By Zoie Keast, Shelter Clinic Project Manager
Summer is always the busiest time for us in animal welfare. People and pets are spending more time outdoors; increasing chances of dogs getting lost, cats exploring their neighborhoods, and kittens being born. 4th of July celebrations bring loud and scary fireworks, causing pets to panic and run. Local shelter and rescue groups often find themselves overwhelmed with animals. Across the country, organizations struggle to keep up with the volume.
Further, with many people taking the summer months to travel and enjoy hobbies, their focus isn’t always on adopting or fostering a new pet. So animals tend to wait longer to leave the shelter, risking physical and behavioral decline as a result.
There is often confusion around the role of animal control in a community and what services it provides, which causes frustration not only for community members, but for the dedicated staff of the animal welfare industry. Budgetary and staff limitations are pervasive and the pandemic has pushed the boundaries on already stretched resources. This is a nation-wide issue, with all communities being affected. Unlike the Cheyenne Animal Shelter, Black Dog Animal Rescue does not provide animal control services. These often include stray pick-ups, responses to animal bites, noise complaints, abandoned or abused animals, welfare concerns, and wildlife conflict. But, we are committed to supporting our communities by working collaboratively and proactively with these local agencies, as we all play very important roles in serving Cheyenne’s community members and their pets.
To help us all work together to prevent homeless and stray pets, we want to share these tips about common animal related issues you might encounter. By supporting animals in these situations, we can ensure animal control can focus on cases of animal abuse, neglect, and public safety; and allow the shelter to provide critical care to seriously injured or dangerous animals, while also hopefully avoiding a stressful and scary experience for animals.
What to do...
Download these tip sheets or click the links to jump to a specific section
If you find a stray dog...
If you find a cat in your neighborhood...
If you find a litter of kittens...
Tips Sheet Downloads
If you find a stray dog...
Most stray animals are found within 1 mile of their home, it is exceptionally rare for pets to be abandoned outdoors.
If you see a stray in your neighborhood, before approaching it, look for signs of distress- does the dog appear sick, injured, or aggressive? If so, do not approach the animal and call animal control. They are trained to assess the situation and provide safe support to the animal. This will also ensure that the animal does not bite you out of fear or pain, or injure itself further by trying to get away from you.
If the animal does not appear in distress and is not in immediate danger you can approach the dog or call it to you. If the dog runs or avoids you, it’s likely it will return home on its own. Chasing the animal may frighten it and cause it to run out into traffic to avoid you, or put you in an unsafe situation.
If you catch a stray dog:
First look for a collar and tag. Owners may be identified through a rabies tag if you call the issuing veterinary clinic.
Walk the dog around your neighborhood and ask if it looks familiar to anyone.
Take the pet to a local veterinary clinic, shelter, or rescue to check for a microchip.
Post the lost dog on Facebook (The Cheyenne Animal Shelter Lost & Found group is a great place to start), Nextdoor, and other community based social media sites.
If you are able to hold onto the dog while looking for its home, please do! Taking the dog to an animal shelter is a very stressful experience for the pet, so it’s ideal to keep in your garage or backyard until you can locate the owner- but only if it is safe for you and your family!
We recommend keeping a stray dog for a maximum of three days before turning it over to the animal shelter. Give yourself time to help reunite the pet, but don’t assume they are unwanted if no one comes forward. Owners can be hard to find, even when they are looking. Do not decide to keep stray animals for your own pet unless you have taken them to the shelter first and given the owners the opportunity to find them there. Stray animals can be legally adopted by their finders after a period of time.
If you find a cat in your neighborhood...
Community or Feral Cats
Unlike dogs, many cats live harmoniously outdoors in community cat colonies. These are feral cats that were born and raised away from people and are not considered pets, they are more like urban wildlife. They cannot be taught to be pets after about 6 weeks old. Think of them like a fox or a raccoon.
Spaying and neutering these cats and allowing them to continue to live outside is the most humane way we have to manage community cats and to reduce suffering and minimize their impact on other wildlife species and the environment.
Simply removing the cats does not eliminate the problem - there are always more cats to move in and take over. If community cats are bothering you or your neighbors, there are extremely effective tools available to deter the cats from coming into your yard.
Remove any materials that could be considered a “den”.
Contain and cover your trash and any other food sources.
Use synthetic coyote urine (available at most supply stores) to line your property.
Sprinkle cayenne pepper in your garden soil if cats are using it as a litter box. Cats do not like the spicy flavor it leaves on their paws and fur.
Remember that if you remove the food source that is causing the cats to congregate, they will move away from the area. If any of your neighbors are feeding the cats, try to engage in a conversation with them about how it’s impacting the neighborhood.
If you see a cat that appears to be a pet:
Look for signs of distress- does the animal appear sick, injured, or aggressive? If so, call animal control or bring it to a local veterinarian or shelter.
If the animal does not appear in distress- leave it be! We cannot stress this enough. Do not pick up friendly stray cats and remove them from their home area. Many indoor/outdoor cats wander their neighborhoods confidently and return home from even miles away. Sadly, it is often the case that people who allow their cats to roam outdoors do not immediately worry if their cat goes missing and often assume he or she will eventually turn up again. Because of this, owned cats go unclaimed at shelters in extraordinarily high numbers. Taking a healthy, friendly neighborhood cat to a shelter, though well-intentioned, often causes that animal more harm than good.
You can spritz a water bottle, shake a can of rocks, or yell at it to encourage it to stay away from your property. However, never use a weapon or attempt to hit the cat, as you could cause serious injury to a cat without much force due to their size.
If you own an indoor/outdoor cat:
Ensure your cat has a collar and microchip before allowing them out. BDAR offers microchips, a way of permanently identifying your pet, for $20. Lacking identification, if your cat is picked up as a stray, it could be brought to the shelter without a way to contact you.
Ensure your cat is spayed or neutered and vaccinated. This is the only way to prevent pet overpopulation, keep your pet safe and healthy, and limit its desire to roam. Without exception, if your unaltered cat is outside, he or she is contributing to the overpopulation of the local cat community. It is estimated that 30,000 new kittens are born into the county each year. Please do your part to reduce this number.
If you find a litter of kittens...
Most kittens found in your neighborhood are born to community cats. Mother cats will find a den to give birth in and then leave their kittens, depending on age, unattended for upwards of 12 hours in search of food. If you find a litter of kittens and the mother is not with them, it is likely she is out hunting and will return soon.
The best thing you can do is leave the kittens alone to allow the mother to return. If she sees you around the kittens, or if you move them- she will likely not return as she perceives you as a threat. It may be difficult, but the best chance these kittens have to survive is for you to leave them alone. If you are concerned that the mother cat has abandoned the kittens, take these steps before intervening:
Monitor the den from a distance for 24 hours to see if the mother cat returns.
Leave a light dusting of flour around the den and then look for paw prints.
Do not leave food, as this could encourage pests and/or predators.
Look, without touching, to see if the kitten are thriving:
Are they moving around, huddled together, have clean fur, appear to be breathing normally?
Are they vocalizing excessively? Hungry kittens may cry, quiet kittens are usually fine.
If after 24 hours you believe the mother cat is not caring for the kittens, then you may interfere, however- bringing them to an animal shelter puts them at significant risk of death. Shelters do their best to support these extremely fragile populations, but without their mother they need 24-hour bottle feeding and are at high risk for disease. If you must intervene, please consider caring for them in your home. There are limitless resources and information available to care for neonatal kittens that do not require them to be brought to an animal shelter.
Be prepared for the receiving shelter or rescue to ask you to foster the kittens in your home. Supplies, support, and guidance are provided. There is not a ready-supply of volunteers and foster homes available for bottle-baby kittens. Without a foster home, most of these kittens will be euthanized at the end of the day to prevent needless suffering in the absence of available resources.
