Inside. Look. All Things. Fairy Tale Endings. Extreme Makeover: Dog Edition. Get an

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1 H U M A N E S O C I E T Y S I L I C O N V A L L E Y Pawsible All Things Fall 2013 Inside Get an Look into the lives of two animals adopted at our June event Fairy Tale Endings Extreme Makeover: Dog Edition

2 Hello Friends! This month we look back on some of the special animals that have come through our doors. Most of them have since gone on to bring joy to the lives of their adopted families. Your continued support makes this possible so we can act as a safety net, finding personalized solutions for unique, loving pets. Extraordinary animals, extraordinary solutions: it s what Humane Society Silicon Valley does. We scale our innovative programs and forge community relationships to find solutions that are not necessarily obvious. And we always make what we have go further. We found sweet Milton an orthopedic surgeon who aligns with our belief that every animal deserves a chance, and he provided us a deep discount. Being in our beautiful and functional Animal Community Center allows us to allocate space to address the needs of individual animals - giving cats like Bret a safe place to adjust to new circumstances. Our grooming department provides mission critical services that help dogs like Odin become happy, healthy and adopted. Thank you for joining us in our belief that there is a home for every animal. With your support, we ll continue to find creative solutions that save lives. Thank You! President Pet Store M-F: 10:30 am-7:30 pm Sat: 10 am-6:30 pm Sun: 10 am-6 pm (408) x164 Grooming - by appointment only (408) x124 Humane Society Silicon Valley 901 Ames Avenue, Milpitas, CA (408) Humane Society Silicon Valley is an independent nonprofit organization. We are not governed by or affiliated with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) or the American SPCA (ASPCA) and receive no funding from these organizations. Medical Center Adoptions/Lost & Found M-F: 10:30 am-8 pm Sat & Sun: 10 am-7 pm Adoptions: (408) x150 Lost & Found: (408) x110 Spay/Neuter Drop-Off: M-Sat 6:30 am-7:30 am Pickup: Same Day 4 pm-6 pm (408) x108 Neighborhood Pet Adoption Centers Open every day 10 am-7 pm Vaccinations/Microchips M-F: 9 am-6 pm Sat: 9 am-5 pm Sun: 10am-3pm (408) x108 Medical Center is NOW OPEN SUNDAYS San Jose PETCO 500 El Paseo de Saratoga, San Jose (408) Sunnyvale PETCO 160 East El Camino Real, Sunnyvale (408) Marilyn Anderson Kara Berg Sue Diekman - Chair Sumita Dutta Gayle Haworth Terry Lee - Vice Chair Board of Directors Sue Levy Kate Mulligan Linda Netsch - Treasurer Stephen Sullins - Secretary Erin Toeniskoetter John Diekman Judy Kleinberg Judy Marcus Betty Moore Honorary Board Gordon Moore Tara VanDerveer Steve Wozniak

3 Princess Muriel lives happily ever after... he s definitely not bothered by a little hitch Sin her giddy-up, Customer Care staff member Erica Sanborn once said of Princess Muriel. It couldn t be more true. Whatever neurological abnormalities Princess Muriel had, a poor disposition was not one of them. Despite having a stumbling gait, a bit of a head tilt and the occasional odd, robot-like jerking movement, Muriel was always sunny and happy to see anyone who d come into her adoption suite for a visit. At age 12, Muriel s life had unraveled. Her beloved owner was terminally ill and no longer able to care for her. Now, she was not only a senior cat at a shelter, but a special needs senior cat. One who danced a bit when she walked and needed a household empathetic to the needs of a cat who would not always land on her feet. A cat that, in fact, often did not land on her feet. Even while walking. She loved falling asleep in any available lap, and on walks through the cat area we would often find her cuddled up to a volunteer or visitor. Despite her medical issues, her quality of life was great. Princess Muriel was a voracious eater, a fastidious user of her litter box and always willing to do pat-the-kitty duty when visitors came in wanting to say hello to an animal. She s not in any pain, Dr. Carol Campbell, a staff veterinarian, says. She has her old lady shakes but she just wants to be a lap kitty. She loved falling asleep in any available lap, and on walks through the cat area we would often find her cuddled up to a volunteer or visitor. Even touching the door to her room would bring her You may take me home now, new mom. Princess Muriel and Heather head back to the castle. wobbling out to greet us. She was a happy cat, albeit not a graceful one. Being a Princess means never having to wipe your chin: Muriel sports a scruffy beard and a huge heart. Enter Heather. She had recently lost her cat and called us specifically looking for a nice older cat that might need a little more care than most. Adoption staff suggested she come in to meet Princess Muriel. The two hit it off immediately. When Heather came in, it was like she was meant for that cat. She even came in (without having met her yet!) asking how long the adoption would take because she already made a 3 p.m. appointment at Adobe for her later, says Erica. Princess Muriel had found her kingdom, and in a recent her mom reports she continues to thrive in her new home. Finally living in the style she was meant to, she has a medical team to help her age with grace, eats albacore tuna and is steadily gaining weight. She s the joy of our life, Heather reports. Silly walk and all.

4 How do you make a perfect dog? Holly s reputation preceded her. In addition to the dermatitis that left her looking like a raccoon, she was also out of control. She was very reactive to certain movements be it from a dog or a person, Staff behaviorist Michelle Suarez sighs. And she had poor impulse control. It took her a long time to get comfortable enough to show affection. She lunged, barked and went after smaller dogs like they were snacks. She was always alert and always ready to start shrieking. She was all bark and no bite - but what an awful, piercing bark it was. So what do you do with a dog like Holly? You find out what makes her tick and work with her. In a traditional shelter setting, Holly would have been a lost cause. Here, staff saw the potential in the little black dog. She was bright and learned quickly. She was funny and affectionate once she got to know you. She adored large dogs and would play for hours on end. Behavior staff swung into action, assigning Jackie, a dedicated volunteer, as an advocate. A behavior plan was put in place to teach Holly desirable behaviors and desensitize her to movement. Jackie set forth with daily sessions a massage to calm Holly down and then long walks, introducing her to as many people as possible. Staff made sure she had regular playdates with Inky, a good natured American Bulldog, both to help Holly burn off excess energy and to have him to model good behavior for her. Holly s a special dog, says Jackie. She s one of those dogs that leaves pawprints on your heart. She was so smart you d show her something once and she d know what you want wanted. And she s always upbeat. Such great energy, such a great soul. It worked. The shrieking, the growling, the lunging it all decreased. She was in such great shape that when Jamie came in with her two daughters, Holly was up to the challenge. Jamie had been immediately drawn to Holly s profile on our website. Her picture on the website...all of her characteristics they noted. She seemed like a perfect fit, she says. I think Holly actually picked us. She and our eldest daughter got along from the get-go. Six months after coming to us, Holly went home with her new family. With her family s love, she s blossomed into a wonderful dog. Holly is adjusting really well as part of our family. She loves the kids and feels very comfortable at home with us. Holly is special and we all know why she was loved so much by your staff, Jamie says. Making History wi By the time the doors opened at 10 a.m., the lines of people stretched from t the days prior to the event, there had been a flurry of adoptions people eager to bring before they had a chance on the big day. Inside the main lobby, volunteers and staff lined up, r checked to make sure they had enough leashes and treats. In the cat area, volunteers and staff milled kitties out the door. Administration staff and volunteers readied their computers in the community room frantically put together dozens of carriers to insure that new adoptees would have safe transport home. And then the doors opened and eager adopters flooded in. First out the door was Genevieve, an 11-year-old terrier m crossed their fingers that she would still be there. Then Mariposa, a one-year-old orange kitty with a lush coat. The animals s new guardians. Cat carriers carefully carried out to cars. Chihuahua mixes grinning from warm laps as their new owners leaned o volunteers danced nimbly past each other, introducing, explaining and guiding the guests. By the time it was over, 226 animals had found new homes. 157 cats and kittens. 62 puppie At Maddie s Pet Adoption Days events across the country over 8,000 adoptions took place

5 It s Not Easy Being Milton It hasn t always been easy to be Milton. But with the commitment of Humane Society Silicon Valley, some help from a community vet partner and the love of a new family, it s getting easier every day. The economy and a tight housing market seemed to conspire to keep the gentlemanly Milton on a shelter frequent flier plan. He and his nine littermates came to us through our PUP (Prevent Unwanted Pregnancies) program. Our PUP program helps owners with unwanted litters by taking the animals in and fixing the mom for free. Milton was adopted as a young pup, but a year later, his owner lost his home to foreclosure. We immediately stepped up to bring him back into our care. He was adopted again, this time to a family with a little boy. History repeated itself when they also had to move, this time into an apartment that didn t allow his breed. Devoted to Milton, the family attempted to hide him from the management but were discovered. He was again returned to us. Concerned about Milton becoming depressed, our behavior team put together a plan to keep his morale high until we found him a home. He was assigned a volunteer to spend one-on-one time with him in addition to regular volunteer visits. He also went on playdates with other shelter dogs. Milton and Senior Behavior Specialist Michelle Suarez discuss his finer points with Maria Elena and family. th Maddie s Fund This time over-enthusiasm (and not real estate) did Milton in. While in a playdate, he tore a cruciate ligament. Surgery to repair a ligament can cost thousands of dollars and requires a long recuperation period, but is very effective. We reached out to veterinarian Dr. James Rousch. A skilled orthopedic surgeon, he s partnered with us in the past to assist our animals and to teach our staff new skills. He offered to do Milton s surgery at a deep discount, saving thousands of dollars. After the surgery, volunteer Betty acted as Milton s day nurse, calming him and taking him out for potty breaks. He would fall asleep using me as a pillow. I d sit and keep him company in case he woke...he would open his eyes during his nap, peek at me, then close them and go back to sleep. Maddie s Pet Adoption Days found Milton ready to find a family of his own. Enter Maria Elena and her five kids. Customer Care staff immediately loved the family. The kids were so calm and well behaved. Mom was on top of it, staff member Sue Burbank remembers. The family was sold on Milton, but Maria Elena wanted to make sure they could provide him the care he needed. She called pet insurance companies to talk about policies. She spoke with a vet about future care. The whole family returned the next day to bring him home, already having purchased health insurance for him. These days, gentle Milton has his own bedroom and his own family. He s so loveable, says Maria Elena. The kids call him Milton Baby and when we come home he s just waiting for us. They love to snuggle with him. he front doors and past the end of the South Wing. In home their preferred pet for fear of him or her getting adopted eady to introduce families to their new potential pets. They around excitedly, trying to figure out who would be the first they would be processing adoption paperwork. Pet store staff ix whose new family had met her in the week prior and treamed out puppies clutched lovingly in the arms of their ver them to sign adoption paperwork. Meanwhile staff and s and dogs. 7 rabbits. in those two days.

6 Sharing Space to Save Lives These are the things Bret likes: food, particularly of the canned variety. Talking to whomever will listen, preferably while they re giving him food. Sleeping. Hanging out on volunteer Becky s shins not the lap. The shins. Bret lives in the office of Shelter Operations Vice President Beth Ward, while he waits for a home that can appreciate him on his own terms. These are the things Bret doesn t like. Being touched, though air pats are fine. People he doesn t know. Too many people milling around him. Change. You can forgive him for not liking change too much. He is, after all, a cat. A very quirky one. At age eight, he s missing many of his teeth and his ears are scarred and folded over. He looks more like a small mountain lion than a cat. Volunteer Becky sits on the floor of Beth s office and extends a finger. Bret reaches out and touches it with his nose. She touches his paw. He pulls the paw back and then reaches out and taps her hand with it tentatively. Becky is a woman of patience and Bret is a cat who appreciates that. He has a ferocious beauty to him, she says. He does things on his own terms, in his own way. When he does come around it s entirely his decision. You can t buy him off. Becky has been working with Bret since April. When she first started coming he wouldn t come out at all. He d hide in a litter box or behind the file cabinet. Now he sprawls out under his cat tree, obviously relaxed. Becky has been working with less socialized cats for years at her house. I call it my stray to stay program, she says. She worked with one cat for nine months before she could touch him. Becky is a woman of patience and Bret is a cat that appreciates that. I can attribute almost all of his progress to being in an office and having someone around him all the time. She has a picture of Bret sitting on her shins looking content. Sometimes she rubs his scarred ears. He likes it. I think it s soothing to him. Being in a shelter is stressful for any cat the loss of their people is bad enough, but cats are creatures of habit. They depend on familiar environments and daily routines to feel safe. For a well adjusted cat, a shelter can be rough. For a cat like Bret, it could have put him at risk. Easily overwhelmed by new people, he needs to be able to have a place to retreat to, and a controlled flow of visitors. He needs to be an office cat. By opening up staff offices to special needs cats, Humane Society Silicon Valley can help save animals that might fall through the cracks at other shelters. Past office cats have included Ribbon, a breast cancer survivor recovering from surgery, and Lilah, an engaging dog-friendly feline who didn t like cats and was picky about people. At any given time there are usually several cats residing in different offices around the building. These are cats that either need extra care due to medical reasons, or who will be fine in a home but can t adjust to any shelter environment. Becky picks up a wand with a fake feather bird at the end of it. Transformed, Bret charges to the middle of the room to chase it. On his back legs he leaps up, bats it. He gets lost in the play, she says, bouncing the toy towards him again. Our office foster program is made possible by The Snug Bug, Smoochie, Gus, Doodlebug and Lily Fry Office Foster Cat Program.

7 Pet Detective Every time a pet finds its way to our doors, the staff at Humane Society Silicon Valley does everything they can to reunite the animal with their family. Often that requires a little detective work. Most of what you re about to read actually happened. Sort of. The joint was hopping. It was the 5th of July the busiest day of the year for an animal shelter s lost and found department. Everyone loves the Fourth of July. Everyone except pets. All those fireworks make them skittish. And skittish animals run. That s where I come in. I m a pet detective. I work at Humane Society Silicon Valley, trying to make the lost the found. Microchips, licenses, lost ads - there s no lead I won t run down to help lost pets find their way home. This year s July 5th was no exception. A veritable tide of animals was washing up the shores of our lost and found lobby. A shell shocked Shiba Inu. Two terrified terriers. A spooked Siamese. A panicked pug mix. Cowering kittens. They kept coming. And then she walked into my lobby, all white fur and throaty howls. A Samoyed. What s a girl like you doing in a place like this? To say the dog could talk was an understatement. She was more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs and couldn t stop singing about it. What we couldn t get out of her was her vitals. Who she was. How she got here. Not a hair out of place on this girl but no collar, tags or chip. Surely someone was looking for her she obviously knew her way around a doggy spa and hadn t skipped a meal recently but how do I find them? I added her name and description to our growing list of found pets, poured a cup of coffee and fired up the laptop. First stop: lost reports. We d been able to do some matchmaking with folks reporting their lost animals, but no one was looking for a fluffy white polar bear with a set of pipes like an opera singer. Then I perused the local lost listings and came up empty again. From the room behind me came a heartbroken howl of impatience. This girl wanted home and she wanted home now. I took out my camera and snapped a picture of her. Even scared and on the run she looked like she d win Westminster. Signing on to Craigslist, I posted an ad for her as well as all the other found pets here. Then the bell over the door tinkled again and a jittery Jack Russell Terrier came in. Meanwhile far from here, Valerie and her family got a disturbing call from their petsitter. In the fireworks melee, their beloved Samoyed Mitzi had bolted. Taken a runner. Flown the proverbial coop. Miles from home and with no way to search, what could the family do? While their petsitter pounded pavement, Valerie took to the web. First stop: Craigslist. This is where the serendipity happened. Searching on samoyed she found her girl right off. Before you could say boo (or utter a mournful wooooooooooooo as Mitzi was fond of doing), they were on the phone to us. A quick conversation confirmed it: our songbird Samoyed was the missing Mitzi. Much relieved, the family hurried home. While they traveled, Mitzi stayed with us one more night and sang us her final serenade. When the door opened that next day and they came in, she belted out a much happier tune. After the happy reunion I took them over to the medical center where our snowy songstress was fitted with a microchip, lest this happen again. As they departed I put my feet up on my desk and contemplated my lobby, now coated with a light dusting of long white hairs. This is why I do what I do.

8 EXTREME MAKEOVER: Dog Edition Nothing is more important than a first impression. Looking good makes you feel better. AFTER Everyone s heard those clichés before. Like most clichés, there s some truth to be found in both of those statements. For most dogs, grooming isn t just a beauty issue; it s also a health issue. A matted coat can cause skin sores or tears. Certain breeds need to have ear hair plucked or trimmed to avoid ear infections. For shelter dogs, the stakes on a good haircut are even higher. Past data shows that grooming can reduce an animal s stay at a shelter by up to 59%. Clean, wellgroomed animals get more attention, and the comfort of having painful mats removed can make all the difference in how a dog greets potential adopters. Odin came to us scared and in pain. Found living at a construction site, his coat was one big snarl. He had trouble moving normally due to hair on his legs being tightly matted to his stomach. Infested with fleas, he couldn t even scratch the bites. BEFORE Shaving him out of his restrictive pelt, we discovered a sweet faced maltese/poodle mix who loved to play with squeaky toys and would sit on his hind legs for treats. Grooming is just one more way we re able to improve quality of life and shorten the length of a stay for our shelter dogs. Last year, 111 of them benefited from our grooming center. This year we hope to expand that program to include at least 120 shelter dogs, in addition to providing our usual grooming services to the public.