Washington Humane Society HLE Division

As we headed into the end of this past week we, at WHS, followed the news of the cold front coming our way. Freezing temperatures create a lot of problems for dogs living outside. This time of year our Officers are loading up with straw and carpet flaps to give to owners to use as door flaps and bedding for dog houses during the cold months. In D.C. anytime the temperature drops below 40 degrees owners are required to provide bedding and door flaps for their dog houses to keep their animals warm. We always prefer people keep their animals indoors during the winter but there is no law that says owners have to do this. I urge anyone who sees a dog they believe is in danger from the cold to call our phone line at 202 BE HUMANE.
The winter is also a tough time of year for feral cats. Feral cats also benefit from shelter and anyone who is interested in constructing a shelter for any outdoor cats in our neighborhood can contact us for plans on building a cat shelter.
Speaking of feral cats we had our monthly feral cat clinic this weekend and spayed and neutered 50 feral cats! These 50 cats will not be producing kittens come this Spring which will help to greatly reduce the numbers of kittens coming in to the shelters. We calculated the number of kittens which would have been produced by 25 pairs of cats (we had exactly 25 males and 25 females at the clinic) and estimated that 1, 750,000 kittens would have been born from these 25 pairs of cats and their offspring.
Finally, the week ended on a great note. Friday night was the opening for a photo exhibit called Dog City by local photographer Graeme King. The exhibit is at the new City Paws animal hospital at 1823 14th St. N.W. until February 1, 2007. The photographs are great and I urge everyone to get down there and take a look. The opening was a great success. Many people and their dogs came by. We brought our mobile adoption unit and brought cats and dogs for adoption. The weather was still warm and two legged and four legged alike had a great time!

-Adam