FitzpatrickLand!

This evening Trent and I went to Wine & Whiskers, Heartland’s fundraising auction. It’s always nice to go to an event like this when you haven’t had to work for the past many months to pull it together and don’t even have to work that evening and can just enjoy the socializing and yummy food. Of course it is always nice to see all the Corvallis folks again – catching up with coworkers, volunteers, foster families, and community members.

The Heartland folks did a really nice job this year. The silent auction tables looked very pretty and there were lots of great things to bid on.

I ended up in a bidding war with several people for my favorite piece of cat art. But in the last seconds before the table closed, I got the last bid.

"Kinder Pets" by Naboo, Alderaan & Tatooine

I didn’t realize until halfway through bidding that this was painted by Brittany’s foster kittens. Brittany, your foster babies are very talented!

It took me two auctions, but I finally got the bookends I fell in love with at the last Wine & Whiskers. I was outbid on these last year, but lucky for me they got donated back to the auction for this year’s event.

I just loved how fun these were. Plus they’re very sturdy and therefore very practical. (Hear that, Trent? Practical. Worth every penny.)

It felt sort of weird to go to an auction to buy things when I just spent a good portion of my weekend getting rid of stuff that has been cluttering up our house. But bookends are useful, and it’s not like we’re getting rid of our books. And art is art, whether or not it’s done by a cat. There’s always some extra wall space somewhere!

What a fun evening! A great end to the weekend. Back to work in the morning. Looks like my foster kitty Ariel is still there. I’ll have to go say hi to her when I get there.

Yesterday my two foster kittens went back to the shelter to go back up for adoption after recovering from a cold. Jasmine the torti is a sweetheart who loves everyone and is fearless of dogs. She never cared when massive Romeo would come over and nibble on her. Jasmine also loved to hang out on Trent’s shoulder.

With how cute and sweet she is, I wasn’t surprised when I found out that in less than two hours of being on the adoption floor, she had already gone home. Yippee for Jasmine.

Jasmine

Her sister Ariel is still looking for a home. Ariel is an adorable buff teenage kitty who is super shy. Even during her time in foster, she never fully warmed up to people. At least she stopped hiding all the time and would come out when people were in the room with her, but she still doesn’t choose to approach people. I figured it’d take her longer to find a quiet, patient home willing to work with her. Maybe she’ll find her family this weekend.

Ariel

Today’s project: clean out the foster room in preparation for the next foster cats.

One of our wonderful Wednesday volunteers blogs about the dogs she meets during her dog walking shifts at the shelter. I love to see her photos and videos of our adoptable dogs.

I saw Martha at the shelter today and can’t wait to see her latest blog post.

www.adoptanoregondog.com

Thanks Martha for the great stories about WHS’s dogs!!

Today our shelter’s spay & neuter clinic performed our 250th surgery. It’s amazing to think that in just over three weeks, that is 250 fewer animals reproducing than our community had before!

Agate, a kitty available for adoption at WHS, was our 250th patient. She is a very pretty 8 month old girl who was found as a stray.

Agate

Now Agate is ready to get adopted!

Today I got to spend time with six great ladies from Newport. They came representing a variety of groups working for the Lincoln County Animal Shelter to tour our shelter and learn about our programs.

Recently Lincoln County faced the possibility of not having animal services any longer, but in November voters thankfully approved a measure allowing continued funding for the shelter.

Now this group, consisting of the Animal Shelter, Central Coast Humane Society and Friends of Lincoln County Animal Shelter, is working together to create a business plan for where to go from here.

These three groups are making the rounds of other local shelters, and visited WHS this afternoon. It was fun to show them around and talk about our programs.

Of course I had to share with them that Trent and I adopted our first dog from their shelter. Dante was a 4 month old stray puppy when he arrived at the shelter in Newport. In July 2001 I had gone to the shelter with my mom and sister looking for a dog for Jennifer. She found her Indy there that day, but the husky mix in a neighboring kennel caught my eye.

I went home that day and mentioned this dog to Trent who fell in love without even seeing him. We went back first thing the next morning to adopt, not knowing that the shelter wasn’t open. A nice staff member helped us out and even let us adopt the fluffy puppy right then.

Now 8 1/2 years later, Dante is still fluffy as ever and the best dog we have ever had.

Sir Dante LeFluffy

Thanks to Lincoln County Animal Shelter for being there for Dante when he was a stray and for helping us add him to our family. Glad you’re still there to continue helping the community’s animals!

I love our shelter’s retail store. There are always so many fun goodies to find for all the critters. I am feeling the shopping craving about to hit and thought I’d share some of the great things I have gotten from Davenport’s Den recently.

Libby the Wonder Dog showing off in Davenport's

A favorite of most of the pets in the house and occasionally used by humans as well, are the Ortho Air Beds by Precision. These are made to fit in each size dog crate that Precision makes. Romeo of course has the hippo sized crate and they even make a bed that big.

Romeo trying out his bed the day he got it

I got him this bed a few months ago, when we started carrying them in the store, but more recently got the round one so the dogs could have one around the house too, not just in Romeo’s crate. Cecilia the cat gets the most use out of it since she loves the fleecy cover.

One of the great thing about working in the shelter is seeing the new products right as they arrive. One thing I barely let out of the box before snagging one for my puppies was a Bottle Buddy.

Bottle Buddies: Stuffed animal outside and crinkly empty water bottle in the inside

My boys got the yellow dog one. They really enjoyed the sound it made when they crunched the bottle inside. Around Christmas we had a Santa Bottle Buddy which got sent to Pennsylvania for my sister’s pack.

Treat dispensing toys are very handy. One we’ve had for ages is the Twist ‘n Treat.

Twist 'n Treat

I like this one since you can adjust how big the opening for the treats is by screwing the pieces together as far as you want. The other night Trent gave the dogs Kongs, but unfortunately Romeo’s Kong was still in my car which was at work with me. So Trent dug this out and found that Romeo LOVED it.

And no, my dogs aren’t the only ones who get treats. Cecilia, the friskiest of our kitties, has let us know her two favorite toys.

Catnip tackle bag

Cecilia love to snuggle, rub all over, kick and sleep on this toy. We have gone through a few tackle bags before, but this is our first one with a tail, which makes this her definite favorite.

Living the life of an indoor kitty without rodents to chase, Cecilia also loves her toy mouse.

Squeaking mouse

This toy chirps when it is touched and has a great furry texture. This toy is often stolen by Boris the cat and even Julio the dog and frequently has to be dug out from under furniture.

But of all my recent Davenport’s purchases, my favorite is the Bob-a-Lot.

Another treat dispenser, this toy has survived many a dog who has demolished less resilient varieties. All my dogs, from 140 pounds down to 5 pounds, enjoy pushing this thing around to get the treats to fall out. I like how it rocks around (occasionally bopping Romeo in the face) and makes them work for it. It can hold a whole meal and the treat opening is even adjustable. This goody also made multiple appearances this Christmas.

Well, the week is about to begin which means the next Davenport’s order is due to arrive soon. Wonder what amazing things will appear…

Bunnies invaded our spay/neuter clinic today. Four rabbits donated their reproductive organs to help kick off our first rabbit surgeries.

Dr Terri Jackson, who has helped spay and neuter WHS’s rabbits for ages, came in to teach bunny surgery to our vet. We had two girl bunnies and two boy bunnies, so Dr Jackson could demonstrate a surgery for each gender, and Dr Holt could then work on her own.

Congratulations to Dr Holt on her first rabbit surgeries!!

I loved walking through the clinic and seeing the recovery process for the rabbits. To keep them from hopping around when waking up, each was confined in their own laundry basket.

Baskets o' bunnies

Sookie is up for adoption and now ready to go home since she’s spayed.

Sookie, already pretty perky after her spay

Smores still thinking about waking up

Our clinic won’t be offering rabbit surgeries to the public, but it will be nice to be able to fix our shelter’s adoptable rabbits just down the hall, instead of in the next town.

A local tv station’s coverage of WHS’s Spay & Neuter Clinic grand opening:

This morning, during our clinic’s ninth day of surgery, we did our 100th spay/neuter!! The patient was this adorable cocker who had the greatest fluffy fur.

Chester feeling a little nervous about what is in store for him

Chester’s surgery went very well and he spent some quality time on the recovery mat with Melissa while he woke up.

Not quite sure he feels like waking up yet

Today was the sad day we had to say goodbye to Dr Eure and Melissa, our mentors from Humane Alliance. They’re on their way back to North Carolina in the morning, but I hope they come and visit us again!

To help celebrate the completion of the spay/neuter clinic, my thoughtful husband ordered cupcakes for our shelter’s all-staff meeting today. These weren’t just any cupcakes, they were amazing creations from Liz and her Artisan Cake Company. Just look at what she made for us!

Much yummy deliciousness

Her detail is so fun to see. I loved the orange tabby!  Liz even added our logo :)

The one on the right looks like Liz's dog Yoshi

In addition to being adorable, these were also delicious. I’m not a chocolate fan, so I left those for everyone else. But the white cupcakes had raspberry filling and there were spice cakes too. I’m not sure which one I liked better (of course I had one of each to try to decide!)

I can’t believe Thursday is already over. This week has disappeared, vanished and evaporated all at once.

PS – Monte, our male torbie got adopted today :)

At work we got a cute kitty surrendered – an adorable 4 month old torbie teenager. Look how sweet:

Nothing too unusual about this except for the fact that this kitty is a boy!

Calicos, tortis, and torbies are generally girls since those color patterns require two X chromosomes, which equals girl child. I found a fun website that goes into more detail on how this actually works. (The short version is that these cats have an extra chromosome, having two Xs to allow the tricolor trait, and a Y, making it a boy.)

This little guy has been the talk of the shelter and is very sweet. Some lucky adopter is going to have a fun kitty to take home.

Monte shortly before his visit to our clinic for his neuter. He's now ready to go up for adoption!

UPDATE:

Monte made the news! A few local groups picked up his story, including KGW. And even better, Monte was adopted on his first day up for adoption!