Stories from the front line...

And So....The Troops Move On.
I swear, cats are better than coffee. At least, that’s the way I choose to wake myself up in the morning. Another day, another cart load of cats found their way to the SF/SPCA.

The Feline Care Coordinator has to face the same challenge every day. Who will be the best candidates for adoption and where am I going to house them in a shelter already filled to capacity with cats and kittens? Combining the science of shelter medicine, cat behavior and the logistics of housing them appropriately, cats are taken from San Francisco Animal Care and Control (ACC) each day and moved into the San Francisco SPCA for adoption or medical recovery.

The flow never stops. There is no rhyme, no reason, no timing or predictability. Cats just keep coming in and you have to do the best you can to keep them healthy, happy and headed towards homes, no matter how tired you are, no matter what’s happening in the world around you. Animal welfare stops for no one and quite frankly, this is the life we chose. I am thankful for my place in this collective effort, every morning I hear those cries for help.

This weekend was especially heavy for intake. We took seven adult cats from ACC in just one morning, including four black cats and an injured cat that fell out of a window and suffered an apparent stab wound or impalement to the stomach. “Geez, this is going to be a long morning”, I told myself. With the onset of kitten season and the economy literally dumping cats into our shelter, the challenge is to be prepared for anything and I do mean anything!
After spending my morning at ACC evaluating cats and kittens for adoption candidacy, I push the cart full of cats across the street and back to our Shelter Medicine intake room for their first physical exam. We rule out any immediate concerns on the first day, thus paving the way for appropriate housing and care. Our Animal Care Attendants scramble to provide kennels complete with the enrichment they will need. It’s triage at its truest definition.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Today, the room is full. The techs are stretched thin, working on treatments for our maxed out cat & dog population and still…we charge forward with seven more. Tomorrow will likely be no different then today. Bring it on.

After these cats are examined, housed and fed, its time to keep a close watch on their behavior. Sometimes cats stress out in shelter environments. Let’s face it, they were probably very comfortable in their prior home before they ended up “in the system”. Understandably, cats will stop eating, tense up and react harshly to attention in an unfamiliar setting. Sometimes you find out the hard way that cats don’t like other cats. Hmmm, now where do we house you?

As each day grows closer to adoption, we hope and pray that all our hard work pays off. Each cat deserves an army of animal lovers to help them find their way. I am proud to be a soldier in that army. The war calls to us. Every day we open our eyes in the morning. They need us. They need you.


Daniel Quagliozzi
Feline Care Coordinator
The San Francisco SPCA


You can sponsor a cat in the care of Daniel and the Feline Care team, and assist the SFSPCA in our work to place more animals, and save more lives.  Visit our website for more information.

Tales from a kitten foster mom...the resident cat....

Lugo is our resident cat. We got him a year ago at an animal shelter and he lives with us all the time. Cats can be very territorial, but Lugo has been quite tolerant of Onion and BBQ, watching them from a distance but mostly just ignoring them. The SPCA asks us to keep the foster kittens separate from the resident cat and we have not had any trouble with this until the day the kittens got vaccinated.


Part of my responsibility as a foster parent is to make sure the kittens get vaccinated on time and I had my appointments all lined up. I braved the rain and took the kittens in, looking forward to seeing their weight on a good scale. Onion weighed .83 grams and BBQ weighed .97 grams. BBQ weighed enough to stay for adoption, but they like to keep the kittens together as long as possible, so he will stay with us until Onion weight is up more. Both kittens have gained well and are healthy, but Onion needs to get closer to a kilo before he can be adopted.
Returning home after the vaccination, I spent a little extra time with the kittens, keeping an eye on them and comforting them like I would a child after a shot. Resident cat Lugo kept an eye on me from a distance. The day got busy after that and the kittens were doing well, so I did the things I needed to accomplish that day.
In the middle of the night, I noticed Lugo was not sleeping in his normal spot at the foot of my bed. I went to look for him and found him sleeping outside the kittens room. He was there in the morning as well. Lugo continued to act a little strange, fussing and meowing a little more than usual. It seemed like our resident cat just needed a little more attention, so we spent more time with him, sitting close, petting and playing with him, then brought out some new toys for Lugo to bat around.
Resident cat Lugo recovered and has gone back to ignoring the foster kittens and sleeps at the foot of our bed again. Over the long weekend we had a lot of visitors, all of them enjoyed Onion and BBQ at this fun stage. A couple expressed interest in adopting one or the other and that would be possible when the kittens are big enough and the paperwork is done for the SPCA.
San Francisco is a city that loves animals. At the laundromat today I met a dog adopted after the fall out from hurricane Katrina. This dog is now being trained by the SFSPCA to help special needs children. The dog that was rescued now serves to help children. Something just feels right about.

I can’t wait to see what happens with Onion and BBQ.
-Brenda



And of course -- gratuitous photos of the kittens!

Caught the foster kitten bug?  Learn how to get involved!

Dogs, sunshine, San Francisco Bay....!

Ahoy Matey!

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tales from a foster mother....BBQ + Onion, week 2

Onion started purring this week.

Every time we pick her up, a little motor starts up and her whole body seems to vibrate. I have read that a cats purr will heal aching joints and bones. While I cannot prove that, I do know that holding a tiny kitten while she purrs is immensely satisfying. Seeing them grow, develop some coordination and independence are all great, but feeling them purr, that's just delightful.

Onion and BBQ spent the week lolling in the sun, sleeping, kitten wrestling and exploring their little space. Every nook and cranny. But the highlight of their day is the food. If I can manage to sneak in to their room before they wake up and shake the dry food container, I am rewarded by two kitties that come shooting out of their little box. As though shot from a cannon, they race out of the box, tumbling over each other in the process, directly to the food dish where eating becomes serious business.

They make us laugh like that all the time, but we are ever mindful of the fact that we are also preparing them for adoption. BBQ started climbing up our pant legs one day. And while that behavior is adorable from a tiny kitten, imagine how obnoxious it would be when he gets older. So we put a stop to that. We don't let the kittens play with our hands, instead we use ping pong balls or other cat toys to interact with them. The day we return them to the adoption center, we want a potential family to find a well behaved, adorable little kitten to take home.

They are growing fast, BBQ is now over two pounds and Onion is close behind. So we don't know how much longer we will have them. So very soon we'll be returning these kitties for adoption. We are probably in the optimal phase of kitten fostering. Having nursed them to health, they are strong and growing. . . and adorable every moment of the day.

-  Brenda 



Does Brenda's blog have you thinking about becoming a foster parent?  To find out more, and sign up for an upcoming foster information session, contact us!

That kid is going to have my job one day...

Time and again, we hear those words from our staff. 

Through our Humane Education program, children from all over the San Francisco area are able to have real time, hands on expreiences with our shelter animals, and learn compassion and kindness for all living creatures.  We're truly building tomorrow's animal ambassadors today.

Does your child love animals?  We have the summer program for him/her!

This summer, the San Francisco SPCA offers a whole line-up of Summer Animal Camps for kids interested in learning more about animals and the animal welfare community. Our camps promote kindness and compassion for all creatures. Curricula combine enriching activities and experiential learning to foster children’s love and understanding of animals.  Oh, and did we mention cuddles with kitties and puppies? What better way to spend the summer than making new friends, learning together, playing outrageous games, and hanging out with amazing animals who need your help? Kids aren’t the only one who will have fun . . . our shelter animals receive tons of attention and TLC.

This summer, we have several camp sessions to choose from, and space is STILL AVAILABLE!

Three parallel, fun-filled camp sessions are offered weekly. Sessions are available for children entering grades one through eight in the Fall of 2010. 

Camp sessions run Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The tuition fee for each camp session is $400 with financial aid opportunities available.

Extended care is available from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for a weekly rate of $50 per child
All campers receive a t-shirt and an afternoon snack.

The camp environment and curriculum emphasizes collaboration and exchange of ideas with fellow campers.
The interactive, activity-based learning process helps students make connections and associations between animals and their own life experiences.

For more infromation and to apply for summer camp, please visit our website today!

the Office Dog Chronicles...episode Piglet

Sometimes, the shelter can be a boring place for a young, active dog. Luckily, sometimes offices can be a bit dull as well. A few San Francisco SPCA staff have opened their office doors (and floors) to special dogs in the adoption center - special guys and gals that could use a break from the hustle and bustle, and all the new faces peering in at them.

This morning, Piglet decided to spend some time with one such SFSPCA staff member.

Piglet's an active teenager, who just can't get enough of his long runs and training sessions with volunteers.  His zest for life and energetic personality are a fabulous match for an active lifestyle, but unfortunatly, don't make for the most peaceful stay in the shelter.  Spending time in an office helps to break the daily routine, while giving us a peek into how a dog like this will do once settled into a home of his own.
Office time has been good for this guy...he got to snooze on the dog bed with all four feet in the air, followed by a delicious Kong snack.

 


He's hoping to learn to use the fax machine.

As much as we love having him in the office, though, we'd rather him apply for a job as your best friend...

an onion, a bbq and a vegetable scale....

I had been hovering over my email inbox for days, hoping that Alison would contact me and tell me she had kittens ready to foster. Last Thursday the email finally came. After calling Alison to say I was on the way, we jumped in the car so we could get to the SPCA before Alison went home for the evening.

The SFSPCA names hundreds of kittens each year so they get a little creative (or it was close to lunch time) and we got kittens named after chip flavors. Onion is a sweet little girl kitty and BBQ is a fiery black and white boy with a cute black mark on his nose. When they handed me the kittens, each weighing just over a pound, I couldn’t get over how small they were.



We took them home to the space we had disinfected and prepared especially for them. Old towels were handy to line the box with and everything was prepared just as they had taught us in the orientation class the Saturday before. At first the kittens tentatively explored their little space, but soon they were running around chasing each other and making us laugh.

Each morning I weigh them in a vegetable scale provided by the SPCA. Three times a day I feed them special kitty food provided for us. On Friday Onion seemed not to be eating well and when I weighed her on Saturday morning, she had not gained. So I called the veterinary tech and they gave me some suggestions for getting her to eat.

By Monday Onion had lost weight so I emailed the foster office and they set me up with a veterinary appointment. I took both kittens in and the tech weighed them to confirm Onions weight and be sure that BBQ was OK. Then they brought out several different types of food, offering each to Onion until we hit on one that she liked. I was impressed when the doctor came in and, rather than just pick Onion up and start examining her, she let Onion continue to eat and just watched her from a distance. Everyone was compassionate and tender toward the kittens.

Onion was given some subcutaneous fluids and anti-nausea medications. They sent me home with a bag of special foods to try her on, including several containers of the type she had eaten. While I was at the office, I met another foster mom, and we had a nice chat sharing our experiences with kittens.




Its fun to wake up every morning and check in with adorable little kittens. They know me now and come running out of their box when they hear me in the kitchen. I love kittens, but I never imagined how rewarding it would be to take in these little guys.

Just watching them makes me smile.

smile away while you watch them play in this video....



---Brenda


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Interested in becoming a foster parent?  Get all the information here - I WANT TO FOSTER!