Kauai Humane Society: Cat Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Cat Towers: Four large and four small
Four big bags of cat toys
Music for Cats CDs and CD player
Feliway dispensers (two full kits and four refills)
Cat treats (large bag)
Our goal for this grant was to help our fearful feline residents become more friendly in order to improve outcomes for our cat population. It is significantly harder to place fearful cats than friendly ones, either by adoption or transfer, so we used this grant to provide enrichment options for our fearful cats to calm their nerves and increase their confidence.
Through the use of Feliway kits and calming music, we were able to help turn what can be a stressful environment into a more soothing one for our cats. Cat towers gave our timid cats a safe place to watch staff and volunteers in order to get more accustomed to the presence of people. Additionally, our staff and volunteers were able to use the new toys and high-value treats to promote and reward interactions. This encouraged our fearful cats to be more social.
Upon adding these enrichment options into the daily care of our fearful cats, we started to notice many of them warming up to staff and volunteers. Not only were they more inclined to interact with people, they also solicited attention. This grant made a substantial difference in the lives of many of our fearful cats, enabling more of them to get adopted or transferred to partner organizations on the mainland more quickly. We are grateful to The Petfinder Foundation for helping enrich the lives of our most in-need feline residents!
How many pets did this grant help?
30
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Krishna (first and second photos) arrived at our shelter on April 29, 2019. Found as a stray, he was standoffish and afraid of people. As a result, he was not a cat who received much attention from adopters or our transfer partners. After we began implementing our new enrichment options for our cats, we started to notice a change in Krishna. He became calmer and began tolerating being petted. This improvement in his behavior resulted in interest from our mainland transfer partners. After Krishna had spent 63 days at our shelter, Seattle Humane Society agreed to transfer him to their facility, where he was adopted just four days later!
Masterpiece (third photo) and Banquo (pictured with Masterpiece in the fourth and fifth photos) were both helped by this grant and have really enjoyed the new cat towers, toys, and treats! They were brought in as kittens — Masterpiece on April 22, Banquo on May 9 — from separate litters. All of their siblings have been adopted. We placed them together and they have really bonded and now love playing together on their shared cat tower. They are so friendly and cute together and we know that they are enjoying all the new enrichment activities. Meet Masterpiece here. Meet Banquo here.
