Bob is a beautiful cat up for adoption at The Lost Dogs’ Home Melbourne Shelter. If you are interested in meeting Bob, why not come and visit us at 2 Gracie Street today!

For more information on Bob, please visit his profile at do.gs/Nz9v2C — at The Lost Dogs’ Home

As many grumpy-faced kids return to school and tired-faced parents return to work (all clutching the remnants of their Easter chocolate haul), The Lost Dogs’ Home has a reason to feel pretty darned pleased today.

As we speak, 141 dogs and 127 cats will be waiting for those kids and adults to return home this afternoon, after being adopted during our school holidays half-price adoptions promotion. That’s right: 268 animals now know what it feels like to be loved, adored, safe and warm. And we are over the moon about it.

“We love to offer half-price adoptions during the holidays, because it means new owners will have the time to settle their pet in at home and really get to know it,” said Sue Conroy, General Manager of the Home. “Of course, half price always means the shelter is doubly busy, but when you see figures like we’ve seen over the past two weeks, it’s so worth it.”

Those who wanted to receive the discount had to complete The Lost Dogs’ Home’s Pet Licence test first, which walks prospective owners through the responsibilities of owning a pet. Sue said she was ecstatic to see so many youngsters getting involved and helping to answer the questions.

“That is what we love to see – kids learning about responsible pet ownership from a young age,” she said. “Parents were sitting down with their kids and going through questions about vet care, exercise, training, socialisation, feeding and grooming… everything you need to know about looking after an animal. It’s fantastic to see.”

This promotion helped us to find homes for many of our long-term residents, our older residents and several bonded pairs, all of which are normally quite hard to rehome. We were particularly heartened to see so many adult cats go to new homes.

“The guys who are usually upstaged by cute puppies or kittens were given their chance in the spotlight and they found people who adored them for who they are,” Sue said. “There is no better feeling than seeing a perfect match walk out the door and knowing that cat or dog will be looked after for the rest of their lives.”

Jill and her family have always loved cats. So it was no surprise when, twelve months after adopting their cat Samantha, her son announced, “She needs a companion!”

Jill began an online search for potential friends for Samantha. She came across The Lost Dogs’ Home website and found a black, eight-week-old male kitten named Elmo who was waiting to be adopted from the Campaspe shelter in Echuca.

“I phone my husband and I said, ‘I found a kitten! The problem is he’s in Echuca!’” Jill laughed. “He replied, ‘You’ve got to be joking!’”

Concerned about the three hour drive from their home in Melbourne, Jill and her husband decided not to call the shelter straight away. However Jill found herself checking the website every day to see if Elmo was still there. Then, a few days later, her husband gave her a surprise phone call.

“He said, ‘I phoned Echuca and there’s a hold on Elmo. We’re going up tomorrow.’”

When Jill met little Elmo at The Lost Dogs’ Home Campaspe Shelter in Echuca, she instantly fell in love.

“I knelt down, held out my hand and said, ‘Come on’. Elmo darted out and rushed up to me and was really responsive… I picked him up and there was this throaty purr that was about ten times bigger than he was. He was just gorgeous.”

The three hour drive was not a problem for Elmo, as Jill and her husband brought along suitable cat transport and kept an eye on him to make sure he was ok.

Introducing Samantha to her new companion was not so easy, but once she realised Elmo was not going anywhere, she began to tolerate him. Twelve months later, she still ignores him in her ‘superior way’, unless of course he tries to play with her ‘feather duster’ of a tail!

Elmo likes to have his paws in the house work too! He’s been known to jump into the car boot when the groceries are being taken in to house, sit in the laundry basket and even help Jill ‘tidy up’ after dinner!

“He is a cat that wants to be in everything that you do. If you’re washing the dishes, he’ll walk along the sink and drink out of the tap.”

It was this curious nature that nearly got Elmo into some hot water – literally!

“I was in the laundry and he jumped up onto the trough and leant forward to drink,” Samantha recalled. “His paws slid and he went straight down, head first into the soapy water! I immediately pulled him out but it didn’t stop him! He has tried to drink the water out of the tap again since!”

The whole family is taken with little Elmo. Jill’s son dotes on him and her husband has even been spotted rubbing his belly.

Jill and her family have a long history of adopting animals from shelters and couldn’t imagine getting a cat from anywhere else.

“They need homes… Elmo’s an incredibly friendly cat, he’s very amiable and no claws ever come out. He’s just beautiful.”

Sounds like it was worth the trip!

The two kittens found in a box being couriered across Melbourne finally went to their new home this week.

Courier worker Geoff waited over a month to adopt Wilbur and Tinks, who he discovered underweight and tiny in a cracker box on November 15. At four-weeks-old, the kittens were far too young to be taken away from their mother and after being assessed by vets at The Lost Dogs’ Home, they were put into foster care to gain weight. On Wednesday their ‘guardian angel’ came back to the Home to officially adopt them and give them a new start to life.

“Geoff was the one who found Wilbur and Tinks and we are so thrilled that it’s he who will be taking them home,” Manager of The Lost Cats’ Home Karina Bailey said. “We often give the finder preference for adoption, since they have done the right thing by bringing them in to the shelter.”

In their foster home, Wilbur and Tinks developed a strong bond, with foster carer Amber saying, “They absolutely love each other; love to cuddle together, hang out together and play together.” Karina said it was the Home’s wish to see them adopted into the same home and staff were elated to hear Geoff would be adopting both.

“Wilbur and Tinks have given each other support and comfort throughout this entire experience and seem to have a very special bond,” she said. “We’re so glad we haven’t had to separate them and they can continue playing and cuddling together for the rest of their lives.”

As Geoff adopted the now desexed, microchipped and vaccinated Wilbur and Tinks during December, he received 50 per cent off the price of adoption, meaning he got two for the price of one! However, like everyone wanting to receive the discount, he first had to complete the Pet Licence test to ensure he was aware of his responsibilities as a pet owner.

“Guardian angel or not, everyone can learn something from taking the test, as being a responsible pet owner is what it’s all about,” Karina affirms.

To find out more about half-price adoptions during December.

The Home would also like to thank everyone who called to enquire about Wilbur and Tinks and our Foster Care Program.

When both of Anne’s parents sadly passed away within weeks of each other earlier this year, she and her husband Doug felt the need to bring some life back into their house. Being long-time lovers of cats, they had been continually checking The Lost Dogs’ Home adoption page, watching the kitties come and go as they all went on to find new and loving homes.

All, that is, except one.

“We monitored the website for about three months but didn’t come in to adopt one because we were always travelling to visit my mum and dad at the time,” Anne said. “But every time we went online, we noticed a ginger cat named Floyd keeping popping up! He had been looking for a home for so long and he was so adorable, we couldn’t believe no one had taken him.”

Anne said she and Doug became very familiar with Floyd over the months, with a simple ‘Floyd is still there’ needing no further explanation. At long last, Anne decided to call the Wingecarribee shelter in New South Wales – where Floyd was being held – and enquire about him.

“I had never envisaged getting a cat without at least meeting him first!” the St Kilda-based Anne laughed. “It was a big gamble but I spoke to the girls at the shelter and they said he was such a beautiful cat. In the end, we decided to just go for it and thought, ‘Well, hopefully he likes us!’

After lots of negotiations with staff at the shelter, Anne and Doug arranged for a pet courier service to collect Floyd and bring him to their Melbourne home. Anne said she was expecting an extremely grumpy cat waiting to be collected by them; the reality was just the opposite!

“After driving for so long, I was expecting a ginger bundle of angry cat to come flying out of his cage, but he just walked calmly out and started smooching with me straight away,” Anne said. “It was just purr, purr, purr the whole time. He clung to me all day; I was trying to work from home and it was just absolutely impossible!”

In the time since Floyd came to live with the couple, he has kept them in hysterics with his antics. Doug, who has owned cats for most of his life, said he’s never had such an active cat before and Anne describes him as ‘dog-like’ in the way he follows her around and chews on their thongs.

“He’s always exploring; for his age – about 16 months – he still acts like quite a kitten,” Anne said. “We think he might have had a bit of a deprived kittenhood, because he always seems so fascinated with everything. And we live in a townhouse so he’s always up and down the stairs. His favourite toys are ping pong balls, he goes crazy over them.”

The fluffy ginger boy has also proven to be quite the food connoisseur, only eating food that passes his unique testing system.

“When given any new food that he is unsure of, Floyd bats it with his paw and then licks his paw to see if it is acceptable,” Anne laughed. “Doug says this is really unusual, as cats generally sniff and lick to test.”

Floyd’s antics haven’t always been so amusing; he once almost gave Anne a heart attack when he decided to inspect what she was doing in the kitchen!

“In the second week we had him, he almost lost one of his lives when he decided to jump up onto the stove top!” Anne said. “I reached out and deflected him as he jumped – lucky, as he would have landed square in the middle of the frying pan, in amongst the chops! One of his paws touched just the edge of the pan and when he landed, he was swiping it furiously and then spent hours licking it.”

At the end of a long day, Floyd loves nothing more than stretching out between his two loving owners for a nap.

“It’s so funny when we let him inside at night, he just collapses,” Anne said. “He’s so exhausted from his busy day. He stays inside at night and is very affectionate in the morning. I’m normally woken up by a little paw on the face and a smooch.”

“There are certainly worse ways to wake up!”