What's Up at the Animal Shelter?
Pawsitive News
Salutations and Abderian April! 

In this Edition:

  • Pets of the Month
  • Fundraiser Results
  • Upcoming Adoption Event - Bissell Empty the Shelter
  • March to March - A year of Pandemic in Review
  • Animal Control Corner
  • Around the Shelter: Celebrating Volunteer Appreciation Week
  • 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 Animal.Services@hayward-ca.gov
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
Pet of The Month
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. 
Meet Lola!

Lola is 12 years young and full of love and stories to tell.

Lola is looking for an Air BnB foster (or adoption) since she has decided the shelter is just not her scene (she really wants that couch life).

Lola loves belly rubs, getting attention from people, short walks, and treat-puzzle toys (she is super smart and great at figuring out food puzzles). She has a very cheerful and rambunctious personality and just loves life! She is also quite the conversationalist and enjoys telling people allll about her day and what's on her mind.

Due to an old fracture did that didn't quite heal right, Lola has advanced arthritis and is on a joint regiment and a diet to help manage it. It doesn't slow her down very much.

Lola, while sweet, would prefer to be the only pet in the home. Other dogs stress her out too much and she is too rambunctious for cats. She is also a bit of an attention hog.

If you are interested in fostering or adopting reply to this e-mail OR call the Hayward Animal Shelter (510) 293 - 7200
Dottie is a 7 years young female pit bull with the sweetest personality and lots of spunk. She will shyly ask for love and is overjoyed whenever she gets it.

Don't let her timid sweet side fool you though! Dottie likes being the boss when other dogs are around, so any dogs in the home will have to come down and meet her. We do not recommend for her to live with cats or small animals.

Dottie also loves food....a lot! Her new family should be aware of food guarding behaviors and know how to de-escalate them. She is not overly energetic, but she loves her daily walks and playing with people. We recommend for her to go to a home with older children and/or adults.

If you are interested in fostering or adopting reply to this e-mail OR call the Hayward Animal Shelter (510) 293 - 7200
Bunnies Galore!

The Hayward Animal Shelter has many bunnies right now, all looking for foster and adoptive homes.

If you are interested in fostering or adopting reply to this e-mail OR call the Hayward Animal Shelter (510) 293 - 7200
March Match-Ness Success!
WE DID IT!!!
We made the match and then some!
We received $2,531 in donations for a grand total of $5,062 raised!! That's a lot of spay/neuters and medical services for the animals!!

THANK YOU
to everyone who has been helped us spread the word, and to everyone who donated!
March to March
A Year In Review
2020 was a year like no other. We at the Hayward Animal Shelter had to pivot a lot. No work-from-home for shelter staff. Throughout the pandemic staff have been caring for animals and providing needed services.

We had to make many changes, including to our field services and managed intake. We were able to move most services to virtual and by-appointment, including for adoptions. We expanded our foster programs to keep in-shelter populations low.

Some unexpected positive impacts? We had an increase in foster and adoption. So much so that we were able to completely empty parts of our adoption gallery (primarily the dog adoption wards) several times throughout 2o2o. In fact, shelters and rescues reported similar increases in foster and adoptions globally!

We couldn't have done it without our volunteers! Though volunteers left the shelter to do COVID-19 restrictions in mid-March 2020, volunteers continued assisting staff in socially distanced ways such as by doing transports, Trap-Neuter-Return of feral / community cats, fostering, out-door dog walking, and more!

What a year!

(Please note: At the moment the Hayward Animal Shelter is only accepting NEW volunteers for fostering and the TNR team, NOT in-shelter volunteering.)
Animal Control Corner
Spring has Sprung!

Our Animal Control Officers have been busy with all the usual calls- dogs running-at-large, welfare checks, bite reports...AND an influx of those special rescue calls we tend to get the most in spring.

LOTS of baby animals in need - juvenile opossums getting themselves into pickles, orphaned raccoon babies, ducklings separated from mom, the list just goes on and on!

We have to give a great big, giant shoutout to Ohlone Wildlife Rehab for their incredible partnership, helping us care for the wildlife we rescue!

Here are some snap shots of recent wildlife rescues!
Duck Rescue!
Our very own Animal Control Officer Susan made the news!
Below is the Local News Video Clip of Susan rescuing ducklings from a storm drain.
New From Around the Shelter
Around the shelter we've seen some unique faces, like the fancy roller pigeon depicted below, a rooster, and a dog recovering from what we think was a car accident.
It's Volunteer Appreciation Week and we are thanking our volunteers for the wonderful work they do every day of the year!

No task is too small to make a big impact!

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS!
Transport Volunteers ferry shelter animals to the places they need to be, such as rescue partners who help our animals get adopted, and vet appointments. They also pick up donations and other needed items for the shelter!

Transporting animals to rescue partners helps keep shelter kennels open for incoming animals.

Transports were one of the few volunteer tasks that was not heavily impacted by the pandemic, due to the socially distanced nature of the work. 

In 2020 Hayward Animal Shelter had more than 994 transports to rescue partners and countless trips back and forth to the vet. These transports would not have been possible without our incredible transport volunteers who often pick up last minute transports to bring shelter animals all over the Bay to rescue partners and vet appointments!
Foster Volunteers are literally life savers. Not only do fosters help keep shelter kennels open for incoming animals, but they often care for neonatal kittens who are unable to stay in a shelter environment because they require hourly feedings and socialization to help them grow into well-adjusted adoptable cats.

 In 2020, due to the pandemic, the Hayward Animal Shelter Foster program expanded a lot and began fostering more adult cats, rabbits, and dogs to help keep the in-shelter population low. In 2020 our foster volunteers donated over 10,230 hours caring for 204 kittens and 77 adult cats, dogs, and rabbits. 
Kennel Volunteers are an integral part of our volunteer program, and help keep our shelter and the shelter animals clean and comfortable!

Kennel volunteers do laundry, dishes, and clean dog, cat, and rabbit kennels. While kennels volunteers were heavily impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions, which kept them outside the shelter for most of the year, these volunteers still managed to donate 2,139 hours doing kennel tasks!

TNR Team: TNR stands for Trap, Neuter, Return.

TNR is the most humane way to reduce the number of feral and community cats in our neighborhoods. Volunteers and community members trap feral cats, take them to a vet to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and sometimes even microchipped, and then release them back into the neighborhood they were found in. Because the cats are not reproducing, as the spayed/neutered cats age out, the cat population goes down until there is no longer an issue of feral cats in the neighborhood. 

Hayward Animal Shelter has a small but mighty volunteer TNR team, as well as a community TNR Program that members of the public can participate in.

In 2020, despite pandemic setbacks that caused a reduction in TNR for most of the year, the TNR Program still managed to fix 600 feral cats and TNR Volunteers donated over 1,437 hours trapping, transporting, and recovering feral cats. Their efforts prevented thousands of homeless kittens from being conceived and born on the streets and improved the lives of over 600 cats in Hayward.

If you would like to get involved in TNR efforts in Hayward contact Hilary.Drake@hayward-ca.gov. TNR is a socially distanced activity and the primary impact to TNR during the pandemic was due to the impact on veterinarians available to do spay/neuter services. 
Pet Pal Volunteers make sure the shelter animals get lots of love, playtime, and exercise. They help teach the animals adoptable behaviors, do enrichment with the animals, and learn a lot about each animal’s personality to help match then to the perfect families for adoption.

While Pet Pal Volunteers were heavily impacted by the Pandemic, causing our cat and rabbit pals to shelter-in-place, our dog pals were able to continue walking dogs outdoors throughout most of the pandemic. Despite pandemic setbacks, Pet Pal Volunteers still spent 1,572 hours socializing shelter animals. 

Event and General Support Volunteers do front office work, outreach, humane education, events, and general support.

Due to the pandemic, nearly all the Hayward Animal Shelter’s events were cancelled or went virtual, and our general support volunteers were heavily impacted.

However, this did not stop our volunteers from staying involved. In 2020, General support volunteers still donated 995 hours, helping from home by doing social media promotions, making enrichment items and other projects at home for the shelter animals, and select front office and miscellaneous tasks that were possible to be completed from home. 
Things for you to enjoy and explore!
Donate
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: