Adoption Center to Close Temporarily to Contain Infection
Jan. 3 update: We are thrilled to announce that our Adoption Center will be open again starting Friday, January 5! All of our adoptable cats in the rooms up front have been safely brought through the appropriate quarantine period. We will resume our normal hours for cat visitation (11:00 – 5:00 Monday-Friday and 12:00 – 4:00 on Saturdays). Please remember that all dogs and puppies are fostered, but if you are looking to adopt a cat, we are happy to welcome you back for you to meet our great cats and see which is right for you!
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Dec. 29 update: We are happy to report that our Adoption Center will have a modified opening tomorrow, Sat., Dec. 30! The partial opening will be for approved applicants only so that they may meet the cats they are interested in. As we continue to monitor the fungal infection and treat the cats that have been affected by it, we are glad to be able to welcome some visitors, albeit a limited number, and look forward to reopening in 2018. We will post an update on Jan. 2 with our best guess for the opening date, so please check back at that time.
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Dec. 26 update: Since our last update on Dec. 20, no more cats have been affected by the fungal infection that had been spreading at our animal shelter and forced us to temporarily close to the public. We are happy to see that our sanitation protocols, while tedious, have been effective at stopping the spread of the infection. The cats who have been affected are still undergoing treatment, but they are healing; better yet, we have been able to move some cats back to some of the rooms up front. If things continue down the path of progress, we are looking at a modified opening of the shelter this Saturday, Dec. 30. It is likely that we will be able to open the shelter for approved applicants to meet with the cats they are interested in adopting. If you are interested in adopting a cat, you can still view their profiles and submit an application on our website. We hope to welcome you inside soon!
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Dec. 20 update: Second Chance remains temporarily closed to the public as we are still containing the contagious fungal infection. Since closing on Dec. 15, only two more cats at the Adoption Center have been affected; one was expected since his exposure was significant, and the other’s infection was noted the day after our decision to close. We are optimistic that new sanitation protocols are working, as we’ve had no more cats affected since Dec. 16. We appreciate your patience as we prioritize the cats here and we are especially grateful to our dedicated volunteers who are doing a fantastic job of following new protocols, even though they make the cat care shifts longer! We are also grateful for all of the bleach and paper towels sent our way–we are well-stocked now! 🙂 We will continue to update you on the situation with a pinned post on Facebook and here on our website.
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Dec. 15, 2017: We regret to inform the public that a previously contained fungal infection appears to be spreading in our shelter. To prioritize the health of our animals and the well-being of visitors’ pets at home, we unfortunately must close the Adoption Center to visitors effective immediately. The infection is not life-threatening and our cats will weather the treatment just fine; however, it is highly contagious and the treatment period is a bit lengthy, so we must address it immediately in order to send our current animals to their forever homes and make room to rescue more animals as soon as possible.
While donations (especially bleach!) can still be dropped off, members of the public will unfortunately not be able to interact with our cats. Those who currently have pending adoptions will be contacted to discuss the status of the cat in question; further, our available animals can still be viewed online and applications may still be submitted. We apologize that our adoptable adult cats will not be able to make it home for the holidays, but the adoption process may still be started with the online application, and we will keep our applicants apprised of when they are able to meet the cats they are interested in. We will maintain a status update here and in a pinned Facebook post and look forward to welcoming you to our Adoption Center again as soon as we are able to.