Animals pat life

Dear Friend, If you know Animal Friends, you know that spaying/neutering pets is at the heart of our organization. For more than 20 years, we’ve been compassionately and proactively fighting pet overpopulation. For far too long, too many pets have been unnecessarily euthanized in our region. At Animal Friends, we still firmly believe that euthanizing pets is never the solution to pet overpopulation. To truly stem the tide of pet overpopulation, spay/neuter services need to be accessible and affordable to everyone – no matter their level of income. But that’s only part of combatting this crisis in our region. We need to ensure these services are accessible to the communities that need them most. Our Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Program is making incredible strides in many of Pittsburgh’s underserved communities. Our staff has been hitting the ground, knocking on doors and getting to know the residents of these neighborhoods to better understand what they need and how we can help. I’d like to ...

We’re always on the lookout for fun activities to share with you and we found a great one from our friends at the Outer Banks SPCA, located in North Carolina.(https://www.facebook.com/obxspca) Last Thanksgiving, their shelter dogs celebrated by digging into these festive food bowls! Volunteers and kids had so much fun putting them together that the North Carolina agency has been serving up this Thanksgiving Day feast for two years and counting. Freezing the bowls allows advance preparation—and as a bonus, makes mealtime last longer for the animals.  Share photos if you do this for your dogs on Thanksgiving!  We'd love to see! Special thanks to ASPCA and the Outer Banks SPCA for this recipe.

In honor of Adopt-a-Shelter-Dog Month, we would like to share a wonderful success story of a shelter dogs who found his forever home!  Here is an awesome success story that demonstrates the love and compassion that shelter animals are capable of! Havoc Many of us can relate to having a house full of four-legged family members, just like Dawn and Mark Lubbart. They are avid Animal Friends supporters, having adopted from us multiple times. Thirteen years ago they adopted their first dog, Thor, who quickly became the love of their lives.  Next they added Cyclops, a wonderful puppy who unfortunately developed seizures. Without missing a beat, Dawn and Mark worked with him and bonded closely with their poor baby boy. After many trials and errors, they figured it out and Cyclops has been seizure-free for quite some time! In May of 2015, a month after having to send their beloved Thor over the Rainbow Bridge, this wonderful couple decided to adopt again. After spending over three hou...

In light of the Halloween season, Animal Friends is again providing some not-so-spooky enrichment for its shelter residents based on this ghoulish holiday. Our eerily creative Animal Enrichment Specialist, Suzanne Denk, cooked up a “Halloween Enriched Environment Trail” for our shelter dogs this past weekend! The first stop on the trail was a pool of leaves, with hidden tasty treats, requiring dogs to use their noses to find them. Another scent game included sealed boxes with holes to tempt canine noses. Fresh hay, herbs and apple cinnamon air fresheners were hidden inside the boxes. Spooky hanging obstacles (pool noodles) were used as a confidence builder for our shyer shelter residents (you can also stick treats in the hollow end of the pool noodle to entice shy dogs to approach). Many made a quick stop at the festive Jack-o-Lantern duck pond and then it was on to the final stop of the trail – The Magic Potion Cheese Tree. Treats were stuck to the tree with a bit of cheese for the do...

    James writes about Stubbie: He is 8 yrs. old but still very young at heart. His name came from him being the runt of the litter, who later grew to actually be bigger than his siblings.  He loves to play as well as being a lap-cat. With the passing of my mother, I am looking for a good home to send him to. He is house trained for a litter box. I can't keep him due to family allergies. If you can help Stubbie find a forever home, please contact James at Jguiddy@kaier.net.

  By: Suzanne Denk, Animal Enrichment Specialist Remember paper bag pumpkins from preschool?   A brown lunch bag filled with hay provides an enriching way to provide a rabbit with some of his daily portion of hay.      Simply fill the lunch bag with hay.   A treat or a few pellets can be added. Twist the top of the bag into a pumpkin stem.   Wrap raffia around the stem.   Wrap the loose end of the raffia in as you wrap.   Leave loose ends as leafy tendrils! A Jack-O-Lantern smiling face is optional!