Volunteer Spotlight : Cathy McCanta

Volunteer Spotlight : Cathy McCanta

    Furry Friends is lucky to have hundreds of amazing volunteers who dedicate hours upon hours of their time caring for our cats. Cathy McCanta is one such volunteer; she spends three mornings a week at our Halfway House shelter making sure our cats are fed, their rooms are cleaned, and most importantly that our cats are happy and healthy!

Volunteer Spotlight: Sara Lugo

Volunteer Spotlight: Sara Lugo

Sara Lugo, a Furry Friends volunteer since 2019, often rolls up her sleeves to clean the kitties’ house. She is the Team Lead on our Tuesday morning shift and frequently helps others on their shifts. Sara adopted a cat from Furry Friends several years ago, and shortly after retiring she made the decision to volunteer!

Volunteer Spotlight on Kelli Thompson

Volunteer Spotlight on Kelli Thompson

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.

Furry Friends President’s Report for 2022

Furry Friends President’s Report for 2022

“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. 

A Happy ending for a litter of kittens

A Happy ending for a litter of kittens

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.

Volunteer Spotlight on Amanda Kadell

Volunteer Spotlight on Amanda Kadell

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!

Declawing is a Bad Idea

Declawing is a Bad Idea

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?

Keeping Kitties Indoors

Keeping Kitties Indoors

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:

Volunteer Spotlight on Lisa Baxter

Volunteer Spotlight on Lisa Baxter

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. 

Volunteer Spotlight on Jim Grafmyre

Volunteer Spotlight on Jim Grafmyre

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! 

Volunteer Spotlight on Freya Fisher

Volunteer Spotlight on Freya Fisher

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.

Pregnant Cat & Newborn Kitten Facts

Pregnant Cat & Newborn Kitten Facts

 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”

Volunteer Spotlight on Gail Bauhs

Volunteer Spotlight on Gail Bauhs

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 announces its new executive director

Furry Friends announces its new executive director

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. 

Volunteer Spotlight on the Auction Committee

Volunteer Spotlight on the Auction Committee

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.

Furry Friends is a nonprofit cat adoption organization. Its mission is to help homeless, relinquished and abused cats by providing spaying and neutering, medical care, and foster shelter for as long as it takes to find their forever home. Copyright © 2013 – 2020 Furry Friends. All rights reserved. Website design and development by Christina Roberts.