Tiger and Hootie: neither is lonely anymore!!
The sweetest news this week is that Sid's permanent sanctuary FeLV-positive kittie, Hootie, has helped Tiger adjust to the new FeLV facility!
Tiger is our first Feline Leukemia positive cat taken into the new FeLV house! (Sid has adopted out a few other FeLV-positive cats previously!) Tiger is the ONLY cat in the FeLV house right now and has been lonely. So Sid thought maybe Hootie could help him adjust - and it has worked beautifully! Hootie goes for play-dates to the FeLV house every day now and Tiger is much happier!
Hootie hasn't really ever been the same since she lost her brother to FeLV: she is not a big fan of other cats. But she took to Tiger right away!
We do have other cats scheduled to come into the FeLV house - I think it is just a matter of getting them transported. The next few cats that we are taking into this facility are from other rescues. Every rescue/shelter/sanctuary is completely overwhelmed with cats and dogs now - and there isn't a sign of things getting any better. We have to get every animal that we possibly can spayed/neutered - there aren't enough homes to get all the present animals adopted, let alone the next litters of kittens and puppies.
Aug 7th - 13th
All week Sid was using every minute of her day to get rescue work done, as usual. In addition to the usual daily animal care, screening adopters, answering phone calls, emails, and all the rest. She also:
Monday - lots of paperwork and getting info loaded to petfinder and the website for the kittens that will be available and the new dog (Denali).
Tuesday - Spay/neuter appointments. Rocky went to his forever home - MY HOUSE!!! Yay!!! But he is still a bit sickly - and he had such a rough start he will always be more frail than a normal cat. We are giving him all the love, vet care, and attention possible!
Wednesday and Thursday - running errands for the rescue, making sure everything is set to be out of town for 2 nights! Working board meetings - meaning various board members get online to get actual work done together.
Friday - Sunday - trip to Minneapolis/St. Paul to get 2 cats to their adoption homes, volunteer at Furball Farm, take in a sweet 7-month old dog, do board work, and check up on some previously adopted kitties (Spoiler: the kitties are doing SO GREAT). Thank you so much to our adopters and supporters for taking time to see us this past weekend! While we were gone, Jordan got Benny and Renegade (Reaper) adopted (with approved adopters by Sid).
Below is Pooh on the left - now a city cat! And Sid and Whiskey (formerly Jeager, one of Sid's first bottle babies) at Whiskey's forever home - he is triving!
Working in Fargo/Moorhead and Minneapolis/St. Paul
At Smiley's not too many our animals are adopted locally in Polk Co. - we are so rural there just aren't enough households in Polk County to adopt all the animals we take in! So we work hard to have volunteers in these 2 metro areas so we can help as many animals as possible.
Another great thing about having a presence in these cities is learning from some of the GREAT animal rescues/shelters/sanctuaries that are out there. We would like to especially thank Cat's Cradle in Fargo, ND and Furball Farm in Faribault, MN for the AMAZING work that they do - it has been a guide for us as we grow and put procedures in place for everything we do.
Our ability to get animals adopted in these areas depends a lot on Sid and other volunteers being able to transport animals. If you make trips to and from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area to northwest MN (Detroit Lakes, Hawley, Fargo/Moorhead) and would like to help, please sign up for our volunteer Facebook Group. Or if you don't have Facebook contact Sid (701.936.4039) or Adriane (701.212.9514). Thank you!
Furball Farm - Wow!
Sid and Kaitlin (Smiley's board member) have volunteered at Furrball Farm in Faribault, MN before, but I never had. WOW! They have a great facility with amazing staff and volunteers. They are an organization that has grown quickly in the past few years, and have been so generous to share with us at Smiley's lessons learned from that experience. Thank you for having us!!
If you ever have the chance, volunteering for the morning cleaning shift at Furball is an experience I highly recommend!!!! They save SO MANY cats. But they have SO MANY in their facility that the cleaning routine is critical to the health of the cats. Being a part of the cleaning crew sure doesn't feel like work with so many beautiful and sweet kitties to keep you company.
Below a few pics from Furball Farm: volunteers are ALWAYS cleaning!
Sorry for getting this post out a bit late this week! Please let me know if there is anything that you are interested in hearing about each week! Pretty soon we should have our new animal tracking software up and I can give you details more easily about who is coming and going each week!
As always, any mistakes are mine.
- Adriane