Richmond SPCA Blog

We Were Adopted! (January 26 - February 1, 2015)

We are thrilled to announce that 55 pets were adopted last week! We are so grateful to our amazing staff and volunteers for their wonderful help uniting these pets with new, loving families. You can help spread the word about our available pets and lifesaving work by "liking" and sharing our social media posts on Facebook and tumblr. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Here are the cats who were adopted this past week: 

 

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From top left to bottom right (pets not pictured are italicized): Abigail, Bedford, Bradford, Cher, Devo, Ernie, Ferdinand, Flurry, Gary, James, Jaspurr, Jersey, Juliette, Larissa, Mandy, Olga, Parka, Patsy, Petal, Phillip, Polar, Ponce, Potter, Vanna

Here are the dogs who were adopted this past week: 

 

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From top left to bottom right (pets not pictured are italicized): Annabelle, Anya, Bart, Beasley, Ciera, Celia, Dorian, Dudley, Dursley, Hattie, Helena, Hemsworth, Jolene, Kelly, Levi, Lisa, Mack, Marcus, Melanie, Michael, Nash, Pascal, Pebbles, Rafi, Raphael, Raymond, Shawn, Topanga, Trinket, Vanessa.

Our adoption center is open every day of the week: Monday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visit our website to see some of our dogs and cats currently available for adoption, for directions to our Robins-Starr Humane Center, to view the programs and services we offer and more.

Adoption Specials

Our friends at Best Bully Sticks are providing a special treat for all dog adopters. While supplies last, every dog adopted from our center will take home a free BullyBox treat sampler pack!

Match Finder tool

If you have not seen the pet you’re looking for among the cats and dogs currently available at our humane center, we recommend that you try our free Match Finder tool. This online tool is designed to help you find your new best friend by automatically emailing you when a pet matching your desired criteria is available. If you have any questions, please contact our amazing adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Offsite adoptions

In addition to having many wonderful cats at our humane center, we also have several felines at the Carytown location of PETCO. If you would like to learn more about these felines or set up an appointment to meet them in person, please call our adoption team at 804-521-1307. 

Alumni updates

Our staff and volunteers love to know what our precious adoptees are up to, so please keep us posted! If you would like to share a picture or story of your adopted pet, please send us an email. If you would like to see your pet featured on one of our social media sites, please tell us in your message that we may share your update.

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To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

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Community responds to Facebook appeal to help with laundry and buy a new washer for the Richmond SPCA

If you follow the Richmond SPCA on Facebook, you may recognize the photo to the right from early April. One of our two commercial washers had stopped working, and we reached out on social media for help doing laundry. We asked for anyone willing to wash and dry pet bedding at home to pick up a bag at our humane center. The hope was that we could get enough help to keep the growing piles in the hallway under control.

Boy did we get help! Both regular volunteers and members of the public put their washers and dryers into service for the comfort of homeless pets in our care.

And then came the surprises!

First, Emily Fortner saw our plea on Facebook called Richmond Neighborhood Laundry and asked them to pick up any remaining laundry from the Richmond SPCA at her expense! Jerry, who owns the local laundry service, sent over an employee to load a minivan with all the laundry that would fit — more than seven hefty bags of soiled linens.

Debbie volunteers for one of our most essential but least glamorous volunteer tasks: laundry duty.

In the meantime, the service tech who had examined our aging commercial washer delivered bad news. The machine was beyond repair. This news was heard by one of our regular volunteers who gives her time helping in our laundry room every week. As we were contemplating how we would manage to replace the washer — an expense of nearly $8,000 for which we had not budgeted — Debbie Rider Allen sprang into action.

Debbie quietly began her own fundraising campaign to replace the washer. She reached out to friends and neighbors in Mechanicsville and posted an appeal to her Facebook profile. The intitial gift from Debbie and her husband inspired additional donations from friends, and by the time we learned of her wonderful efforts, nearly a third of the funding for the new machine had been raised. Their contributions enabled us to order the new machine, which was installed at the end of last week.

If you too are inspired by Debbie's campaign, you may contribute by mailing a check made out to the Richmond SPCA and writing "washer campaign" on the memo line to 
Robins-Starr Humane Center
2519 Hermitage Road
Richmond, VA 23220
or visit our secure online donation form at www.richmondspca.org/donate and reference laundry or  washing machine in the comments field.

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Tabitha Hanes is the director of advancement of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name.

Volunteer opportunities for youth and children at the Richmond SPCA

Children and pets are a natural pairing. Many of us fondly remember our furry childhood friends: the beloved cat who slept only in your bed, or the dog who was waiting for you every day after school. Childhood is a time for whimsy and wonder, and the bond between kids and their pets is certainly one of the most magical things a child can experience. However, it is also important for children to learn about the responsibility that accompanies pet guardianship.

At the Richmond SPCA we believe that every life is precious. The life of a homeless cat or dog has just as much inherent value as that of a beloved pet. We hope that this philosophy will continue to guide our community indefinitely. The Richmond SPCA recognizes that engaging children and teens in animal sheltering is the key to future success in animal welfare and advocacy in Richmond and beyond.

If you have been wondering if your animal-loving child could volunteer at the Richmond SPCA the answer is a resounding “Yes!”. Volunteers must be 14 or older to volunteer independently (without a parent or guardian). Youth volunteers 7 or older may volunteer alongside their parents or guardians.

The first step in starting the process of becoming a volunteer is to attend one of our volunteer information sessions. These sessions are currently being offered 3 times each month. During this informational meeting, an overview of our organization and volunteer needs is provided for potential volunteers who may then supply information about their skills and interests to apply to become active Richmond SPCA volunteers.

Our volunteer needs are numerous and varied. Volunteers are an important part of every department at the Richmond SPCA.

For the budding veterinarian or veterinary technician, we have two volunteer shifts in our Clinic for Compassionate Care. The spay/neuter dismissal assistant will help our clinic staff to get the clinic space clean and ready for the next day's surgeries. The clinic clerical helper can assist our clinic receptionists with filing and paperwork. We also have a position working in the shelter’s treatment room: clinic/meds help. This shift involves helping our clinic and medical staff with clerical work and some direct animal contact.

For cat-loving kids, we have a morning kitty calming job, an afternoon p.m. poop patrol and a kitten nursery which sometimes needs help during the day. Kitty calming is perfect for parent and child volunteer teams as you can brush and play with the cats during this cleaning shift. P.M. poop patrollers help our staff in the afternoons with litter box scooping, providing fresh water, and spot cleaning. Kitten nursery is a daycare for bottle-fed kittens in our foster care program. During kitten season we host this daycare for our working foster parents. They drop the kittens off in the morning, pick them up in the evening and our volunteers take care of the feeding and cleaning necessary to keep the kittens happy and healthy. If you and your child have never bottle fed kittens before, we can give you a brief training session on neonatal kitten care.

For kids who don’t mind getting their hands dirty, we have a plethora of cleaning shifts in various areas of our humane center. We also need help with laundry every day.

For dog-loving children, we have several volunteer shifts to help our staff care for our canines as they await adoption. The afternoon waterer ensures that all of our pets have their water bowls topped off at the end of the day. This is a great shift for a parent-child team because you get to meet so many sweet dogs in a short amount of time and the pooches surely appreciate the affection. On Saturday, the kong stuffing shift prepares food-filled toys for the dogs to enjoy throughout the week. All children can accompany a parent during dog walking.

Many teenagers aged 16 and older are required to put in a number of volunteer hours for their schools’ service-learning programs. The Richmond SPCA recognizes this and opens up most of our volunteer jobs to those students. Teenagers 16 and older can work independently in most of the aforementioned shifts. They can also act as adoption greeters, welcoming the public to the adoption lobby and assisting our adoption staff during peak adoption times. Sixteen year olds are also eligible to work independently with our dogs as dog walkers and as representatives at our offsite adoption events.

Volunteering at the Richmond SPCA can help your child engage in a community working for a better tomorrow for animals and people. The first step to get started as a volunteer is to visit us online and sign up for a New Volunteer Information Session. Please visit the volunteer page of our website at www.richmondspca.org/volunteer or contact Alison Carlin, Manager of Volunteers and Programs, at [email protected] to learn more.

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Alex Lane is the volunteer and programs assistant at the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

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Q&A with a top fundraiser: Rich Terrell

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a key reason that our Dog Jog and 5K Run is so successful in providing vital support for the homeless animals who rely on the Richmond SPCA to save their lives. Our 12th annual event will be presented by Holiday Barn Pet Resorts on Saturday, March 15, but the fundraising got started many months ago! However, there is still time to register and get started asking your friends and family for their support of your participation in this great community event. Top fundraisers are eligible for great prizes, and all who raise $500 or more in donations will receive a special gift that will be awarded at the VIRTEXCO Awards Ceremony at noon next Saturday. See how our top individual and team fundraisers are doing at www.richmondspca.org/dogjogprizes — we so appreciate all of their remarkable support of homeless animals through their tireless fundraising! 

We recently talked with Rich Terrell, who was awarded the Johnny Birkitt Hero Award in 2013, about how he got involved in fundraising for the Dog Jog and 5K Run. Rich is currently in second place overall, having raised $1,135 as a member of our alumni team, Team Belle.

Q: Which event are you registered for, the leisurely 1-mile Dog Jog with your pet, or the competitively timed 5K Run?

Rich: I am registered for both, although technically I am not doing either one! I am volunteering for the day taking photos of the runners, walkers and everyone else that comes out to make this one of the best fundraising events of the year. While I would like to run the 5k one day, I have not figured out how to be in two places at once :)

Q: When did you first participate in the Dog Jog and 5K Run? Did you fundraise your first year?

Rich: My first year participating was 2008 — I did not raise any funds that year to my recollection — I wanted to help out that day as a volunteer photographer. I was immediately hooked; I have been to every Dog Jog since that one.

Q: Was there any specific inspiration that led you to get involved in raising funds for the Richmond SPCA?

Rich: I have always loved animals, and I have always been passionate about photography. One day in 2006 I noticed on the Richmond SPCA web page that volunteer photographers were needed. That seemed like a terrific way to combine my passion for photography with my equal love of animals, especially those that are in need. I've been fortunate to maintain a relationship with, and occasionally be a contributor to the Richmond SPCA for many years. I hope for many more years to come.

Q: What have been the most effective tools in asking friends and family for support?

Rich: I start with an initial email that talks about the great work of the Richmond SPCA, and I link photos of the past several years where I have volunteered. One thing I do in the email is offer to match a certain amount of the total donations received. I think that is very effective. After that, I use an occasional Facebook post to remind people of the upcoming event and encourage people to attend. I think that is one of the most important things; to get as many people to come out as possible. I don't know anyone that would regret it — the event is so charged and full of energy.

Q: What’s your best tip for someone who is registered but might be hesitant to get involved as a fundraiser?

Rich: Don't be afraid to ask your friends and family for help. You can set an example for contributing to a very worthy non-profit organization that does a tremendous amount of good for animal welfare in the greater Richmond area. You friends and family are sure to admire you for your dedication. You might be surprised at how much support you will receive!

Q: What are you looking forward to most about March 15?

Rich: My favorite part of the whole day is interacting with people and their pets. I enjoy seeing so many smiling, happy people with their loved ones: both 2-legged and 4-legged.

 

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 View all of Rich's photos from last year's event in his 2013 Dog Jog and 5K Run set on Flickr. 

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Tabitha Hanes is the director of advancement of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name. 

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Update: Foster homes needed for dogs as Richmond SPCA prepares for major renovations

Prior to the start of the holidays, we announced a special need for foster homes for dogs, and hosted a special dog-focused Meet the Fosters workshop on Dec. 18. The response was terrific, but in recent weeks we have been met with an unexpected delay in the start of construction. Our project start date has been pushed back to Feb. 3, also delaying the placement of dogs into ready foster homes. However, the postponement has allowed us to schedule a second workshop opportunity on Jan. 28 to train additional foster providers. 

The Richmond SPCA is preparing for a major renovation of our dog kennels. This will be our largest construction project since our Robins-Starr Humane Center opened in 2002 and will involve demolition of six rooms of kennels in two phases. Although this project will temporarily reduce our on-site capacity to house dogs, we will continue saving the lives of homeless dogs in local government shelters by transferring them into our care throughout both phases of construction. We are calling on members of our community to join us in saving lives by fostering homeless dogs.

New foster care volunteers who attend the workshop on Jan. 28, as well as those who received training at last month's session, will be prepared to be “on deck” for placement of dogs in their homes starting Jan. 29. Many of the dogs in need of foster homes will be those who have been diagnosed with medical conditions requiring ongoing veterinary treatment prior to adoption. The foster care period will range from four to six weeks. Following the workshop, potential foster providers will be asked to complete a questionnaire that the Richmond SPCA’s foster care coordinator will use to select the dog most appropriate for the individual home.

To supplement the capacity gained through foster homes during the demolition and construction, the generous owners of Holiday Barn Pet Resorts will kindly open some of their kennels to board dogs from the Richmond SPCA. The combination of donated boarding, foster care and creatively repurposing some spaces within our own humane center will ensure that the Richmond SPCA’s lifesaving impact on the community is not diminished even while our physical space is reduced.

Special thanks to the Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center for generously sponsoring the Meet the Fosters™ program.

 Online to attend the Jan. 28 workshop! 

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Tabitha Frizzell Hanes is the director of advancement for the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

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Meet the Fosters: Cats in need of foster care

The Richmond SPCA finds permanent, loving homes for more than 3,500 cats and dogs each year. Each and every pet that enters the Robins-Starr Humane Center is uniquely different. Some pets need a little more TLC than their peers. Foster care is an excellent option for pets who need extra help to prepare them for an adoptive home.

Families and individuals who participate in the Richmond SPCA’s Meet the Fosters™ program assist homeless pets in more ways than one. First and foremost, the foster providers give the pet their time, energy and a temporary home. These efforts can assist in preparing that pet for adoption. Foster care also allows our organization to expand our lifesaving capacity beyond the walls of our physical building. Increased capacity means more pets can be cared for by the Richmond SPCA’s staff and volunteers until new, permanent homes are found.

Foster care volunteers provide temporary homes for kittens, puppies, cats, and dogs. Some pets may only need a home for several days, while others may need several weeks or months. Foster care providers do not need previous pet care experience. The Richmond SPCA will provide all necessary training and information regarding your foster pet’s care. We will also provide all the supplies you will need to successfully care for your foster pet (i.e. food, bedding, toys). 

If you are interested in becoming a foster care volunteer for an adult feline, you can learn more about some of the wonderful candidates below. These felines could benefit from foster care to receive a break from our humane center. If you have any questions or comments, please visit our website or contact Tameka Peters by phone (804-521-1313) or e-mail our foster care coordinator, Tameka Peters. The next training workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, October 23 from 6-8 p.m.

Name: Brenda
Breed: Domestic short hair mix
Color: Black
Age: 4 years
MYM Feline-ality: Sidekick
Length of stay: 2-4 weeks 

Meet Brenda! This feline has been described as being loyal, people-oriented and loveable. She prefers to spend time meeting new people and catching up with old friends over playing with toys. Even though Brenda can be a very social lady, she also enjoys her independence. She is perfectly content lounging around. She would enjoy a home with a large window so she can watch the world go by! Brenda requires a prescription diet due to a medial issue. Brenda enjoys the company of people of all ages and has done very well with other cats in this environment (in fact, she has spent the majority of her time here living in our Catillion group housing). 

Name: Summer
Breed: Domestic short hair mix
Color: Black and white
Age: 11 years
MYM Feline-ality: Sidekick
Length of stay: 2-4 weeks 

Summer is a laid back, loyal cat in search of a home to call her own. She prefers to take a laid back approach to life. If she had a motto, it would most likely be: “Easy does it”. She would make a wonderful companion for someone interested in expanding their family. She will head butt and rub up against you to solicit attention. She can be a purr machine at times too! Summer would do best in a quiet, calm home. She would appreciate some quiet one-on-one time being set aside for her so she can give and receive affection from her human friends. Summer is comfortable around other cats, dogs, and older children but being the laid-back feline that she is, she will not compete against them for attention. Interested in giving Summer a permanent home? Her adoption fee has been sponsored.

Name: Meg
Breed: Domestic short hair mix
Color: Brown and white
Age: 9 years
MYM Feline-ality: Sidekick
Length of stay: 2-4 weeks

If you are looking to foster a charismatic feline, Meg may be the perfect foster pet for you! For a mature cat, she can still be quite playful at times! She has no problem keeping herself entertained by batting around toys, exploring her environment and scratching on carpet-style scratching posts. Due to allergies, Meg is on a prescription diet. She did well with other pets in a previous foster home but in an ideal world, she may prefer to be the only pet in the home. Meg would also prefer a foster home without small children.

Name: Lucy
Breed: Domestic short hair mix
Color: Brown and black tabby
Age:3 years
MYM Feline-ality: Private Investigator
Length of stay: 2-4 weeks

Lucy is a quiet and reserved feline in search of a calm and patient home. When she is introduced to a new environment she may spend some time on the sidelines, quietly observing her surroundings. Even though she may be hesitant to engage with the activity of her environment at first, she is certainly curious! She enjoys receiving attention once she has gotten comfortable, but it may take you some time to earn her trust. Once she has warmed up to you she has a boat load of love to offer! We are certain she will make a lovable and loyal companion! 

Name: Tink
Breed: Domestic short hair mix
Color: Black and orange tortoiseshell 
Age: 2 years
MYM Feline-ality: Personal Assistant
Length of stay: 2-4 weeks 

Meet Tink! This beautiful feline has a one of a kind personality. She has been described as being curious, loyal and fun-loving. She enjoys receiving attention, whether it is a long belly rub or a short snuggle session. If you are not already giving her attention and she is longing for it, she will not hesitate to solicit it! She would much rather spend time with people than play with toys (in fact, she appears to think that playing with toys is silly!). Tink would do best in a home without other cats. 

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Alison Carlin is the Manager of Volunteers and Programs at the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

     

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Get involved with the Richmond SPCA this fall

Volunteers are an important component of each and every department at the Richmond SPCA and help our organization run smoothly. There are a wide variety of volunteer opportunities available every day of the week. Volunteer jobs include everything from cleaning and administrative tasks, to dog walking and cat calming. We do our very best to ensure that our volunteers have job opportunities available to them that match up with their personal interests and skill level. Many of our student volunteers have gone back to school and we need help filling some of our daytime shifts.

The lifesaving work we do would not be possible without the help and support of our passionate and dedicated volunteers. In that last year, we have had over 1,200 volunteers perform work for our organization and for that, we are truly grateful. 

Volunteers must be 14 years of age or older to volunteer independently. We welcome parent-child and family volunteer teams, so if a potential volunteer is 7 years of age or older, he or she may still volunteer at our Robins-Starr Humane Center under the direct supervision or a parent or guardian. Some of our volunteer jobs are perfect for a pair or small group!

If you would like to donate your time to our humane center, we encourage you to attend one of our upcoming volunteer information sessions. These sessions provide an overview of our organization as a whole. Current volunteer training requirements and needs will also be discussed. Potential volunteers may then fill out an application to become an active Richmond SPCA volunteer. Our next volunteer information session will be held on Wednesday, September 18 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. You can learn more and register here.

If you are unable to donate your time in-house, that is okay! We currently have several volunteer opportunities that can be done (mostly) from the comfort of your own home or neighborhood.

Community wash-a-thon events: In August we held our first-ever community wash-a-thon event. Community volunteers were able to stop by our humane center to pick up a bag (or two!) of dirty laundry and washing instructions. After the laundry was washed, dried and folder it was dropped off back to us. We are thrilled to share that we distributed 38 bags in only 3 hours! Our next community wash-a-thon will be held on Saturday, September 21. Laundry and washing instructions can be picked up at the front desk of our Robins-Starr Humane Center anytime between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Foster care: By offering your time, energy, and home to an orphaned animal in need, you help prepare that animal for adoption into a permanent home. Foster care also increases our capacity to shelter and care for orphaned animals beyond the walls of our humane center. If you would like to learn more about becoming a foster care volunteer, you can visit us online or contact Tameka Peters, our Foster Care Coordinator, by phone at 804-521-1313 or by email.

Wish list drives: If you are part of a group that is interested in taking on a project to help orphaned animals in our community? If so, you may be interested in conducting a wish list drive! Wish list drives help us stock up on items that are necessary to keep our humane center running smoothly. You can view our wish list here.

For more information about becoming a new volunteer at the Richmond SPCA, please contact Alison Carlin, Manager of Volunteers and Programs by phone at 804-521-1329 or by email. 

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Alison Carlin is the manager of volunteers of the Richmond SPCA. To read the biography of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name.

Wash-a-thon: how you, your washer and dryer can save the day for homeless pets

UPDATE: Our first Wash-a-thon was such a success that we hope that the community will turn out to help us again on Sunday, Sept. 1. If you can volunteer to help us provide fresh, clean bedding for the pets in our care, dirty laundry will be bagged for pick up between noon & 5 p.m. this Sunday.

When you visit the Robins-Starr Humane Center, the first thing you may notice is how relaxed and happy many of the dogs and cats look. Our animal care staff prides itself on maintaining a clean and comfortable environment for the dogs and cats as they await adoption. This helps maintain good physical and mental health for the orphaned pets in our care.

July’s numbers provide a picture of what it takes to accomplish this task:

• 275 – the average number of dogs and cats cared for each day in July onsite at our Robins-Starr Humane Center. This doesn’t include those being cared for in the homes of our dedicated foster care volunteers.
• 23 – the average number of orphaned pets cared for daily by each animal care technician on our staff
• 3 to 5 – the number of linens and toys given to each animal each day to make his or her living area cozy and home-like
• 900 – average pieces of dirty laundry (towels, blankets, sheets, beds and toys) generated at our humane center each day.
• 262 – hours our volunteers spent doing laundry last month

The comfort of the dogs and cats in our care relies greatly on the community’s donation of beds, sheets and towels, and the effort of volunteers who frequently wash, dry and fold linens in our laundry room. During the summer months, we see an influx of orphaned kittens, and with every additional life saved, more laundry is required. At the moment, keeping the pets in our care comfortable produces more laundry each day than our two commercial laundry machines can handle, and we need the community’s help to catch up with the growing laundry pile!

This Saturday, August 10, we will be holding our first-ever community wash-a-thon! This is how it works: community volunteers can stop by the front desk of the Robins-Starr Humane Center between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to pick up a bag of dirty laundry and washing instructions. Then just take the laundry bag home, wash and dry the laundry and return it back to the front desk (in the clean bag provided) anytime during our normal business hours the following week.

It may seem like a small task, but it’s a huge need that makes a real difference in the day-to-day lives of the dogs and cats in our care. Help us turn this:

into this:

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Timothy Joyner is the manager of volunteers and programs at the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

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July Pet Pantry food drive

We’re having a food drive to help collect food for our Pet Pantry! This program provides temporary pet food assistance to families and individuals in the Greater Richmond area that are unable to feed their pets. This service is available for households in need of short-term help with the cost of food. We currently serve over 70 families and individuals each month. Since this program began in April 2009, we have served thousands of clients and with assistance from our Pet Pantry, they have been able to keep their pets in loving homes rather than relinquish them.

Our Lora Robins Gift Shop will be holding a food drive to benefit our Pet Pantry through the end of the month. When you donate a bag of unopened, dry pet food at our humane center through July 31, you will receive a 15 percent discount at our retail shop. You will also be entered in a drawing to win one of five great prizes, including the cat themed basket (valued at over $50!) pictured. Donors will receive one entry per bag donated.

Dry pet food is currently our greatest need. Any brand or type is helpful as there are many types of dogs and cats in the program. When pet guardians apply to our Pet Pantry program we ask them to tell us what type of food they have been feeding their four-legged companions. Our supply is based on in-kind donations and we try to provide food recipients with the same kind of food if we have it available. If not, we try to give food recipients food that is very similar.

Our Pet Pantry program would cease to exist without generous donors. We are appreciative of the in-kind donations we have and continue to receive for this program. We regularly receive donations from various individuals and groups in the area. This Richmond SPCA is especially grateful to our friends at PETCO, who generously host pet food drives to support our pantry all year long. 

Donations for the Pet Pantry food drive can be dropped off any day of the week! Our Lora Robins Gift Shop is open: Monday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. If you would like to make a donation before our gift shop opens, please visit the front desk in the main lobby. Our front doors open at 8 a.m. during the week.

Our Pet Pantry is one of the many services we provide through Project Safety Net. The goal of Project Safety Net is to provide alternatives to pet relinquishment. Other programs include our Clinic for Compassionate Care, pet behavior assistance (i.e. training classes, behavior evaluations) and SAAF. To learn more about these and the other services we offer through Project Safety Net, please click here. 

Interested in donating other items? Donations keep the Richmond SPCA going and are essential to the health and happiness of our four-legged friends. As always, all donations are tax-deductible. Click here to view our current wish list.

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Alison Carlin is the coordinator of community relations at the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

Girl Scout makes foster care her Gold Award project and becomes a lifesaver for six kittens

I’m Alexa Johnson and I’m working on my Girl Scout Gold Award project. I am working with the Richmond SPCA to increase the number of foster care volunteers. And that is the reason that my mom and I decided to foster! For about the next three weeks, we are the proud foster parents of SIX (yes six!) 5-week-old kittens!

All of them have their own personalities, and it is fun to get to know each of them. They keep each other company, and watching them play together is like its own television show. As time passed, the kittens have gotten more and more outgoing and energetic and of course they are growing.

When it's bed time, they all pile into the bed, even if fitting means lying on top of each other. We have our own 8-year-old tabby cat, and a 5-year-old golden retriever. Our 85 lbs. dog won’t look the kittens in the eye, and although he is a lot bigger than them, they approach him and follow him around the living room. Our cat sticks up his nose at them and doesn’t like them to get to close to them, but he always watches intently as they play.

We are so glad that we are giving these kittens a brighter future because without the Richmond SPCA and the Meet the Fosters™ program their fate would be uncertain. Please consider taking some kittens under your wing — foster a kitten, save a life!

Editor's note: Alexa is also collecting supplies to help other foster care volunteers. One of the most essential supplies for kitten foster care is KMR, a milk replacement formula that is bottle fed to the tiniest infant kittens. Petco in Short Pump has a donation box where KMR and other foster care supplies can be dropped off to help the Meet the Fosters™ program.

Want to get involved?
Meet the Fosters™ training workshop
Wednesday, June 20, 6-8 p.m. at the Robins-Starr Humane Center, 2519 Hermitage Road, Richmond, VA
Click here for more information and to register.

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To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.