Watching Over Whiskers: Cat Enrichment Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

We are THRILLED to have the support of the Petfinder Foundation for cat enrichment.

WOW HQ has been open since the fall of 2020 and it's time to replace cat towers, beds, wall climbers, toys. etc., due to the volume of kitties who come through on their way to forever homes.

WOW began in 2015 as a foster-home-based feline rescue. Today we operate in a hybrid model with moms/babies and injured kitties in foster homes and all others at WOW HQ waiting for their forever homes to come along.

WOW serves more than 800 felines annually through our programs and we operate on about 50 part-time volunteers. We are a donation-only, private 501c3 rescue. We provide our foster homes with playpens, kennels, beds, toys, water fountains, etc., so they have what they need to provide proper care and enrichment of the kitties while they have them.

How many pets did this grant help?

Up to 100

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

We have so very many kitties who come to HQ, some for a short period, while others live here longer waiting for their happily ever afters!

Having a variety of items for enrichment, including towers, scratchers, beds, and interactive toys, is important, as the cats are not in homes, but rather in community rooms with a variety of volunteers in and out during the days.

Colonel and Marmalade (first photo) are two felines we have had just over a year who are a special-needs duo. Colonel has cerebellar hypoplasia and two luxating patella as part of being Maine coon. He is not able to walk on slick surfaces or do much climbing, so he LOVES the fluffy rugs (second photo) and fluffy beds.

Marmalade is his buddy and he is extremely shy and just melts into the big fluffy beds (third photo). This kind gift allowed us to purchase more of these, which makes them so happy!