From 2-6pm today, the shelter will be open and all adoption fees for all animals will be waived. In the spirit of Halloween, and celebrating our 6th annual Furry Fall festival, we have staff in costumes, spooky decorations, and goodie bags and face painting for kids. Our friends from @thepasskitchen are also here, with some amazing food for all visitors. Come join the fun today, and let’s get all of these amazing animals into good homes! #adoptlove #furryfallfestival2024 #adoptdontshop #jointhefun #adoptashelterpet
It’s that spooky time of the year, and this Wednesday, October 30th, from 2pm to 6pm, we will be hosting our sixth annual Furry Fall Festival! As always, the event will feature food vendors, music, and Halloween themed entertainment. And more importantly, all adoption fees will be waived for all the available pets! Every year this event gets bigger and bigger, and we’re hoping that this year will be our biggest one yet. Our staff will be in costumes, the shelter has been decorated, and the Battle of the Doors will be in full effect. We want to invite everyone to come and celebrate with us, and to consider adopting one of our hundreds of amazing animals.
**VOLUME UP TO HEAR** Is your home just too quiet? Do you miss the comforting sounds of someone snoring next to you? Maybe white noise or brown noise isn’t your thing. We’re here to introduce you to Valentino (A555417) noise!
This sweet boy was found loose and brought to our shelter on September 10. He’s a young boy, estimated to be around 7 months old, we weren’t concerned about him landing a home. But the days turned into weeks and we’re now more than a full month out from when he arrived.
The time is undoubtedly having an impact on Valentino. Recently he’s been demonstrating “barrier reactivity.” That’s a shelter word for frustration in a kennel setting and for Valentino it means he jumps up, and sometimes snaps at those walking past him.
Our Behavior team, Savanna and Bailey, wanted to try something new with him today so opted to bring him into an office space within the shelter. He immediately changed, relaxed and began deeply sleeping under a desk cubby, for the first time in likely weeks. But don’t just take our word for it, listen to this video with volume up to fully appreciate those snores.
We know this boy has potential, we know it now more than ever. He needs to leave this environment to thrive, this is not the place for him, the stress, the sounds, the chaos, it’s just too much for this puppy.
So, we’re asking, do you need some Valentino noise in your life? The sounds of him snoring are so sweet, as they mean he’s finally relaxed. In the office environment he’s best described as “chill,” he’s well-mannered and easy to be around.
If you are interested in meeting Valentino, please visit our shelter! We’re open Wednesday from 2 – 6 p.m. and Valentino is ready for immediate adoption.
**FOSTER FRIDAY** While we typically highlight a special pet in foster care, we want to flip things around this Friday and showcase a dog that needs a foster home.
Meet Bella! She, along with two dozen other pets, were confiscated from a local home in August. We won’t go into details regarding what prompted the confiscation, as it being pursued by law enforcement, but the scars on Bella’s face and body help tell the story.
We sought custody of all the pets confiscated from the property and that hearing took place this week. The Judge thankfully sided with us, and we were granted custody of the pets. They must be held for a brief appeal period and, once that is satisfied, we are able to begin placing them with adopters and rescue partners.
This is an ideal time for Bella to be placed in foster care. A few weeks of foster time can help us learn more about her behavior in a home setting, to help us better market her, and provide her a much-needed break from the stressful shelter environment.
Our staff feel strongly about all of these animals, and those most closely involved with the case, our officers, our veterinarian, testified to the conditions of the property, the paraphernalia present and the medical conditions and scarring. All of the pets are special, but there’s something extra special about Bella. She’s captured hearts, and she reminds us why we do what we do, to help dogs that have otherwise never been afforded a chance.
Now we’re asking someone to take a chance on Bella. She needs a foster home where she can learn how to just be a dog, rather than serve some other purpose. She’s starting to figure it out, as is seen here in this video taken by our Behaviorist Savanna, who has worked extensively with Bella. Previously housed in a solitary structure outside, we don’t believe Bella has had the chance to be in a home, to be part of a family.
Out of an abundance of caution, given her history, she will need to be the only pet in the foster hom
We thought we’d take a younger approach to our social media for the day, and our team came up with this gem. We wanted to shoutout our amazing interaction specialist Judy for being such a great sport, and also to our sweet shelter pets, who are all still available for adoption. While it’s great to have fun with our animals, we want to remind our community that currently the shelter is home to almost 300 cats and dogs. All of them amazing, all of them looking for a good home. 300 sweet faces, 300 gentle souls. That number doesn’t seem that big in a county of almost 1.5 million people. But it’s a number that for us, never seems to go down. Dogs and cats are surrendered every day; and for every one animal we adopt out, it seems like five more take their place. So what do we need from our community? We ask that you open your hearts and your homes. We ask that you look inside each kennel. We ask that you take a chance, and adopt love. Let’s get them all seen. Let’s get them all home
This is Kitty Minogue, who is currently our longest resident cat. It’s rare for a cat to stay at the shelter for a very long time. But Kitty is a special cat; and will need a special, patient and loving adopter. Kitty and her kittens were living in the engine of a parked car, and our officers were called out to remove them safely. Our officers were able to rescue them, and bring them to our shelter. The kittens have since been adopted, but Kitty Minogue continues to struggle. She is terrified, and does not allow anyone close. We don’t know anything about her , or her past. But we do know she does not want to be here. Kitty is going to need a patient and kind adopter, who will be willing to give her all the time she needs. She’s still young, and she still has a lot of life and love in her heart. She just needs the right person to change her life. Let’s get her seen. Let’s get her home. #adoptlove #adoptdontshop #longestresidentcat #adoptasheltercat #rescuecat #scaredcats
Last week for Clear the Shelters, we featured several dogs and cats with the help of our friends at NBCUniversal. One of the dogs we featured was sweet young Keisha (A552801). And even though the news segments did well and were seen by thousands of viewers, as of today, not a single person has come to look at Keisha. She’s had zero interactions. Zero applications. The only attention this sweet girl gets is from staff and volunteers. And it’s heartbreaking. Keisha is three years old, solid but small, and absolutely loves people and treats. She’ll do anything for love, and likes to spend most of her yard time cuddled on our laps. Calm, gentle and affectionate; Keisha seems like the perfect companion. Keisha’s one and only downfall is that she doesn’t seem to like a lot of other dogs, and she was actually returned to us when she did not get along with the resident pet. But Keisha doesn’t seem to know any sadness; with her beautiful face and wiggly tail, always happy, always ready to take on the new day. She doesn’t know she’s being ignored or looked over. She has no idea why she’s here. To Keisha, every day brings the promise of some yard time, some snuggles, and all the treats she can stand. She’s one of our favorites, and we are just hoping for so much more for her. We know the right person is out there waiting for her. Let’s get her seen. Let’s get her home.
Our shelter, like the majority of those throughout our state and country, is once again beyond capacity for our dog population. We have 213 dogs in care, no vacant kennels in our main dog building and our intake area is housing 10 dogs who are waiting for a spot to open up.
Adoptions, rescue placement and reclaims cannot keep pace with the number of animals coming in. We know our community cares strongly for these homeless pets and so we’re asking for help, for people to adopt, to foster or simply to share this message.
We have two adoption promotions at the moment, one that reduces fees for our “Gold Medal Favorites” (pets that have been in care four weeks and longer) and another that waives fees entirely for teachers and school personnel. Our standard adoption fees are $55 for dogs and $40 for cats, which includes the spay/neuter, initial vaccines and microchip identification.
With more than 300 pets here in total, we will find the match for anyone who enters our doors with an open heart. We have pets of all ages, sizes, breed and personalities. Visit today to see who speaks to you.
View all available pets and find out more about our adoption process on our website: ocnetpets.com.