Paw Warriors, Inc.: Cat Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Enrichment toys to help socialize many cats to become more adoptable. Giving them rich, loving lives by being able to accept love and care from people. Our volunteers were able to work with many of the cats individually and in groups (not only helping the cats but also the volunteers by helping them learn more about cats. These toys will continue to give us very meaningful opportunities to help our cats to get great homes. Some of our most feral cats are starting to come around by trying to figure out what is so neat about these people and toys. It's great to see these results and we are thrilled. Thank you, Petfinder Foundation, for allowing us this great opportunity to help these cats to attain a much fuller and brighter future with these products. It's amazing to see the results!!
It helped and is still helping so many to become more socialized and learn that life has so much joy and love in it. The volunteers were amazed by how effective these toys were with so many of the cats and kittens. It gave the less-social cats more opportunity for stimulation and gaining trust with people. They loved the puzzle with treats; several cats are becoming great with this activity. They are following people now, where before they would run away. The scratching posts helped Stewy know there is more fun to life with people now! The butterfly, feather whirl, and flitter-fly toys were very effective and fun. The effectiveness of socializing with people and these toys has been just amazing. I truly believe that overall these enrichment toys have been and will still be so beneficial in the days to come to help more of our cats become people-socialized and much more adoptable -- awesome!
How many pets did this grant help?
We believe that, out of 150 cats that we have on the property, at least 100 of them have been affected by becoming better socialized.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Billy Willy (first photo) is a one-eyed cat who became much more socialized with the enrichment toys, and was adopted by a wonderful family yesterday, Sept. 16, 2018. We were thrilled. He learned to be much more social and lovable, and the family just loved his personality.
Peace (second photo) is one of our most feral cats and no one could get near her. She loves getting in one of the tiny houses that you all provided for enrichment. She goes in there, looks around and feels safe and caretakers and volunteers are able to get close to her now, almost to the point of a pat on the head. We feel that will come about soon. Peace lived in a cage most of her life and we obtained her from animal services. She absolutely loves that little house and it is so effective for her.
Gizmo has a dislocated leg and loves playing; he gets stimulation effectively with the toys by playing gently with our volunteers. We’ve truly gotten more older cats adopted since the enrichment toys arrived, for a fact! Thank you so much!!!
