Hello everyone! I hope your summer is going well so far and that everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather. As one of your favorite shelter administrators, I would like to announce some news. My tenure with the Ark is coming to an end as I have resigned from my position after three years as your administrator. My last day with the Ark will be on June 21st. I’d like to sincerely thank our community and our supporters for the opportunity to have worked so closely with you all. The Ark is truly blessed to have you. What a wonderful thing it is to have been able to dedicate myself and my work to the Ark’s mission, and to be in a niche where other folks share the same passion as myself.
As some of you may know, one of my Ark “babies” has been the progressive Ark Alley Cats Program, which is a hybrid program that combines TNR (trap-neuter-return) and free-roam housing of stray/feral cats in our community. Soon, the Ark will bring some of these displaced felines to the Ark’s property in our brand-new feral cat building with indoor/outdoor access where cats can come and go as they please. The vision of this program is to reduce the population of unwanted cats in Washington and Hancock County, without outside cats living in a cage and taking up room for other cats who are more suited for indoor, adoptable life. I’m proud to announce that since the inception of the program, 18 cats have been TNR’d. Some of these cats were returned to their original property, while a few were adopted to homes as barn buddies, and some ended up in the shelter to be adopted as pets. The interior work of the building is coming along, and soon, my hope is that it will be full of cats coming and going at their pleasure. This program has been well received and well funded by the community!
Again, I want to thank you all for the opportunity to have worked with you. It has been such a pleasure getting to know you all and I wish the Ark the best in its future. Remember: Saving one animal will not change the world, but it will change the world for that one animal.
With love and well wishes to this fabulous community,
Shaina R. Fraser