Salutations and Jocund June!
In this Edition:
- Upcoming Adoption Event: July 7th - 10th
- Pets of the Month (FREE Bunny adoptions to qualified homes!)
- What Do the Shelter Pocket Pets Eat?
- Event Recaps
- Career Cats Program
- Animal Control Corner
- Around the Shelter
- Just For Fun Links To Enjoy From Home
If you have any questions regarding an animal or event featured here, please contact the shelter at (510) 293 - 7200 or contact Volunteer Coordinator Alyse Lui at Shelter.Volunteers@hayward-ca.gov
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Did You Know?
You can fill out Lost/Found Forms, Adoption applications, and Foster applications online?
To learn more visit our website: www.haywardanimals.org
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Hayward Animal Shelter will be participating in the national Empty the Shelter's adoption event from
Wednesday, July 7th thru Saturday, July 10th
1:00pm - 5:00pm each day of the event!
$20 adoptions on all adoptable kittens, cats, and dogs, to qualified homes sponsored by Bissell Pet Foundation!
But wait, there's more!
ALL rabbit, guinea pig, and hamster adoptions are FREE to qualified homes, thanks to a generous volunteer who is sponsoring all rabbit, guinea pig, and hamster adoption fees!
All dogs, cats, and rabbit adoptions include the microchip, spay/neuter, and vaccinations- it doesn't get better than that!
To view animals available for adoptions and to fill out an adoption application visit our website:
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We have a lot of adoptable animals looking for homes at the Hayward Animal Shelter.
Below we shine our adoption spotlight on our Pets of The Month.
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It's Kitten Season!
Hayward Animal Shelter has dozens of adorable, playful, friendly kittens available for adoption, like Meera the 11 week old kitten!
Meera is an energetic female kitten who likes to explore and climb! She LOVES playing with wand toys, but once tuckered out, she also enjoys a short cuddle before taking a nap.
If you are interested in fostering or adopting call the Hayward Animal Shelter (510) 293 - 7200 or visit www.haywardanimals.org/adoptions
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Meet Hamtaro! One of nine completely cute hamsters available for adoption at the Hayward Animal Shelter right now!
Hamtaro is athletic and has been known to do back flips when excited. Hamtaro is also a curious hamster who enjoys climbing on his hamster hutch and nibbling on fresh greens like a tiny piece of broccoli, timothy hay, or an itty bitty bit of apple (have to watch the waistline after all).
If you are interested in fostering or adopting call the Hayward Animal Shelter (510) 293 - 7200 or visit www.haywardanimals.org/adoptions
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It's a BUNNY BONANZA!! ALL BUNNY ADOPTIONS ARE FREE, Sponsored by one of our generous volunteers!
There are LOTS of great rabbits looking for good homes at the Hayward Animal Shelter!
- Anpan: neutered male, laid back, loves naps!
- Cappuccino: spayed female, enjoys snacking on parsley.
- Mary Hoppins: spayed female, calm personality, likes basil and hay.
- Tiger: neutered male, big personality, communicates with grunts, loves wooden chew toys.
- Muffin: spayed female, very sweet, enjoys exploring and sniffing new things.
- Luna: spayed female, the biggest sweetheart, very laid back, enjoys fresh air, lots of timothy hay, and toys.
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Not pictured here: Prince Bubblegum: neutered male, quiet boy, likes to keep to himself, is very cute.
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Not pictured here: Jumpin' Joe: neutered male, sweet, amicable bunny does well with handling, likes snacking on fresh greens.
If you are interested in fostering or adopting call the Hayward Animal Shelter (510) 293 - 7200 or visit www.haywardanimals.org/adoptions
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Nena is a sweet, smart, 7 year old girl who knows “sit”, “shake”, and “down”. She enjoys playing fetch, splashing around in her kiddy-pool, and going on walks. Nena would love a home with older children and adults.
If you are interested in fostering or adopting call the Hayward Animal Shelter (510) 293 - 7200 or visit www.haywardanimals.org/adoptions
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It was our first community event in over a year and it felt great to be back!
We brought pet food and dog harnesses to give away for free, as well as information on programs like our spay/neuter voucher program; our TNR (trap/neuter/return) program for community cats and our services like adoption and foster.
We also did a lot of humane education, answering questions from "what can I do about nuisance wildlife in my yard" to "where can I get affordable vaccinations for my pet?" and everything in between!
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Youth and Family Services Bureau ran a free kids camp last week and invited Animal Services to do some humane education and fun activities.
We brought shelter bunny, Luna, and she was an absolute star!
The kids loved her and she seemed to love them right back.
She really enjoyed getting some fresh air because she did
two binkies while we were there (a bunny binky is when a rabbit
jumps up in the air and kicks out. It is a sign of excitement and joy
in rabbits) as well as few happy bunny flops (a bunny "flop" is
when they flop down and lay all stretched out. It is a sign they are feeling comfortable and happy).
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Who enjoys fresh salad?
The shelter pocket pets do!
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The shelter pocket pets are setting a great example in how to eat healthy this summer. Each morning they get a tasty breakfast of super fresh greens consisting of a rotating mix of mint, parsley, arugula, basil, cilantro, dill, rosemary, bell peppers, spinach, and romaine lettuce.
Friday is cheat day when they get a healthy treat of either banana, carrot, strawberry, or blueberry with their salad.
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Feeding fresh greens serves multiple purposes. For one, it's great enrichment that the pets look forward to each morning. They will literally jump for joy when they see their salad. It's a welcome change from their standard fare of timothy hay and pellets. |
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Feeding fresh greens also helps meet the diverse nutritional needs of the shelter animals. For example, did you know that guinea pigs, like humans, are unable to produce their own vitamin C and rely on fresh greens to get this vital vitamin?
If guinea pigs don't get enough vitamin C through their diet or supplements they can develop scurvy, just like ye pirates of olde. The fresh greens they get are great sources of vitamin C and they LOVE eating them, so it's easy to keep them healthy with daily greens.
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If you would like to help, you can donate grocery gift cards. We use gift cards to local grocery stores like Safeway and Smart & Final to buy fresh veggies and greens for the shelter rabbits and guinea pigs as needed. |
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This little known program is for cats who are not adoptable as regular companions.
Career Cats are outdoor, under-socialized cats that are usually feral or semi-feral and would rather not have human contact. They need adopters who will look after them while the cats live and work on property to do eco-friendly pest control of rodents.
While the cats are at Hayward Animal Shelter, we have set up a special room for them with lots of resting spaces, hiding spaces, food options, enrichment, and privacy screens to keep them comfortable until a placement is found for them.
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Our Animal Control Officers have a wide range of duties, which include doing a lot of wildlife rescues.
In spring and summer, we receive a high volume of wildlife related calls. The most common calls are for injured, stuck, or abandoned baby and juvenile opossums, skunks, and racoons who get into a lot of hijinks while learning how to be successful adults.
Below are just a couple of the wildlife calls we responded to in June.
An albino baby raccoon was abandoned by its mom and Animal Control Officer Perez transported it to wildlife rescue.
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This opossum joey fell off mom's back while she was out foraging and unfortunately, mom did not go back for her. She was taken to wildlife rescue where a surrogate mother will teach her all the ins and outs of being an opossum. |
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This juvenile opossum found its way into a store and was trying to make a bed for itself on a storage shelf. Animal Control Officer Kulas successfully caught and relocated the opossum safely outside.
This skunk fell into an uncovered hole (please, cover any holes on your property to protect people and animals alike!) and needed a little help to get out. Animal Control Officer Kulas was able to help the skunk free.
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Did you know that opossums help prevent tick borne illnesses by eating a ton of ticks? It's true! Opossums are great at pest control due to all the insects and arthropods they eat. While they look a little rough, opossums tend to be non-aggressive and very shy. Their quiet nature make them great wild neighbors to have, but the juveniles often wander into garages or sheds to nap during the day, which can be alarming for some people.
If you find an opossum in your garage or shed, an easy remedy is to leave a clear path back outside (like leaving a window or door open) and waiting until nightfall when opossum becomes active and will wander back outside to forage for dinner.
Once out, close the window or door and secure any holes or gaps so the opossum cannot go back inside. Keeping the area quiet and peaceful will help the opossum to leave faster. If you make a lot of noise and scare it, the opossum will likely get scared and play dead, which will delay it from leaving and could result in a foul odor (opossums emit an odor to mimic the scent of death to make their faux death more convincing).
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New From Around the Shelter |
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Troop 31789 Came and dropped off hand made donations of cardboard cat scratchers and towel toys for the shelter cats and rabbits.
Our Shelter Cat, Mike, personally thanked the scouts on behalf of the shelter animals. He is such a good ambassador cat! He also personally inspected the donations for quality control - he takes his job very seriously!
After the scout visit Mike needed to take a nap. It's tiring work being the shelter cat.
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We had a lot of unique faces in the shelter in June, including these roosters, hamsters, and red-eared slider turtle.
Since roosters are not allowed in incorporated Hayward, we had to find a home for them in an area zoned to allow roosters. Luckily, a Hayward City employee happens to live in such a place and adopted both roosters. The roosters now live happily with some ducks.
A turtle rescue was able to take our red-eared slider and will adopt it out through their organization.
The kitten is just one of over 70 foster kittens that will be available once they are old enough to be adopted.
The hamsters are just 2 of 9 hamsters currently available for adoption at the Hayward Animal Shelter.
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Kitten Season is in FULL swing at the Hayward Animal Shelter!
During kitten season our shelter receives kittens almost daily, sometimes as many as 30 - 45 kittens a week! We rely heavily on the help of our foster families and rescue partners to help care for and find homes for the many kittens and cats that come through our doors.
The series of photos below shows the journey kittens take when they come into our shelter. From intake, to foster, to rescue and adoption, it takes many loving staff and volunteers to help them go from homeless to adopted!
Interested in become a kitten foster or adopting a kitten?
Visit our website using the buttons below or call (510) 293 - 7200 to learn more.
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Intake - the start of the journey.
Animals come in usually as strays like these.
Not all kittens or animals that arrive at the shelter need to stay at the shelter. Often, healthy animals have other options.
For more info on what to do if you find a kitten check out our website page on what to do if you find a kitten:
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Foster:
Many of the kittens Hayward Animal Shelter receives are too young to eat on their own and must be bottle-fed by fosters. Fosters keep the kittens in their homes and bring them back to the shelter for check ups.
When they are old enough, they are brought back to the shelter and might go up for adoption through us or one of our many rescue partners.
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Transport:
We have many volunteers to help us transport animals to and from vet appointments and who transport animals to rescue partners like East Bay SCPA, Furry Friends, Hopalong, or others.
Our rescue partners free up kennel space in our shelter for incoming animals by taking adoptable animals and putting them up for adoption through their organizations.
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Rescue Partners:
Sometimes we use volunteers to transport animals to rescue, but sometimes the rescue comes to us!
Here you can see the Pets In Need rescue van parked in front of Hayward Animal Shelter, ready to take some adoptable kittens!
When rescues like Pets In Need take adoptable animals from us, it keeps our kennels open for incoming lost, stray, ill, and injured animals that need the space.
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Rescue Partners:
Many of the animals Hayward Animal Shelter receives come in sick or injured. In the case of this corgi-mix, he came in dragging his back legs and could not walk.
Our rescue partner, Nobody's Perfekt Dog Rescue, lent us a doggie wheelchair to try out. The corgi took to it like a fish to water and was zooming about in no time.
Later, Nobody's Perfekt Dog Rescue agreed to take the dog in. The corgi is now in a foster home where it is receiving specialized care for it's legs, including diagnostics to see what the cause and possible recovery outlook for the legs could be.
The collaboration between staff, volunteers, and rescue partners is the magic sauce that allows Hayward Animal Services to help the thousands of animals that come through our doors each year.
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Adoption!
If an animal isn't claimed by an owner, then the next step is finding a new family. Animals may go up for adoption through the Hayward Animal Shelter in our adoption gallery, or through one of our many rescue partners like Paws That Matter, Pets In Need, Muttville, or others.
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In June the shelter's 17 year old dryer finally reached the end of it's lifespan. A new dryer was installed, much to the delight of volunteers and shelter animals.
What do we use the dryer for? We use the dryer to wash towels, blankets, pet beds, and other bedding that the shelter animals use. Having fresh, soft, clean laundry helps reduce disease transmission and keeps the shelter animals feeling loved and comfortable.
We run the washer and dryer non-stop during the workday, as the shelter animals generate a lot of laundry. You can just imagine how many loads the old dryer must have done in it's day!
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Our shelter cat, Mr. Mike, met his kitten doppelganger. Mike believes he is a cat beyond all comparison and I think he was a little insulted we thought this kitten looked like a miniature version of him. |
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Things for you to enjoy and explore! |
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For this month's just-for-fun links, we are taking a look into space.
These three videos will awaken the inner-child in many and provide some of the coolest looks into what it's like to be an astronaut.
The "Down To Earth" video its breathtakingly beautiful and really changes your perspective on this beautiful blue planet we call home; the space station tour is super neat, and the re-entry video is eye-opening.
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Right now items the shelter would like most include Peanut Butter (without Xylitol or any other sugar-substitute additives), large towels, and Red Barn Meat Logs.
Other items the shelter can always use include: Rabbit Safe Toys, Clumping Cat Litter, Newspapers, Redbarn Meat Logs, and Dog Kongs of All Sizes are high on the shelter Wishlist. So are front-tie smocks and Sensi Petsafe Easy Walk Harnesses Sizes Medium and Large.
Check out our wishlist below, or visit our Amazon Wishlists:
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