The shelter is a hard place to be, that’s a fact. It’s hard for animals to be themselves in the stress of the shelter environment and it’s difficult to know we have kennels full of wonderful animals who get overlooked. When potential adopters come in they may spend only a matter of minutes in a visiting room getting to know a pet and they may not get a chance to see the awesome qualities that we have come to love.
That’s where our partnership with Wild Birds Unlimited in Rib Mountain comes in! Jen approached us with an interest in fostering animals at their store and we were 100% onboard! There were a few logistics to work out but we knew the team at Wild Birds Unlimited would be able to give our pets opportunities to be themselves and truly be seen in a way that the shelter just couldn’t; and that was all that mattered.
We understood that not every animal in the shelter would be able to handle the store environment and we decided early on that cats and small animals were our best bet. We try to pick outgoing and friendly cats who will navigate the free-roaming store environment and will be friendly to children or adults (in addition to not wanting to dart out the door) and so far we’ve done a pretty great job of picking the right fit! We were also pretty clever with one of our selections and sent a cat named WB, short for Wiggle Butt or Wild Birds, you tell me!
Since our collaboration began at the end of 2023, two rabbits and six cats have found homes after being fostered at the store. We’ve had a few bumps in the road but we’ve considered them lessons learned (like maybe having a pair of adolescent cats in the store along with all of the Christmas decorations may not be the best idea)! We have absolutely LOVED the feedback we’ve gotten from visitors, shelter volunteers and Wild Birds Unlimited staff. We’ve been able to learn new things about our adoptables simply by being able to observe them in a new environment and we’ve helped to increase visitor traffic to Wild Birds Unlimited. And props to Wild Birds for keeping that social media game strong and promoting their current foster at every opportunity on their own socials.
Any way you look at it, this partnership is saving lives and we are here for it. 100%.
Maybe you should head on over to Wild Birds Unlimited to see which furry friend is calling the store their temporary home…you just might fall in love!