An Open Letter To The Person Who Left Us These Kittens

Hey There!

First of all, all of the babies were fine. Did you raise them? Did you find them? If you raised them, you did a good job. They were all healthy, well fed, and well socialized.

Good babies.

But it certainly did give our medical receptionist a start when she found them in a box on our front door when she came in to open our Medical Center that morning.

Maybe you were working a weird schedule. Maybe you were intimidated or scared and brought them in that early to avoid talking to someone. If that's the case, please don't be. We're not judgemental. We understand that things happen. And we understand you could have left these little babies by a side of a road or given them away in front of a store but you didn't. You went out of your way to get them to a safe place. We respect that and want to help you.

Tummy babies.

If you still have Mom or another cat that gets pregnant, please know we have programs to help you and keep this from happening again. Our PUP Program can fix mama for free and return her to you while we find good homes for the babies. From the condition of the kittens, someone takes good care of mama. Someone cares about her.

Playful babies.

If she is your cat and she's not pregnant, please give us a call anyway. We'd love to help you get her spayed. We have free spay/neuter for a bunch of zip codes. If you're not in those zip codes, we have super low cost spay and neuter. We want to help.

If they weren't yours and you found them, know that we have staff here all the time for lost and found pets. There's a bell next to our receiving door that you can ring and the night staff will come up to direct you. You don't have to leave them outside. Our staff is super kind.

Your kittens are doing just fine. They were a little spooked at first..

You-want-to-put-that-thermometer-where-baby.

But now they're relaxing and getting cuddles. They've been checked by a vet and gotten fixed and they'll be looking for new homes soon.

Cuddled baby.

We realize some folks will read this and immediately judge you. We wish they wouldn't. You took care of those babies. You got them to safety. We don't know you or your circumstances. Judging you or making assumptions doesn't help. It doesn't encourage other folks in similar situations to reach out. If anything, it discourages folks who need help from getting it. No one wants to be judged or treated cruelly when they're trying to do the right thing. 

Most folks don't know that cats can get pregnant as young as four months. They don't know what to do if they find a litter of kittens. But you tried. And we applaud you for that. 

Your kittens will be fine. And if we can help you, please let us know. It's what we're here for. 

Safe babies.

If you had absolutely nothing to do with these guys but you want to help, thank you! We could use you! We desperately need more kitten foster homes. And, of course, we need forever homes for all the kittens that are flooding in. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for promotions. 

Unrepentant Booger Cat Seeks Very Special Home.

Oh Phil. Phil Phil Phil. What are we going to do with you?

I have no idea what you're talking about. 

Don't give us that face. You're a booger and you know it.

Phil is one of those cats that one special person is going to find and be like "I found the coolest, most ridiculous, awesome, hysterical, fantastic cat EVER!" and all of their friends are going respond with "What are you thinking??"

We need to find that special person. We need to find them like, yesterday. Because while we adore his antics there is waaaay too much Phil-ness bottled up in Phil for him to be comfortable in the confines of a shelter, even one as spacious and awesome as ours.

Plus he's driving us all a little bonkers. He always wants to be all up in your business which makes the shelter even more frustrating for him as there's not always someone available whose business he can be all up in.

Before we get into a full list of all of Phil's transgressions, we'll start with Phil's biggest problem.

This is a toy.

We sell these in our Whole Pets store. Cat LOVE them. Hint.

And this is a person.

This is a stock photo of a person. We don't know her but she seems nice.

Phil tends to get these things confused. Why? Because Phil lives to party. He loves to play - all the time.....

Toys, other cats, even dogs - he's down to play. He's more like a puppy than a cat. But Phil plays like a linebacker. So accidents happen. It's a thing with him.

To wit, in the six months the little booger has been in shelters five accidents have happened. Several have been the result of Phil playing too hard and missing the toy and sinking his chompers into skin. One was the result of Phil not wanting his human playmate to leave and attaching himself to said playmate's leg. If you look at the following gif very carefully we swear he's either saying 'oops' or 'what?'.

So why should someone adopt him? We have to admit that despite all of his transgressions we adore him. We adore his shoulder-riding, endlessly-chirping-and-chatting...

 trick-learning way. He's basically a circus cat. We sometimes wonder how a cat that's sooooo smart manages to do such dumb things. He's been working hard on getting it together since he got here. In addition to learning some clicker tricks, he's also learning to go to a time-out space when it looks like he's getting confused on that whole toy/person thing. Don't get us wrong - he's got a ways to go but he's working on it.

Plus he's a cat. An eleven pound cat. He's not a nuclear bomb or a potential threat to public safety. With a savvy owner he'll be fine and provide some lucky owner with many years of hearty belly laughs, love and terrified house guests.

Still don't know what you're talking about. 

Phil is not for the faint of heart. He shouldn't be around kids at all unless you're not a huge fan of your kids. He really shouldn't go to someone who hasn't had a cat before. If you haven't had a cat but you have had a particularly affectionate pet badger or hyena in the past, give us a call. You might be up to the challenge. If you have an active, friendly cat who really needs a buddy, Phil might be your guy.

If you feel like you can handle all the Phil-tastic-ness that is Phil, we'd love to hear from you. If you have questions, give Hannah or Kara a holler at 408.262.2133 ext 167/175. Or you can set up an appointment to meet him online.

Check out his full adoption video and see him in action with other kitties, dogs and some (brave) people.

What's Black And White And Everywhere At HSSV?

Huskies. Tons and tons of huskies.

It's like a very warm, sled-less Iditarod around here. 

We understand that life is often about subtleties and compromise but sometimes things are just very black and white.

ME! ME! I'm black and white and made of floof and silly!

And sometimes everything is very black and white. Like our adoption floor right now. We seem to have undergone what we can only refer to as....

The Husky Invasion.

They're floofy. They're playful. They want to sing you the song of their people. And they have all converged on our adoption floor.

No, they didn't come in together.  There was no husky hoarding or anything dramatic or untoward like that. They just sort of filtered in, one at a time. Handsome Rhino came from a rural shelter.

Insert honking sound here. 

He had a little crooked nose problem and required some dental surgery. We took care of that and he's all ready for a new home, preferably one that enjoys vigorous physical activity and doesn't mind that for some reason he makes goose noises.

He makes goose noises and doesn't really get the concept of crate. But we lurf him.

Which we actually find rather adorable, if inexplicable. He barks like a goose.

Sweet, petite little Annie looks like a small Rhino but is not actually Rhino.

I do not honk. In fact I'm rather soft spoken.

She came to us from an urban shelter. A sensitive, gentle soul, she needed to be someplace a wee bit quieter as the noise was giving her the vapors. We transferred her in and gave her a quiet room in the back which is better but not as good as, you know, a home.

If Annie was a person she would read a lot and listen to NPR. And we lurf her. 

While she's still shy, she ADORES other dogs and turns into a whole other pooch when the bright beam of another dog's attention is upon her. She plays. She laughs. She romps. Do you have a dog? Do you need another dog? You might not but your dog might need another dog and that dog is Annie. She wants to love your dog. She already loves your dog and she hasn't even met him/her yet. We can pretty much guarantee it.

And this is Pearl. Who looks like a taller, leaner version of Rhino and a larger version of Annie. She is not, however, Rhino or Annie. She is Pearl. And she also came from a rural shelter

Check me out. Yes, I look good. 

She certainly looks rather sure of herself, doesn't she? You would too if you had it going on like Pearl does. She's housebroken. Like Annie, she adores other dogs but unlike Annie, is not shy with people. Pearl knows she can hold her own on any hike. Yes, she needs a little help with the manners but don't we all? 

Which brings us to another question: why so many huskies? Because huskies, dear friends, are like flavored coffee or very spicy food..

This latte was not actually made with husky bits. 

Wonderful if you were expecting it, a bit of a rude shock if you weren't. 

The great thing about huskies is that they're super loyal, loads of fun, athletic and have great senses of humor. Most of the ones we get LOVE to party with other pooches. They can be awesome with kids...

Rhino with a little hooman. 

And they're also smart and like to know what's going on around them. Which means they're very, very good...

At finding ways to do their own thing. 

If you find yourself inexplicably drawn to our cavalcade of arctic cuties, pop in. We'd love to talk to you about huskies. If it's not a fit, no worries, we have all sorts of other amaze-ball pooches who'd love to meet you. And we love to see your smiling faces.

Harumph. Too much trouble those big dogs. Come meet me instead.