The Fur (& Feather!) Flyer

A few months ago HAWS Humane Educator, Khris, started posting videos of our adoptable animals on our website’s Pet Showcase.  We have a picture database of adoptable pets through a group called Petfinder (check out 3 of our current adoptables pictured below - Grissom, Misty, and Oliver - you can move your mouse across their pictures to learn more about them), and the capability for action as well as still shots was introduced.

What an amazing innovation this has been for our available pets!

Visitors to our website most often gravitate to the Adopt-A-Pet section.  Whether you’re looking for a new best friend or just window shopping, it is a lot of fun to see the tail-wagging and smiling animal faces on your computer screen.  But now, thanks to modern technology, you can not only see our adoptables strike a pose, but also romp and play to their own theme songs.

The resulting success stories are extremely gratifying.  Here are 2 of our favorites:

Benson and Sophie are 2 older Lab mixes that were surrendered together due to a family hitting a rough patch financially.  Benson, a 12-year-old, and Sophie, a 10-year-old, needed a quiet home to live out their days.  We were committed to adopting them out together because they had bonded in their previous home over the many years.  They spent about 6 weeks in the shelter with on-again, off-again interest, but no serious takers.  Then they got their own music video…and within 48 hours they were adopted into a home that is thrilled to have them both.

Minnie was found as a stray along with another kitten and brought in for adoption.  However, Minnie was missing an eye!  She was in perfect health otherwise, but it was found she’d prefer to be an only cat.  Her video was the hook that brought in her eventual adopters.  How could they resist that face?

Pictures may be worth a thousand words - check out the mugs on this page!  But videos are the call to action - just ask Sophie, Benson, and Minnie.

Children are our future…in so many ways!  It is our duty to guide them to be caring, responsible adults, to show them right and wrong, good and bad.  That duty is one we take seriously at HAWS, because we know that if we start educating our youth, they will turn into animal-savvy adults.

Khris is our Humane Educator here at HAWS.  Most weeks she has a very full calendar of giving shelter tours, visiting schools, planning activities for our summer and winter kids’ camps…along with organizing educational seminars and holding dog training classes for all ages – human and canine. 

She also houses a pet snake in her office.  Very cool – ask any fourth-grader.

A program Khris started just recently was featured in the February 18 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  Teachers in our area can foster one of HAWS homeless small animals (like mice, gerbils, hamsters, birds, guinea pigs) as a classroom pet.  This not only increases awareness of adoptable “pocket pets” at our shelter, but also gives the students a chance to learn about these animals and their needs – and the responsibilities involved in pet ownership.  Six pets are currently out in classrooms – and Khris would be happy to talk with any interested teachers about the program (262-542-8851, x118).

Daisy Troop #2551 came to HAWS on February 15 for a tour of the shelter.  The girls learned about the ways animals end up at HAWS, how we take care of them, and that we are looking for good homes for adoptable pets.  After the tour the girls had an opportunity to meet several animals and learn a little bit about them.  Official “Humane Education Dog” Mystic (pictured here with the troop) was a big hit – and he greatly enjoyed the fully body massage!

Khris does several off-site after school programs, including one at Saratoga School in Waukesha.  Recently the students participating were asked to draw pictures that would reflect a lesson they have learned about animal welfare – you can click on the thumbnails for a larger view of their drawings.

We think animal welfare will be in good hands far into the future.

By the way – “Kids’n Critters” is also the name of our very popular summer and winter kids’ day camps.  We’re enrolling now for summer sessions – visit www.hawspets.org/kids_camp.html to learn more and download a registration form.

It’s not always about domestic animals at HAWS.  Some days we wonder:  are we being Punk’d?!?  Just all in a day’s work at your favorite local Humane Society….

A call came into the shelter one evening in mid-September from the City of Waukesha Police Department.  A young adult ferret out for a stroll had wandered into one of Waukesha’s adult beverage proprietors.  He was unable to show proper I.D. – actually, he wasn’t wearing pants so he had no pockets to keep I.D. in anyway.

Being responsible barkeeps, the management called the police to report this obviously underage citizen, and in turn, Waukesha’s finest called HAWS to assist with the apprehension.  (Possibly the handcuffs were too large?)

The ferret was brought back to the shelter.  He was admitted to HAWS "sick bay" and nursed back to good health, while making friends with another ferret hangin’ at HAWS for a time.  Shortly he was adopted along with his new ferret buddy.  Hopefully the 2 boys will stay out of trouble and not become regulars at any other local taverns.  At least not until they’re old enough.  And can climb up on the stools properly.

BUT WAIT!  THERE’S MORE!

No “fowl” play was involved in the safe return of a turkey to its home in November.  A report of a wandering bird turned into the apprehension of a literal Peeping Tom.  A male Red Bourbon domestic turkey was hanging around a Pewaukee Road office park, looking into windows.  Several employees reported the feathered marauder to HAWS.

Mark Hess, HAWS Operations Manager and known wildlife wrangler, responded to the area.  “I approached him, tucked him under my arm and loaded him into our van.  It was pretty obvious this bird was used to humans.”

HAWS staff was concerned that this bird’s fate would be as a Thanksgiving feast.  So, Mark went out to knock on a few doors in the neighborhood to search for the owner.  Hess knew he’d found the right place when he drove into a driveway to see several chickens and, yes, about a dozen turkeys in the backyard.  The tom’s owner was ecstatic to hear her baby, whom she’d raised from a chick, was safe and sound.  Bird and owner were reunited later that day, and the prized pet was home in plenty of time to be part of the family’s Thanksgiving festivities -- just not as the main course.

The Christmas Goose also made an appearance at HAWS earlier this winter.  A gentleman found the barnyard variety bird near his home in the Town of Genesee.  He wanted to take the bird to a farm but, alas, wasn’t acquainted with any farmers.  So, the bird arrived at HAWS needing a new roost, and not one labeled “General Electric.”  HAWS staff contacted a lady from Iron Ridge who had a hobby farm and was looking for more avian residents.  The goose is now happily flocking with other birds of her feather.

February 26^th is this year’s date for the annual Spay Day USA, a national awareness program sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).  The purpose of Spay Day is to promote spaying and neutering as a means to control pet overpopulation.

Good idea.

There are still more companion animals looking for homes than there are homes for them to live in.  Just as an example:  did you know that an unspayed female cat and her first litter can be responsible for the births of close to 500,000 kittens in their lifetimes?  It seems unreal, but if you consider that litters average 6-7 kittens, with a female cat being able to have a litter every 2-3 months…it adds up pretty quickly!

HAWS is celebrating Spay Day USA 2008 by offering  a free spay and neuter program for the companion pets of individuals in Waukesha County who apply and qualify.  We have applications and more info on our website (www.hawspets.org/snip.html).  If you or anyone you know is interested, please surf on over and see if this is the right option for you.  If it isn’t, please still contact your veterinarian and have your pets sterilized - NOW.

If you are “for” spaying and neutering pets and would like to help out, we’d love that, too!!  We’re asking our community to “Sponsor A Spay” by donating to help cover the expenses of one or more procedures.  Donations of $5…$25…$75…whatever – all will be a big help.  AND it will make you feel good – helping our neighbors while working to control pet overpopulation.

HAWS’ Spay Neuter Initiative Program has been providing spay-neuter services for our own shelter animals and others since 2001.  We also work with breed rescues to help them control their pet health-care costs while they also place homeless animals in our community.  (Check out Shooter to the right – he’s a retired racing Greyhound available for adoption thru our partnership with Greyhounds Only breed rescue.)  And, the SNIP clinic has a year-round program to assist the low-income pet-owners of Waukesha County.  Financial strain doesn’t discriminate - it can happen to pet lovers as well as anyone.

We’re here to help.