Friends of Companion Animals: Cat Enrichment Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Our "Second Chance Ranch" cat enclosure construction and the items that are in the enclosure such as the cubes, blankets, cat trees, etc.
The new free-roaming enclosure is a wonderful part of our rescue because it's a great enrichment tool. It allows the cats to interact with each other, with our visitors and with potential adopters. They become more socialized, which makes them more adoptable. Thanks to this enclosure, they're free to do all the things cats love: run, jump, climb, snuggle. In short, it's the closest thing to actually living in a real home.
Because of this grant, we were able to afford the construction as well as the shelving and the blankets for the cubes. We also were able to get chairs so that humans can sit down and relax with the cats, which helps them make a connection and increases the chance of adoption. The cat trees provide a place to scratch, climb and play on, which they all thoroughly enjoy.
This free-roaming enclosure also provides more time for our volunteers who do cleaning, because we have fewer cages to clean on a daily basis. The positive side effect is that this allows us more time to interact with the cats beyond simple janitorial duties.
In closing, being able to build this enclosure for them was one of our long-term goals (for both humans and felines). The funding that the Petfinder Foundation provided to realize this dream is much appreciated, to say the least. It's something that will bring our cats joy and better health for years to come.
How many pets did this grant help?
Honestly, countless cats, because it will provide years of enjoyment for any felines in our care. But if you'd like an actual number, 200 a year, since that's about half the number we adopted out last year.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
We have some very shy cats, Gabby (first photo) and Gessica (second photo), who really came out of their shell once we were able to let them roam outside of the cages in the new enclosure thanks to the Petfinder Foundation. For 10 months, they’d been confined to their kennels, but this allowed them to really open up. They get to exercise and play and just enjoy being in an environment that’s as close to an actual home as possible. They haven’t been adopted yet, but we’re sure it’s only a matter of time now, since they are already more friendly than they were last week. It’s really remarkable how much has changed in just the last seven days.
