News from the City Shelter

Adoptions, on-site veterinarian and new structures among developments at the Shelter.

Spring has sprung and, as expected with the new season, came our first litters of kittens. The “A” litter and “B” litter arrived at RAPS later than usual – it wasn’t until mid-February that we welcomed the first ones. The “A” litter have all been adopted already and the “B” litter (Baggins, Brooke, Bali and Baby Cakes) are expecting to be returned from foster and be back at the shelter within the next two weeks.

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The City of Richmond has supplied us with a shipping container, which helps tremendously with storage. We can now successfully manage our food bank and donation program. Each week, we help Richmond residents with low incomes feed their pets. We also provide pet food to the Richmond Food Bank and to other animal rescues.

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Every week, we are fortunate to have Dr. Guy Arad volunteer his time and come to the Shelter to examine our animals – sometimes up to 15 per day! If animals require treatment, Dr. Arad takes them to his clinic at Fraser Heights Animal Hospital where he performs spays, neuters and lumpectomies (to name a few procedures) on cats and dogs. He has also performed several orthopedic surgeries for us, the latest being a pelvis repair on Artona, a young cat who suffered a severe fracture prior to coming to RAPS. Dr. Arad is also kept busy with our many foster animals who require regular examinations. Our staff stay busy coordinating all of these appointments, ensuring our animals receive the medical assessments that they need. Thank you Dr. Arad.

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We have also been fortunate to have the expertise of Dr. Martinez and his staff at Little Paws Animal Clinic, who have helped us with the veterinary care of our small animals, especially routine spays and neuters, as well as healing a guinea pig who came to us with severe bumblefoot, and he even performed emergency eye surgery on one of our rabbits.

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Adoption rates continue to be strong. We had a very successful first three months of 2017, with a total of 79 cat, 13 dog, 19 rabbit, eight small animal and four farm animal adoptions.

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A big project planned for the spring is the set-up of our rabbit yard, located in one of the unused yards towards the front of the Shelter grounds. Last fall, we successfully formed three colonies of rabbits. These three colonies will move into the new rabbit enclosure. The City of Richmond is helping us prep the site by providing fill to level out the ground and help with drainage. Rabbitats has also been instrumental in providing guidance around housing and colony management. We look forward to improving the quality of life for these 60+ rabbits.

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All our volunteer positions involving hands-on work with the animals are full. Equally important, and often overlooked, is Shelter grounds maintenance and yard work. Over the March Break, a number of students and community assistance workers volunteered their time to tidy up the yards and grounds. We appreciate each and every volunteer contribution!

By Julie Desgroseillers