At Home Crafts
Looking for something for you (or maybe your kids) to do as an indoor summer activity? Why not make a craft that you can give to a shelter pet in need? Escape the heat for the day! These are fun to make, but even more fun for our animals to enjoy as enrichment activities.
Snuffle Mats – Scent Activity Mat
*Photo from dreamalittlebigger.com*
Snuffle Mats are a great activity for our shelter dogs or cats because we can hide treats throughout the fabric and make them search for treats with their noses!
Dreamalittlebigger.com has a step by step tutorial on how to make these, along with photos to guide you!
Sniffing is great enrichment for dogs because it is a sensory need. Sniffing is enjoyable to dogs and a great way to find out about their environment. That is why it is important to do things that can fire up their sense of smell!
Cat Toys
Toys enrich our cats while they spend time at our shelters waiting for their forever homes.
We have a blog post on homemade cat toys, where we compiled a list of different toys that are very simple to make. Ones that we could especially use at the shelter would be sock and feather toys! Our cats are always looking for ways to be enriched by staff and volunteers while they patiently wait for forever homes.
Foster Supplies
Caring for so many animals in foster care is a huge part of what we do. We send our foster volunteers home with all of the supplies that they need to care for their foster pets. This year, with the influx of kittens that we have due to the pandemic, we have had a huge need for supplies.
One thing that can be done at home is making heating pads for the kittens that need warmth artificially. We buy heating disks as well, but a simple way to make heating pads at home is to fill a sock or fabric with uncooked rice, corn barley, or oatmeal.
You can get as creative as you want with this, maybe pull out that sewing kit if you know how to use it! Sew or tie the end so that you do not lose any of your inside filling. These homemade heating pads can be warmed in the microwave for 1-2 minutes and used to help keep foster kittens safe and warm!
To learn more about what our Foster Program is all about, and see what we need to help save the lives of pets in need, visit our Kitten Fostering Page.
Drop these crafts off at either our Carson City or Reno Shelter, and make a shelter pet’s day!