The Runaways Animal Rescue: Cat Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Runaways Animal Rescue takes in unsociable, medically-challenged, and other cats needing help from various areas. We transfer in cats from our local animal shelters that are on the euthanasia list and have some go into foster homes and others into our cat rooms at the rescue. Many need to gain socialization skills, and the Petfinder Foundation Cat Enrichment Grant helped immensely in this process.
As you can see from the pictures, the cats are loving the enrichment items to the fullest. Our volunteers, fosters, and visitors were able to work with the cats with these products; many of the cats came around so much faster and many were adopted into loving homes!
This grant made a HUGE difference in the lives of these cats and kittens. This support is immeasurable but, in terms of changing these cats' lives, so awesome and HUGE! Thank you, Petfinder Foundation, for making this grant available. These products will continue to give cats a chance at a new and loving life and the chance to be adopted into loving homes! We are so grateful!
How many pets did this grant help?
75
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Opal (first photo) was a senior cat who came to us from a TNVR (Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return) organization after she found herself in one of their traps. But Opal wasn’t a feral community cat — she was friendly, so they asked us to help find her a home.
Senior cats can have an exceptionally hard time adjusting to shelter life, so we weren’t sure how she would do once in our multi-cat adoption pods. However, with all the new trees, perches, toys, and enrichment, she flourished. She was playing with toys with our shelter volunteers, and she especially loved the laser pointer. She may have been a senior cat, but she proved to still have lots of spunk.
In the coming weeks, an adopter came in who seemed like a perfect match for her. We brought out the laser pointer toy during the meet-and-greet and Opal was on it. It was love at first sight and the woman adopted Opal that day (second photo). The enrichment provided by our Petfinder Foundation grant has changed the lives of the cats in our shelter for the better.
Panda (third photo) came to us after a woman walked into our shelter, set her on the ground, and walked out. She was very nervous, scared, and almost hard to even handle at first.
We tried her in a cage and slowly worked with her until we felt she could enter our cat adoption pods. We placed her in one and she immediately hid and was very shy and very nervous.
Once we received the Petfinder Foundation Cat Enrichment Grant, we knew we needed to buy cat shelves and trees to help get the cats up off the floor and build their confidence. We installed them and Panda instantly did a 180. She was up on the perches and asking for pets from staff and volunteers. She quickly became a shelter favorite, and wanted to greet everyone who came in.
These perches made such an impact on our shelter cats like Panda by improving their space. She got adopted not long after to an amazing family (fourth photo).
Thank you, Petfinder Foundation, for this amazing grant that has made such a difference in the lives of so many cats and kittens! We are so grateful!
