Editor’s note: This is part one of a story on fostering and adopting animals in North Central Washington.
A foster kitten meows while on a blanket at the home of Brooke Stahly Wednesday in Sunnyslope. Stahly will bottle feed the kitten and its two siblings until they are about 8 weeks old.
It’s a warm, sunny spring day. Out of nowhere, a soft, almost squeaking sound breaks the silence. It’s a kitten, or a litter of kittens.
But what do you do with those seemingly abandoned tiny creatures?
“Most kittens don’t need intervention. Most kittens just need us to monitor (them),” said James Pumphrey, WVHS executive director.
“If mom’s around, mom’s going to be much better at providing. One, her milk’s more appropriate,” he continued. “We use formula, but formula only gets you thus far. It’s not colostrum. It’s not the same as mom and mom’s going to be able to know exactly what to do to take care of those kittens. The longer they can stay with mom, the better. So just because people see a kitten outside, we really caution them. Please don’t intervene unless they are sick and injured. There might be a mom around my mom’s not gonna stick around if you’re there. Mom’s gonna be like hiding somewhere and watching you until you leave and then mom will come back.”
An 8-month-old female cat named Doja rolls over in her adoption enclosure begging for pets March 5 at Wenatchee Valley Humane Society. WVHS Director James Pumphrey said the shelter adopts out 60-100 pets a week.
If people are really concerned about kittens, Pumphrey said a good technique is to put a circle of flour around the kittens and they’ll see the paw prints from the mother cat’s return.
“Usually mom’s there. The bellies are nice and robust and mom will come in and she knows when to feed them,” Pumphrey said. “You know, these animals have created survival strategies, like rabbits have and squirrels have and deers have. And part of that has been mom doesn’t stay with the kittens all of the time. She goes and then hunts and comes back and feeds them.”
“A lot of people think, too, like, ‘Oh, like a litter of five kittens that’re newborn. Oh my gosh, we’ve got to bring them in,’” said Carrie Engebretsen, WVHS foster care coordinator. “Well, their survival rate when they come here drops drastically. We can’t do what mom does in so many different ways. So it’s sad and they’re hard. They’re just so vulnerable when they’re tiny babies.”
“If they’re separated from mom, their survival rate, even given round the clock care, which they are offered here, it just isn’t the same,” Pumphrey said.
“And just monitoring and waiting until they get a little bit bigger and then you know, and then we can help, but when they’re so tiny it’s tough. It’s tough for them,” Engebretsen said.
Separating kittens from the mother is better at 4-6 weeks old, ideally 6 and older, because the WVHS or and foster families can socialize and care for them. “They’ve kind of made it over the hump of that vulnerable age,” she said. “It’s tough for those little guys without a mom.”
Bobby Pennington, right, holds a cat his family adopting and naming Nugget, as foster care coordinator Carrie Engebretsen, center, points out his tattoo from his surgical incision from being neutered March 5 at Wenatchee Valley Humane Society. All cats and dogs are spayed or neutered before being adopted.
The WVHS sees up to around 130 kittens per month year over year during kitten season, Pumphrey said, but the number and timing fluctuates depending on the weather. He added the WVHS has a population balance calculator that projects four months ahead.
“But it is dependent on what’s going on in that year,” he said. “Meaning, what has that winter been like? That will have a strong influence on what that spring looks like. There are influxes, and we can be guided by locality and then we can make some level of projections. We probably will stay at that 100 mark, 150 mark, during the spring and summer months, and then we see a decrease around October and November.
“This year, we’ve actually seen consistent kittens almost all year long because it’s been a milder winter,” he continued. Cats are really good at reproducing and when it’s warmer out, and when there’s an abundant food source, they’ll have kittens.”
“But it didn’t end,” Engebretsen said. “When the season changed, it kind of kept coming for a while there.”
“We get a two-month breather,” Pumphrey said.
During the winter months, he said the WVHS has 20-30 kittens at any given time.
A 2-year-old female mother cat name Maggie, whose kittens have all been adopted, sits in her enclosure waiting adoption March 5 at the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society.
“And that allows us to concentrate on more proactive solutions, like keeping pets together and providing resources to the members of the community, versus the summer months, where we’re like, battening down the hatches and we have to really focus on the most vulnerable first,” Pumphrey said.
On average, the WVHS sees about 2,000 animals per year, almost evenly split between cats and dogs, with a few birds and other small animals here and there. The number makes the shelter mid-sized, he said, and it serves mostly Chelan and Douglas counties. But adopters come from the westside and the shelter takes in animals sometimes from neighboring counties. Pumphrey said westsiders adopt in Wenatchee because it has more shepherds, huskies, Belgian Malinois and labradors.
A 10-year-old female cat named Esther, who lost the tips of her ears to frostbite, sits in her enclosure waiting adoption March 5 at Wenatchee Valley Humane Society. WVHS Director James Pumphrey said the shelter adopts out 60-100 pets a week.
Besides those, the WVHS has another 1,500 to 2,000 animals it supports in their current homes by people who are providing care to them directly, or those getting care by several people.
“I have a person on my street that cares for cats and then I know that two houses down from them, they also feed the cats,” Pumphrey said. “So the cats have multiple homes that the cats source food from and source attention from.”
A young cat named Bartlett peers from a passage hole in his adoption enclosure March 5 at the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society.
A young cat named Bartlett begins to exit a passage hole in his adoption enclosure March 5 at the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society.
On the last Saturday each month, about 100 income-qualified people in Chelan or Douglas counties can get free pet supplies and food from the WVHS through Pet Pantry. People self-identify themselves as low-income, he said, to make it as low-barrier as possible. This year, the WVHS will also offer low-cost vaccines for income-qualified people, too, he said.
“If ever somebody’s in an immediate need, they can come down and it will provide 30 days worth of food,” Pumphrey said. “But we try to get them on that schedule for that Saturday.”
“We’re really grateful for the businesses that donate to that,” he said. “Because it really is a safety net for people that, you know, sometimes they just need help for 30 days. Sometimes you just need to get back on your feet for four to five months and if you don’t have to think about having to feed your pet, that’s taken care of, then you can focus on more immediate needs. Whenever possible, we want to keep the pets and people together and keep families intact. We’re always looking at, ‘How do we build up that safety net and respond in a proactive way so we can reduce the reasons why people might be needing to look to rehome their pet,” Pumphrey said.
What happens in the non-kitten seasons?
“A lot of what we do is case management based, similar to human social services. What’s going on in the family? What are the potential issues that they’re confronting? And then how do we either apply resources that are existing in the community or within our organization? So for example, you might have somebody that is in an advanced age and dealing with, you know, senior health-related issues, for the owner, the human, and they have several pets, we would explore with them what would feel like a reasonable number to hold on to and what resources do the pets that they’re going to be keeping, what to they look like?”
He gave a recent example of an owner who had 12 Anatolian Shepherds, including puppies.
“In conversation with the owner, recognizing that they need to feel empowered and in the driver seat of these decisions, we offered them the opportunity that, ‘Hey, we think we can place these other dogs. We recognize that you want to keep a few of them. If we got them spayed, neutered and vaccinated and microchipped for you, would you be able to keep two? And that they wanted to keep four and we said, you know, kind of exploring with them, ‘What does that look like on a day-to-day basis? And they settled on two, and so we spayed and neutered and vaccinated the two and then we were able to rehome in and provide adoption services to the rest of the 12.”
“And also, when it’s a slower time of year for kittens, we’re able to help kind of similar situations with people with cats and those kind of things and we can open our doors a little bit more to people that need help rehoming cats,” Engebretsen said.
“And we offer home-to-home, so people also can rehome their animals from the comfort of their own home without them ever having to come to the shelter,” Pumphrey said. “It’s better for the animals. It’s better for the people.” People choosing this route have final say on who adopts their pet, he added.
“A lot of times it’s really, you know, building up access to veterinary care, access behavioral resources or just connecting people to resources that already exist in our community,” he said. “We work very closely with other social service agencies from Mission Rescue to Catholic Charities; social services to seniors that need help.”
He added the shelter also will often collaborate with people if there’s an animal-related issue.
“We try to take that kind of holistic approach to these issues,” he said.
“The animal doesn’t have to come here,” he said. “We should be that safety place for when there’s no other option. We’re the emergency shelter. We’re the place where sick and injured animals, really vulnerable animals come to. Whenever possible, we’re trying to keep those animals that are healthy and thriving and where they currently are, where they belong.
“That’s what really sets our hearts on fire, is like, can we grow the safety net and how do we make that more robust. And research tells us about 80% of people that are looking to surrender their pet, if they had additional resources, they would choose to keep the pet, but it’s usually like they’re struggling to afford pet rent, or they’re struggling to afford that hefty deposit to get into that pet-friendly housing. And then that pet-friendly housing, 90% of most housing that exists is not pet-friendly. That’s the difficult piece.”
A 1-year-old female cat named Carmilla waits on a loving home after nursing her kittens, who have gone on to their new homes March 5 at the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society.
He added the landlords would have “a wealth of clientele” if they were more pet-friendly.
“I think there’s a way to do that that could benefit the landlord and also benefit people that are looking for affordable rentals.”
Wenatchee Valley Humane Society Director James Pumphrey holds a black Labrador named Luke on March 5 at the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society. Luke and his two identical brothers, Lenny and Logan, were up for adoption at that time. Pumphrey said the shelter adopts out 60-100 pets a week.
Hiking Pals is another program the WVHS offers in which people can take a shelter dog out on a hike with them for the day.
“We try to figure out the things that usually light our brains up, will like people’s brains up,” Pumphrey said, referring to the name. “A lot of times we want a dog to go and do things with, and we have really cool dogs that you can throw a backpack on and they’ll carry the stuff for you and they’ll love it.”
“I just took one on a hike yesterday,” Engebretsen said.
Similarly, the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust is collaborating with the WVHS with Pets & People Outdoors events. The first is a dog hike 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 18 at Saddle Rock Natural Area Trailhead, 1130 Circle St., Wenatchee.
Each event highlights a dog-friendly trail with hiking opportunities for all fitness levels, according to a release from the CDLT and WVHS. People can talk about trail etiquette and learn about the health benefits from the experience.
“Dogs are integral members of our families, and sharing our preserved natural landscapes enhances the well-being of both pets and people,” the release stated.
“By embarking on this partnership, the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society and Chelan-Douglas Land Trust honor the cherished connection between pets, individuals, and the breathtaking land preserved for future generations,” Pumphrey said in the release. “Pets & People Outdoors is a collaborative partnership spotlighting dog-friendly trails, conservation efforts, and the advantages of embracing nature while spending quality time outdoors with our faithful companions.”
Dogs and people can use the CDLT’s 33 miles of dog-friendly trails in the Wenatchee Foothills.
“As of this spring, all of the Land Trust trails in the Wenatchee Foothills are dog friendly,” said Eunice Youmans, CDLT executive director, in the release. “This Pets & People Outdoors partnership with the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society is an opportunity to create more opportunities for folks to come together and enjoy our beautiful trails.”