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Foster families sought for kitten season

 

Greetings Sonoma! I hope you and your pets are keeping warm and dry with this last week of wet days. As we move into springtime, we are looking toward the kitten season and wondering when we will see our first signs of life. For those of you interested in fostering kittens this year, we are working to expand our fostering network. This is an amazing experience and without our foster homes the kittens that stream into the shelter between April and October don't have the opportunity to be socialized in a loving home.

Although we give them all the love and care we can, being in a home environment is how they develop their own lovable little kitten identities. Not to mention the critical role fosters play in keeping a vigilant watch on the little ones to make sure they are thriving according to plan. If your household has a little extra love to go around for the next few months, please go to our website and fill out a volunteer application online. You must be over 21, have full agreement from everyone in your household and landlord permission if you rent. Attendance at a General Volunteer Orientation is required and the next one is this Saturday, March 19, at 9:30 a.m. followed by our first 2011 Foster Family Orientation at 10:45 a.m. Please sign up now as preregistration is mandatory.

Our Kids Speak for Pets Program is going like gangbusters. We just completed our pilot program with the Boys & Girls Clubs afterschool group at Sassarini Elementary School and the kids were a joy. Mary Green, our humane education director, had a grand time working with her special needs cat, Flopsy, teaching the kids that animals have feelings and personalities just like we do.

I sat in on the last session and when asked if they liked the program, all hands shot up like rockets and each one had something insightful to say about what they learned about pets that they didn't know before. KSFP starts two new sessions - one at the Boys & Girls Club's Maxwell Clubhouse in El Verano and the other at Sassarini (back by popular demand). If your kids enjoy learning about animals, it is not too early to be thinking about Pets Lifeline Summer Camp which starts June 13 and runs through to Aug. 19. This is a one-week camp, Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to noon at the shelter and kids are welcome to come more than one week. This year's camp proves to be even more exciting with weekly guest visits from Lyon Ranch critters, Turtle Rescue, Pocket Pets and Reptile Rescue just to name a few.

Speaking of back by popular demand, we just added another of the one-day dog workshops, Polite Leash Walking and Recall in April, so stay tuned for the date. Also in April, Readers' Books is hosting a book signing by Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States at the Sonoma Community Center on April 16 from 3 to 5 p.m. Wayne is a force of nature in the animal welfare world and we look forward to hearing about his new book, ''The Bond.'' Being the community minded folks they are, Readers' is donating the proceeds from this event to Pets Lifeline and SVDOG (Sonoma Valley Dog Owners and Guardians). So mark your calendars and get your tickets in advance, this is bound to sell out fast.

 

 Until we meet again...ciao bellas.