Button had been at the Kansas City Pet Project for about a month, and he wasn’t doing well. He was displaying alarming signs of kennel stress, including pacing, spinning, vocalizing and jumping up and down over and over. The shelter has an excellent enrichment program that includes play groups, walks, puzzle toys and more, but… Learn More

In honor of Maddie’s Fund® 25th anniversary, we are taking a trip down memory lane and revisiting some early blog posts that we think are still relevant today. This post originally ran on December 11, 2012.  Are your adoption listings full of information about a pet’s past? Do you focus on the sad story of… Learn More

HSUS Animal Care Expo in New Orleans, LA, will soon be upon us! One important topic of conversation will be access to veterinary care, and there will be two sessions with Dr. Michael Blackwell that will tackle this important topic. His mission is to improve access to veterinary care, especially for families with limited means.… Learn More

Learning about shelter and rescue organizations’ programs can help us save more lives everywhere, so we’re looking to collect information on programs across the United States in this short survey. By completing it, you could win one of ten $500 grants! The survey will ask you about your organization’s policies and structure related to foster care, but… Learn More

Is there anything you haven’t tried to save your long-stay dogs who are getting kennel-stressed? Read Kathy’s story and see if what helped her will work for your dogs, too. As Kathy’s stay at Louisville Metro Animal Services (LMAS) crept beyond 80 days, multiple signs of kennel stress began to appear: jumping, frantic barking at… Learn More

No one wants to see pets born who will end up homeless or unwanted. But in areas where veterinary practices are already facing a tough economic landscape, the opening of nonprofit spay/neuter clinics can feel threatening. Are those fears realistic? A new study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association suggests the… Learn More

Facebook has been implementing so many changes recently that it’s hard to keep track. What does your animal shelter or rescue organization need to know? No, it’s not your imagination: Engagement is down for most Facebook pages. Some types of page are hit harder than others, and unfortunately, there’s no good data for how Facebook’s algorithm… Learn More

When shelter staff and volunteers talk about clicker training for cats, it’s mostly as a way to get the kitties to put their best paw forward for adopters. But what if it can be something more — even a tool to fight suffering and disease? That was the theory of researchers at Colorado State and North… Learn More

What if you could sprinkle magic fairy dust to reduce fighting between cats in a family? That would certainly help keep cats in their homes, and encourage people to adopt multiple cats, so we wish we could tell you magic anti-cat fight fairy dust was a thing. What we can tell you is there’s something… Learn More

An in-shelter behavior assessment is not a reliable way to determine whether dogs will or won’t be safe in adoptive homes, reports a new ASPCA position statement. Instead, such evaluations need to be based on multiple observations over time. That’s a position shared by Maddie’s Fund® Director of Research and board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Sheila D’Arpino.… Learn More