Jenna travels the path to

rescue group and into foster

By Virginia Grainger

In early March, when we were watching the COVID-19 situation from afar, Jenna the Malinois came into the shelter. Her behavior was questionable during intake and staff quickly noticed that she would not eat or relieve herself in her kennel. They asked B&T to take a look at her.

Dawn and I went to Jenna’s kennel and found her lying down, shaking. She was a pretty sad sight. We carefully got her out of the kennel with a slip lead, still not knowing what to expect. Well, once we had her out Jenna quickly displayed a pretty sweet nature. She was polite on leash and social with people.

We tried her with fetch and in typical Malinois fashion she was soon happily chasing a ball and bringing it back like a superstar. Next we had to give her a try with other dogs. Since we were still not sure about her, we muzzled Jenna for the initial meetings.

We soon discovered she just wanted to be left alone and she pretty much avoided dogs. Jenna had some manners

that needed refining; for example, she sometimes was not super careful about grabbing for a toy in a hand. We all know how much trouble that can cause in a shelter! Dawn reached out to a local Malinois rescue and arranged for them to meet Jenna. In the meantime we had the Extra Care Dog Pet Pals start to walk her, and Andrea Sirott did a full evaluation. And COVID-19 crept ever closer to us.

Malinois rescue came to meet Jenna on Monday, March 16 – the day the “stay- at-home” order was released. Staff and volunteers were working to get every possible animal out of the shelter and into foster. It was a crazy day! Malinois rescue put Jenna through her paces and decided to bring her into their program. They just had to find her a foster home.

Within two days they came through.

I drove Jenna to the Antioch shelter to do the handoff to Melissa, her foster parent. Jenna was a superstar for the long ride to Antioch and has since settled in great in her foster home with three other dogs. Melissa has sent me multiple updates: Jenna gets daily training, group walks and lots of cuddling.

Jenna takes a group walk with foster parent

Melissa and her three dogs.

Addendum to the Jenna Story:

A shout out to Marin Humane from

Betsy Ramsey of the Woof Project

Malinois Rescue

“Thank you for all that you did for Jenna

in helping her go from a scared, shaking

girl to a waggy-tail, ball-crazy, drive-y

Malinois! Virginia and Dawn, you were

instrumental in giving her people she

could trust and rely on, and it made a

huge difference for her.

You always do the best for the dogs.

Thank you both for taking so much time

on Monday with Jenna and me. I am

always so happy to work with Marin

Humane, you make it easy!”

____________________ Cat Behavior Workshops

now offered online

We are offering our first online cat

behavior classes presented via the Zoom

meeting app at introductory rates. The

app is free to download.

Strategies for Cat Parenting 24/7 $10

Are you having a difficult time sheltering in

place with your cat? Does your cat disrupt

your ability to work at home or to sleep?

Feline Environment Enrichment $15

Learn how to provide safe, fun

entertainment for your feline friend.

Go to Cat Workshops at Marin

Humane to sign up. Additional classes

will be added.

The Cat Behavior Office is open for

questions and consults. Email

catbehavior@marinhumane.org

March 2020 A Behavior & Training Communiqué from Dawn Kovell

News Briefs & Links

The Real Reason Veterinarians Gave a Tiger a COVID-19 Test It’s hard for humans in New York City to get a test for the coronavirus. So when a Bronx Zoo tiger tested positive for COVID-19, it invited some questions. Read the Wired magazine story.

Find more News Briefs & Links on page 4.

Tortuga: Not so fast track

Although most fast track kittens do just

fine, Tortuga was the exception. She

came to us through one of our pet

partnerships, fast tracked to the

adoption floor and was adopted almost

immediately. Unfortunately, Tortuga

was still a bit "on the wild side" and did

not adjust well to her new home. One

week after being adopted, Tortuga was

returned to us and had to be placed in

bite quarantine.

While ten days of quarantine can be very

difficult for most cats and kittens, it

actually was a bit of a respite for

Tortuga. In her cage with limited

interaction, Tortuga was able to slowly

start acclimating to staff without

becoming overwhelmed like she had

been in her previous adoptive home.

With the staff cleaning, feeding and

consistently meeting her needs, Tortuga

began her socialization journey in

quarantine.

By the time quarantine ended, Tortuga

was approaching the front of the cage

and soliciting attention – meowing and

body rubbing the front of the cage. She

soon began to enjoy petting and playing

– all within the confines of her cage. In

fact, Tortuga was pretty fantastic in her

cage. But that all changed once Tortuga

was out of the cage.

Out of the cage she bolted from one

corner of the room to another and was

untouchable. Tortuga was what we call a

scatter kitten – kittens who scatter in

fear and hide once they are on the floor.

They are unapproachable as they dart

from one area to another.

This is a stage of socialization that is

often missed in a shelter when

socializing a feral kitten. Even though we

might spend days or weeks socializing

them in the cage – even picking them up

and holding them – they are still not

ready for adoption. Their perceived safe

world is only in their cage and the world

is a scary place when they are on the

floor. We knew that Tortuga needed to

go to foster.

Tortuga's foster (a very experienced

kitten wrangler) worked with her for two

weeks. When Tortuga came back to us

she was much more socialized, but still

was uncomfortable with many things.

She continued to resist handling and

being picked up, though she was easily

distracted with the mouse wand toy.

We decided to give her a room of her

own in adoptions while we continued to

work with her, using treats and wand

toy play.

We initially limited interaction to wand

toy play with the pet pals and showings

by the behavior staff. In this controlled

environment on the adoption floor

(because time is our friend when

socializing!), Tortuga benefited from

many positive interactions.

We saw her gain confidence daily and

interact more and more with the pet

pals and prospective adopters. Every day

she greeted us at the glass doors with

lots of leg rubs. She asked for and

enjoyed petting. She would even jump

into the laps of her favorite people for

some lap sitting. She still disliked being

picked up, and she had her limits for

attention from strangers, but we knew

she was trusting us more each day.

After three visits with one very

interested family and a whole lot of

counseling by the behavior staff,

Tortuga went to her forever home!

Fun Feline Fact Did you know that a cat's nose pad is

ridged with a unique pattern? It’s just

like the fingerprint of a human.

Home with our cats

By Paula Skelton

#QuarantineCats and cats on

Facebook….a hilarious trend has just

popped up with videos and memes of

cats coping with their guardians staying

home 24/7. Dogs are involved in these

memes too, with funny captions like

“After 2 weeks of home confinement—

dog is great—lots of walks around the

block…I’m getting in shape, cat is

shredding the curtains.”

(Photo credit unknown – Facebook grab)

Or have you seen the photos of a happy

dog and a displeased cat with the

caption “Dog thrilled with home

confinement, cat not so much…” I’m

sure you have seen them and laughed as

hard as I did, but all kidding aside, is

there some truth to back up the not so

thrilled cat with you being home angle?

Yes, I think there is. Cats are notoriously

creatures of routine and habit. They

have a great biological clock, and

disruption of their regular routine will

often cause stress. We all are pretty well

versed on the usual triggers that cause

stress in cats—new home, new pet, new

baby, new significant other; but what

about a change in our routine that keeps

us home?

Now that we are home all the time and

even though we are familiar to our cats,

is our new schedule causing them

stress? For example now that I am

home, my cat Eleanor thinks that it is

feeding time every time I walk into the

kitchen, whether it has been 15 minutes

or 4 hours from when she last ate. She

will ask for food even when there is still

some kibble left in her bowl.

Continued on next page…

Cat Tales and Mews News

…Continued from page 2

Home with our cats…

And the other day I walked into the

bedroom and apparently it was quite a

surprise to the three cats taking their

regular late afternoon naps. All three

jumped up and ran to the closet in a

blink of an eye.

Yes, they did venture out of the closet

eventually but what a disruption to

their normal afternoon cat naps!

Another thing I think my cats have

noticed—the increased number of

deliveries to the house—very

stressful! But I do think the stress of

the Amazon van might even out with

the joy of more boxes to play in!

So again, all kidding aside, our

presence at home 24/7 can be more

stressful to our cats then we think

because it is a disruption to their

regular routine. Some cats will be

more flexible and certainly will enjoy

your company while you are at home

more. They will sit on your keyboard

when trying to type, or they may wake

you up early for attention when you

are sleeping (the Feline Behavior

Department has tips to help you

with that!)

Stress can cause sickness in cats too— another reason to keep to the regular routine. You can help by trying not to alter their regular schedules too much.

Feed them at the same times as you did when working, change the litter box and play with them the same times as you did when you were working.

Sure you can throw in some extra

cuddling and playtimes (you

probably weren’t playing with them

enough anyway), but remember, you

hopefully will be returning to work in

a month or so.

Do take into account the hours

you are usually at work and go

about your business at home or

tending the garden and not lavish

attention on your cats during

those hours. Although we

promote lots of interactive play to

tire your cat out when you do play

with her, use less interactive

games to keep her busy during

some of the hours you are usually

at work.

Activities that encourage

independent play and independent

thinking will get them playing on

their own just like they did when

you were at work. Games where

they can hunt and seek, and food

puzzles that do not directly involve

your presence will help get them

back on track. You don’t want to

start giving them 24/7 attention and

then switch it up all of a sudden

when you return to work. That will

totally stress them out!

Mountain Beauties

It’s hard to find anything more

beautiful than snow-capped

mountains in a pristine blue sky, but

our little blue eyed mountain

beauties just might do it. Cascade,

Klamath, Lassen, Trinity and Shasta

came to us through our pet

partnership program. They were

already spayed and ear tipped and

ready to enroll in our career cat

program.

When we assessed these little

Siamese mix, blue-eyed beauties, we

felt they were not all that feral. We

thought that some time to decom-

press in the shelter combined

with a little behavior modification

might bring out more pet-like

behavior. We were right!

Shasta, one of the young adults in the

“fab five,” was the first to offer

affiliative behavior. She was quite

sweet, went to behavior assessment

quickly and was adopted at Kitty

Corner within a week of landing there.

Cascade, another young adult, was the

next to move on to behavior

assessment. Cascade had a bit of

"cat-i-tude." She presented as

beautiful and friendly, but she did not

like being picked up and preferred to

interact with humans on her own

terms. So Cascade went to the

adoption floor as a blue dot cat in her own

room. Within two weeks, Cascade had

found a home, too.

The three remaining mountain kittens

were each in different stages of

socialization. Klamath was the first to

turn the corner. After several days of

short interaction with the behavior

team and animal care staff, plus one

45-minute session involving baby

food on a spoon, Klamath started

approaching the front of her cage for

attention, purring all the while.

Lassen was also well on her way,

accepting some petting and baby

Continued on page 5

C A S C A D E K L A M A T H L A S S E N S H A S T A T R I N I TY

Tip: When you do need to get work

done, provide a better place for your

cat to be that is close to your desk so

he/she can still hang out with you—a

shelf, table or cat tree with cat treats,

cat nip and a warm bed.

Cats are notoriously creatures of routine and habit.

Cat Tales and Mews News

Precious lives up to her name

By Virginia Grainger

A stray dog came into the shelter on

March 17, who had a chip, was licensed

and went by the name of Precious.

By now Marin was operating under the

“stay-at-home” order and dogs were

being moved to foster as soon as

possible. In

order to move

a dog to foster

we need to do

some sort of

evaluation to

figure out the

best possible

home for that

dog. It took

three days to

get into

contact with the owner of Precious, who

said she would come and get her on

Friday the 20th. Keri Fennell, director of

shelter services, thought it might be

wise for B&T to look at Precious to see if

she would pass an evaluation, so I

loaded a couple of my dogs into my car

and met Chad Carlson, Shelter K9

Behavior Service Coordinator, at the

shelter to evaluate Precious.

It turned out Precious was a really cool

dog. Our guess at her breed mix was

Husky with some sort of Shepherd;

Dawn thought possibly Malinois.

Precious played with my OES mix Fergus

and she didn’t get annoyed when

he was being bratty and too pushy.

She played with my little female

Aussie, Maeve, and she also played

with Dawn’s BC/Whippet pup, Dice.

Precious was actually a really nice dog

with great social skills with people and

dogs. This was great information in

case we needed it and, guess what,

we did need it.

Two days later

Precious’s

guardians called

to tell us that they

could not redeem

her. Now, we had

to move her into

foster. Sam

Winegarner,

Animal Care

Manager,

thought she had a home but that fell

through. At this point we had moved

nearly every other animal out of the

shelter and into foster.

Many of our Dog Pet Pals had emailed

to say they could help out by taking in

a foster dog if necessary. One of those

was relatively new DPP Billy De Frain.

After his DPP orientation, Billy had

met Yogi, a Husky mix. But Yogi wasn’t

quite right for Billy and his home.

I thought Precious might be just the

right fit, so when Suzanne Gollin,

foster coordinator, asked me if I knew

someone who could foster Precious, I

immediately thought of Billy.

Billy was contacted and agreed to

foster Precious. Well, as you might

have guessed Billy decided to adopt

Precious and she has made herself

right at home!

Survey seeks participants

COVID-19 has impacted every area of

our lives, perhaps even including the

relationships we have with our dogs.

You can help researchers at Colorado

State University, Washington State

University, University of San Francisco,

and Palo Alto University understand

more about this impact by completing a

short (~10 minute), anonymous survey.

Click here to participate.

While we are still sheltering in place in our various communities, take a moment to

enjoy some interesting articles and videos that will inform and amuse.

Queen of Scenting

Skylar at work! Skylar,

Queen of the Pitties,

shows her stuff during

a recent RSSS meeting.

(Click here to view the

video.) Notice the con-

stantly wagging tail and

the dead-on focus. Such

a sweetheart!

From Joe Lisella: Marin

Humane’s Gala Videographer,

Mario San Miguel sent us an

inspiring video. Enjoy!

Mario writes: “I recently joined a

group of over 200 filmmakers,

led by Muse Storytelling, to

create a collaborative film with

footage contributed from around

the world to tell the story of this

moment in time!”

Behavior and Training News

News Briefs & Links

Social distancing offers chance for dog walkers… “There is nothing quite like a

pandemic to throw carefully

negotiated and well-crafted

game plans off-kilter.” Read

more from Dawn Kovell in

Marin IJ Tails of Marin.

B&T developing new

training videos

B&T Director Dawn Kovell

has been busy using some

of her SIP time to create

training videos, which will

be used to supplement

class curriculum or to

provide virtual training

support for clients during

any extended SIP. Click

here to view her Tug Play

video.

Upcoming seminar:

Sue Sternberg on Shelter dogs – August 1 & 2, 2020

NOTE: As of this date, this seminar is still

planned for August, and we will keep you

apprised of the status.

Attention Volunteers! In August you

have an opportunity to see Sue

Sternberg. If you’ve never seen Sue you

should take advantage of her being so

close by. She is specifically speaking

about shelter dogs! How great is that?

There is a discount for groups of 3 or

more, so if there is enough interest

we can pay as a group and save some

money on the admission. For more

information: puppyworks.com

Email Jane, jaten@marinhumane.org

and we will register you for the Marin

Humane Group and will give you further

instructions on signing up. All partici-

pants in our group will pay for their own

registration through Puppyworks.

PEN PAL Program: Where the Dogs Are!

Here’s the report of dogs and their handlers out at San Quentin as of

February 28, 2020:

• Amirah was at San Quentin with trainer Alex for kennel relief. She came

back to Marin Humane and when the “stay in place” order was issued, she

went to a foster.

• Yogi was with handler Jimmy, also for kennel relief. He was adopted on

April 4th. Stay tuned for more news about Yogi and his new family in the

next Noseletter.

• Lovely Kiko is still at SQ with handler Mike and is working on getting her

figure back! She was carrying a few extra pounds and is working hard to get

those pounds off!

• Misty is with handler Farrand for kennel relief and some training. She is

doing well.

Yogi Kiko Misty

Mountain Beauties Continued from page 3

food on a spoon, but Trinity was still

flighty and untouchable in her cage.

Once we could hold Klamath outside

of her cage, Trinity would rush to

the front of her cage and meow for

Klamath. Since Klamath was doing

so well and Trinity obviously needed

a friend, we put the two together.

Trinity became more relaxed over

the next few days as she snuggled

up with Klamath and gained comfort

from her. We found foster homes

for the kittens to help socialize them

to the home environment (a very

important step for feral kittens).

After two weeks Klamath and Trinity

returned to the shelter.

Klamath was sent to Kitty Corner

and was adopted the same day.

Trinity and Lassen still needed more

socialization, so they were placed in

a foster home together.

It would have been easier and

quicker to move the “fab five” into

the career cat program, but that’s

not what we do at Marin Humane.

We strive to find the best path for

each individual cat – whether it’s a

career cat path or a pet cat path.

That is what we do at Marin Humane.

Dashboard Stats – March 2020 (COVID-19 stats at the end)

Behavior and Training News