In January, we had a whopping 42 adoptions, and in February, we pushed ourselves even further with 43 adoptions in just 28 days! We're thrilled that so many cats found great homes, and we're especially glad because so many of these cats wouldn't have found support anywhere else but Cat Town. These numbers mean we stretched your donations to help keep the euthanasia rate for Oakland's shelter cats as low as possible — all at a time when the number of cats coming into the shelter is higher than we've ever seen it.
So far this year, Cat Town has helped 86 cats find homes. That means:
32 cats stayed with their best friend as part of a bonded pair,
20 scared kittens found courage and love,
18 cats with above-and-beyond medical needs got healthy,
18 black cats shone bright and got noticed,
16 stressed cats felt safe again,
10 senior cats got a soft landing,
2 cats with FIV broke the stigma around their condition, and
1 cat with FeLV did too!
We have another 70 in our care — either waiting to get adopted or receiving the support they need to get ready for a home. We'll celebrate their adoptions soon, but for now, here are some of our favorite adoptions from last month. Thank you for making it possible for these cats to find families.
Curious, affectionate Bean escaped his foster home on day 2 — sometimes, these things happen. When they do, we put everything we know about cat behavior into action to get our cats safely back into our care. For Bean, this was especially important, because he has FIV, and it isn’t safe for him to be outdoors, so our Executive Director went on a multi-night stakeout to quickly get him back. We got him to the vet for a check-up, and learned that Bean also has an advanced heart murmur caused by Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. This meant our sweet little boy would need to be screened annually for changes to his condition. Thankfully, we have the greatest adopters! A couple met him, and after an hour of crunching the numbers and careful thinking, decided they could make it work. Bean got adopted, and will live his life well-loved (and indoors).
Beautiful 2-year-old Jasmine came to the city shelter as a stray, sick and skinny. She recovered from her illness and moved into our foster program, where we deemed her a perfectly wonderful cat — affectionate, playful, and gentle — except for one thing: her feline leukemia, or FeLV. This condition is highly contagious to other cats, and significantly shortens their life spans. With FeLV, there's no way to know how much longer a cat has to live, so they often get euthanized with the belief that no one will want to adopt them. However, Jasmine was lucky — this little lady charmed someone into adopting her, and we're covering her medical expenses for life, so all they need to do is shower her with love. Recently they told us, "Jasmine has been delightful. She is very dear to me."
At the shelter, 7-year-old Coral hid nonstop in her safety spot: a fully enclosed cat bed. Woe to anyone who reached in to comfort her — not even the cat crew at the shelter could lay hands on her. But she'd lived in a home before, and her previous guardian said that it had taken her 3 months to feel safe there. We were up for the challenge, and got her into our Studios. We also made sure to get her painful teeth extracted and put her on medication to help her deal with arthritic pain. Our volunteers made slow progress, but one in particular began to gain her trust. They asked to foster her, and when she arrived in their home, she really started to blossom. With a medical plan in place to manage her joint pain and a trusted human friend at her side, Coral decided she was home — her foster (and their cats) agreed!
Bonded pair of Forgotten Kittens Gumdrop and Sprinkles arrived at our Studios in December. Our volunteers got to work helping them feel safe, so they could confidently interact with people. Sprinkles, the Siamese, was the more social of the two, and would block Gumdrop from receiving pets because she wanted them all for herself. Over time, they both began to play — chasing feathers like it was their duty in life. Gumdrop still has some trust to build, but the pair charmed their adopters into helping them finish that progress in a loving home.
Feisty calico Xena was surrendered by a guardian who'd become afraid of her. She would hiss, growl, and swipe when they came near. We got Xena into foster care, and little by little her anger started to melt away. Her incredible foster-turned-adopter explains Xena's extra-happy ending better than we ever could: "Xena really needed all this time to be her best self. She has been with me for 11 months now, and every few months I felt like she had a mini breakthrough and came out of her shell a little more. She started out as a cat who didn’t trust human hands — now I can scoop her up, I can play with her feet, and she gently takes treats from my hand. We have loved fostering, and wanted to continue doing that, but at this point she has opened up a lot, and is really thriving. We're making her a permanent part of our family."
All of our February Adoptions
Did you adopt from Cat Town? Tell us how your cat is doing! We always love to hear updates from our alumni.
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