Welcome to this month's issue of Sonoma County Animal Care and Control Paw Prints! You are receiving this e-newsletter as a new subscriber, or as someone who has interest in the Animal Shelter. If you no longer wish to receive these e-newsletters, please visit the Subscriber Preferences page.

Message from the Director

By Robert Garcia – Interim Director, Supervising Animal Control Officer

20 YEARS OF CARING

Despite public perception, Sonoma County Animal Care and Control, SCACC, has been working diligently on reducing the numbers of animals euthanized for over 20 years.

In October of 1989, the Humane Society of Sonoma County ended their contract with the county to house stray animals from unincorporated areas. In the same year, the County of Sonoma built the beginning of the existing shelter off Airport Boulevard to accommodate housing stray animals.

In January of 2002, SCACC took over the contract to provide animal control and housing of stray animals to the City of Santa Rosa. The shelter built in 1989 was expanded to be able to house the animals coming in from Santa Rosa, which doubled the number of animals already coming in from the unincorporated areas and Windsor.

Since 1989, SCACC has developed progressive low-cost and free spay/neuter services preventing unwanted litters from ever being born. SCACC is always increasing and expanding their audience with several educational programs in hopes of increasing the awareness of responsible pet ownership. SCACC has developed and enforces several ordinances holding animal owners responsible for their pet’s actions. SCACC has been successful with the conviction of several felony, misdemeanor and infraction offenses including animal cruelty and neglect cases.

For over 20 years, SCACC has run a successful adoption program, placing thousands of homeless animals into forever homes. SCACC continues to increase the number of animals being adopted by using new technology and resources. SCACC has reduced the population of homeless dogs in Sonoma County to the point that we were able to take in and adopt over 30 dogs from overcrowded shelters outside of our county that would have otherwise been euthanized.

SCACC has an extensive foster program that is used for underage animals, animals with behavioral issues and animals that are healing from injuries or illnesses. These animals are nurtured by wonderful volunteers and staff that take these animals into their homes and keep them until they are ready for adoption. Without our foster program thousands of animals would be euthanized.

SCACC works with over 50 animal rescue and transfer partners throughout the county, state and country. These partnerships allow us to send out animals with extensive medical or behavioral issues beyond our scope of resources. These groups rehabilitate these animals to the point that they can be placed into forever homes. These animals would have otherwise been euthanized.

Since 1990 with all of these programs in place, we have reduced dog euthanasia by 70%, and since 1995, we have reduced cat euthanasia by 63% (The reporting of cat euthanasia stats was not required by the state until 1995). Even with the increase in human population and bad economy in Sonoma County, SCACC continues to increase adoptions while decreasing euthanasia. With your support we will be able to save more animal’s lives.

Rats . . . The misunderstood companion!

By Starr Black – Extra Help Employee

The average response to the question "what do you think of having a pet rat?" usually goes something like this . . . "Yuck, no way" - "You've got to be kidding, those dirty things?" - " Never!"

What most people do not realize or understand is that rats are not the vermin that people think they are. In fact, they are very clean (actually cleaner than a cat), extremely intelligent, very social and love to be around humans. Yes, I will admit that you do not want to go up to a wild rat and try to cuddle it - you would surely get bitten, but only because they are scared. Any wild or domestic critter will most likely react negatively to being cornered by something/someone with which they are not familiar. However, the domestic rat is a totally different animal, indeed!

I have bred, raised and shown rats for over 30 years and in all my years of owning rats I can tell you this - I don't ever want to be without one in my household, because they are absolutely delightful. I have since retired from breeding and showing and instead have devoted my time in adopting ratties from shelters, rat rescues and rescuing from pet stores (pet stores mainly for older rats that are being housed in the "feeder rat" section).

When I first came to Sonoma County Animal Care and Control as an Extra Help employee almost three years ago, I had no idea what was going to be personally in store for me regarding any kind of an adoption that may occur. Boy . . . was I surprised! .

For anyone who may not have the room for a dog, cat, rabbit or guinea pig, but still would like to have a loyal and loving companion, would like to teach responsibility to their children and are not sure what might be a good first pet for them, you may want to consider adopting a rat. You will be amazed at all the love and affection you will be rewarded with by your rat when you welcome him or her into your family.

With Rattie Affection, Starr (aka "The Rat Whisperer")

Moving On Up

By Cathy Fenn – Animal Shelter Supervisor

Recently Sonoma County Animal Care and Control received a generous donation to upgrade our livestock holding pens.

Prior to the upgrade, our stray livestock such as sheep, goats and pigs, were kept in open sided pens with rocky dirt to stand and lie on. The donation allowed us to purchase the proper equipment to make the lives of our farm friends more comfortable while staying at our shelter.

Now our farm friends have wonderful rubber mats to stand and lie on. They also now have houses to go in to get away from the elements, i.e. sun, wind and rain. The new set up is much easier to keep clean and the animals are much happier.

It's Raining Kittens

By John Strathman, DVM – Shelter Veterinarian

Gasoline prices go up right after Memorial Day every year in anticipation of the summer driving season.  A lot of chocolate and flowers are sold around Valentine's Day.  And you can count on another cyclical event to happen every year in American animal shelters - kitten season.

At the Sonoma County Animal Shelter, we take in about 110 kittens per month on average from May to October, but only about 22 per month from December through April. This June, we took in a whopping 207 kittens!

So, why is there an abundance of kittens from May to October but a paucity of kittens during the late fall, winter, and early spring? It all has to do with the reproductive physiology of female cats.

The breeding season begins one or two months following the winter solstice (December 21) and continues beyond the summer solstice (June 21). The hours of daylight (photoperiod) have a major impact on feline ovarian activity. As the days get longer, queens come into heat and as they shorten, queens stop cycling. In northern temperate zones, reproductive activity begins in January or February, is highest in March, and usually ceases in September. For most queens, that is. The feline gestation period is 64-68 days, so a queen that mates in February will give birth in April.

Kittens are wonderful. They are cute, playful, cuddly, funny, and downright adorable. But, sadly, there are more of them than there are homes for them. After a year, they are grown and not as desirable to the adopting public. Unfortunately, we see cats reentering the shelter that we adopted out as kittens months or years before. In June of this year, we adopted out 160 kittens, which is probably a record for us. We also adopted out 45 adult cats that month, also a high number. Unfortunately, we take in about 160 adult cats on average each month but only 20 to 30 are adopted monthly. Kittens sell like hotcakes but adult cats wait longer to find homes.

How can you help?
Consider adopting an adult cat. Right now, we have a huge inventory of certified pre-owned, beautiful, friendly, and healthy cats available at rock-bottom prices!

Spay your female cat BEFORE she has a litter (a female kitten can go into heat as early as 5 months of age!). If you adopt a kitten, make a deal with it that you will give it a "forever home". If you can't make such a commitment, please think twice about adopting and let the kitten find a home with someone that will.

An Owl Encounter

By Shirley Zindler – Animal Control Officer

Animal Control Officers work overnight on-call shifts to respond to emergencies after hours. It was just after 11pm and I was sound asleep when I received a call from Sheriffs dispatch to contact a gentleman about an injured owl. The man explained that he had been driving on Adobe Road in Petaluma when an owl had apparently been blinded by his headlights and flown directly into the front of his truck. The animal was lying in the road unconscious and the man had pulled over but didn’t know what to do.

The bird was lying off to the side of the road so I advised him to throw something over it if possible to keep it still if it regained consciousness and to keep his hazard lights on for his own safety. I told him that I was on my way and quickly got into my uniform and headed for my truck.

I pulled up twenty minutes later and saw that the man had placed his shirt over the motionless bird. It was a beautiful Great Horned owl but it was lying so still that I was afraid it might be dead. When I picked it up the wings flapped feebly, so at least there was some hope that it could be saved. After a quick assessment there didn’t seem to be anything broken but the animal seemed stunned and could have life threatening head or internal injuries.

The owl stayed on a blanket in my truck overnight and the next morning I was pleased to see that it looked much more alert. Animal Control works closely with a variety of agencies to assist each other in benefiting animals so I was happy to be able to deliver it to the experts at Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue where it was examined and cared for overnight. The owl was then released back where it was found, a best case scenario for everyone concerned.

Lisa Torres

By Jocelyn Venable-Schmidt, RVT – Shelter Vet Technician

Working in the shelter veterinary clinic at the shelter is quite demanding. There is a never ending group of animals that need to be seen and veterinary prescribed treatments to be done. Without the help of our volunteers, it would be impossible to complete the myriad of tasks we have each day. This month, we want to acknowledge Lisa Torres, one of our outstanding veterinary clinic volunteers.

Lisa has volunteered in the vet clinic since October of 2009. Lisa started volunteering for our shelter as a student intern through the Santa Rosa Junior College Veterinary Technology program. Her ultimate goal is to become certified as a Registered Veterinary Technician. Lisa has volunteered over 500 hours in the last year! At one point, Lisa was volunteering over 20 hours a week, while holding down a job elsewhere and going to school! Even though Lisa now has a job at a private vet hospital, she continues to volunteer at our shelter on her only day off each week.

Lisa has been a tremendous help in getting animals ready for surgeries, vaccinating, cleaning surgical instruments and getting adoptable animals moved into their kennels. Lisa is a very hard worker and is extremely reliable. At times Lisa has come in on extremely short notice and has been a ‘lifesaver’ to us. She is a pleasure to work with and always has a smile on her face.

Early on Lisa showed a particular interest in the Pug breed of dogs. One day a little black Pug came in, and Lisa fell in love! She adopted him as soon as he was made available and named him ‘Benito.’ Benito is a wonderful little dog and Lisa has recently found him a friend, another little black Pug whom she adopted, and named ‘Bernard.’ We look forward to our visits with ‘Benito’ and ‘Bernard.’ They are absolutely adorable and have a wonderful new home!

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.