Make 2009 the year for animals!

Make this year the year for animals!  If you truly care about the welfare of animals, this is your year to prove it!  If you have only one hour or one day available, there is something you can do!  I recommend donating to smaller, local shelters.  The larger, more established shelters have many supporters while smaller organizations generally have only local residents supporting them.

Things you can do for a shelter:

Offer to help at adoptions, set up cages, take down cages and anything in between!

Return calls (to people who want to donate, people who want to relinquish their cat or dog, someone found an animal, or lost an animal, etc) or make calls to recent adopters to see how the animal is doing in their new home (you can do this at home!).

Volunteer to do laundry (at home or at the shelter if they have the facilities).

Foster an animal! Fostering an animal means that the animal lives with you and you help socialize that animal and learn more about their likes and dislikes and personality which makes for a very informed adoption when someone comes asking about that particular animal. Check with the shelter to see if the food, litter and vet costs are covered. Some shelters only offer paying for vet care, others, like the one I volunteer for pay for everything.

If you have extra money consider donating towards their medical care or food costs.  If you would rather buy items (instead of giving money) buy cat toys, dog beds, cat trees, chew toys for dogs, scratching posts, etc.  With so many animals, supplies can wear out fast!

Walk dogs for a local shelter or help socialize cats.  Animals in shelters benefit immensely from human contact.  Having a play session, being brushed or getting a pet behind the ears calms them and reduces their stress. (Which makes for happier cats and dogs on adoption day!)

Have computer skills?  Design a shelter's website, create invitations for upcoming events, design flyers to promote adopting an animal, etc.  The possibilities are endless!

Anything, really anything, you can give to or do for your local animal shelter will be appreciated. We always need an endless supply of air tight containers to hold dry food, newspapers, blankets, towels, pillows, toys, cat litter, treats, wet food, high quality dry food, flea medications (NOT over the counter meds-only Frontline, Advantage) laundry detergent, dryer sheets, hand soap, Purell, we use Swiffer Wet to clean the floors, plastic bags (for cleaning up after dogs), plastic baggies (ziploc-type bags of all sizes), trash bags, plastic measuring scoops for accurate amounts of food (not the glass cups), Clorox wipes, paper towels, latex gloves, cotton balls, q-tips, KMR-powder, kitten formula, KMR- powder, 2nd step, Royal Canine-small bite kitten formula.  These are things that we use daily and can always use.

Other things that we use that we don't necessarily need as often are collars, leashes, harnesses, food bowls, water bowls (stand alone and ones that attach to cages), cages, carriers, beds, scratching posts, cat trees/towers, brushes, cat window perches, anything that the cats can scratch on, not necessarily just scratching posts (cats have different preferences on scratching), night lights, rotating floor fans, space heaters, brooms, dustpans, trash cans, clip boards, pens, bird feeders, bird seed and anything else you can think of.

Whether you buy treats for $1.99 or a cat tree for $199.00, it will be appreciated! The more you donate, the more money shelters have to save more animals!
 

Click here to find your local shelter 

A little bit can go a long way when you help out a local animal shelter! Most of the people there are volunteers and are not paid anything. Some are a more commercialized and have very few volunteers with mostly paid workers. Those shelters have generally been around longer and have more supporters and get more donations.

And lastly, support the no-kill shelters! Why would you want your money to go to kill an animal?

What do you do for your local shelter?

Feline Enrichment: How to entertain your cats Part 1

Enrichment research has shown that toys that are removed and then returned after several weeks regain much of their novelty; extend your enrichment budget by rotating your cat's toys regularly.

Provide different toys, different days of the week.

• paper bags
• used pens with ink removed (just the outer part of the pen, remove everything inside and the lid)
  
• plastic milk caps
• film canisters (empty or put bells, pennies, rice, etc inside to make noise)
  
• ping pong balls (put them in the bathtub for enclosed fun!)
  
• treat balls (can use whiffle balls)
  
• flashing balls
• cork?
• tissue paper (supervised play!)
  
• tunnels
  
• paper towel rolls (rip the roll a little to give it more appeal)
  
• child's sock filled with catnip and sewn closed
• tie shoestrings to cage bars
• put pipe cleaners on cage bars, or twist around finger to make a spiral and put on the floor
• spools with thread removed
• any box, even one that seems too small for your cat. Cats are notorious for attempting to fit into small boxes
  

Put squirrel/bird feeders/bird baths outside each window.
Provide places in the sun to sleep.
Provide cat grass or other types of greens. Catnip, Thyme, Sage, Mint and Parsley are good alternatives.

Take your cats out for a walk (seriously)!
Click here to be directed to my website where I describe the process of teaching your cat to walk on a harness.

My top 10 favorite cat toys

I have cats of my own and I volunteer at an animal shelter. I see lots of toys that get no use and toys that actually have to be thrown away because they are used so much they no longer function.

It seems that certain types of cats like different toys. If I have noticed the type of cat that likes a toy, I will note that in the review. These toys are not necessarily the only ones available, there are many versions of each one of the toys below.

These are in no particular order. I was initially going to list them in order but how can I choose? They all have good qualities! (Pictures are linked to amazon.com, where you can price them or see the different varieties)


This kind of toy requires minimal effort on your part and most cats love it, even lazy cats will swat at it a time or two. Any kind of toy like this will do, it doesn't need to be fancy.



There are lots of different mice to play with. I have found that these kind are a favorite--by far! I am not sure what it is about these mice, the noise they make, their size, their hard bodies (as opposed to cotton mice). Cats love these! Many, many of these have been thrown away at the shelter because they are too damaged to play with anymore.



Very playful adult cats and kittens like this. I often throw a treat or two into the outer/bottom part which cats can easily get it out. If you put it in the top, they will never get it.



Random balls are always a good thing. Cats can play with them alone or with you. I have a long hallway and I just stand on one side, throwing all the balls, then go to the other side and throw them all back. My cat, Ashtyn, loves to run. Try to vary the types of balls you play with until you find the ones you cat likes the most. There are solid balls that bounce, open balls with things inside, noisy ones, quiet ones, ones that light up, lightweight, heavy balls, etc. The options are endless!



My cats absolutely LOVE the Fat Cat brand of toys and catnip. I have found that some brands my cats love and some they ignore. Explore the pet aisle to find the one your cat likes. I like this toy because I can take out the catnip and wash the little duck bag when it gets gross. There aren't many on the market that can be washed.



Tunnels! Many cats love tunnels. If you have more than one cat, make sure to get a tunnel that has holes throughout and not just the ends. Just in case they get in a fight, one of the cats can make a quick escape. Make sure it is sturdy. Cats generally don't like tunnels that collapse on them.



This toy seems to cater to the high energy cats and some kittens. For those who don't want to play with it, there is a nice scratcher in the middle. Try putting some catnip into the cardboard scratcher, they love it.




There are a few toys like this but I wish there were more. This caters to the hunter in your feline. Try throwing some treats inside among the balls and mice for a pleasant surprise. No cat can resist this. *Note: You can easily make one of these out of a shallow box. I made one out of the box that my keyboard came it. Cut out holes on the top and sides, your cats will love it.




This is great for kittens. Kittens have played with these much more than adult cats. It could be because of it's size. It is fairly small, maybe 8-10 inches wide. As I said before, there are other versions of this kind of toy.




This is a laser pointer. I bought one a "dollar store". It still works just fine. It also came with different filters for when you get bored of the same red circle. If you want a red mouse on the floor or walls, you probably have to buy one that is for cats. This is great, you can sit on the couch and watch tv while you play with your cat!

Are there toys that your cat loves that you don't see here?
Leave a comment or email me and tell me about it!