Introducing our new Volunteer Coordinator, Kelli Thompson! Kelli has been volunteering with Furry Friends for a little over a year, and initially started out as one of our kitten foster
parents. In that amount of time, Kelli and her husband, Josh McClellan, have fostered 8 different litters of kittens! You may have also seen them at the Halfway House, since Kelli and Josh have
recently been working as House Shift substitutes as well.
“What a year it has been! We have had many successes and many challenges along the way, but despite those challenges we have saved hundreds of cats and kittens and continue to make an impact on the community we serve.
One of the challenges that we are facing is that we are now feeling the full effect of the veterinarians partial closures from the past couple years of COVID19. With the community having limited to no access to spay and neuter services for 2020 and part of 2021, we are now seeing the result of that. It Kitten season ALL-YEAR-LONG.
It was brought to Furry Friends attention in early September that at Frito Lay in Vancouver some of their workers (Chris and Will) had been feeding a stray cat for over a month. This particular day another worker (Josh) saw four-week-old kittens in a trailer that was stuffed full and probably 120 degrees inside.
Meet Amanda! She started volunteering with Furry Friends back when she was in high school, in order to complete community service hours for graduation. She took a break from volunteering after that, but started back up last fall after adopting one of our kitties, Leia. Unfortunately, her senior kitty wasn’t able to accept a new cat in the household, so Amanda and her family had to make the hard decision to relinquish Leia back to Furry Friends. Even though this meant she couldn’t adopt any more cats herself, she started volunteering in order to help the many other rescue kitties in need of forever homes!
Let’s talk about Onychectomy! What in the world does this word mean? Declawing. This is an operation to remove an animals claws surgically by means of amputation of the end bones on an animals toes. Popular misconception is only the nail is removed since the name means “nail excision” but since the phalanges are removed it would be better termed as a phalangectomy or surgical removal of the phalanges. Would this deter people from declawing if they knew it was similar to cutting off your own finger up to the first knuckle and not just removing your nail?
Jay has been a volunteer for Furry Friends for the past year. Starting out as a socializer she quickly took on other roles such as: transporting, fostering, and is our new Friday pm Halfway House shift leader.
At Furry Friends we get a lot of questions on why we adopt out of kitties to indoor only homes. Many people feel guilty thinking they are depriving their cat the pleasures of being outdoors. Along with the freedom of being an outside cat comes may risks for your furry family member. We will discuss some of those below:
Lisa Baxter is one of our long-time volunteers. She has been volunteering with Furry Friends since 2013 as our auction procurement lead. Her son, Austin, volunteered for us for his senior project and she was so impressed by the volunteers and the annual auction she jumped in with both feet. This volunteer position is quite the job gathering items for our big annual fall auction while keeping track of donors and coming up with ideas for future auctions.
Jim has been a volunteer for a little over a year now and has become invaluable as our jack of all trades and handyperson. This year he has repaired gutters, cleaned the roof, made a door for our hot water heater, helped to make improvements to get the commercial occupancy permit, fixed the outdoor lights, fixed a few catios, weather sealed windows, built/installed new interior doors, and continues to take care of whatever needs done. He says he has a long wish list of Sandi and Jenn’s projects to still complete. We keep him busy!
One of our many dedicated volunteers is Freya Fisher. She has been volunteering with Furry Friends for the last year and a half. She began volunteering right after she moved to Vancouver, even before she found a house to live in! She came from Fairfax, Virginia where she volunteered at multiple animal shelters.
1. Cats can get pregnant when they are only 4 months old! So by the time they hit 1 year they can have up to 4 liters of kittens!
2. Cats are only pregnant for around 63-65 days
3. The process of preparing for kittens is called “queening”
What could be better than being owned by a cat! That’s been my feeling since I was 12 years old and was gifted a splendid Blue Point Siamese kitten. After caring for the kitten’s mom and siblings while my brother and his wife looked for a home in a new city, they granted my wish and Kitty Blue became my first cat. Throughout the years she was followed by 21 more fabulous felines. The latest is Leila, who I recently adopted from Furry Friends.
Furry Friends is proud to announce that after several years of significant growth we have added our 2nd staff member to our team! Furry Friends Leadership saw the need to hire an Executive Director position that will help continue that growth and enable us to further help the community we serve. After 23 years in operation we are fortunate to continue to live up to our mission.
A note to our Furry Friends volunteers from our president Jaimie Garver. Furry Friends is a volunteer run organization. There is only one paid staff member which is our shelter manager.
The planning for the fall in person dinner auction goes on all year long. It takes many volunteers to make this auction a success. Lots of hours procuring the items, planning all the details, coming up with new ideas, finding supplies, creating the graphics, promoting the event, preparing the save the date and invitation mailings, meetings and so much more. All of this is done with volunteer effort.
If you have been around Furry Friends for any length of time you most likely have run into Diane Stevens. She has been one of the pillars of the organization since 2014 when she retired from her job in the Printing and Publishing industry.
A big shoutout to our Furry friends Voicemail Team! This task often goes unnoticed as it is not in the forefront for most volunteers or followers. This task however is one of the most important as it is literally a lifeline for some of the cats and kittens we take in.
Mary Jane and Michael Holland have been fosters for Furry friends since September 20th, 2020. Since then they have fostered 14 kittens and 1 mama kitty with only 2 foster fails.
Karen Grafmyre has been a volunteer with Furry Friends since October 14th, 2020. She is the AM shift lead for our Wednesday shift at the shelter and she helps with voicemails.
Danielle Chauncey has been volunteering for Furry Friends since November of 2019 and has since worn a few different hats. Starting out as a foster she has now joined the board of directors as the secretary.
Cynthia Johnson has been volunteering with Furry Friends since Summer of 2020. She is currently the Shift lead for Thursday AM at the shelter, a socializer, and on the board of directors as the treasurer.
Many people believe that any outside cat they come across is considered a feral cat. This is far from the truth. You may hear the term “community cat” this term is used to define any cat who is unowned and lives outdoors.
Furry Friends has completed the final phase of changing the Halfway House use from Residential to Commercial\Business, making it an official animal shelter. One of the reasons we purchased the property is because it was already zoned Commercial. For it to meet City of Vancouver approved as a shelter, we needed to change the use of the structure itself from Residential to Commercial/Business.
Cat rescue is not all about cute kittens and cuddly cats. It is sick cats, abandoned cats, one year olds on their fourth litter of kittens, cats with diseases, and unfortunately dead kittens/cats.