, we’re planning to do it again next month on Thursday August 15th from 12-2pm! We’ll need a volunteer team that’s ready to supervise animals and chat with potential volunteers, fosters, and adopters. Please reach out to Sam (smcnaughton@marinhumane.org) if you’d like to join in on the fun!
Volunteer High Five to San Quentin Dog Training Assistants! “The Dog Training Assistant volunteers who assist me at San Quentin with the Pen Pals are a truly special team! They each take on different responsibilities, but the baseline is to help the handlers with the training of their respective dogs. They answer a myriad of questions throughout the sessions. All of the DTAs offer suggestions for classroom lessons and fun competitions we can play. They have taken on many tasks, large and small, including some things that turn out to be vital like the SQ Calendar updates where handlers can schedule times to visit. They apply ideas like creating binders for all the handlers, creating a community folder organizing lessons, and community binders with all the lessons and training materials. The SQ DTAs also offer to be the observer during my testing of the dogs, help weigh the dogs weekly, and generally, they’re a great audience for bouncing ideas off of.
Another thing I really love about my team is they can calmly talk to the handlers when they are having a bad day. Basically, the guys get sick of me and feel comfortable sharing things with the DTAs that they do not share with me. I can’t say enough good things about Sharon, Emily, Jane, Michelle, Laurie, and Ann Marie! They are pivotal to the success of the San Quentin Pen Pal program, and we couldn’t run it without them! Thank you for all your hard work, support, positive energy, and sense of humor … you’re the best!” ~ Chad Carlson, Dog Training Instructor & Pen Pals Coordinator
“Pignic” volunteers needed! The Bay Area Pignic is coming back to Marin Humane’s Great Lawn on Saturday, August 24th, from 10am-2pm. This annual family-friendly event celebrating guinea pigs includes a cavey costume contest, carrot eating contest, health checks, bake sale, and more fun. We need a few more volunteers to help at Pignic, specifically at check-in, the raffle tables, and clean-up. Please let me know if you’d like to come lend a hand at this super adorable event on August 24th!
B&Tea Blog: Feline Intervention Team volunteer and foster extraordinaire, Candace Key, pens this month’s B&Tea Blog, “Reuniting with Fosters Part 2: My Foster Cats; Where are they now?”
Tails of Marin: In this week’s Tails of Marin article, Lisa Bloch (our Marketing & Communications Director) reveals, “I’m approaching my 10-year anniversary here at Marin Humane and I can’t imagine a more perfect job. I’ve learned so much during that time about animals—of course—but also about people, including myself. An important lesson I’ve learned is that oftentimes we humans think we’re doing the right thing for animals, when in fact our actions, as well-intentioned as they may be, can actually be harmful.” Read her piece, “Three ‘helpful’ things that are actually harmful to animals.”
Columbia Sportswear discount! There are a few days left to take advantage of the Columbia Sportswear Employee store perk! Here’s the Columbia Sportswear Store Summer Invitation, valid for employees and volunteers through July 28th! Here are some details: for store access, please provide your digital invite (printed or shown on your mobile device) + proof of affiliation; you can bring up to four additional guests with each visit; and, this offer is for store access (not valid online). Happy shopping!
Stay cool out there everyone!
Candace
