Ask Susan Cosby - she knows

By Reade Adams, Best Friends Network Volunteer

"Cats deserve care, comfort, and safety," Susan Cosby, Executive Director for the Animal Welfare Association, stated in a December 5, 2008 free online webinar, co-hosted by Best Friends and Petfinder, entitled Saving Cats in Busy Shelters Through Better Handling.

"Most cats arrive at the shelter relatively healthy," she says, "but due to stress and disease transmission, many cats become sick and will likely have to be killed." She adds, "The most important thing you can do to prevent disease is to vaccinate every cat immediately upon arrival at the shelter."

Equally important for disease prevention is minimizing or eliminating the high stress levels cats may experience during a shelter's intake and processing routine, which raises the question: How can good health and care be promoted and maintained in a busy shelter where thousands of cats are surrendered each year?

According to Cosby, care, comfort, and safety are the keys to success. To illustrate her point, she takes the webinar viewer on a step-by-step photographic tour of her shelter's intake process, both before and after critical handling changes were implemented. She notes that the cat's first encounter with the shelter is at the front reception counter, and asks, "Will that cat be stepping out onto a counter that is disinfected after each arrival? Does the attendant hold the cat before putting it into a cage? Has the cage been disinfected and sanitized? Is the cage on a dirty floor?"

Some of the interesting discoveries made by Cosby and her shelter team include:
• A cat may have multiple cage changes during the intake process, with each new unfamiliar cage raising the cat's stress level.
• Wheeling the transport cart past noisy, barking dogs further increases the cat's discomfort.
• Cats that have a place to hide in the cage and a place to sit up high are more relaxed, more resistant to disease, have a better chance of receiving the full protection from vaccines, and are more likely to be adopted.

Based on these revelations and others, a new protocol was created. Cats coming into the shelter are immediately put into a feral cat cage on a towel or blanket that has been sprayed with Feliway®, a cat pheromone that helps a cat feel "at home." With its enclosed sides, the cage contributes to a feeling of safety and protection. The cat travels from the front counter to its eventual steel cage home in the same container, which is then used in the steel cage as a hiding and perching place.

Webinar attendees already experiencing success

One webinar viewer, Lucretia Katz, immediately seized on the idea of using an enclosed cage to help cats feel more comfortable. She wrote in an email to Best Friends, "We have a very frightened (and unhappy) cat who is still in quarantine because of girardia. I'm sure you've seen the cats who hunker down in their litter box in the cage…this one just looked so miserable.

"So I decided to experiment with one of Sue's [Cosby] suggestions. We don't have any feral cat boxes, so I taped up a cardboard cat carrier, cut an access hole in one end, and put it into Tom's cage. He was still hunkered in his litter box, so I picked him up and 'offered' him the access hole in the box. He immediately went in…that's when the change began. Within an hour, he was resting in the box with an obviously more relaxed demeanor. It was wonderful to see!"

She adds that she will be contacting a shelter volunteer who owns a small acrylics manufacturing plant to see if he would be willing to make feral cat boxes out of his leftover materials.

Another viewer wrote, "I was so excited about the message, I started using the info at the Sat[urday] adoption event. I took their carriers and put them into the cages with blanket inside and on top, and the cats loved it! They were so much happier. We are going to do a fundraiser to get some boxes as soon as we find the ones we want."

From others came praise and a request for the link to the presentation so that it could be used as part of an orientation process for new volunteers. "We are a much smaller rescue organization but have learned much about handling our cats from this webinar."

Sue Cosby provides a wealth of information in the webinar about upgrading cat shelter care. The following are a few of the actions you can take immediately that will improve a cat's experience in your own shelter.

• Care: Does the cat have immediate access to food, fresh water, and a litter box?

• Comfort: Does the cage have a clean blanket or cushion? Is there a place in the cage for the cat to hide or to perch?

• Safety: Is the atmosphere loud and noisy, with barking dogs and clanging cages? Is the cat in a cage on the top shelf of the transport cart, and does it have a place to hide?

To view the webinar in its entirety, click here: http://www.bestfriends.org/recordings/SavingLivesOfCatsInBusyShelters/

Q&A from the webinar can be accessed here: http://network.bestfriends.org/Library/Download.aspx?d=7317

Other links:
• Working to Solve the Feline Crisis in Shelters, October 29, 2008
• Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

Upcoming Webinars:
• "How to Help Feral Cats” featuring Bryan Kortis, Executive Director of Neighborhood Cats on January 14 (already full)
• “Think Lost Not Stray” featuring Kat Albrecht, Founder of Missing Pet Partnership on March 11 and 15

E-mail webinars@bestfriends.org if you wish to be notified when registration for Kat's webinar begins.
All webinars will be recorded and available for viewing online.

Photo credit: lead picture of Mustang, available for adoption from Best Friends Animal Society, taken by Jennifer Hayes

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