Happy New Year, Team Cat Mojo!
All across the country people are winding down from the holiday season, but here at The Jackson Galaxy Project, things have never been busier!
For the past several weeks, every nook and cranny of space at The JGP offices has been filling up with supplies for the rollout of our 2019 Cat Pawsitive and Cat Pawsitive Pro programs: clickers, treat aprons, behavior training journals, and various other tools of lifesaving transformation are piling up to the ceiling!
Over the past three years, Cat Pawsitive has grown by leaps and bounds. In the beginning, a normal semester of the Cat Pawsitive program had only nine or ten shelters participating. Today, we are preparing to welcome SIXTY-SIX shelters and rescue organizations to our programs!
That’s right, Cat Pawsitive is growing and growing fast. With support from our sponsors, Halo Pet Food and Petco Foundation, and from generous supporters like you, Cat Pawsitive is making its way into the hands of more and more dedicated staff and volunteers who are committed to making a major difference in the lives of the cats in their care.
Photo courtesy of Great Plains SPCA
As you can imagine, big life changes can lead to cats losing their mojo, their confidence, their essential “catitude.” When suddenly faced with a noisy shelter or an unfamiliar foster home, even the most outgoing and friendly cats can become nervous, shut down or even just bored. This can make them seem less “adoptable.”
The Jackson Galaxy Project’s Cat Pawsitive program is designed to keep adoptable cats mentally and physically active in a shelter or rescue environment. The focus is on fun, positive reinforcement-based training sessions that go beyond playtime-as-usual to help cats maintain their mojo and connect more quickly with potential adopters.
Photo courtesy of Bigg Mugg Photography
From teaching high fives and head bumps to “sit” and “come when called,” caregivers at Cat Pawsitive participating organizations engage with cats in a brand new way to enhance the human-animal bond, encourage interaction, and maintain adoptability. Behaviors learned in Cat Pawsitive can help cats to “click” with adopters.
Cat Pawsitive organizations come in all shapes and sizes, from small, foster-based rescues to large, open-admission shelters. The goals are the same for all:
- Enriching day-to-day life for adoptable cats
- Increasing adoptions
- Decreasing length of stay
- Engaging and empowering volunteers and staff
- Showing potential adopters that cats are cool and can even be trained!
Scores of shelters and rescues applied to be part of Cat Pawsitive, and we are proud to announce the following members of the Spring, 2019 class:
CAT PAWSITIVE PRO:
- Angels of Assisi, Roanoke, VA
- EASEL Animal Rescue League, Ewing, NJ
- Gifford Cat Shelter, Brighton, MA
- Happy Tales Ranch and Rescue, Colfax, IA
- Independent Cat Society, Westville, IN
- New Beginnings Animal Rescue, Royal Oak, MI
- Simply Cats Adoption Center, Boise, ID
- SPCA of Brazoria County, Lake Jackson, TX
- SPCA of the Triad, Greensboro, NC
- St. Sophia’s Forgotten Felines, Westmont, IL
CAT PAWSITIVE:
- Acadiana Animal Aid, Carencro, LA
- Addison County Humane Society, Middlebury, VT
- All About Spay Neuter Inc. , Massapequa, NY
- Animal Rescue of the Rockies, Aurora, CO
- Ark-Valley Humane Society, Buena Vista, CO
- Athens Area Humane Society, Watkinsville, GA
- Benton Franklin Humane Society, Kennewick, WA
- Bobbi and the Strays, Ozone Park, NY
- Brown County Humane Society, Nashville, IN
- Cat Rescue and Adoption Network, Springfield, OR
- Chesapeake Feline Association, North East, MD
- Community Animal Rescue Effort (C.A.R.E.), Skokie, IL
- Community Cat Inc, Whitewater, WI
- Dallas Animal Services, Dallas, TX
- Dallas Pets Alive!, Dallas, TX
- Dogs & Cats Forever, Fort Pierce, FL
- Dorchester Paws, Summerville, SC
- Duncan’s Place, A Cat Sanctuary, Loveland, CO
- Forever Paws Animal Shelter, Fall River, MA
- Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit, Dearborn, MI
- Greenhill Humane Society, Eugene, OR
- Halifax Humane Society, Daytona Beach, FL
- Happy Cats Haven, Colorado Springs, CO
- Heartland Animal Shelter, Northbrook, IL
- Helotes Humane Society, Helotes, TX
- Humane Society of El Paso, El Paso, TX
- IndyHumane, Indianapolis, IN
- Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center, Riverside, CA
- Monmouth County SPCA, Eatontown, NJ
- Mountain Humane, Hailey, ID
- Northwoods Humane Society, Hayward, WI
- Osceola County Animal Services, Saint Cloud, FL
- Paws for Life NC, Youngsville, NC
- Paws for Life Rescue, Troy, MI
- People for Animals, Hillside, NJ
- Peter Zippi Memorial Fund, Inc., Hermosa Beach, Ca
- Prairie Paws Animal Shelter, Ottawa, KS
- Providence Animal Center, Newtown Square, PA
- Rhode Island SPCA, Riverside, RI
- Roice-Hurst Humane Society, Grand Junction, CO
- San Antonio Pets Alive!, San Antonio, TX
- Save Our Strays Inc, Santa Fe , TX
- SAVE Rescue Coalition, Safety Harbor, FL
- Second Chance Animal Services, Inc., East Brookfield, MA
- Sequoia Humane Society, EUREKA, CA
- Spay Neuter Project Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
- SPCA Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, Aiken, SC
- Tails Humane Society, DeKalb, IL
- Teller County Regional Animal Shelter (TCRAS), Divide, CO
- The Humane Society of North Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, SC
- The Humane Society of Pagosa Springs, Pagosa Springs, CO
- The Terre Haute Humane Society, Terre Haute, IN
Photo courtesy of Wood County Humane Society
Cat Pawsitive’s 2019 classes will begin later this month, and we’ll have lots of amazing stories for you once training gets going in earnest. Check back here to learn more about the participating shelters, and all of the wonderful work they’re doing with their Cat Pawsitive cats!
