Greetings from Volunteer Engagement! September 6, 2023

Greetings Volunteers!

As anyone with a pet can tell you, over the last few years, it’s been a lot harder to access veterinary care for our furry friends. It can take weeks, even months, to get an appointment if the situation isn’t urgent. And emergency veterinary hospitals are seeing wait times of as much as five hours. 

There are a few factors that have led up to this crisis. First, there is simply a lack of veterinarians and veterinary techs. Compensation isn’t high, and burnout can lead to veterinary professionals leaving the field. And with just 32 veterinary schools in the U.S. (compared to 155 medical schools), fewer are coming down the pipeline to fill these roles. 

Now, there is a lifesaving bill will allow veterinary telehealth in California and it goes to the Senate floor this week. Please contact your state senator today and ask them to support AB 1399! Read more in this week’s Tails of Marin, “A new state bill would help pets and their guardians.” For info on how to find your representative and a sample email script, head to our advocacy blog here.

Shelter update: We currently have 288 animals in our collective care. 194 are at Marin Humane: 58 animals in foster and 136 animals in the shelter/Kitty Corner, including: 16 dogs, 2 puppies, 46 cats, 35 kittens, 13 rabbits, 10 guinea pigs, 1 rodents, 3 reptiles, 8 birds, and 2 fowl. 94 animals are with Hopalong: 21 animals in the Oakland office and 73 cats, kittens, dogs, and puppies are in foster or offsite adoption sites!

Adoptions update: Hip hip hooray for the weekly adoption slideshow! Congratulations to everyone who found their new best friend last week! We’re so happy for Major (pictured here) as senior large dog adoptions don’t come along every day! Big thanks to the adoptions team and Major’s foster mom, Kim Bromley! For more details, here’s the Adoption Report.

Hopalong happenings! We’re always in need of more foster homes, and particularly love when our network grows through referrals! Serendipity played a role in bringing one of our newest fosters to us, and it’s such a cute story we had to share it! Our new foster has a friend who’s involved at Oakland Animal Services, and who reached out to her to recommend she come and meet a particular dog. But by the time she arrived at the shelter, the dog had been pulled by a rescue group and was no longer at the shelter. Fast forward a few days later, and this soon-to-be new foster was out with her dog when they met a sweet little Chihuahua mix who was a delight for both of them to interact with. As she got to chatting with the Chihuahua’s person, she learned they were fostering the dog through Hopalong’s Foster Program and having an excellent experience with fostering. Funny enough, this little dog was the exact same dog who was pulled from OAS before she got a chance to meet it! Learning about Hopalong’s Foster Program and hearing a first-hand account of the fostering experience was just the push she needed to start following us, and to sign up to get started fostering. What a delightful chain reaction! If you’d like to try your hand at fostering, or to spread the word to those in your network here’s the link to our foster page where more information and our foster application can be found.

Disaster preparedness month: Did you know that a license tag is one of the first things we look for when a stray dog comes to the shelter? If your pup ever goes missing, a license is the quickest way for us to reunite you. In honor of disaster preparedness month, we’re sending everyone who buys or renews a dog license in Marin this September a 20% off coupon from our friends at Pet Food Express (while supplies last). Need some ideas on what to spend it on? Review our pet disaster planning information and make sure your disaster kit is complete.

Monarch butterfly update: Monarchs have been seen in our new native garden on the Novato campus! There were three there today and they were laying eggs in the milkweed. The Monarch butterfly population has been dwindling in recent years. Our garden is a part of a larger effort to save the species. This is the first verified sighting of Monarchs as the last garden design did not fare well and the only sightings were Swallowtails. Their numbers were drastically lower in recent years so there are several organizations in Marin working to help Monarchs. Check out West Marin Monarchs, or Audubon Monarch Rescue Project. If you’re on the Novato campus, please be aware of the butterfly garden and try to give them a lot of space, as we don’t want to interfere with their egg laying.

Have a terrific week!

Candace