Positive Changes at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington

After ten months on the job, I am happy to report some very positive changes that have taken place for the animals at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. First and foremost, euthanasias have decreased by 60% over the previous fiscal year. Our positive outcome rate for dogs has increased from 80% to 91%; for cats from 70% to 85%; and for small companion animals from 79% to 97%. Our fiscal year statistics are posted on our Web site.

We have successfully treated 21 cats for ringworm and found them new homes and have adopted 45 adult cats for no adoption fee. Free adoptions of adult cats have helped reduce the time adult cats stay in the shelter and have helped prevent overcrowding which leads to disease.

Although we have had many dogs with behavioral challenges, our adoptions team and volunteers have worked with them diligently on behavior modification and have given them extended periods of exercise to help them be more comfortable and relaxed in the shelter. Wonderful people have contributed their professional expertise in training and photography to help make all of our dogs more appealing to potential adopters. And as always our adoptions staff gives follow-up support to adopters whenever needed. We continue to develop positive relationships with local rescue groups. Our recently formed Pit Crew, consisting of shelter volunteers with a staff liaison, actively promotes a positive image of the breed to help raise our adoption of pit bulls.

Through a generous donation from two dedicated volunteers, we created a Very Important Pet (VIP) Lounge in our front office to bring attention to animals that have not gained attention from potential adopters. Dogs that do not show well in our kennel receive extra socialization and are seen in a more home-like environment in the Lounge. You may also sometimes find one of our bunnies enjoying the spacious play area in the VIP Lounge.

Our Trap-Neuter-Return program for helping community cats avoids the euthanasia of healthy cats while preventing an increase in the number of feral cats in our community. We hold information workshops regularly to educate residents on the program.

These positive changes have been a group effort among staff, volunteers, board members, and donors. Every one of you can surely take pride in the part you have played in these improvements. Thank you so much for your help and support. I hope you will continue to be a part of our work in the months ahead as we continue to strive toward giving every animal in our care the best possible experience and ultimately save more lives.

Sincerely,

Neil Trent
Executive Director
Animal Welfare League of Arlington
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Why Don't More Cats Wear Collars?

A recent study reported in Animal Sheltering Magazine (March/April 2011) cites an earlier study in Ohio in which only 17% of cat owners said their cats wear some form of visual identification and only 3% have microchips. No wonder it is so difficult to return lost cats to their owners!

The study also says that nationally only 2% of stray cats entering animal shelters are reunited with their owners. The League's record is much better: we reunite 19% of stray cats with owners. We would of course like to make that percentage much higher. The League microchips all our cats prior to adoption, and our adoption contract requires that adopters ensure that their cats always wear elastic safety collars and identification tags.

The focus of the study was to find out what percentage of pet cats would wear collars for six months and still have functioning microchips. 538 cats were microchipped and given collars. At the end of six months, 73% of cats were still wearing their collars and had functioning microchips. The study also found that owners who felt more positively about their cats wearing collars were more likely to have cats who succeeded in wearing them longer.

Many more lost cats could get back home if their owners were diligent about keeping collars with identification on them. Even indoor cats (all pet cats should be indoors) need to wear identification in case they get outside by accident. It happens all the time: we get calls almost daily about indoor cats that have accidentally gotten outside and are not wearing identification.

So cat lovers, please microchip your pet cats and make sure that they always wear elastic safety collars with identification.

An Orange Kitten and the Ringworm Saga of 2010

This is the story of a little orange cat with a few patches of missing fur. She came to the shelter in July 2010 as a stray at about two months old. We named her Mia Bella. She had an upper respiratory infection and some fur loss in patches. We began treating her for her cold, and in early August a test confirmed that she had ringworm.

Ringworm is not caused by a worm. It is an infection of the skin caused by a fungus. Ringworm is contagious. It spreads when you have skin-to-skin contact with a person or animal that has it. It can also spread on things like towels and clothing. So we began weekly lime dips and systemic treatment with intraconazole. Then another cat came in with patchy fur loss, and another. Finally, we had 21 cats with confirmed ringworm that were all undergoing weekly dipping, weekly testing, and systemic treatment. The cats also had to be quarantined from all other animals and people. So we converted our cat sick bay room and previous dog receiving room into ringworm quarantine 1 and 2.


Animal care technicians have to wear protective clothing including hair and shoe covers to go in these rooms to clean and care for the quarantined cats. Of course, this is in addition to caring for the 60-80 other cats in the shelter. We also began completely stripping, cleaning, and disinfecting the rooms with a bleach solution once a week. Sometimes animal care staff came in late at night to disinfect after everyone else was gone. Even with precautions, a few staff members caught the fungus themselves. We also instituted some new cleaning protocols in our other cat areas to reduce the possibility of contamination.


After five months of treatment and a set-back with a serious jaw infection that required surgery, Mia Bella finally was healthy enough for adoption. She moved out of quarantine into our main cat room and was soon adopted into a loving home. To date, nine of our 21 quarantined cats have fully recovered and eight of those have been adopted. We expect to have a few more weeks of treatment before all the cats are ready for adoption and we can close the chapter on the ringworm saga of 2010.


Our animal care technicians have risked infection, bleach fume overload, and exhaustion to save these cats and make them healthy. Administrative staff have helped out with regular cleaning so that animal care technicians could focus on the extra cleaning that the ringworm requires. We all hope we never see ringworm again, but if and when we do, we certainly know how to handle it.

51 Spay Day Surgeries

Thanks to the generous support of donors to our Hantke Memorial Spay/Neuter Fund we have subsidized surgeries for 51 cats and dogs for Spay Day 2010. Low-income pet parents paid only $25 for the surgery and the Hantke Fund paid the remainder. The Washington Metropolitan Spay/Neuter Center and Fairfax Animal Hospital performed the surgeries at very low cost for us. We plan to do four more surgeries on Friday at Arlington Animal Hospital.

While Spay Day brings attention to the need for low-cost surgery in February each year, the League offers reduced cost spay and neuter year-round. The best way to solve the pet overpopulation problem is prevention!

Pet-Friendly Sheltering Exercise

Today we had the honor to participate in a pet-friendly sheltering exercise sponsored by Fairfax County and the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. The exercise was a drill designed to test the pet-friendly sheltering model first established in this area by the Animal Welfare League of Arlington.

The exercise took place at the Prince William County Fairgrounds and involved participants from Prince William County, the City of Manassas, the City of Falls Church, Fairfax County, and the City of Alexandria. Animal Welfare League of Arlington staff served as evaluators. We also brought along our disaster trailer so that our supplies could be used in the exercise.

The exercise went very smoothly. All the participating (stuffed) dogs, cats, and other animals were successfully registered and housed. Each jurisdiction that participated took home valuable lessons. The best part of the experience was the cooperation among so many different sheltering groups. It definitely bodes well for Northern Virginia pets if there should be a real disaster.

Busy Weekend for Pets

Wow! Lots of activities this weekend promoted pet adoptions! First, the League's third annual Barks 'n Beer Festival brought out League friends and their dogs on Saturday. They enjoyed free hotdogs and root beer, contests, prizes, reduced price retail items, and doggie baths and nail trims. Despite the wet weather, lots of people and dogs enjoyed the afternoon. And whether related to the event or not, nine cats found new adoptive homes!


Then on Sunday, Oct. 25, we joined some other rescue groups at the Caring Hands Animal Hospital Open House. Link, a Brittany Spaniel, was one of our shelter dogs that visited with people at the open house. We hope he made an impression on someone who will decide to adopt him.

Sick Kittens Improve

Our assistant animal care manager just sent the staff an update on some of our shelter animals:

Just a quick note and picture of four of the "20 kittens" that all came in sick just a few weeks ago. The kittens were found in a colony of feral cats in another county and brought to the League. Almost all of them had severe upper respiratory infection with discharge from eyes and nose and severe congestion. Four of the kittens turned out to be too sick to save and had to be euthanized. One is still being treated at a local veterinary hospital.

All the remaining ones except for these are in foster homes! These four were not well enough to go to a foster home so they are here at the shelter. We're hoping that all of them will be well enough to be available for adoption later this summer. They are getting healthier and more adventurous by the minute...the only problem is they don't understand the concept of sleeping INSIDE their beds instead of on top of them. Thank you to all that helped with the oftentimes insurmountable task of caring for such a large group of "sickies"- because of you these kittens will have a chance at a happy, healthy life!!!!

Free Cat Adoptions

Saturday, June 20, we are staying open until 8:00 pm to try to get some of our 56 available cats adopted. It's almost summer and like most other animal shelters, we are inundated with cats and kittens. So anyone who wants to adopt a cat should come in on Saturday. We have kittens and adults. All cats that are at least five years old can be adopted for free on Saturday only. It's not that we don't value our mature cats, we just want to do whatever it takes to find them loving homes.

Kittens Need Foster Homes

Kitten season has definitely begun. We have 44 kittens and cats in 11 different volunteer foster homes. These are kittens that are younger than seven weeks and/or weigh less than 2.5 pounds. Only two of these litters are with a nursing mother cat. The others must be fed, taught, and cleaned by a gentle human being. When these kittens are thriving and weigh 2.5 pounds, their foster parents return them to the shelter. They are spayed/neutered and then made available for adoption.

It takes a special person to become a foster parent. You have to devote yourself to these helpless creatures for several weeks and then you must let go. Our foster parents become very attached and after returning kittens and cats to the shelter some check daily to see if their kittens have been adopted. Our foster parents report that although their job is difficult, with some sleepless nights and many messes to clean up, it is very rewarding.

We also have three dogs in three foster homes while they recover from necessary medical treatment. So if you're not a cat person, we still need you.

If you think foster parenting is for you, please complete the volunteer foster application and send it to foster@awla.org.

Adopt an Older Cat

We have a number of cats in the shelter that are 10 years or older. They are healthy and friendly and need good homes. Like Bennett, pictured above, they may not have the bounce and antics of younger cats, but they can be wonderful companions and lap warmers.

To encourage people to adopt these sweet kitties, we're offering a reduced adoption fee of $50 for them. We even have a bonded pair that can be adopted for $75 for both. If you have room in your heart and home for a mature feline friend, please consider bringing one of these deserving kitties into your life.

70 Animals Neutered for $25 Each

Staff wears their Spay Day t-shirts to welcome pet owners on Friday morning.

We have had a fantastic response to our Spay Day offer of spaying/neutering cats and dogs for $25 plus getting a free microchip. Low-income owners of 70 pets in our community have taken advantage of this opportunity to protect their pets' health and prevent unwanted litters!

The League is subsidizing the cost of the surgeries and we are providing the microchips for free. We are lucky to have the National Capital Spay Neuter Center and Fairfax Animal Hospital as our partners in this vital community service. The funds for subsidizing the surgeries comes from our Hantke Memorial Spay Neuter Fund.

Last Friday at 6:30am we loaded up 30 animals in our van and drove them to the Spay Neuter Center. By 9:00pm that night all of the pets had been returned to their owners newly neutered and microchipped. We're doing it again this Friday! We had so much interest in the program that several other pets will be getting the same services at Fairfax Animal Hospital.

While we offer low-cost neutering all year round, this special applies only to our participation in Spay Day. It's great to see so many loved companions getting such a needed service.

Giving Thanks for "Patience"

Every animal that comes in to our shelter has lost its home, but sometimes the story is particularly sad. On October 27, 2008, an Arlington County employee found a cat in a carrier under a pile of household goods in front of an empty house. The worker brought the cat to the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. We guessed that the cat’s owner may have been evicted. The cat’s front left paw was tightly wrapped with a cloth bandage. When we unwrapped the bandage we saw that the paw was swollen badly and showed signs of infection. We sent the cat to Caring Hands Animal Hospital where doctors found ulcerations, infection, and dead tissue. They prescribed pain medication and an antibiotic. They thought that they might need to amputate the paw.

After about a week of soaking the paw twice a day and changing the bandage, kennel staff named the cat Patience because of her amazing tolerance of all the uncomfortable treatment that she needed. Then we sent the female orange tabby to Fairfax Animal Hospital where doctors sedated her, removed dead skin and soaked her foot. An X-ray of the paw showed fractures of the bones that run between the fingers and the wrist. Under sedation her left premolars were removed because the roots were exposed.

On November 18 Patience was rechecked at Fairfax Animal Hospital and sent back to us with the following treatment protocol: every 2-3 days, remove bandage and soak paw in dilute Chlorhexidine solution for 10 minutes. With gauze pad, gently scrub off any remaining dead tissue and wipe paw dry. Allow paw to air dry completely, then apply antibiotic ointment, cover with Tefla pad, wrap with cast padding (make wrap supportive/thick to give more support to broken toes), then apply kling gauze, and finally vetwrap. Repeat and change dressing every 2-3 days. Our kennel staff performed all her needed care while also caring for more than 100 other animals every day.

On December 1, Patience went back to the hospital for follow-up x-rays. They showed that the wound was healing. She no longer needed bandages, but still needed her medications and cage rest. During all her time here Patience has resided in our Adoption Manager’s office with a comfy cat bed. Kennel staff brought her medications and treated her there.

Patience’s paw still looks scarred and fragile, but she walks with only a slight limp. Because of the dedication of our staff, the expertise of local veterinarians, and money provided by the Woody and Mickey Healthy Pet Fund, what began as a very sad story has turned into a story of triumph. Patience survived, her paw is healing, and she has remained the most gentle and friendly cat throughout her entire ordeal. Since no owner has come forward to claim her, she is now available for adoption.

After 14 Months, Karen Finds a Home

If you've visited our cat room in the past 14 months, you probably saw Karen, a black and white cat in one of our kitty "apartments." We tried to keep her separate from other cats because she really didn't like them. She could be affectionate, but on her own terms. She didn't particularly like to be picked up. Over those 14 months hundreds of other cats were adopted, but Karen remained with us. Our kids' camp children had even written "Adopt Karen" in chalk on our sidewalk. We were beginning to think there was no one out there for her.

But last weekend a miracle occurred. A woman came in looking for an independent, adult cat. One of our tireless cat room volunteers, CarolAnne, showed her Karen. She explained Karen's temperament and behavior, and the woman was not put off. After Karen settled down in the visiting room, she jumped up on the bench where the woman was sitting. Then she climbed in her lap and licked her face! CarolAnne was amazed. The woman loved Karen's independent nature and decided to adopt her.

The next day CarolAnne couldn't wait to find out how Karen was doing in her new home so she called the adopter. She reported that Karen had made herself completely comfortable in her new surroundings and was at that moment sitting in her lap. Everyone at the shelter is overjoyed. We knew Karen would be a great companion for the right person. We are so thankful for our adopters who open their hearts and their homes to animals that need them so much.

Adopt-a-Cat Month in Arlington

We’re all excited about the challenge we have set for ourselves this month: find permanent, loving homes for 100 cats! June marks the beginning of the season when kittens are brought in to the League in droves, and we still receive plenty of adult cats. Our cat room gets very full, and many of our adult cats don’t get visitors’ attention because of all the cute kittens. So we’re creating incentives to find adopters for all of them!

On June 7 the League will host the Saturday Scoop. Visitors that day will get free ice cream and a 20% discount on any retail purchase. Also, anyone who finalizes the adoption of an adult cat will get 50% off the normal cat adoption fee on this day only. So come in, get some ice cream, and take a look at our adult cats that are waiting so patiently for someone to give them a loving home.

Also, all month cat adopters’ names will be put in a bowl, and at the end of June we will draw names to receive terrific prizes, including a pair of Nationals’ tickets. So June is a great time to find a new love: one that will be forever grateful that you opened your heart and your home.

One great example is Misty pictured above. She is approaching an anniversary. She has been with us for almost a full year. Why has she been overlooked by all our visitors? She is quiet and a little shy, but very friendly when she gets to know you. We hope that someone with a kind heart will want to take Misty home this month.

Farewell to Brutus

Last week we experienced the most difficult part of pet companionship: loss. Our shelter mascot, Brutus, died last Friday. Brutus was a handsome and supremely confident Ragdoll cat. He was surrendered to the shelter in August 2001 because his owner was moving. His name at the time was Brutella because when he was a kitten his owner thought he was a female. Of course, he was a neutered male so we thought the name Brutus was much more appropriate.

We had been without a mascot for two years since our long-time shelter cat, Wilson, had died. A former staff member campaigned for Brutus to become Wilson’s successor, and he certainly proved himself worthy. At first he spent his days at our front desk greeting (or not) all our visitors. But he proved to be somewhat moody and was not always as welcoming as one might want. Therefore, we decided that Brutus would be better off spending his time in our offices.

He kept a strict eye on all our activities and helped out sitting on papers and keyboards. His most important job, however, was that of dog behavior evaluator. All the shelter dogs would meet Brutus before being made available for adoption so that we could see how they reacted to a cat. These encounters helped us inform potential adopters about whether their prospective dog would do well with cats.

Brutus, of course, was no ordinary cat and did not react the way an ordinary cat might. He never ran. He would stand his ground while facing the (leashed) dog and dare it to annoy him. Some dogs weren’t even worthy of notice, so he would turn his back to them. Most dogs needed only a scowl from Brutus to back off, but the pushy ones were met with a smack from his hefty paw. I once saw an unfortunate puppy stick his nose in Brutus’ food dish. In a split second Brutus had bitten him on the top of the head, and the puppy ran squealing away.

Brutus did play favorites among our staff. Lisa was his prime source of food, and he followed her wherever she went. Ann, Alice, and Rita were his executive assistants charged with brushing his long fur and arranging his favorite cat beds. When none of the four were available, he visited with others of us who could provide less desirable attention.

During his seven years with us (he was about seven years old in 2001), Brutus had several health problems that were carefully treated and monitored. So it was shocking when we found him unable to stand last Thursday morning. We took him to his veterinarian at Caring Hands Animal Hospital, and after examining him he referred us to SouthPaws Veterinary Referral Center. But Brutus continued to decline. On Friday morning, in consultation with the veterinarian at South Paws, we decided to have him humanely euthanized.

We weren’t prepared for Brutus’s death, and even if we had been it wouldn’t make it any easier to walk in the shelter offices in the morning and not see him. Like any well loved companion, Brutus made his mark on all of us. It will be a long time before we look at his large gold chair and not imagine him lounging in it.

Many, many animals pass through our shelter and make lasting impressions on staff and volunteers, but one that we will think of for years to come is Brutus, the Ragdoll cat.

A Flood of Homeless Kittens

It starts as a trickle and quickly becomes a flood. Homeless kittens, that is, come flooding into animal shelters every spring, and it doesn’t stop until fall. At the Arlington animal shelter the trickle has begun. We have 26 unweaned kittens in six different volunteer foster homes already. We receive kittens from many sources: owners who haven’t neutered their cats and many, many stray kittens rescued by good Samaritans. Some come in with a mother cat, but most do not. Some can’t eat solid food yet and must be bottle fed. Some have never experienced human contact and must be handled and socialized. Most of these tiny kittens would not survive without the special care (sometimes round the clock) of foster caretakers.

Once these kittens are eight weeks old and weigh at least two pounds, their foster parents bring them back to the shelter for adoption. All of them are spayed or neutered before going to their forever homes so that they do not perpetuate the cycle of increasing numbers of homeless cats.

Our foster caretakers have room in their hearts and in their homes for defenseless creatures that need their care to survive. Although they may have a hard time letting go of their “babies” when it’s time for adoption, foster parents love to see their kittens going to loving, permanent homes.

And we can't forget the adult cats in our shelter. Some of which have been waiting for months for the right person to give them love and security in a permanent home. In the summer when there are many adorable kittens for adoptions, these adult cats are often overlooked. They need homes just as much as the kittens do.

Finding a Friend

We are all romantics at the shelter. We love to see people fall in love (especially with animals). It makes our hearts glad and we get a warm feeling all over when someone walks into our shelter and makes a connection with one of our animals. We love to see happy people adopt a new best friend.

What’s really nice is hearing from people after their adoption(s). We often get letters like the one from OC girl that show how besotted with love people are with their new animal companion. Our staff and volunteers work hard to help visitors find the right companion, and success stories like this one make our day!

Lost and Found

One of our daily routines at the League is trying to match lost and found pet reports. We not only try to find the owners of strays that are brought in to the shelter, we also take lost and found reports from the public by phone at 703-931-9241 and on our Web site .

A distraught cat owner called the shelter on January 16, 2008, to report that her cat had gotten lost the day before. She described him as an orange tabby with a white chest and said he was predominantly an outdoor cat. He was following the owner on a walk when he was distracted by a bird or other small animal at the intersection of North 14th Street and George Mason Drive. The caller also mentioned that her cat was not wearing a collar but was microchipped and had a crooked tail. She also sent in a digital photo that was attached to her lost report.

A few hours later a young woman called to report that she had found a male cat the previous day and had kept it in her house. Several elements in the two reports were strikingly similar: the color of the cat, the location lost, and especially the description of a crooked tail. We put both parties in contact, and the happy owner reclaimed her cat.

Later we received the following note from the cat owner:

Dear Animal Welfare League,
My family and I would like to thank you for helping us to locate our sweet cat, Jake, on January 16. We reported him lost and that same day a responsible local teenager contacted you that she had found [a cat]. Needless to say, we had a very happy 6 year old son to welcome Jake home.

What helped resolve this situation so quickly was the prompt and precise information gathered from both callers. If you lose or find a pet, please call the League (or the appropriate animal control office in your jurisdiction) as soon as possible and be specific about the animal’s distinctive features. We also recommend keeping cats indoors with collars and identification tags for their own health and safety.

Spay Day in Arlington

Today some of our staff arrived at 6:00am to check-in low-income clients who had registered their pets for low-cost neutering surgery through our Spay Day USA program. To do our share of the national Spay Day USA program run by the Humane Society of the United States, the League offered spays and neuters for cats and dogs for only $25. We also offered a microchip and registration for free for these pets.

We are subsidizing the costs not covered by the $25 fee from our Hantke Memorial Spay-Neuter Fund. We use this fund to offer low-cost neutering all year round.



This morning people showed up with 15 cats and eight dogs for surgery. They signed permission forms, paid $25 for each pet, and loaded them into crates in our transport van. Two League staffers drove the pets to the National Capital Area Spay Neuter Center. The Washington Humane Society and their partners created the center to provide low-cost surgeries for cats and dogs in the metro area.

Another staffer will drive downtown to pick up the animals this evening. The owners will retrieve their pets from the League in Arlington tonight. We will give them post-operative instructions for the care of their pets along with pain medication needed for three days.

On Friday we will repeat the entire process for 25 more pets of low-to-moderate-income people. This effort means that almost 50 cats and dogs in our community will NOT contribute to the pet overpopulation problem. They will NOT create litters upon litters that may end up homeless. They WILL be more likely to remain in their homes because they will not have the behavior or medical problems that can occur with unneutered pets.

We think Spay Day is a win-win situation for our community: the pets and the people.

After a Year, Paula Finds a Home

Shelter staff got the following message from CarolAnne, a faithful cat-room volunteer:

I’m sure most of you have heard that Paula, the cat, FINALLY got adopted on February 16 (one week short of being at the League for one year!). I worked with her adopter, Clair, and I can tell you, it is a wonderful adoption! Clair came in to see me several times and spent time with a few cats, including Paula, but she decided Paula was the cat for her. She has a 13 year old male cat, who lost his sibling in November. We discussed personalities and introductions and Clair thought Paula would fit right in. She really “gets” Paula and thinks her personality is great. I really felt Clair was the right person for Paula, too.

Well, it is working out beautifully! She actually introduced them the first night [we don't recommend this], after confining Paula and deciding both cats wanted to meet each other. They went nose-to-nose, sniffed each other and went on their ways. Clair came in to see me on Monday and said Paula (who she calls “Wild Woman”, not because of her personality, but because she is so very playful and entertaining) is just loving her new home. She’s inspected every room and she loves all the windows and watching the birds and squirrels (which was a favorite past-time of hers at the shelter). When she left to come over to the shelter, Clair said both cats were sleeping on the same bed within three feet of each other. And this was after Paula was home less than 48 hours!! There have been no problems whatsoever. It just goes to show you, that if we wait long enough (and it was sooo long), the purr-fect person will come in.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see her, not only go home, but to the RIGHT home.