Hello volunteers!
The fall edition of our biannual magazine, Lives Made Happy, is now available! Inside, you’ll meet some of the young animal lovers inspiring our work, learn how we helped our neighbors to the the north, and get CEO Nancy McKenney’s take on the ongoing and important conversation around “no-kill” sheltering. And of course, you’ll find plenty of heartwarming photos of animals we’ve cared for and successfully placed in loving homes. Happy reading!
Shelter update: We currently have 300 animals in our collective care. 125 are at our Novato campus, including 15 dogs, 2 puppies, 55 cats, 35 kittens, 3 rabbits, 6 guinea pigs, 1 rodent, 2 reptiles, 3 birds, and 3 fowl. 25 animals are in our Oakland office; 11 are at Kitty Corner and the Woodlands stores; and 139 are in foster homes.
Adoption update: Welcome to another beautiful Wednesday! Thanks to the ASPCA, we got to waive adoption fees for another weekend! Thank you to everyone who came out and met their new best friend at the shelter! #adoptdontshop 🫶🥰 Enjoy the adoption slideshow. For further smiles, here’s this week’s Adoption Report :).
Hopalong happenings! This week over at Hopalong, we really wanted to just stop the presses to share this wonderful “foster fail” adoption. The pictures and transformation are just too cute! Kitty Nico and his two brothers came in as a sassy, bewildered trio. At that time, we thought they were on the cusp of being social enough to being adoption-ready. After some time to decompress, these boys started to come out of their shells slowly. Nico ended up staying behind because of a kitty cold in what we thought would be a temporary foster home so he could recover and then go back up for adoption. On his next check-in visit, Nico came back a different kitten — in the best way! Instead of ears back, tense and hissy, Nico melted in our arms. His foster dad, Phillip, had already started a wonderful connection with him, and it was apparent Nico was home for good. Phillip shared with us that he was initially torn whether he should hold out for another kitty that looked like his prior beloved kitty. After another week, Phillip was ready to make it official. Nico is now just a friendly kitten — he’s working on his leash training and even has his own decked out kitty stroller for more adventures with his new Dad! Cat program manager, Lanie, shared that “those two were made for each other.” We’ll be swooning over Nico’s transformation for quite some time over here and are thrilled Phillip made the adoption final!
Tails of Marin: A common reason people surrender their pets to shelters is because they’re struggling financially to care for them. So while we used to measure our success primarily by the number of animals we took in and found new homes for, now — as strange as this may sound — we also measure it by how many animals we keep out of the shelter and in homes with those who already love them. That’s where our Pet Safety Net program comes in. Learn more in this week’s Tails of Marin, “Marin program provides a safety net for struggling pet parents.”
Have a terrific week, everyone!
Candace
