St. Francis Animal Rescue of Venice, Inc.: Cat Enrichment Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

When cats first arrive at our shelter, they are caged until they have been cleared by our vet.

Sometimes cats can be caged for up to several weeks. We also have cats that are being treated for illnesses in our infirmary. The Stretch and Scratch pads are ideal for our cats that are confined, and they provide the cats with the ability to display natural behaviors through scratching. This is an important outlet for cats who must remain caged and it helps reduce their stress.

Once a cat is released into our adoption area after being cleared for adoption, the scratchers are discarded and new ones must be used for any new or ill cats. This grant allowed us to purchase 250 scratch pads for use in our cat cages.

How many pets did this grant help?

This grant will help at least 250 cats.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Finn is a young kitten who came to us with a severe upper-respiratory condition. He spent 12 days in our infirmary and luckily had the advantage of having a Stretch and Scratch pad in his cage. This allowed him to expend some of his energy scratching on his pad.

Kittens have an especially difficult time adjusting to being confined, and any opportunity that we can provide for them to release some energy helps their overall demeanor and speeds along their recovery process.

Finn is currently in our foster program and will be available for adoption at a later date.