Shelter Animal Donations/Genesee County Animals Control: Cat Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
This grant allowed us to purchase two cat trees, two sets of cat shelves, and two mini pool tables. These items increase the adoptability of the cats and reduce in-shelter time and stress. They encourage qualities like calmness and confidence as well as physical activity.
The trees and shelves provide our volunteers with easier access to work with the cats who need more socialization due to shyness, fear, or lack of physical activity. They also provide greater access to the cats for adopters to interact with them. The cats show more confidence being off the floor and at eye-level with people.
The pool tables give adopters an opportunity to see the playfulness of the cats and give them time to interact with the cats. The pool tables also provide the cats with a focal point for their play time and seem to increase their time at play.
We use these items in rooms to provide cats time outside of their cages. In some cases, for our more challenging cats, they are housed in these rooms, giving them more space than a cage and continual access to the enrichment items. We have noticed that many of the cats who were provided this exposure were adopted within a matter of days versus the previous amount of time they spent in the cages.
How many pets did this grant help?
800
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Snickers (first three photos) was a fearful cat who spent his time hiding at the back of a shelf in his cage. He didn’t want to be petted or have any interaction with people.
We moved him to a room with one of the cat trees and a pool table. Snickers quickly climbed that cat tree, putting him at a higher level than on the floor or in a small cage. This allowed volunteers to work with him more easily and we quickly saw his confidence increase. He looked forward to interacting with people.
Snickers was with us for 36 days before he was adopted. The last seven days in the room provided him with more areas to perch and the pool table gave him a focal point for playing. His adopters were able to interact with him at eye-level and he responded wonderfully to them.
Honey (fourth photo) was one of our cats who had previously led a sedentary life. She weighed 20 lbs. and needed more physical activity as well as socialization. Within a couple days of being in a room with the shelves, Honey was climbing them and interacting with the volunteers. This also allowed the adopters to interact with her. Honey was with us for 13 days and was adopted within three days of being in the room with the shelves.
We are continuing to use the cat trees, shelves, and pool tables with our cats for play time outside of their cages and, when needed, dedicating the rooms the enrichment items are in for those who need more socialization in order to become adoptable.
