Greetings Volunteers,
Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you’re going to visit with family, friends, and companion animals. It’s a great time of year to soak in the spirit of thankfulness, giving, and gratitude. All of us on staff are beyond grateful to all the Marin Humane + Hopalong volunteers!! You amaze and inspire us every day :).
Shelter update: We currently have 310 animals in our collective care. 253 are at Marin Humane: 101 animals in foster and 152 animals in the shelter/Kitty Corner, including: 23 dogs, 2 puppies, 62 cats, 37 kittens, 12 rabbits, 10 guinea pigs, 1 rodent, 1 reptile, and 4 fowl. 57 animals are with Hopalong: 11 animals are in the Oakland office and 46 cats, kittens, dogs, and puppies are in foster or offsite adoption sites!
Adoptions update: It’s cold and dark outside but it’s warm and wonderful at the Novato shelter and Oakland office because of all the smiling adopters! Congratulations to everyone who added a furry new family member this past week! Meet the animals still waiting to be adopted here.
Hopalong happenings! Saturday’s mobile adoption event was a great success thanks to all our fabulous volunteers! Look how delighted our adopters are with their new pups Puggy, Lil Buck, Hayley and Harper! Hazel (the third adorable doodle sibling of Hayley and Harper) wasn’t adopted at the event, so she got a ride over to Marin Humane. Almost immediately upon entering the building, she found her forever home, too! We’re so grateful to each and every volunteer who has helped with the mobile adoption events in 2023, we truly couldn’t do it without you! And if you haven’t had the chance to join us yet, there’s still time! We’ll have three more mobile adoption events this year (the first three Saturdays of December), and then it’ll be time for a break until the New Year.
Happy endings: “Get adopted, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.” 
In fact, Binks the cat IS having fun and living his best life with his new family – and yes, his new family just so happens to include a Great Dane! They’re already the best of friends and we can’t even handle how cute they are together. 
Volunteer High Five to our teen volunteers! “I would like to give an extra big Volunteer High Five to our student volunteers in Animal Care for their dedication to working with the animals at Marin Humane. Over the past year, I have worked with Amy McIntosh (Youth Program Coordinator) to integrate and involve more student volunteers in the shelter. These volunteers are 15-18 years old and currently in high school. Some of the volunteers come every week while others come once a month. No matter the frequency of their time with us, their help is always greatly appreciated.
Georgia, Amara and Delphina have now been volunteering with our Small Companion Animals for over a year! They generally come in every week or every other week. Over winter and summer breaks, they communicate with me to let me know if they will be out of town and ask if there are additional shifts that they can pick up. Thank you, Amara, Delphina and Georgia and congratulations on your one year anniversary! Leo started volunteering with us over the summer and was volunteering every week and once school started chose to volunteer once a month. Thank you, Leo for continuing to make time to come to volunteer with us! Freya started volunteering with us a few months ago and comes in to volunteer every week with our bunnies, cleaning their enclosures, and socializing them. Thank you, Freya! Eloise was an animal care volunteer who has transitioned to an On Call Animal Care Technician staff position. Thank you, Eloise!
A big thank you too all of our student volunteers for all of your time and dedication to the animals at Marin Humane. We greatly appreciate your help!” ~ Kyle Dunlop, Animal Care Supervisor
Tails of Marin: Naturally, this week’s Tails of Marin article is “Embrace compassionate choices this Thanksgiving.” Carina DeVera is our digital marketing manager and writes this week’s piece, stating, “Breaking with tradition can be challenging, especially when it involves Thanksgiving, a holiday that’s all about comfort and togetherness. But there’s good news: Since the creation of the first Tofurky in 1995, meat-free Thanksgiving roasts have become abundant, affordable and undeniably delicious. Tofurky sales have surged, especially since 2020 — driven by concerns for health, animals and the environment.” Read the full article here.
We could use some of your household items! Avid reader of newspapers? Well, save them as our animal care department can use them for our small companion animal housing. Do you also collect small bags, just in case you’ll use them in the future? Well, guess what?! We need small bags for our foster supplies. We don’t mind what store they’re from or if they’re decorated for the holiday season, even if they’re a bit crinkly or not in perfect shape. If you’ve got a bunch but don’t want to store them, hand them over! We prefer paper bags (they stand up better than plastic), small pharmacy size is fine, too, anything up to about 8″x10” is preferred. And lastly, we will always take your extra brown paper grocery bags off your hands! Feel free to drop-off any of these items in the donation bins in front of the shelter! Thank you!!
World Vegan Day: In celebration of World Vegan Day, which was on November 1, we’re assembling a digital cookbook! Please submit your favorite vegan recipes to Janet Turnbull at jturnbull@marinhumane.org by December 14. Once we get all of your recipes, we’ll share the digital cookbook with everyone. We can’t wait to try all your tasty recipes!
Wishing you a most restful and enjoyable holiday weekend!
Candace
