Coalition to Educate Alternatives to Senseless Euthanasia, Inc.

Diane Saltzman Explained “I use your Poly-fill to make a variety of catnip infused kitty pillows. I make them in various sizes but they all have the same purpose: to bring joy to cats in shelters waiting for their new furr-ever homes. The cats go nuts when they receive the pillows, as you would expect. Some of the pillows wind up in our local shelters but the majority of my work goes up to the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The MSMP is specifically training our future vets to work within shelters, both municipal and private, on the various problems and diseases that are unique to animals being held within shelters. My pillows are taken with the faculty when they visit shelters around the country, and the world, on what are known as interventions. They are on call for shelters experiencing particularly difficult situations, evaluate and give advice with recognized protocols for dealing with the immediate danger, bringing life-saving techniques to the shelter’s staff. The pillows are a great goodwill gesture and the cats sure respond to them. I also made a special run this past month with a tag attached that will be given away at the Million Cat Challenge booth during the HSUS’s Animal Care Expo in Kansas City this month.”