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Message from the Director

By Amy Cooper – Director

Last week I received several calls from newspapers and television stations asking how many people were surrendering their pets due to the ongoing economic crisis. That’s a tough question to answer. Sometimes when people come to an animal shelter to surrender their pet, it is a difficult, painful experience for them. It’s not easy to tell someone you don’t know that you’re surrendering your beloved pet because you lost your job or your house, or both. It’s no easier to acknowledge that while you may still have your job, you simply can’t afford to keep your pet, or provide it with the veterinary care it needs.

So people don’t always tell us why they are giving up their pet, and we don’t press. We know people are struggling – to keep their jobs, their homes and often, their pets. As an open-admission shelter, our job every day is to take in all surrendered, stray and impounded animals, not just the ones who are most adoptable or who we currently have room for. And we take in more than 5,400 animals each year. We provide them with a clean, dry kennel, nutritious food, and do all that we can to place them into appropriate, adoptive homes.

Some animals come to us with medical or behavioral needs that exceed our available resources and some need only minimal veterinary care, or a simple bath and a haircut. But they all need, and deserve, a chance to be re-homed and cared for the rest of their lives.

You help us do that, through your taxes, your tax-deductible donations, your volunteerism, and the support you give us throughout the year. Regardless of how and why animals come to us, with your continued support, we will strive to help each one to find its new, forever home.

Sassy Loves Gomez

By Leo Lefor – Volunteer

Sassy was at the shelter for a long time. The information that our Animal Health Technician put on her kennel card said that Sassy did not get along with other cats.

Gomez had been at the shelter even longer than Sassy. He was taken in our Mobile Animal Center to an event at Lowe's in Cotati, but was not adopted. We called 49er Pet in Cotati to ask if they could take Gomez to help us find him a new home, and he was dropped off there before returning to the shelter.

We also took Sassy to 49er Pet. A couple of days later when we were delivering kittens, we heard a noise in the cage behind us. There was Sassy half way up a cat pole, eyes shining, and Gomez lying at the top. Up went Sassy and she lay beside Gomez, playing with his tail.

The next time we saw Sassy and Gomez, she was grooming him. It was so sweet to see this cat, Sassy, who did not get along with other cats, bonding so well with Gomez. We decided that we would love to see them find a home together, so we wrote a little story for the cage - still no one came to adopt them.

We took some pictures of the two and they appeared in the paper together. Still no one came to adopt them, and we were worried that they would have to be adopted separately. We were trying to figure something else out when on the last day of the ad a lady came in to adopt them. She had been keeping a friend’s dog who hated cats, but the dog had recently passed away. Now the lady, a cat lover, could have cats. She saw the ad and came to get the pair.

We are very thankful and still smiling.

Fixin’ Felines for Free

By Cathy Fenn – Shelter Supervisor

On Saturday, February 20, 2010, Sonoma County made history by spaying and neutering 500 cats for free. More than 20 local veterinarians, 15 registered veterinary technicians and 100 assistants volunteered their time to make this ground breaking event happen.

The event was spearheaded by Sonoma County Animal Network, (Sonoma CAN), which consists of representatives from each animal shelter within Sonoma County. Shelters include Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County, Healdsburg Animal Shelter, Petaluma Animal Services, Pets Lifeline of Sonoma, Rohnert Park Animal Shelter, Sonoma County Animal Care and Control and the Sonoma Humane Society. It was unanimously decided to put on an event that would make the biggest impact to the cat overpopulation problem in Sonoma County.

The response was so big that there were 300 cats on a waiting list. Sonoma CAN is dedicated to making sure these cats are also spayed and neutered before this years “kitten season”, spring through fall.

VIP Pet Care Services who provided free vaccines and microchips for each cat that received surgery also sponsored the event. This was great news for all the shelters. If any of these cats accidently enter their facilities, they will already have a microchip, and that’s their ticket back home.

Thank you to Grapevine Trading Company, who provided gift baskets to all the veterinarians who volunteered their time to participate in this event, The Salatko Animal Welfare Fund of Sonoma County Community Foundation who donated funds to assist with the purchase of supplies and the printing of flyers, Susan Simons who coordinated the event, and all of those who volunteered their time.

For information on free or low-cost spay/neuter surgery for your cat, call (707) 579-SPAY.

"Broken Cats"

By John Strathman, DVM – Shelter Veterinarian

From time to time, the veterinary clinic at the Sonoma County Animal Care and Control shelter receives what we affectionately and sadly refer to as "broken cats". These poor kitties are brought to us by our Animal Control Officers or by good Samaritans who usually find them near a roadway after they have been hit by a car. They are often in shock and always in a lot of pain. And, they are "broken". That is, they have broken bones and/or trauma to their spinal cords and nerves, or chest, or head. Or all of the above. They're broken and they don't work right.

When we get a broken cat, we quickly assess its condition, and then give it an injection of a potent narcotic painkiller to make it more comfortable. We treat shock with fluids and we warm the cat up and give it a soft, comfortable and quiet place to rest. We check the cat for a microchip or other identification that will help us locate its family. Unfortunately, we rarely find a chip or an ID tag on the cat. Without ID, we have to make treatment decisions based on what we think is most humane for the cat, what is the long-term prognosis for recovery, what is the chance of an owner coming to find the cat (only about 6 % of stray cats brought to our shelter are claimed by their owners!), and whether we think we’ll be able to place the cat in a new home if an owner never shows.

"Fiona" was one of our broken kitties. When she came to us, she was unable to use her rear legs, her tail was limp, and she could not urinate on her own. We stabilized her and controlled her pain. Fiona was a young, beautiful gray tabby with a very sweet and outgoing personality. X-ray pictures showed pelvic fractures that could heal without surgery. Maria Jardim-Rodrigues, one of our veterinary technicians, made Fiona her own special project and helped the kitty pee by manually expressing her bladder several times each day. After a week, Fiona could stand and walk and use the litter box on her own. Her tail was still limp, however, and we thought we might have to amputate it. But, we held off on that. Maria took Fiona home to recover. After a month, Fiona came back to the shelter and her tail had come back to life completely and she could walk normally! After spay surgery, Fiona was quickly adopted. Happy ending! Broken no more!

A Fox Rescue

By Shirley Zindler – Animal Control Officer

“There is a fox with its head stuck in a fence!” The woman’s voice was heavy with concern as she relayed the situation to dispatch at Sonoma County Animal Control. When I arrived on the scene, the caller and a friend were waiting anxiously. They explained that they had been out for an early morning walk and were surprised by the sight of a little gray fox held firmly by the neck in a chain link gate.

The woman and her companion told me that they were extremely concerned for the animal’s welfare and feared that I would have to euthanize him. I advised them that I would do what I could to release him unharmed, and if he was injured, I would transport him to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.

The animal looked resigned to his fate as he sat dejectedly, his pointy little face framed by ridiculously huge ears. Those ears were the cause of all the trouble. He had apparently folded those big ears back when he passed his head through the gate and then spread them out again, causing him to be firmly wedged. I got some gloves and bolt cutters out of the truck and quietly walked toward him.

As I approached the fox, his bright black eyes bugged and he became frantic and struggled desperately to escape. He put his hind legs against the fence along side of his head and pushed with all his might but still didn’t budge. I used the bolt cutters to move his hair aside so I could see the wire and made a cautious snip. The wire sprang free so quickly that the little guy tumbled backwards in a summersault. He then leapt to his feet and rocketed toward the safety of a nearby creek.

My two spectators were delighted with the outcome and we chatted for a few moments about the fox and wildlife in general. To our surprise as we talked, the fox came back out of the creek, returned to the fence and began to sniff the area where he had been trapped. We watched in delight as he looked around and then began to vocalize. He seemed to be calling to other foxes, probably mom and littermates. After a minute or two, he seemed to pick up a scent trail and followed it back toward the creek and was gone.

Joan Elliott

By Greg Mortensen – Volunteer Coordinator

Among our many excellent volunteers this month, we are spotlighting one of our Client Service Assistants, Joan Elliott.

Joan has volunteered at the Sonoma County Animal Shelter for two and a half years and has been very dedicated to the shelter and her schedule. Every Tuesday at noon, when our doors open to the public for the first time each week, Joan is eagerly waiting to greet and welcome our clients. She assesses their needs, answering questions and joyfully informing them where to go and what to do regardless of their need.

As a Client Service Assistant Joan helps to ensure that abandoned, lost and adoptable animals spend as short a time as possible at the shelter. Joan does this by providing information and support to people who have found or lost a pet, showing owners of lost animals the impounded animals, matching descriptions of lost pets to animals brought to the shelter as well as to those which have been reported found and are being held in someone's home, and by providing preliminary adoption counseling for our clients.

We would like to thank Joan for all that she does to assist our clients, the public, the staff, and especially, the animals.

If you are interested in volunteering at the shelter, please contact Greg Mortensen at (707) 565-7116 or visit us on-line at www.theanimalshelter.org for more information.