Finishing school for cats

Best Friends Animal Society

Dear Members and Friends,

Finishing school for cats:
Lots of cats are going through “finishing school” in group fostering here at the sanctuary. They’re the final 127 of the 800-plus Great Kitty Rescue in the Nevada desert last summer. Very frightened of people, some apparently feral from birth, they were completely unapproachable at first. Nor were they well enough to be relocated to feral cat colonies. But here at the sanctuary, these little guys graduate from special care to the play room to the real-life room, and on to suitable homes where they can be comfortable and happy.

>>Follow their progress.

How much is that doggie in the window?
Those puppies look very cute in the pet store window. But what’s life really like for the dogs who are forced to breed these puppies. Take a quick look behind the scenes as we work to bring an end to the pet trade.

>>Watch “The Road to Healing”

Is that a toy … or a UFO?
The Vicktory dogs had never known fun and games before they came to the sanctuary. So introducing them to the joys of life needs to be one step at a time. For example, when we put out some play-tunnels and toys and things to climb on, they stared at them like alien objects had landed from outer space. Day by day, stage by stage, they’re learning that life can be good, after all. Here’s all the latest on the dogs brought to Best Friends from ex-footballer Michael Vick’s kennels.

>>Read the behind the scenes blogs
>>Special Feature: Pit Bulls – the real story

Favorite photos:
Ruby reads the newspaper, King Leer rules the laundry room, and a harrier hawk recovers from a broken wing.

>>The week in photos.

Lots more, including:

Harrison Fjord:
He was bred to be a workhorse. That didn’t quite work out. Now he’s working at building a new life at the sanctuary, and he’d like you to consider being one of his sponsors.

Animal Attraction:
A vibrant online community for pet lovers. They’re helping sponsor the animals here, and Best Friends benefits when you sign up, refer a friend, and visit the site.

In the media:
Adoptable dogs on Oprah, dogs from Iraq on the ABC world news, and other major media stories that highlight the world of Best Friends.

HSUS and the factory farms:
Finally, here’s a round of applause to the Humane Society of the United States for their undercover investigation of a California slaughterhouse. The video they presented to the world was harrowing in its portrayal of the cruelty and callousness of the factory farms. We should all honor the fact that the 143 million pounds of “recalled beef” were once thousands of poor creatures living in a world of pain and misery.

Meanwhile, this week, we at Best Friends were examining video footage taken at a dog-trade auction. These helpless animals, who exist only to fuel the pet store industry, are kept alive in small cages as long as their exhausted bodies can continue to breed, and which we’ll be writing more about in coming weeks.

Our hopes and prayers this weekend are that as more and more people come to understand such cruelties, the suffering of these innocent creatures will not have been entirely in vain.

Thank you, as always, for caring, and for your generous donations that make all this work possible.