Love Prevails: Success During the Month of Love
The Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation (SASF), in tandem with our sponsors, promotes the love and welfare of animals. Your generous donations have helped SASF support the Seattle Animal Shelter’s programs including foster homes, veterinary care, animal behavior, and more. To honor this, we have three heartwarming success stories: Nutmeg, Maxine, and Lemon Shark!
Beginning with an adorable kitten, Nutmeg, who arrived at Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS) with her four littermates at about ~4.5 weeks old as strays in late September. They were nervous and a bit hissy, but with a little time in foster care, Sagan, the SASF-funded foster coordinator, knew they’d become social kittens. Due to their age and timing, Sagan tagged them for the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation annual gala, Furevermore, and sent them off to foster knowing that they’d be celebrities at the event.
Foster parent, Archana, did an incredible job with this litter of kittens. One month later, it seemed Nutmeg enjoyed being handled by at least a hundred humans at Furevermore! Sweet Nutmeg stole the heart of an attendee, who adopted her on the spot. A couple of days later Nutmeg was spayed and was sent to her forever home! Foster home support in conjunction with adoption or promotion events is one way SASF helps SAS in matching people and pets.
As if that wasn’t heartwarming enough, 11-year-old miniature Schnauzer, Maxine, arrived at Seattle Animal Shelter in May of 2023. While in the shelter, she had a slight cough, but was so lovely that she was adopted before she could be examined by SAS veterinarians. Unfortunately, her new owner took her to a vet who said she had kennel cough, and she was then returned to the shelter.
Upon further investigation, Maxine was diagnosed with a grade IV/VI heart murmur, congestive heart failure, and Cushing’s disease, which caused some urinary incontinence. Surprisingly, these complications didn’t seem to slow her down, and she was known as an energizer bunny around the shelter! Despite Maxine’s energy, these complex medical issues did indicate a shorter lifespan, and the Seattle Animal Shelter vet team was not sure how she would respond to treatment. Maxine required a foster parent to help SAS assess her quality of life, and in June a new foster volunteer, Mary, raised her hand.
Maxine and Mary had a long journey through medication trials, adjustments, and extensive testing which were all made possible by the shelter’s incredible Veterinary Services team. As Maxine’s health issues became more manageable, some new behavior needs started popping up. Maxine exhibited some resource guarding, reactivity, and needed to be re-potty trained after her incontinence was under control. SAS Shelter Behaviorist, Tina Hope, consulted with Mary and helped lay a good foundation for working through these behaviors. Tina also facilitated a referral for Maxine and Mary with one of the shelter’s training partners, Companion Animal Solutions, who provided additional tailored plans for Maxine.
Although Maxine is a beautiful dog and doing well medically and behaviorally, she was having a tough time finding the best family for her! She got lucky in late October, when her perfect adopter came along, and they fell in love. The Seattle Animal Shelter was happy to provide her new home with a multi-month supply of medications and additional training to support Maxine’s transition to her new home. Sometimes it can take several months to ensure a paws-itively perfect match, but it is always worth it!
Our last story is Lemon Shark, a sweet German Shepherd Dog who was surrendered to the shelter after her owners lost their housing. Lemon Shark had experienced generalized anxiety since being hit by a car as a puppy. Lemon Shark came into the Seattle Animal Shelter demonstrating behavior challenges such as barrier reactivity, reactivity on leash, generalized anxiety, and she had previously bitten a human. In the shelter she was highly stressed, and visibly anxious.
Due to these reasons, the Seattle Animal Shelter’s behaviorist, Tina Hope, created a well-rounded plan for Lemon Shark which included behavior medication, desensitization and counterconditioning with treat tosses through her kennel to reduce barrier reactivity, office time to practice calm behavior, loose-leash walking training to reduce pulling and darting on leash, desensitization and counterconditioning to reduce reactivity on leash, and specialized counseling with her future adopter to prevent future bites. After spending some decompression time in the office with Tina, where she enjoyed playing with puzzle toys purchased with SASF grant funding, Lemon Shark showed a better ability to begin learning.
Finally, Lemon Shark was adopted, with her new family continuing her training at home. When the Seattle Animal Shelter followed up with them, they reported that, “Our biggest progress has been with working on “look at me” and making eye contact to try to keep the communication open when we encounter difficult distractions like new people or other dogs. She is so intelligent, and I can safely say that I have fallen head over heels in love with her!” With Lemon Shark’s training through SAS’s behaviorist and wonderful volunteers, she was able to find her best friends fur-ever.
The amazing accomplishments of Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation are a direct result of the love for animals that we share with our donors! With the generous donations we receive, we provide life-changing resources to the animals at Seattle Animal Shelter. Success stories are only made possible with contributions from our readers and supporters. Please click here if you are interested in supporting the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation!