Changing Lives with Behavioral Rehabilitation
At Purrfect Pals, we believe that EVERY cat matters — not just the young, healthy and easily adoptable. Our cat adoption and rehabilitation programs help us place homeless cats, including those with special needs, in loving homes. We believe that every cat is adoptable; some just need more time than others to find the right match. Our ultimate goal is to place them with adopters or long term foster families, but these cats have a loving home in our Arlington sanctuary for as long as they need us. The Purrfect Pals Sanctuary is currently home to 140+ of these special cats.
With innovative programs like our “Monroe Corrections Kitten and Cat Connections” Prison Foster Program and Cat Pawsitive Pro Clicker Training, we are changing the lives of cats who don’t always think inside the litter box, shy and semi-feral cats and cats who bite or scratch when overstimulated. Cats who might otherwise have spent their lives in shelters (or worse) are finding loving homes thanks to our behavioral rehabilitation program.
Our Prison Foster Program
Finding acceptable foster care for semi-feral and extremely shy cats and kittens needing socialization and human contact can be challenging for Purrfect Pals. In the spring of 2006, that challenge was met by an unlikely group of individuals in the offenders at the Monroe Correctional Complex-Special Offender Unit (MCC-SOU). SOU is a psychiatric prison unit contained within MCC. The SOU E living unit houses 96 mentally ill offenders who enthusiastically welcome the opportunity to provide foster care for the young and/or feral kittens. Our Prison Foster Program was developed as a way to provide quality kitten foster care while simultaneously motivating offenders to make positive life changes.
In 2014, we expanded the prison foster program to include shy adult cats. Since 2006, over 850 Purrfect Pals kittens have graduated from the “Monroe Corrections Kitten and Cat Connections” Program! LEARN MORE
Cat Pawsitive Pro Clicker Training
Purrfect Pals was one of six shelters who recently completed The Jackson Galaxy Project’s 2018 Autumn Cat Pawsitive Pro clicker training program! Our team of employees and volunteers worked with twenty cats during this intensive three month program, led by a training mentor. By utilizing this positive, reward-based Cat Pawsitive training, our staff and volunteers will now be able reduce the stresses that might keep a cat from connecting with an adopter. With clicker training that positively reinforces good behaviors, a shy cat can learn to feel comfortable coming up to the front of her cage to meet a potential pet parent, a feisty cat can learn to play nice, and an outgoing kitty can even learn to give an endearing “high five” to his visitors to seal an adoption deal.
We are thrilled with the results we are already seeing thanks to clicker training! Our cats are gaining confidence and getting much-needed mental and physical stimulation. We were especially excited to learn to use clicker training to help our long term sanctuary residents who have been overlooked for adoption because of behavioral challenges. Purrfect Pals was the first organization to implement the Cat Pawsitive Pro training in a prison foster program! In the “Monroe Corrections Kitty Connections” program, undersocialized cats and kittens live with inmates full-time and receive one-on-one attention. Adding clicker training to the rehabilitation work our Monroe foster dads were already providing has been extremely beneficial so far.
Khiana was one of the first kitties at the Purrfect Pals Cat Sanctuary and Adoption Centers who we decided to work with. She had been with us since 2012 but we were determined to not give up until she found her forever home. Khiana hates other cats so she needed a home where she would be the only kitty. LEARN MORE