A 2-year-old black and white cat named Mama Bear was a guest at a Napa County Board of Supervisors meeting this week.
She was found as a stray on Jefferson Street within Napa city limits and was taken to the Napa County Animal Shelter and Adoption Center. Mama Bear was about to become a mom.
Luis Ambris, an animal care technician at the Napa County Animal Shelter and Adoption Center, held the cat during Tuesday's meeting. All five of Mama Bear's kittens have since been adopted, she said. The shelter is now hoping someone will adopt Mama Bear as well.
Mama Bear gets nervous in front of the directors and sometimes hides her face in Ambriz's arms, but she is usually friendly and kind.
“She is the perfect candidate to train new volunteers coming to the shelter,” Ambriz said.
Napa government meetings usually don't involve cats. However, the supervisory meetings in recent months have started out somewhat rocky. The featured “Pet of the Week” (and sometimes his two) is paraded in front of the supervisor as shelter staff introduce the animals to the crowd.
Pets that have appeared so far include eight dogs, three cats, and three rabbits.
The Pet of the Week program, launched in October, has been successful in raising awareness of adoptable animals at the shelter and has already led to adoptions.
“The visibility and public interest of the Board of Supervisors meetings and face-to-face interaction with adoptable animals has helped bring many adoptable animals in our county to the forefront,” Napa County Public Relations said. Linda Weinreich, who is in charge of the project, says: said in an email.
Fees are free for eligible pets, typically $10 for small animals like guinea pigs, up to $195 for puppies, and half-price for those 65 and older.
Weinreich said nearly all the pets introduced by Tuesday had been adopted, except for two dogs introduced on March 26.
But that doesn't mean that featured animals are always in immediate demand. Buster is a one-and-a-half-year-old albino rabbit who was found as a stray in American Canyon and was adopted after being named Pet of the Week twice. Buster appeared with a dog named Buffy on December 19th and March 12th. .
Katie Ribaldière, the shelter's administrator, said at the March meeting that she took Buster back because she couldn't understand why he wasn't adopted.
“He's been in the shelter for over 200 days. He's a really sweet guy, sociable, potty trained and would be the perfect addition to any family. That's why I brought him here. I wanted to bring him back and, if possible, put him in a place of his own, to go home forever,'' Ribaldière said.
Of course, the pets featured are just a small portion of the pets available for adoption at our shelters. Mama Bear was one of his 35 pets available for adoption on the animal shelter's website as of Wednesday. The shelter takes in an average of 2,300 animals a year.
Working with all these animals is an intensive effort involving staff, volunteers and many community partners, Weinreich said. The shelter does more than just adoption, such as recruiting foster parents, implanting microchips, offering refund coupons for spay/neuter services, and renting cat traps.
Weinreich said the shelter's animal population typically surges during the warmer months, and the shelter, located at 942 Hartle Court, does not have the capacity to house all the animals in need of care. Ta.
The shelter maintains 60 dog kennels, 84 cat cages, and several small animal cages. This means that we must rely on volunteer development programs for capacity.
This is a cause for concern as the number of kittens in shelters is increasing. In fact, Ambriz said Tuesday that the shelter is looking for volunteers to foster kittens.
But adoption remains a central focus, as pets are always trickling into the shelter.
In addition to the “Pet of the Week” program, the shelter regularly participates in community events, offers discounted or free adoptions, and promotes pets on social media.
A recent post before Easter showed a photo of an adopted dog wearing bunny ears and described it as “a new breed of bunny, bigger, stronger and more beautiful than ever before.”
Contact Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com..
