From Shadow into Light

December already!

And the spirit of giving is well underway. Want proof? Nineteen more animals were given a second chance at happiness last week here at the shelter! That's about 1/5 of our entire population, and nearly 1/2 of the animals available for adoption! We'll take it.

Let's start with dogs: Smoochy, the Pom who was on WCAX last week, went home with a volunteer family. Seven-year-old Lab Jill is stray no longer, and another of the fuzzy pitties, Paige, has begun the adoption process with a Vet Tech who helped with her spay surgery. Finally, remember Payton--the Border Collie mix who found her confidence through tiny Beagle Copper (see last week's post)? She was adopted just a few days after Copper left by a sweet family who is head-over-heels for her.

Moving on to kittens, we moved lots of kittens! In fact, nine tiny mewers found new homes last week: Saffron & Sesame together; Chai, Oolong, Ceylon, Jasmine, Earl, Scooter, and Sneakers. Good thing, too: these were just the first nine of fifty kittens scheduled to return from foster care in the next week. We could use some help spreading the word about our kitten frenzy!

Finally, five cats are lounging in new living rooms as I type: Abby, Watson, Barnum, Lulu, and Buddha.

The sixth cat is not indoors. Shadow spent three and half weeks at the shelter, and was returned to his caretaker last week--to go live back outdoors. Shadow is a feral cat.

You may have seen our Facebook posts about the three feral kittens we've been socializing in staff offices. Tom (CEO) has one; Allison (shelter manager) has one; and I have one. They're all solid black, just like their father, Shadow.

Shadow's family lives on the streets of the Old North End. It consists of four kittens and the mom and dad--all completely black. Their coloring means that on the feral scale, they're about as far from domesticated as it gets. As cats in the wild reproduce, subsequent litters are born increasingly darker in color with each generation, as the population returns to its most camoflaged state.

We have a Trap-Neuter-Return program here at the shelter, led by our Humane Investigator, JoAnn Nichols. For feral cat colonies who have a caretaker (someone who feeds them regularly), JoAnn will trap as many cats as possible, have them spayed or neutered, and return them to their territory. This keeps population numbers down, and sustains the health of the colony. But JoAnn wasn't responsible for trapping Shadow and the kittens.

 In fact, there's a little old lady in the Old North End who frequently traps stray and feral cats and brings them to us. Somehow, she managed to coax Shadow and three of the four kittens into carriers--without even using traps! We'd have guessed that Shadow would be so feral, he'd have to simply be neutered and returned. But we found out that he and his family did belong to a caretaker--a younger woman who lives down the street from the little old lady--and this woman had developed a positive relationship with Shadow. So we decided to test his sociability by housing him in our Feline Supervisor's office.

As aforementioned, the three kittens were each assigned other staff offices. And staff was asked to spend as much time as possible with the kittens: petting them, holding them, talking to them. At five months old, these kittens were already well on the cusp of being too old to tame. But we wanted to try. And if we couldn't succeed, they could simply go back to their caretaker's property.

The kitten in my office, Grover, proved the hardest to convince. He spent the first few days huddled in his litterbox (or elsewhere in the office), not daring to move.

I didn't want to push him, but as Jen (Med Supervisor) and Kayla (Feline Supervisor) half-jokingly pointed out, we have to "fast track" feral kittens at the shelter. They each made a point of visiting my office at least once a day, removing the quaking Grover from his litter box, and hugging him to their chests. He never struggled to get away, even the first few times. And after just a couple of days, he began to emit a stingy purr.

Halfway through that first week, I was able to hand-feed Grover his breakfast, which was a huge step forward, as he was terrified of hands.

And by the end of the week, he was so relaxed in Jen's arms that he'd do a complete backbend over her forearm just so she could scratch his chin!

By the second week, all three kittens were happily cavorting in their respective offices even while people (and dogs!) were around.

Tom's kitten was totally in love with people already. Allison's kitten was mostly convinced. And Grover--though scared and hissy when anyone reached for him--turned miraculously affectionate when clasped to a chest. The decision was made that these three were adoptable. They were spayed and neutered and made available.

And so, Grover, Magic, and Raisin are waiting for new homes. Grover increasingly reveals his inner lovebug. Now, he delights in licking one's face and chewing on one's hair when held. He's ready to take on the big wide world of people outside of my little office.

Shadow, however, did not make the cut. In her assessment, Kayla wrote that Shadow loves to be pet, and gives vigorous cheek rubs. But he quickly becomes overstimulated and then confused … at which point, his behavior deteriorates into hissing, biting, and swatting. So Shadow went back to live out his days as a street cat--but a well tended-to street cat. When the caretaker came to pick Shadow up, she stopped by the administrative area to witness the progress the kittens had made. As you might imagine, she was delighted by the transformation.  

JoAnn (Humane Investigator) returned to the property today to set traps for Mama and the fourth kitten. She couldn't catch Mama, but the fourth kitten is now in our care, awaiting his turn at socializing. He's already been neutered and had his ear tipped, just in case we can't tame him. In TNRs, feral cats who are altered have the tips of their ears cut off, so they won't have to return to the vet in the case of future TNRs. JoAnn will try again to trap Mama. It's imperative Mama be spayed, because in just seven years, one female cat and her offspring can produce nearly 400,000 kittens. Yes, you read that right.

Shadow is no doubt happier today in his old stomping grounds. That's the difference between strays and ferals: stray cats are domesticated but homeless; ferals are wild, and their home is the outdoors. Grover, Magic, and Raisin have left the feral life behind. But we count their father as a success story, too. One less intact cat on the street is hundreds of thousands of fewer kittens being born into the feral life. Add to that up-to-date vaccinations and a committed caretaker, and we can rest easy about Shadow's future.

That's the good news this week. Take care, and please do stop by our Holiday Store at 198 College Street if you haven't visited yet!

Best,
Megan

  

Megan Stearns

Director, Development & Outreach

www.facebook.com/chittendenhumane

Copper Top Dog

Hello, fellow animal lovers!

I trust you all had lovely Thanksgivings. We're still grateful about the fact that ten formerly homeless animals are now home for the holidays following last week's adoptions, and we hope to add many more to that list between now and the year's end!

Speaking of Home Fur the Holidays, don't miss this Saturday's benefit event, held at Play Dog Play! A bevy of fantastic local pet-themed vendors are signed up to sell their wares (including pet portrait sessions with Mountain Dog Photography, and dog photos with Santa by Northern Greyhound Adoptions!), and 25% of all earnings will be donated to HSCC. Heck, our volunteers are even rolling up their sleeves for a benefit dog wash. Come visit us at 668 Pine Street between 10 & 4 on Saturday.

And now, without further ado, the lucky kitties this week are: Juniper, Kanga, Buddha, Davey and Richard.

And the pooches: siblings Marley and Lua (Bichon-Yorkie mixes) each found new homes, as did Della (Pit bull) and Josie (Golden retriever).

And this week's featured adoptee? … Copper!

Copper is a miniature Beagle. Never heard of a mini Beagle? Neither had we! And yet when all 12 pounds of him arrived with the Colchester ACO (Animal Control Officer), we didn't know what else to call him.

We aged this long-earned wanderer at seven years old, and yet his size wasn't the only puppy-like thing about him. He had absolutely no manners. No training, no house-breaking, no sense of boundaries in a home. It quickly seemed evident to us that this dog may have been either kenneled or tied out most of his life. A seven-year-old dog with no house manners? How well would that bode for adoption?

But Copper was puppy-like in positive ways, too. He was insatiably curious, playful … and a total comedian. Staff chuckled at Copper's antics in his shelter kennel. Daintily lipping at his toys, he'd gently pick one up with just his front teeth--only to shake it mercilessly with a toothy snarl. His quirks in the dog yards had staff rolling with laughter. Copper just LOVED other dogs, and his favorite thing to do was launch his tiny body into the air, land on all four feet on another dog's back, and bounce off again as if leaping from a spring board. The other dog was always far too baffled by this behavior to get offended.

And so, despite the daily accidents in his kennel; his propensities to surf countertops, bolt out doors, and impolitely jump in greeting; his total lack of even basic formal training; Copper won the affections of staff and canine kennel mates alike. One dog, in particular, developed a fondness for Copper. And through their friendship, we gained an even deeper sense of Copper's informal talents.

Payton is a striking black and white Border-Collie mix who is so shy around strangers that it took her relinquisher six weeks to catch this stray girl in a have-a-heart trap, in order to bring her to us. Once here, Payton presented an aloof and skeptical demeanor that required an abundance of cheese and patience simply to coax her to take food from one's hand. Over a few weeks at the shelter, Payton did reach a level of comfort with staff that allowed us to pet her slowly and gently. But cuddly she was not. Payton has been very loathe to trust people.

Somehow, Copper got through to her. Perhaps the difficult backgrounds they came from allowed them to relate; perhaps they attracted each other as opposites often do. Whatever the case, the serious and reserved Payton ultimately fell for Copper the joker. And Peyton's love for him gave her the courage to grow.

First, she began to exhibit playfulness. Animal care and adoptions (ACA) staff person Cara loved to watch the pair play hide and seek in the yard. Payton would hide under the doghouse, and Copper, upon spotting her there, would run excited laps around the structure until she popped out and nipped his back legs out from underneath him.

Eventually, Payton's burgeoning boldness extended to people. ACA staffer Amanda could hardly contain herself one afternoon as she described a scene in which Payton was in the classroom meeting volunteers for the first time. Payton wanted absolutely nothing to do with these new people. Copper was brought into the room, and he characteristically jumped into a lap and began to cuddle. All of a sudden, Amanda watched in amazement as Payton trotted right over to a volunteer and climbed into his lap! Bingo!

From then on, whenever visitors wanted to meet Payton, Copper was brought along with her. As Copper greeted new people with friendliness and trust, Payton followed suit, casually sniffing hands she otherwise would have run from.

Last Tuesday, a woman came in to meet Copper. She was drawn to Copper's playfulness, as her 11-year-old son wanted a dog he could play ball with. Copper's less appealing traits were carefully explained to her: the fact that he would require lots of careful attention (and probably cleaning up after) as he acclimated to a life indoors. But all she could see were his positive qualities--and the rest just didn't matter. Copper went home the next day.

As happy as we are for Copper, the thought of Payton losing a friend does give sad pause. And yet, his good influence lives on. She now relies on other dogs to show her the way when greeting new guests. And a lot of the self-confidence Copper inspired in Payton has stuck permanently.

We were able to give a seven-year-old dog with no manners a second chance. Copper capitalized on it. And then helped a kennel mate with no confidence make the most of her second chance. Just goes to show that sometimes the best leaders come in the least assuming packages.

That's the good news this week!

Until the next round of successes,

Megan Stearns

Director, Development & Outreach