A Boston shelter veterinarian wants to make one thing perfectly clear: Falling in love with and adopting a cat who has FIV can be a story with a happy ending.

Changing your shelter’s “feline housing” to prevent disease sounds overwhelming, doesn’t it? What if we told you sometimes it’s as simple as using a paper bag to give stressed-out cat a place to hide?

Ever wish you had a road map to saving more lives in your shelter? Gathering and understanding data will provide you with exactly that.

How prepared are animal shelters for fighting infectious disease and protecting the health of the pets in their care?

An inexpensive, easily available local anesthetic has been shown to provide good pain relief for female dogs after spay surgery.

Ringworm. An outbreak – even one suspected case – can cause a corresponding outbreak of despair in shelter staff. How will they handle it? Can they disinfect the shelter? Can the cats
or kittens be treated, or is it too risky? What about the impact on adoptions and the foster care program?

Shelter dogs who receive just 20 minutes a day of simple training get adopted almost 50 percent more often than untrained dogs.

Adopting a puppy means you’ve added four paws, a wagging tail, and a whole lot of laughter and love to your family. But right after your new addition has put a permanent paw print on your heart, he may start eating the sofa. Did you make a mistake? And what can you do to get your happy home back?

It’s a feline housing revolution — and it’s helping stop outbreaks of upper respiratory infections in their tracks!

For shelter cats, efforts to reduce stress, watch for behavior changes, get long-term residents into foster homes, and improve adoption performance will pay off in terms of improved animal welfare and lives saved.