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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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.

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!!!!

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-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.

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.

New Year, New Blog

It's a start of the new year at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, and we're starting a new blog about shelter life. There is so much that goes on here that goes beyond intake of animals and adoptions. We will use this space to report on the daily activities that constitute fulfilling our mission of promoting animal welfare.

Right now we have an adorable litter of six kittens that we are holding while their foster mother was out of town. She is picking them up tonight so that they can continue to thrive and get big enough to be adopted.

Another cat is living temporarily in our adoption manager's office because he has some health issues that haven't completely cleared up. He is making himself thoroughly at home and giving our shelter mascot cat Brutus serious competition in the congeniality department.

Rocky, a goofy Labrador-Sharpei mix is recovering from having most of his tail amputated. He is such a happy guy that he whacked his tail against things so much that he severely damaged it, and the vet recommended removing the whacking part. Rocky is recovering beautifully and still wags his very short tail just as much as he did before. He is eight years old and large so maybe that's why no visitors have noticed his charming personality.

Our Education Room is being decorated for a child's birthday party. The five-to-eight-year-old party guests will a tour of the shelter. Sometimes the birthday child asks for gifts for the shelter animals instead of for him or herself.

In winter the number of animals coming into the shelter usually decreases, and our kennel staff gets a much deserved breather from working nonstop to care for over 200 animals each day. In particular, the number of cats coming into the shelter is less in the winter as cats reproduce primarily in the late spring and summer. Instead of having over 100 cats as we do in the summer, today we have 53. In winter older cats have a better chance of catching visitors' attention because our cat room isn't as full of cute kittens.

If anyone thinks that living in urban/suburban Arlington means they won't encounter wildlife, that theory was disproved today when a neighbor e-mailed us a photo of a hawk gripping a pigeon that it had just killed on their back fence.