In light of the Halloween season, Animal Friends is providing enrichment for its shelter residents based on this ghoulish holiday. 

Some of the things going on through Halloween are:

• New holiday scents, maple and pumpkin, have been brought into rotation to be sprayed in the kennels every day.  (Even the humans enjoyed the maple scent. It was reported our kennels smelled like pancakes!)

• For dogs:
– Pumpkins as a new toy.
– Pumpkinsicles for a unique seasonal treat.
– Filling the wading pool with new items, such as Halloween-rubber ducks in water and filling the entire pool with fallen leaves. 

– Squash bowling.
– Orange Nylabones.

• For cats:
– Feliway (an artificial pheromone that copies those that cats produce in their cheeks and use to mark their territory as safe) ghosts.
– Orange origami balls with jack-o-lantern faces.
– Orange pipe-cleaner pretzel twists.

• For rabbits:
– Pumpkin pies for a unique seasonal treat.
– Broomstick-hay tubes (paper towel tubes with a fringed end filled with hay).

The goal of enrichment is to provide a daily environment that is varied and stimulating and to allow the animals to engage in natural behaviors. Enrichment activities that engage all of the animals’ senses are beneficial to their physical and behavioral health. The activities provide opportunities to think and to explore space – therefore providing a sense of control to shelter animals. More importantly, stimulating their brains reduces stress and is fun! See the shelter animals enjoying these enrichment activities.