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Tanika Campbell
Leadership, Shelter/Adoptions Manager
Tanika and husband Mike began volunteering with Furry Friends in 2012 by starting a food collection/donation at their work. This led into volunteering to be socializers and enrolling their Labrador in the pet assisted living therapy program. When Furry Friends made its big move into the current shelter in 2016 they assisted with moving cats and things to the new place, yard work, and random handy work around the Halfway House. They also helped with in person events and kept four feral cat colonies fed over the years.
Tanika became a staff member in 2023, and her duties now consist of Shelter Manager, weekly PetSmart adoption events manager and donations liaison.
Tanika and Mike continue to foster for Furry Friends. In fact, out of their nine cats, seven of them were fosters that they adopted. They are also fosters for our medically needy adult cats, pregnant moms, & kittens. They are caring for two of our medical cats currently: diabetic Tom Grey and senior Marvin. They are very good at coaxing cats out of their shells and getting them to trust people. At one time they were fostering 28 cats and kittens in their home.
They said their biggest challenge is letting the kittens go after caring for them for months! "We love every single one of them. We foster failed our 1st year and adopted feral baby Gigi" Tanika said.
Many of their favorite moments volunteering have been participating in Furry Friends Pet Therapy program, "watching the residents at memory care centers light up with joy when they brought Jake, their dog, in twice a month. Now it is watching the foster babies grow and learn to trust. They also love seeing the updates from the adopters and how the foster kitties have settled into their new homes."
As far as their own pets go, in addition to their nine cats, they have two young dogs. One of which was a bottle baby rescue dog from another shelter. Mike works for Frito lay and always bring treats in to share with the other volunteers.
For fun they love to travel to national parks like Yellowstone and Denali, and to the beach while taking a lot of pictures on their travels. Before their Labrador retriever died they mainly spent their weekends doing activities with their dog and being involved in many charity walks.
They said, "We are passionate about animal rescue and support many local charities with food donations, supplying snacks for their events... Second Chance Companions/Animeals, Mostly Mutts, Panda Paws, Land of Paws are a few of the organizations we help out. We participate in the Humane Societies Walk Run for Animals each year. Furry Friends is the only rescue we actively volunteer with at this time."
Everyone at Furry Friends greatly appreciates all they do for every cat! They are up for any challenge and never say no when we ask them for help. They truly are a couple who devotes their hearts to our Furry friends.
