Souris Valley Animal Shelter: Cat Enrichment Grant Report

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

WOW! As you will see from the pictures, our cats have been having a blast. We thought enrichment would allow increased reach in our adoption and foster programs. However, it improved community volunteerism more than anything.

We now have several regular volunteers who come in simply to "play with the cats." They change their toys multiple times a day, and we have seen significant improvement in our community's involvement with our cat program.

How many pets did this grant help?

400

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

Our shelter practices strict isolation for cats with upper-respiratory infections. Because of this, our “iso” kitties do not get the same level of enrichment as our adoptable cats.

With the enrichment grant, we bought a stroller that was on clearance. The stroller is used to take the iso kitties on daily walks to get fresh air. Cleaning the stroller is a pain, but our cats love getting out of the kennel. While we do not have data on it, we believe this helps them heal a lot faster!

We provided a picture of Pico (first photo), who could not shake a URI for several weeks, despite our best efforts. After we purchased the stroller, Pico was the first to enjoy it. He would go out four times per day with our Animal Care Specialist or a volunteer. Within nine days, our sweet boy was feeling well enough to head to the adoption floor, where he was adopted within 48 hours!

In the second photo, your eyes are not playing tricks on you: That is a cat having a tea party 🙂