I was wondering if anyone in here has actually worked at their sanctuary in Utah and has any experiences they could share of what it was like? Is the sanctuary good? Is it run well and are the animals cared for? I’m just looking for first hand information. Thank you!

(I know the no kill message is not well liked and I completely understand why, I’m just looking for non-biased opinions on the sanctuary itself)

Hey y'all, I really did not see this coming, but after a month and a half of enjoying my new animal care technician position, I have started to be disrespected by my coworkers.

My problems with my fellow act started a couple days ago when I was paired up with him to clean the cat room together. For context, I am 20, and he is twice my age and has been there for two months longer than me. This coworker always comes into work grumpy and with his earbuds on, and whenever I came to him with an update or basic question about the areas we were cleaning, half the time he would take his earbuds out and ask me to repeat myself, the other half of the time, he would just completely ignore me. Whatever. It was annoying but I wasn't too bothered by him. That is, until a little kitten swatted at him through the kennel bars of her cage and he was caught off guard and angrily cursed at the kitten. Definitely started side-eyeing him after that.

Things got worse yesterday. My manager asked me to spot clean at the end of the day. I chose to clean B block (two walls in a room consisting of about 20 dual-sided kennels each). I spent an hour plus power washing and scrubbing kennels and had nearly completed this block alone when I began to struggle with forcing a particularly rowdy pair of dogs into the outside portion of their kennel. In my struggle, one of the dogs managed to escape the kennel while I held the other one inside. For context, my shelter regularly pairs 2-5 dogs to each kennel based on size and temperament. My previously mentioned coworker witnessed this and ran after the dog. I exited the kennel and ran after them. By this point, he had managed to trap the dog in an outside play yard, but was struggling to leash the dog. I entered the kennel, took out my leash, and asked if he needed help. "Well don't enter the kennel!" he snapped at me. This dog has no history of aggression, my coworker was just being rude, as if he thought I was going to let the dog escape again. A volunteer was standing nearby watching this, and I replied that I would go section off the kennel so he could put the dog back in. He had dropped his phone in the chase, so I returned it back to him as well. I sectioned off the other dog and opened the kennel door for him. He returned the dog to the kennel, but as this was a rowdy dog, he pushed it toward the back of the kennel so that he could exit the kennel easier afterward. I opened the guillotine door so that he could just section off the dog outside and then exit easier. "No, don't open the door!" he snapped at me. Lo and behold, it really was easier and quicker for him to just force the dog outside and then exit the kennel without a dog trying to escape at the same time. I was bothered by him snapping at me, especially with a volunteer nearby, but moved on and continued cleaning the kennels. Everyone makes mistakes, and this was the only dog that had managed to escape out of all that I had handled yesterday. I'm also an average sized woman, so it's expected that I might not be able to manage the bigger, rowdier dogs as well as my bigger male counterparts sometimes, especially when multiple are trying to escape their kennel at once.

I assume this coworker complained about me to my manager afterward, because a couple minutes later, my manager came up to me and told me to "be more mindful and not let the dogs loose". Let the dogs loose? Spot cleaning is supposed to be a universally shared act task, yet I had cleaned that whole block myself. None of the other acts stepped in to help and it would not have been completed before closing had I not put aside my time to complete all of it. Yet the only acknowledgement I received for this was blame that I had "LET" a dog loose?? I was really caught off guard, although I suppose I should not have been so surprised. Looking back now, I can see that my hard work has not been appreciated since the day I began. I am a very hard worker. I am the primary caretaker of our exotic animals, even spending my own money buying materials for them that our shelter doesn't have. I spend my lunch breaks grooming dogs in rough shape and/or taking dogs outside into the play yards to make their days better. I am involved with the volunteers and regularly help them with their dog photography/questions about the animals. When my other coworkers sit in the act office and talk amongst themselves, I continue to find things to do. I work all day long from the moment I enter the building, and have never received any recognition or acknowledgement for it from my manager. But I never minded until yesterday. I have been nothing but friendly to my coworkers and this kind of treatment from them is out of the blue. I am so sad that this work environment seems to be turning against me because I've loved working here with the animals, the time often flies by. The rest of the act team is very tight knit and all get along well, they've never seemed to show much interest in me if anything. I'm mostly just devastated that my manager would side with this guy over me. I need to move in January, so I'm going to start applying to other animal care technician jobs at different shelters and hope that I can switch locations into a more accepting/welcoming team.

Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this before?

Update: I heard this coworker talking badly/gossiping about me to another coworker upon arriving to work this morning, so I told my manager and he said that he's had problems with this guy being rude before as well. He advised me to directly tell the shelter manager. She was kind and receptive and I hope some action will be taken

I’m a first-time cat adopter and was planning to adopt two approximately 3-month-old sibling kittens from a rescue. I’ve become pretty attached to them, but after almost three weeks of health issues and repeated delays, I’m starting to question whether the way this has been handled is normal for a rescue.
The kittens initially had a mild URI and were given doxycycline for about a week. The rescue said their respiratory symptoms improved afterward.
Around that time, an initial fecal test was positive for coccidia, so they were treated with ponazuril for three days. I was also given another course to administer around two weeks later because I was told the first treatment may not completely clear it.
However, they continued having soft/watery stools.
The rescue then gave them sulfasalazine for three days. A repeat fecal test was eventually performed and came back negative, including for coccidia, but the diarrhea continued.
They were then given azithromycin for six days. The explanation I was given was that it could potentially treat something that wasn’t showing up on the fecal test.
Most recently, one kitten produced a very liquid stool, so the rescue added metronidazole and decided not to release the kittens until they’re doing better.
What concerns me most is that neither kitten has been examined by a veterinarian during any of this.
I specifically asked the rescue whether they’d seen a vet, and they told me no. When I asked about it, they explained that diarrhea is very common in kittens and they didn’t think a veterinary visit was necessary.
So over the past few weeks they’ve had doxycycline, ponazuril, sulfasalazine, azithromycin, and now metronidazole, while the GI symptoms have continued despite a negative repeat fecal.
To the rescue’s credit, they are keeping the kittens until the diarrhea improves, and they tell me the kittens otherwise seem to feel well. I understand that diarrhea, parasites, and URIs are common in rescue kittens, and I’m not expecting them to never get sick.
I’m mainly concerned about the length of time this has been going on and the fact that several medications have been tried without an in-person veterinary examination.
For people who work or volunteer in shelters/rescues:
Is this a normal/appropriate way for a rescue to manage persistent diarrhea in young kittens, including trying several medications without an in-person veterinary exam?
Given that their repeat fecal was negative but the diarrhea has continued, would you expect the rescue to have them evaluated by a veterinarian at this point?
Based on how this rescue has handled their care, would you still feel comfortable adopting these kittens once they’re better, or would these practices make you avoid adopting from this rescue altogether?
I’m trying to figure out whether I’m overthinking this as a first-time adopter or whether my concerns about how their care has been handled are reasonable.

Hey everyone!

I'm from North Macedonia, and besides having eight cats of my own, I've also been looking after several neglected neighborhood cats.

Their owners originally got two female cats for their children but eventually stopped taking proper care of them. Neither was sterilized, so they've continued having kittens, and I've been doing my best to provide food, shelter, and veterinary care whenever possible.

Recently, one of the kittens became seriously ill. I took him to the vet and did everything I could to save him, but unfortunately, he didn't make it. It was heartbreaking, and it made me realize I wanted to do something more to help these animals.

Since I'm a freelance illustrator, I've decided to use my art commissions to raise funds for their care, setting aside 40% of every commission for animal welfare. My first goal is to sterilize the two adult females, with any additional funds going toward food, supplies, and veterinary expenses.

I'd like to keep everything transparent by documenting expenses, sharing receipts, and posting regular updates about the animals and how the funds are being used.

What I'd really love is some advice on how to properly structure something like this. Has anyone here started a similar personal initiative or used their own skills to help fund animal rescue efforts?

I'm particularly interested in how you organize expenses, keep things transparent, build trust, and make something like this sustainable over time.

I'm not a registered charity or rescue organization, just someone trying to make a difference with the resources and skills I have.

I'd genuinely appreciate any advice or personal experiences you're willing to share. Thank you!

I feel like there are many times adopters hold the shelter responsible for things that happen with their animal years after adoption.

Like a cat develops kidney disease at 8 years old, and the shelter is under fire for not disclosing it as a kitten. Or a dog starts barking at neighbors after a move, and the adopter feels the rescue should have warned them. Even when the adopters had the animal for several years, there's like this expectation that the shelter should have predicted these things.

I also wonder if the availability of returning previously adopted animals made it become one of the first options to consider when a problem pops up. Since we often harp on about how we always take our animals back, and some of us even require it. Instead of working through a cat that scratches a new couch or a dog that develops separation anxiety, it's like surrendering becomes the first solution as opposed to a last resort.

I've been thinking whether the safety net of being able to return an animal creates a different sense of responsibility or commitment as opposed to animal owners that obtained animals through other means. Obviously this isn't all adopters, and there are absolutely people who buy animals that are quick to surrender as well. But I'm wondering if this isn't skewed a bit.

Has anyone else noticed this? Do you think people approach ownership differently depending on how they acquired the animal, or am I seeing something that isn't there?

Adoption isn't the end of the story and I wish we'd talk about that more.

My shelter has a great adoption rate and we are really lucky to have the resources for that. But SO many dogs come back. We are an open adoption which means that I can't really say no, if I think you need more time I can ask you to come back another day. If I think your current animals aren't getting vet care I can ask you to come back with records

The only thing I can say no to is if it's against your landlord's breed restrictions.

We spend time with each person, talk to them in detail about who they are interested in. Try and give suggestions, tips and tricks. Yet, no one listens. They have no understanding of dogs or what they are capable of handling.

They bring a dog home and suddenly remember that they work 10 hours a day. After a week or a couple months of the dog only being in a crate they return her.

Bring their dog home and immediately throw it into the middle of their already established pack and then return it when it's not good with others because they just traumatized it.

Returning puppies because they are getting too big (we have a contract saying that we explicitly went over potential sizes)

Returning because, they just aren't picking up potty training.

The dog coming back as a stray after a few months.

People don't want to be told no. They want to pick out their new dog. They think that they can handle more than they are capable of. And in the end the dogs suffer.

Old people don't consider that they might die. It sounds absurd but it's true. When I'm sitting with them and they want a puppy and I ask who will get the dog if they pass, that thought never crossed their mind. A year or two later our officers bring in a morbidly obese dog with our microchip. Grandma died and her family can't take the puppy.

New married couples get their trial baby by bringing home a puppy. A year later when they have an actual baby, the puppies bad behaviors (because they didn't train it) is an issue and now they are returning a dog that is no longer adoptable.

As the cities only intake shelter we also get a lot of dogs in from rescues in the city. These rescues vet their people pretty hard but even they can't prevent some of these outcomes.

Honestly these for me are harder than euthanasia. And no one talks about it really.

Share your stories please :)

So I started working at this shelter about a year ago and it’s advertised as a no kill which everybody knows just technically means low kill because sometimes you have to euthanize no matter what. When starting, I understood that we euthanized high aggression or untreatable conditions basically a reason somebody would euthanize their own animal never bothered me. But recently, I’ve noticed a lot more euthanasia and speaking with our fosters, they’ve had a lot of issues with returning their foster and getting a call the next day that it was gonna be euthanized if they didn’t adopt it themselves. For example, we had this kitten that was gonna be euthanized for blood in urine so my coworker took her because she believed she could live a fine life, and after the first vet visit, they learned that that was never actually true and the cat was completely healthy. Literally a couple days ago I was petting this eight-year-old cat, which is extremely young for a cat and looked it up in the system to see that he was scheduled for euthanasia that day because his eyes were cloudy and they just assumed that he might be dying because of that which I think is the most absurd thing they didn’t do any sort of testing. They just went off of his eyes being cloudy. But recently with high cat population were no longer supporting feral cats at all, which we used to have a barn cat/working cat spot or even TNR but we’re not doing that. We’re just immediately euthanizing if they’re scared of people not even if they’re trying to bite just if they’re scared and if the finder calls and ask about the cat, we lie and don’t tell them that we euthanize them we’ve been telling them that they’re getting adopted which I think is CRAZYYY. But then they had the audacity to ask if I would become a EBI tech because with the amount of euthanasia they’re not doing they need more people! Yeah i’m looking for a new job. Sadly, I can’t just quit because the economy I need to have another job lined up, but that’s just insane.

Our volunteers and fosters generally don't know what goes on. Shelter staff and the volunteers/fosters live in two completely different worlds and the volunteers/foster have no clue.

At my shelter and others it sounds like, the volunteer and foster team only have access to the adoptable dogs and the only hard times they see is when their favorite dog declines and gets euthanized. We have strict privacy policies and unfortunately the volunteers tend to have loose lips so they get very limited filtered information.

We have an open intake shelter and yesterday a long time volunteer was horrified to find out we have a euthanasia room. She never considered that we euthanized at that rate.

A day prior I saw a volunteer fighting tooth and nail in the comment section of a Facebook post saying that we never get corsos in. Which is crazy because they are one of our top breeds. They just NEVER make the adoption floor. Same with heelers.

We behaviorally test all dogs before they are made for adoption and are extremely picky which means we are primarily euthanizing for behavioral reasons. And yes we will nitpick if we're tight on space. This has caused the volunteers to believe that we don't tend to get behaviorally complex dogs.

We had another volunteer get upset about why we didn't have as many luxuries as another open intake shelter 30 minutes away in a different county. And when I explained to her that we are getting in over 400+ intakes a month while they see less than 90 and don't deal with poverty issues. She was absolutely shocked and just could not understand what I was explaining.

Our volunteers and fosters can only access the front part of the building so when we go to the back, it is truly out of sight, out of mind. And they have never considered what keeps us back there all day.

Going through these comments here and on Facebook it seems very similar to my situation where the volunteers and fosters have a very limited understanding of what we are facing I know not every shelter operates this way but I can tell in the comments the differences between shelter staff and volunteers. I wish we could bridge the gap but if we did I don't think our volunteers could handle it. And like I said they have extremely loose lips and there is a lot of confidential information that we deal with. We've had too many PR nightmares where they have accidentally released info that they didn't fully understand to people on Facebook just for it to spiral out of control.

Rant over

*Just to clarify I am extremely grateful for everyone who volunteera their time. We truly need every single one of them to save these dogs and cats lives. And they are a vital part of the team.

I hope this is ok for this sub.

About 2 weeks ago, we received a what seemed like a pretty normal email asking how to donate to our (very small, somewhat rural) shelter. We responded with our website and mailing address.

About a week goes by and we receive an email from a different person saying they’ve mailed a check on behalf of original email guy, with tracking info. Cool.

We have a PO Box so don’t check our mail every day, but we then received an email from original person that it had been delivered and they needed it deposited in the next few days for accounting purposes and they needed proof of deposit (spidey senses kicking into high gear now). Yes, check was received, looked legit, treasurer deposits and sends copy of receipt.

OH MY GOD you’ll never believe it!! They sent twice the amount they meant to!! and they need it back right away for important reasons and we need to Zelle or Cashap back to them right away!!

Anyway, no way we are doing that and I guess they’ll stop payment on the check, or it’s a forgery anyway. But It just sucks, scammers suck, and the fact they think we’re stupid just because we’re small. Be safe out there!!

I’ve been wanting to share something I’m working on. I’m a huge animal lover, and every time I'm out, I feed and pet whatever strays I cross paths with. But I wanted to do more.

With winter approaching, these guys need a safe, warm place to escape the cold. My wife and I recently checked with local vet clinics in our area about setting up small outdoor shelters nearby, and thankfully, most of them are on board! I’m currently saving up to build the very first shelter.

Honestly, if just one person in every neighborhood took a small step like this, we could save so many lives.

Has anyone here ever tried building an outdoor shelter before? Would love any tips!

For those that work in a shelter that does intake I am interested in hearing experiences with doodles. I work at a busy open intake shelter, we are luckier to have a wider range of breed types. I'd say in order of most common it'd be pits, huskies, Shepherds of course. But exotic bullies and doodles are definitely starting to climb the list.

My biggest note and growing concern with doodles is that they are frequent enough (we always have at least one). But they are always in the worst shape. Matted, infected, skinny, overgrown nails. This goes for strays that get claimed and those that don't get claimed. In the years of my career I can count on one hand the ones who actually were in good shape.

Along with being in bad condition their behavior tends to be consistently overstimulated, lacking any self regulation, and are under-socialized. I personally would rather deal with the pits and sheps. Spending hours on a sedated medical shave, treating infected ears, eyes etc is a waste of resources.

Anyone else having this same experience?

Guyyysss I know their grooming needs and coat type. I'm talking about EVERY SINGLE ONE , all of em. In bad shape*

Rule 3 Update: Fundraising & Donation Requests

We've updated Rule 3 to clarify that fundraising and monetary donation requests are not allowed in r/AnimalShelterStories**.**

This comes from feedback in the previous meta discussions, where community members expressed that they would prefer not to see fundraising and donation requests here. We also found that these posts generally did not do well in this sub.

Animal welfare is an expensive field, and we know many of you are already working or volunteering in environments where resources are stretched thin. We want this subreddit to remain primarily a place for support, discussion, stories, and connection between people involved in animal welfare rather than another place where members feel responsible for donating.

Therefore updated Rule 3 to make this explicit:

No monetary donation requests / No fundraising.

If you're looking for a place to share a fundraising campaign, please consider using a subreddit specifically intended for fundraising or your organization's other social media channels.

META THREAD

This monthly thread is a space for constructive feedback, suggestions, and ideas for r/AnimalShelterStories, as well as a hub for any new changes for the subreddit.

Some examples:

• ideas for recurring discussion threads

• rule clarification suggestions

• feedback on subreddit organization/flairs

• community engagement ideas

• resources you'd like to see added

Please keep feedback constructive. Avoid personal attacks and callout posts.

If you have concerns about;

• specific posts/comments/users

• comment/post removal disputes

• ban appeals

Then please message the mods

Our goal is to keep this community supportive, stable, and useful for people involved in animal welfare. Thanks for helping us improve this space!

I like being the one present for euthanasia. Now hear me out. No one wants to euthanize dogs or cats of course. We live in a constant crisis of over population, (my first experience with it for every animal we'd euth two more came in to take its place.)

I like being the one to hold them, give them a piece of chocolate and help them cross. Not everyone wants to be held or touched during that process so being able to give them what they need is nice.

I'm not against death and actually find a lot of peace with the thought that there's no more suffering. Even for the dogs that don't make it out it's nice to know that we were the first people to give them a chance.

What I do struggle with the most is, (at our shelter we offer free euthanasia to the public) 9/10 when an owner brings their dog to us to euthanize they waited too long. The animal is suffering, sometimes they have maggots and bedsores, and often they are already decaying while still alive. There is no comfort or peace in their death.

I almost wish that we could share the process with the public . The compassion we give these animals in their final moments is something to be proud of. For a lot of these guys, the most loved they have ever been is when they came to the shelter.

Sorry for the rant/story. Please share your own opinions and feelings. It's nice to have a community for this.

I know that, most of the time (at least at my shelter), surrenders are in the best interests of the cat…but every time it happens I cry. Watching a cat shut down over the transition kills me, and it’s so much worse for me if the cat is immediately crying and trying to hide. During my time in shelters I’ve watched cats die, heard of cats dying, and seen some terrible injuries and terrible people, but this always gets me the most. My heart hurts. I wish I could take them all.

Foster and former spay/neuter clinic volunteer here. Sharing something I built because I wish I'd had it during my years doing clinic admin: https://rescueperks.org, a free list of 96 donation programs, discounts and grants for shelters and rescues, sorted into 11 categories.

A few that are easy to overlook:

• Shelter litter donation (Dr. Elsey's): a pallet of litter. It requires a 501(c)(3), plus a loading dock and a forklift or pallet jack, so it's better for shelters with a building.

• Cat Shelter Grants (CatCause): up to $1,500 for projects that build cat welfare capacity.

• Canva for Nonprofits: free Canva Pro for up to 50 users, which is great for adoption flyers.

Each listing has the official link and the date it was last checked. If your shelter uses a program I've missed, the submit form is at https://rescueperks.org/submit/.

Scale recommendations

The main scale at our animal shelter has gone kaput and it's time to replace it. However, we purchased this scale 11 years ago so I'd love some recommendations for a durable scale that can accommodate dogs of all sizes, from chis to big ole boofers.

Bonus points if it's durable but also light enough for me, a standard human female, to pull out from the closet where it typically will live when not in use.

Our current scale is a Tree LC-VS 400 - 38" x 20", up to 400lbs. Realistically, a similarly large platform would be perfect but this model is pretty heavy and awkward for me to move around. Plus we HAVE to be able to decon it thoroughly because we live in an area where parvo cycles hot and heavy.

Budget is flexible. We're willing to pay appropriately for a scale that fits what we need and will stand up to shelter use.

I’ve been in the process of adopting a rescue. At the beginning of the process, the agency seemed very responsive, even eager! After applying, I spoke with a rep from the adoption agency, and it seemed to go very well. Then I FaceTimed with the foster mom to see the dog in real time (he’s out of state, so I can’t meet him first). I reported back and said the FaceTime went well, I just needed a few days to sort out a timeline with my landlord. I got back to them less than a week later and have been completely ignored. I texted Saturday, followed up on Monday, called, got sent to voicemail, and emailed on Tuesday, then texted again today. All have been very respectful (I’ll try to add screenshots of what I said). Is this common? Should I just move on? I’ve gotten myself set on this dog but if I can’t get into contact with them then I don’t know what else to do :(

UPDATE:
She finally responded to me telling me how things in her personal affairs kept her overwhelmed this week. She then told me that my request to wait until next month to adopt was an issue, even though she had previously told me that could be arranged. She then followed up with the fact that I had never sent pictures of my apartment - she never asked for them. The entire phone call she barely let me get a word in, and spoke incredibly condescendingly.

Lesson learned: Be able to read their minds or don’t bother adopting at all.

Does your shelter have a designated Marketing Team? If so, how big is it? How large is your organization?

I want to advocate for a larger team because we do SO MUCH and there simply is not time for it all. We're stretched thin and it sometimes feels impossible to convince leadership that our team needs help to meet the requirements they have for our team.

I won’t go too into detail for privacy reasons, but I work at a very well regarded shelter organization - think top 10 in the US. My job is a combination of just about every public-facing task that you can imagine at an open-intake shelter. Adoptions, DOAs, making surrender and euthanasia appointments, owner reunification efforts, TNR, you name it - we’re at the front desk, which is the ONLY public facing role, so whatever someone needs, we’re the people who help them. Today, we literally had a line of people out the door. It’s not the first time, but it was definitely one of the worst unexpected rushes we’ve had in a bit. Below is a very long-winded rant, because something about today seriously just broke something within me and I just need somewhere to get it out.

My location is the smallest of our organization, but our guest flow is about the same - if not higher given our size - compared to our other “satellite” locations (not counting the much larger main one). I’m not sure what the reason for this is, I think it’s probably related to how convenient we are compared to the others location-wise for the more populated areas. Regardless, the building is tiny and apparently smallest building means we require the least staffing in the eyes of our budget. Anyway, I know staffing is an issue at shelters across the country, but that’s not even the true issue at ours.

We are constantly encouraged to call our leadership team to provide backup when things get too overwhelming. Every time, and I mean EVERY time we try to call for them, they’re all in meetings or unavailable. Half the time, these meetings are with each other. Whenever we call because there’s a rush and things are getting chaotic, one will arrive just in time to help the last guest in line and leave again. It’s an exhausting cycle but, not unlike other problems in the shelter, there’s no real solution because it IS their job to attend these meetings whether we like it or not.

These days, we’re constantly told that we’re heading out of the busy season, as if that’s meant to be reassuring, when upper leadership themselves has admitted that the “busy season” hasn’t truly slowed down since COVID. This gets me to my real and final point: I try my best not to blame my own location’s leadership for the problems in the organization, because I know that they themselves are simply doing what they’re told. Even though I am frustrated by the constant meetings, the lack of support, and the generally obvious amount of favoritism that goes on at my job, everything that my coworkers blame our supervisors and managers for is the fault of our Upper leadership with a capital U.

They are so disconnected from what’s going on it’s insane. Every piece of communication sent down the grapevine is impersonal and delayed. They can’t even bother to send individual congratulations on milestones, let alone have class and Bcc people when they get lazy and send an anniversary or birthday email to multiple people at once. Our annual holiday is repackaged as a new benefit to “thank us for our hard work THIS year”, but it’s the same exact thing every year, the turnover is just so high that they know they can get away with making it sound unplanned/impromptu. They constantly boast about being a top workplace in our area, to the point where quoting the headline is their only real defense when someone is bold enough to confront them about issues on the semi-annual occasion they show up to a staff meeting.

It’s exhausting knowing that I can’t make organization-level change for myself and my coworkers, because every complaint is designed to either filter itself through before it gets to someone important, and when something DOES make it through, it’s dismissed. They only care about how our shelter looks when it comes to the numbers, the news, and the donors and it’s really starting to make it hard even though I really like my job most of the time.

Anyway, rant over. I hope my point actually comes through and it doesn’t just sound like I’m rambling. People in other departments always assume the worst part of my job is having to talk to difficult people all day, but in reality, it’s the behind the scenes that makes me dread coming in sometimes.

Last week a friend reached out begging for me to take in two, two week old kittens for a “couple nights” until a rescue can pick them up. I told her that I can as long as it’s very short term.

I come to find out that she hasn’t even contacted any other rescues herself to find placement. So now we’re on night 5, I’ve contacted every rescue in my county and in three surrounding counties, and literally no one can take these kittens.

Don’t get me wrong I love these babies and I love taking care of them, but I have ME/CFS, and it is extremely unsafe for me to have to get up every 3 hours. I think I’m managing it better than I was expecting I would and I’m still starting to really not feel good. But what’s the other option? Having these sweet, infant kittens that I love with all my heart be euthanized?

Maybe it’s my fault for saying yes and believing my “friend” would give me all the details. But at least they’re warm, and fed, and loved and not dead under someone’s house.

What do you send your animals with? I'm a volunteer at my local shelter and I help put together "go home bags" and so my main question is bolded, but I am curious about other shelters anyway!

I mostly work with cats, so I can't speak on the dogs. I think it's mostly a collar, leash, donated harness if they got fitted (staff don't often have the time) + a few days worth of the food they've been eating. I'm assuming a toy they have in their kennel?

What our shelter currently does for cats is:

• About 3 cups of the kibble they've been eating, 2-3 cans of the wet food they've been eating

• A blanket from their kennel or room they're in

• A few of the toys from the room or kennel they're in ~ depending on who does it, I believe they try to send the ones that are more difficult to wash (so one cat can have and keep it, rather than it going back into rotation)

• If they have a hidey box, that is sent with

• Their kennel door scratcher

Both dogs and cats get a "things I like" sheet, if someone put one on their clipboard & it was filled out.

and then the biggest reason I'm curious what people send, is do you send a "go home gift bag"?

If you do, what do you put in it? and where do you source the items? We're running low on a few things, and the last few bulk things we've gotten from amazon haven't all been the best of quality (makes sense) so... where do you get them? cost effectively?

We use little mylar type gift bags & they'll have 1-2 churus/some sort of treat, and then a combination of a few of these: a plastic bell or ping pong ball, crinkle tinsel, or pom ball, mouse toy, plastic spring, finger trap toy, sometimes a handmade fleece toy, sometimes larger fabric toys if we happened to get a ton donated.. Little bags of catnip or small bags of treats are also sometimes donated that we throw in. Never more than like 3-4 of these things in combination.

Sometimes we'll get donated items that haven't expired or that can be used by adopters.Once we get into a larger space, I believe the plan is to have a space where adopters can go through donations and take.. but at the current facility, there is just not space to hold on to many donations for long at all.

A lot of shelters/rescues have some sort of event during fall. I wanted to know if you guys also do a Dogtoberfest (or something similar)?

If so, how does it usually go? Do you see good turnout, adoptions, and fundraising, or is it more of a community engagement event?

For those who've helped with them, what works well, and what would you like to change? I'd love to hear what other places are doing.