- Boomer.

Where are you, boy?

- Boomer.

Sometimes the unthinkable happens, but with the help of Love Lost and its pet image recognition software, you can upload your pet's photo to our national database.

It's open to all.

So whether you lose or find a pet, Love Lost can help reunite families.

At Love Lost we believe pets belong at home with those who love them.

- Petco Love Lost.

Hi, I'm Hilary Swank and this is Teddy.

All my life I've adopted pets like Teddy here.

They bring us so much joy each day.

Shelter Me celebrates this special connection, sharing inspiring stories of the bond between people and pets.

In this episode, we see a community come together to build fences for dogs that are chained up all day.

This helps families in need and lets dogs experience the joy of running and playing again.

The pet doesn't know it's poor, it just knows it's loved.

There's also a story about a shelter pet that becomes a hospital therapy dog.

- It was love at first sight, for sure.

And finally, we'll see an innovative program where people suffering from Alzheimer's experience the benefits of fostering newborn kittens.

- To be able to care for these kittens, to feel that life on them.

It was a beautiful scene today.

- I'll love you anytime, anywhere.

- These stories show what's possible when people turn their care and compassion into action.

Teddy and I appreciate all those who get involved and help improve the lives of animals.

♪ Shelter me ♪ ♪ Give me that once-again chance I need ♪ ♪ Shelter me ♪ ♪ You will have all my love and loyalty ♪ - My name is Lori Hensley and I'm the Director of Operations for the Coalition to Unchain Dogs.

- Morning Bryce.

How are you?

- Hey, I'm doing good.

- Sorry I'm late.

- That's all right.

Go ahead.

So I already put some stuff up at the counter.

- Okay, good.

- But we still need a few more things.

- So we've been doing this work for 10 years in Durham.

When we first started, our focus was on building fences for dogs that live outside on chains.

The amount of chain dogs that we saw was overwhelming, so we were building fences, all volunteers, just trying really to get a handle on the severity of the problem.

- We building some fences today?

- We are.

We got four this weekend, so we need to get a few things.

- That is it.

- All right.

Thank you for meeting me here.

- Alright.

Yeah, I'll see you.

See you this weekend.

- See you this weekend.

- Send me the address, text it to me.

- I think we're all ready.

Appreciate it.

- Okay, no problem.

- Have a good one.

- Alright.

Bye.

- We first had to find where the chain dogs were.

So that took us into a community within Durham that we hadn't been a part of, that we hadn't bothered to notice.

And then, you know, we realized after spending time here that it's not only where the chain dogs are, it's where poverty is.

High rates of poverty.

That just opened our eyes to a whole 'nother area of people needing help.

It wasn't just that they needed help with their chain dogs, they needed help with their pets, period.

- Hey Jackie, are you excited about the fence?

- Yes, I know.

We're all excited.

- Hi Maria.

How are you?

- I'm fine.

There are a lot of misconceptions about people living in poverty and owning pets.

I think when people see chain dogs, they immediately think it is attached to a bad owner and, it's just put the dog out on a chain and forgotten about it.

But in my work, I've just found that that's just simply not true.

That chain dog is attached to an owner who does love it and is trying their best to keep it safe, but they don't have a fence and they don't have the means to keep it in the yard, and they're putting it on a chain because they don't want it to get in the road and get hit by a car or get away from them and get lost.

Our highest rate of poverty is in East Durham.

I had no idea how bad poverty is and what it looked like.

These people were invisible to me, and I think that they're invisible to most everyone.

But I think looking at it changes you and makes you realize you can't just ignore it.

- Hey Erica, how are you?

Good.

Good to see you.

Hi guys.

I just stopped by to go over a few things about this week.

I know this is the week we're gonna build Prince's fence.

Who's gonna help?

Who's got muscle?

I wanna see the muscles.

- Helping people do better by their pets is a solution that works and one that keeps the pet out of the shelter system, out of the rescue system, and in a home where it's loved.

- He kept breaking loose.

So we kept having to pull the chain further up and further up.

As you see now, he broke the thing again.

So now I got him tied onto the side of the thing.

- This is a good home and the love is there and the bond is there.

These are good pet owners and they do love their pets.

They just lack things they need to take care of them.

I know that I'm not fixing the problems that they have associated with living in poverty.

I'm not even putting a dent in it.

But what I am doing is easing the stress that they've had for not being able to care for the pet the way they want to.

And it's not much, but just that one little bit of help improves their lives tremendously.

I see it every day.

One of the services that we provide for some of our clients is we bring rabies vaccinations to their home, because some of our clients are elderly or don't have transportation and can't get their dogs in.

- Good girl.

Perfect.

Good girl.

- I got big dogs that cry like babies, and you didn't even say nothing.

And if there's anything else you guys need, just call me.

All right.

Thank you.

- Appreciate it.

We, as a gym have been supporting Coalition to Unchain Dogs for quite a few years.

And this year and last year we did big dog food drives.

Literally thousands and thousands of pounds of dog food.

- Thank you so much.

We really appreciate it.

We'll put it to good use.

Thank you.

It's one more way to make the community of Durham, you know, a little kinder, a little happier.

- I met Amanda Arrington shortly after she started the Coalition to Unchain Dogs in 2006, when she moved to Durham.

- Everyone thought it was a crazy idea to go into East Durham and to go knocking on people's doors to talk to them.

And I think my personality is such that if someone says, don't do it, that's exactly what I want to do.

- I brought you a bag of dog food.

Okay?

You make one of the boys carry it in, it's heavy.

She walked into the community and took a look at it and said, Hey, you know what?

This is a problem.

But I'm from Texas, I know how to build fences and we're gonna fix this problem.

We built this fence almost 10 years ago.

- Been a long time.

- 'Cause that would mean it was one of our first ones.

Do you know that?

- Yeah.

That is wonderful.

- You call us if you need us.

We'll be back around in about three weeks giving out flea medicine for the summer, okay?

We'll help you get it on him.

- I'm glad there are things you do for me, you know, to help me out.

I feel real satisfied.

- Me too.

You know, you're her favorite.

And we tell people once you're a part of the family, you're part of the family for life.

- How are you?

Good to see you.

- I've known Amanda and Lori since 2010.

The coalition has made sure that I have adequate fencing.

They made sure that they were spayed or neutered.

When our budget's a little bit low and we can't provide for their needs, they step right in.

- This is Bella and Eshla.

- Hi baby.

And they're gonna get a fence this weekend and I cannot wait.

You can see.

- Too little.

- It's just way too small and it just stays muddy because they don't have any grass.

How did we meet them?

Deputy Beck from the Sheriff's Office, from Animal Services, told Mr. Lopez about us.

And he called me and got on the list and we spayed 'em last month.

Yep.

And now they're ready for their fence.

- We work really closely with the Durham County Sheriff's Office and Durham APS, which is the county shelter.

We each have pieces of the work, but when we come together, we're the most effective in making sure that people and pets of Durham are served.

- I'm Tim Deck.

I'm with the Durham County Sheriff's Office.

I'm a lieutenant assigned to the animal services unit.

About four and a half years ago, the Sheriff's Office assumed control over the animal control unit here in Durham.

And we tried to look at different perspective of doing animal enforcement and trying to figure out ways to not do the same old thing where we're just answering calls, taking dogs to the shelter and try to look at avenues of doing the job different.

- He immediately saw that he wanted things to be done differently in animal services, that he wanted to be proactive, serving the community as they should be, and helping people.

It's 6:30 in the morning and we're getting ready to start our spay day.

We're gonna spay and neuter 28 dogs total.

And Tim and I will be taking the sheriff's truck out.

And then we also have volunteers who will be picking up the additional dogs.

And of that 28, that includes two of the ones we'll be building fences for this weekend, Bella and Prince.

Every pet that we help gets free spay neuter.

And so under that program we spayed and neutered over 4,300 dogs and cats.

- How are you this morning?

Hi Bella.

We're gonna be building a fence for Bella.

Bella's owner came out and said, hey, are you guys the dog people?

A deputy visited my house today because someone reported my dog being chained and they told me that I could reach out to you and get some help.

And they were thrilled to know that we'd be able to help them get a fence for her as well.

- We'll take good care of him.

Are you ready?

- Talking with Lori, we saw the opportunity where we can bring everybody together and that was huge 'cause there's not many places around that do anything like that.

You have a group like the Coalition to Unchain Dogs and a government agency working together to try to resolve animal issues out in the streets and build that community outreach.

- So we bring our mobile hospital to different locations.

Today we're working with Coalition to Unchain Dogs.

It's great.

Coalition covers the cost so there's no cost to the owners.

So they're able to go out and do community outreach and help the people that wouldn't be otherwise able to have their dogs come get the vet care.

We do vaccines and the spay and neuter for the owners.

We look forward to these days.

They're a little crazy and chaotic, but we love them.

We love helping all the pets.

Feel like we're really making a difference when we do these days.

They're fun.

- How are you?

- I'm good.

I'm so happy you guys are here.

- Yeah.

Thank you so much for letting us park here again.

My name is Shafonda Davis.

I'm the Executive Director of the Animal Protection Society of Durham.

We manage the Durham County Animal Shelter, which is the only open admission shelter in Durham County.

We are an open admission shelter, which means we accept all animals for any reason.

Right now in Durham, we're seeing fewer puppies come into our shelter.

And that's because there are so many spay neuter efforts.

Watching the partnership between the Coalition to Unchain Dogs in the Durham Sheriff's Department is wonderful.

They have built fences and provided resources.

They have changed the perception of the underserved community.

Without Coalition, we would see so many more animals in this shelter than we do today.

- And we'll see you next time.

Successful surgeries.

Awesome.

- Good boy.

We brought Prince back.

- Hi Prince.

And we will see you for your fence this weekend.

- You know, as an African American woman who was raised in Durham, I know how the community can sometimes not trust people who are coming from the outside.

And I would say, with going out with Lori, I can clearly see that people accept her.

- Alrighty.

- Everybody knows her.

Everybody loves her because she's genuine and everyone knows she's genuine.

She's not coming to save people, she's coming to help people.

And she's not coming to save animals from people.

She's coming to keep animals and families together.

That is so important.

The amount of respect she has for humans.

It comes out in everything she does.

- I'm so happy to be home.

That's a good girl.

- So our last transport today was Bella.

She's one of our fence recipients, and so she's gonna be getting her fence tomorrow.

Today we got 26 dogs transported to and from their spay neuter appointments.

And they're all home safe and sound tonight back with their families.

- You got her?

All right, hold her tight.

And they were just really grateful.

They were just really just expressing their gratitude for us, being able to provide this service to keep their pets healthy and happy.

That makes it an awesome day.

So we're gonna get up tomorrow and build some fences for these dogs.

We are an almost all volunteer organization, so we are only able to function because we have an awesome set of volunteers who have committed to doing the work.

- Morning, Bryce.

- Morning, Laurie.

- Are you ready?

- I am ready.

- All right.

You think we got everything?

- I think we do.

- Okay, good.

- Bryce moved to Durham from upstate New York and I think started volunteering for the coalition because he wanted to make friends because he was new in the community - And I just fell in love with it just immediately.

And so I started coming every weekend that we were doing a fence.

So I can't say I've built every single fence since then, but I've built a lot of fences since then.

More than, certainly more than I could number - Welcome.

We're really excited.

We're gonna be unchaining Bella.

She's awesome.

She's very friendly.

You are welcome to interact with her and play with her.

Her human's name is Angel.

He's a really cool kid.

Angel, raise your hand.

There he is.

That's Angel and that's his little sister McKenzie.

All right, so we're gonna get started.

- The fences cost around $500 to build.

We can build them with, you know, anywhere from eight volunteers to 25.

- Okay.

So yeah, we're gonna come over, we're gonna measure this side over here.

- 26 8.

Having done it for 10 years, we've developed a system that we follow for each build and it's really pretty straightforward.

- You ready?

- I'm ready.

So that guy back there, that's my husband, Robert.

He's the gate man and no one's allowed to touch the gate but Robert.

- Since I've been around the longest, I guess the responsibility for making sure the gates are secure falls to me.

I think my wife Lori, has found the perfect job because she genuinely loves the people, she genuinely loves the animals.

- All right, let's roll this wire out.

Just roll all the way down and as she comes past you, hug it into one of the T posts.

- Her personality is really suited to this work, to meeting new people and to showing them that she really cares.

- Bella run away.

- Well, you know what?

We're gonna build a big fence for Bella and then she won't be able to run away.

- There's a lot of things going on because you know that you're helping not just that family and that fence, but you're helping in the neighborhood.

- I think what sets the Coalition apart is that we really care about the people just as much as the animals.

We're just as much about the community as we are about helping the dogs.

- So watch the fence down there as we pull.

- The volunteers are terrific.

The weather doesn't deter them.

The cold doesn't deter them.

Every Sunday that we're out here building, they're out here with us.

- The volunteers come out there and, and it seems like they all just automatically mesh together.

Take your time, Tim.

- Yes ma'am.

- Do it right.

I know we're trying to make it perfectionist, you know?

I usually end up doing a lot of hammering.

- Tim's just like lightning.

That's why his nickname is The Hammer.

- Never hits the same place twice.

- We have fun doing it.

We cut up, have a good time.

But at the same time, the best part is when the animals are taken off the tether.

- Let's go Bella.

And allowed to run around in their new fenced-in area.

- Good girl.

Good girl.

- When the dog is first off that chain, he's running around the fence.

You can just see it in his eyes how happy he is to be able to go in any direction he wants to go, to check out the whole perimeter.

There's not that anxiety of being on a chain and being limited.

And you can tell that.

And you see the families react the same way.

They're just so happy and so thrilled to see their dog in a better situation.

- All right, so we just finished Bella's fence and today's a really special day because when we met Bella, we also met her neighbors and they want a fence for their dog.

So we're gonna head over here and we're gonna build a fence for these two dogs.

What I love about these builds is that it shows what I love most about our community partners.

Both of these builds came from referrals from Officer Beck with Durham County Animal Services.

- So I responded to a 911 complaint about the dog, Bella, next door, who was on a tether outside.

And so I came over here to talk to the owners.

And when I got here, nobody was home over there.

So I left a note.

But then when I was getting ready to clear, I looked over here and noticed that there were two dogs in the fence over here, and they only had one house.

And the fence was too small for our ordinance.

So I left a second note on the house over here.

And then a couple days later I came by just to do follow up.

And both families were super excited and super receptive about working with the Coalition.

So I gave 'em the information.

- She could have written a fine, she could have been punitive, but she wasn't.

She looked for a solution.

She asked the family to give us a call.

And you know what?

Both families called us and they were agreed to spay neuter.

And here we are building the fences.

And I love it when our partnerships work that way.

- 3, 2, 1.

- All right, let's go see the dogs.

Come on.

- Can you believe that just 24 hours ago they were in this little 10 by 10 kennel and now look, they're gonna be much happier.

Have room to run and play.

They're very happy.

I get to meet people through doing this work that I would've not otherwise met.

Right here in Durham.

I see the connection, not only that the people have with their pets, but I see the connection the pet has with the people.

The pet doesn't know it's poor, it just knows it's loved.

And I see that love and it has nothing to do with money.

- And not only is it something that is invaluable for the people to be able to have that unconditional love, but it is the best thing for the animals.

- I think he's going to really enjoy it 'cause he likes being free now.

And I really appreciate everybody being here and taking the time out their weekend to come over here and help me.

- Before I started doing this, I thought I was a poor person because I don't take vacations.

I'm a house cleaner.

But then I learned what real poverty was and I thought, I'm not poor.

I've learned to be grateful for things that I didn't even know to be grateful for before I started doing this work.

This is the most meaningful thing I've ever done in my life.

It really touches my emotions and it's often hard for me to do without... crying.

- Hey, we're gonna take both hands and we're gonna squeeze it and now look.

It's stuck.

Can you put a bunch of those on there for me?

Squeeze hard Khalil.

Look at you.

- Lori is a force of nature.

She's our fearless leader.

She goes out and she finds people that need fences.

She goes out and finds the people to build the fences.

She never runs out of energy.

- This part of the build never gets old.

And I know for a fact that this is what keeps the volunteers coming back week after week after week.

This instant gratification that we get to see from our labor is priceless.

You just cannot-- It's addictive.

- All right guys, I'm heading home.

I'll see you soon.

Okay, bye.

- When we first started the work, our focus was on building fences for chain dogs.

We saw a problem and we came up with a solution to fix it.

You know, now, fast forward 10 years later, we've unchained over 2200 dogs.

- The first time you do it and you see a dog free, you're totally hooked.

- It never gets old, taking a dog off of the chain and watching him run free, so happy, it always puts a smile on my face and warms my heart.

You know, to have that freedom to not be tethered to something is fantastic.

- It's a big smiling dog face when they go running.

That first time, it's pretty special.

- I feel like a dog that's on the chain is a lost soul.

And I enjoy the mere fact of getting an opportunity to put a dog to gain their soul back.

- And then that dog gets loose and just runs and runs and runs and is so happy.

- It gives me a good feeling to know on my Sunday that I've done something, that I've tried to make an improvement in my community.

You know, for specific people, but also for the community at large.

- I want the work of the Coalition to Unchain Dogs to be remembered as people who helped repair relationships with the disenfranchised community.

I mean, I think Durham is a better place for people and pets.

I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world to get to do this work.

- This is Jasper.

He is a year and a half old.

He is from the Downey Shelter in Los Angeles.

I got him about six weeks after my last Downey dog passed away.

Scout was a therapy dog at the UCLA People Animal Connection Program.

The work that Scout and I did at the hospital.

We had such a huge impact.

And all the patients loved it.

The staff loved him.

I mean, his picture was all over the hospital and people would always say, you know, Scout is our favorite dog.

He was truly the love of my life before I met - This guy.

And he knew.

He knew that like Scout was first and he was right below him.

- Yeah.

I had to pass muster with Scout.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

If, yeah, Scout didn't accept him, he'd be out.

No Scout adored him.

Everybody said Scout was the best dog.

And he, he wasn't really a dog.

He was, I think he was part human, but he was really exceptional.

And so of course I was looking, you know, there were some big shoes to fill with my next dog.

And I was looking for another therapy dog because my heart was broken and I wanted to continue the good work that Scout and I did.

So I went looking for a therapy dog from the Downey shelter and found this crazy guy.

Yeah, it was love at first sight for sure.

And he's now been volunteering for about four months and he was just made for this job.

He's just pretty special.

- We're a blended family.

When, when Beth got Jasper we were just dating, but we were talking about moving in together and then several months later we bought a home together.

But I have two cats that are also rescues.

So we didn't know quite how that would work.

And it's still a work in progress, but we're just kind of one big Brady Bunch of creatures that have a lot of fun together.

- So I plan on Jasper having a really long, happy life and volunteering up until the very end.

And I know it's a long way off, but when that time comes to say goodbye to him, you'll find me back at Downey looking for my next Downey dog.

Because I just, there's something magical about that place.

They just seem to have the best dogs and they just, they need to make a connection with someone.

And so if you just give 'em a chance, then you could come home with this.

- Pets have an amazing ability to provide love and comfort.

This is especially true for those dealing with a challenging situation.

Right now.

There are nearly 6 million Americans living with Alzheimer's disease.

It's an epidemic that's devastating to all involved.

I'm excited to share an uplifting story that is helping those afflicted.

An animal shelter in Tucson, Arizona is partnered with Alzheimer's facilities to help them care for orphan kittens.

This program is having a profound impact on the patients and their families.

What started out as a creative idea to bottle feed orphan kittens has now become a lifesaving model and is helping to improve the lives of those with Alzheimer's.

♪ Time it was.

♪ ♪ And what a time it was.

♪ ♪ A time of innocence, A time of confidences.

♪ ♪ Long ago it must be, I have a photograph.

♪ ♪ Preserve your memories ♪ ♪ They're all that's left you ♪ - So has everybody heard about the cat program that we're gonna be starting?

So on Saturday around 10 o'clock, we're gonna be getting our cats in and they'll be living in the cat cradle right there in the front activity room.

So what our job is gonna be, we're gonna be feeding them.

Ruth, if you wanna name them, gimme a good cat name.

- I can't really think of it now.

Okay.

- Fuzzy.

- Fuzzy?

Okay, we got, we got a vote for Fuzzy.

What are some good cat names?

- Felix The Cat.

That was a famous cat.

- Yeah, there was a cartoon after him I believe.

Felix The Cat was a cartoon.

- Yeah.

- Garfield.

Garfield.

Okay.

We got Fuzzy.

We got Felix.

We got plenty of names.

- You feeling good?

- Yeah.

I'm Terri Waldman and I'm the administrator of Copper Canyon.

Copper Canyon is a 66 bed memory care community.

Our residents here all have a cognitive impairment, from mild all the way to the end stages of Alzheimer's disease.

We are collaborating with Pima Animal Care Center and we're gonna be fostering some kittens.

We're really excited about that.

- My name's Justin Gallic.

For the last nine years I've worked for Pima Animal Care Center.

PAC for short is Tucson's only open admission shelter.

One of our biggest challenges comes from kitten season, the breeding season.

Spring summer months here we're taking in litters of kittens every day.

People's pets have had cats, feral type situations.

People are finding litters and bringing them in.

- We had a stray in the neighborhood and the mom hasn't been back for a day or two and we were getting concerned with all the heat here and we thought we'd bring them in.

- On average, we're probably taking in about 20 to 30 kittens a day.

So that's a big strain on the shelter.

- You hungry?

- We're looking about 2000 kittens a year that fall into this situation.

Up until the time that they're probably four and a half, five weeks old, they are in need of nursing bottle feeding.

This has been probably the most fragile group of pets that a shelter can take in and the most susceptible to being euthanized.

The concept of partnering with memory care centers to act as foster programs.

It's such a wonderful blend.

Tucson is known as a retirement community and does have quite a few assisted living, residential memory care, Alzheimer's facilities around.

And here we are with hundreds, if not thousands of kittens in need of someone to nurture and care for them in order to be able to help save their lives.

- About 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease.

About 130,000 right here in Arizona.

Basically what happens with Alzheimer's is that a person develops plaques and tangles in their brain that interferes with their ability to live daily life.

Even though a person doesn't have a memory, they're still here, they're still participating in the world.

And it's important that we find things that they can participate in.

- Hecka, have you heard we're gonna get some kittens?

They're gonna be two weeks, three weeks old and they're gonna need a lot of love.

You got a lot of love to give, don't you?

- Oh yeah.

I love cats.

And if I love cats, I tell you they love me.

I expect them to be in my bed with me.

- You do?

- Yeah, the men aren't no good.

- The yogis spend their whole lives trying to learn how to be in the moment through meditation and lots of other techniques.

Our residents, they're the Buddhists on earth, they get there really quickly.

The things that they do are right here, right now.

The struggle of the past and the future is not there.

- So hush little baby, don't you cry.

- So you're gonna be getting some kittens to take care of.

- And you know they're coming and you know where to hold them while they eat.

- I come and see her once a week.

She's has her good days, she has her bad days.

Hopefully they're more good, bad, but that's part of dementia.

If it's a good day, it's great.

If it's not a good day, it's hard.

It's really hard.

So I think it's a great idea.

They're bringing the kittens for these people because it helps them interact.

And who can resist a soft, fluffy kitten?

- You know I love you.

- Yes, I do know you love me.

I love you too, Mom.

- We've got three memory care facilities lined up here in Tucson to begin the Kitten Fostering Program.

The memory care unit at Hacienda, Handmaker, and our first stop, Copper Canyon Alzheimer's Special Care Center.

Bringing four new kittens from the shelter and meeting with our volunteer cat expert, Jackie de Geis, who's gonna help get things started.

- May I give a little gray kitten to someone?

I would highly recommend that you always use a towel to wrap around the kittens when you hold them.

- The shelter is providing all of the food, the bottles, you know, bedding, litter, litter pans.

So really what they can focus on bottle feeding and socializing our kittens.

Making them the most adoptable kittens.

- This is my husband, Kent.

He's been here at Copper Canyon for over two years, and he has primary progressive aphasia.

- It's good in here and he's selling like a lot along, but he's doing fine.

- He has aphasia, which makes it hard for him to communicate.

Most of us know what Kent's saying most of the time because he puts his heart into it.

You can kind of tell - That's what she does.

Very good to me.

And she does to other people too.

- Kent is 67.

He was a paramedic before.

He was an engineer with a railroad for 30 years, and it was end of 2013.

It was kind of strange.

He went to bed one night, the next day he woke up and he was this way.

We're still in the process of having tests and they're gonna do another CAT scan to see if they can finally tell us what has caused this to happen.

- Kent is our father.

He's everybody's father here.

So this, with the sense of purpose for him, I think will be huge.

- Hey Dave?

- Yeah.

You wanna see what I got?

Look at that.

Look at that.

It's a kittie.

Dave.

I haven't seen him so lively and engaged.

You wanna hold him?

- Oh yes, please.

His head was up.

He was laughing.

He was talking to the kittens.

And that's the other piece, the nurturing piece that our residents have cared for people their whole lives.

Both the men and the women.

So to be able to care for these kittens, to feel that life on them, it was a beautiful scene today.

- Hecka, I have a visitor for you.

Look what I have.

A baby!

A baby.

So for Hecka, this is really natural for her.

She's very loving and she loves animals.

Right?

- Oh, I do.

Yeah.

- So it's been one day that the kittens have been in our facility and I see a dramatic change in the way the residents are emotionally, they are happier, excited, and they feel, you know, very full of love.

- Oh my goodness.

Oh, what?

You wanna introduce the kitten to your cat?

- She's introducing herself.

- Yeah, she is.

Huh?

- It's a handful.

Hey, handful.

That's what I'll call you from now on.

Come on up here, Handfull.

- Another one of our partners is Handmaker.

They're a assisted living and memory care facility and they've been around Tucson for about 50 years.

- Handmaker is a continuum care retirement community.

We have 199 units here, broken down into assisted living and nursing as well as some independent apartments.

The memory care unit really is a dementia unit.

A lot of the residents are very much declined physically and mentally.

Many, many with Alzheimer's, but some with other memory losses such as Lewy Bodies.

We're gonna be receiving five kittens, four weeks and younger.

Goal is to certainly take care of these kittens and have them part of the residents' lives for a good six weeks, we're hoping for, My mother's name is Clarinda and either my sister Cecilia or I visit every day.

She has advanced Alzheimer's.

- Do you want this blanket for your baby?

- On a normal time during the afternoon we sing songs together 'cause she can remember the words of songs.

You're so true.

But she isn't usually laughing and having such a good time as she is right now.

It's a great time.

- Oh, look at Mama, she's closing her little eyes.

- She's happy.

It really warms my heart to see the residents interacting with the kittens.

There is that human animal bond that, you know, only comes from that kind of interaction.

And for the kittens, the socialization that they're gonna have over the next few weeks is going to be absolutely terrific.

- Kent has really lit up, even talking about the kitten program, Kent is usually pretty happy, but this has really made that look of joy on his face an amazing thing to see.

- I'm Kent's brother and I'm here to see my bro.

Oh, he is a great brother.

So to see him, to see him end up this way is not easy.

But you know, I'm glad he is alive and I think there's still hope for many years of hopefully quality life for him.

I think it's a great program.

I've always thought that pets, you know, going to hospitals and seeing people who are sick was a great idea.

And to come in and see my brother doing that was awesome.

I think it's exactly what he would want to be doing after being a paramedic and helping people.

This is right up his alley.

- One of the things that we've already seen happen is transition to the changes to the dynamics of the family visits.

It's not just routine.

How are you?

How have you been?

There's a new focus.

- This is Vanessa Furnell, 12 years old.

There was six kids.

There's five of us still alive and my daughter's here with her daughter.

So you know, my mom's great-granddaughters are here.

Look at that little beautiful little kitten.

See the girls are liking it.

You wanna see it?

- There's a levity to it.

We've got, you know, grandma, grandpa smiling and being viewed as you know, again, as as a nurturer, as a caregiver.

- Good morning.

Yeah.

Love you.

John is someone that I admire more than any other person I've met in this earth.

You give the best hugs.

- Highly intelligent, read voraciously an encyclopedic knowledge of so many things.

Phenomenal musician.

He was fluent in Russian and then went on to get a master's degree in Special Ed and worked with learning disabled and behavior disorder kids.

John was diagnosed at the age of 55 with early onset Lewy Body dementia.

He's 61 now.

His visual spatial is really way off and he cannot even lift his guitar or his mandolin anymore.

So he basically uses his body like it's an instrument.

As soon as music starts playing, he'll start dancing around and flailing his hands in the positions he would use for chord changes and strumming his guitar.

And it's kind of a beautiful thing to see is told me many times how grateful he is to be alive.

And that's in this world where he lives now.

- Oh, they heard your voice and they're looking at you.

- There's a lot to be said for that kind of gratitude.

Remember when Natalie was born, look in here?

He was a stay-at-home dad with our daughter Natalie.

We only have one child.

And I was next to my husband giving a kitten a bottle and remembering when he used to give our daughter a bottle.

And it was a a poignant moment and I felt close to him.

It brought back a lot of memories.

Something so helpless and something so vulnerable and beautiful and full of life.

It's such a great feeling to connect with something like that.

- Our third facility is Hacienda.

Got started.

They're a new facility in town, so we're gonna do a quick little check-in visit to make sure everything's going as planned.

- One of the things we realized in being a part of this unique fostering program, we were also allowing our residents to feel very connected to the Tucson community as well.

I think there's a disconnect once you come into a senior living community, you might feel very isolated from the outer world.

And we are trying in many ways to use partnerships to keep that connection alive.

- Everything going well?

- Everything is going really well.

We are just getting out of the early time where we are absolutely having to feed every three to four hours.

- Alright.

The hard work is over now.

It's gonna be really important to make sure that they're well socialized, that they get handled a lot, a lot of exercise.

I did drop off an exercise pen so they can run around.

Residents can watch them play with rope toys.

- Oh that's gonna be fun.

- We envision from the very start that animals at the Hacienda would be an integral part of how we approach engaging our residents and our entire community.

Our equine program has benefited our residents in amazing ways in that as they go out and they're with these horses, they give a real sense of energy and peace.

With the idea of fostering kittens, we get to see that whether it is a little kitten, and all of us pulling together to get these kitties to a place where they're gonna be able to be adopted, or whether we're taking care of the horses, we have a responsibility to our residents here to make them feel engaged and feel part of the community.

So in a way, the kitten program has really highlighted that to all of us.

- Well I think the fact that it became part of our daily life is probably the biggest surprise.

I think we thought it would be just another part of what we do here.

But it is everything here.

- Hey Buster.

Hi sweetie.

He's a sweet cat.

Yes you are.

- We call Dave the gentle giant.

We were having trouble engaging him and the kittens have engaged him.

- This is fun to play with.

- So, you know, today's adoption day.

- Yes.

Good for them.

And it's good for people adopting him.

- That's right.

- They're happy cats.

- And you named one of them.

What'd you name 'em, - Buster?

He's my favorite.

- Yeah.

Yeah, I can tell.

I think you're his favorite too.

- He's a big cat now.

He, he has really grown up.

- The residents, the families, the staff, some that are adopting the kittens.

It's part of our identity.

And that I did not expect.

- Okay.

For the rest guy.

- So the very first night we got the kittens, Kent would not leave the room and it became pretty obvious that we were gonna need to make him comfortable in that room because there was no way he was going back to his bed to get some rest.

- So they decided that there was a recliner that wasn't being used.

So they brought it in here and set it up in here.

And it's probably slept in here at least 50, 60% of the time that the cats have been here.

- Here we go.

There's a guy that gets him.

- I feel special cat.

What's up buddy?

- And I think that part of the animal human bond that we see, what it does for people, it, it really brought that to life here.

- Thanks bud.

- We're gonna be getting some new kittens on Monday, aren't we?

- I think it is Monday.

- Yes it is.

- Ruth has a lot of issues with reality and has a lot of alteration in her thought process.

And the kittens are real life right in front of you and they kind of bring her back.

- What been your favorite part of having the kittens here?

- That I can just look through the window and see them playing anytime I want to.

You know, when you have a lot of grief, a kitten can do something for you that nothing else can do.

- Well, absolutely.

I've seen a big change.

- Well, you're nice and... - Oh, thank you mom.

I appreciate that.

- When you come, it's like Christmas coming.

- Okay.

And I look forward to coming to see you.

- How cute she is.

- It's bittersweet.

I mean, we're really, really happy that they've been adopted.

- I like her.

- And to have these kittens that might not otherwise be here, have wonderful families to go to, is really amazing and wonderful.

- I'm a social worker in the community and I've got several residents here that I visit.

We would always have our conversations in what is now called the Kitty Room.

People that don't even have any speech can walk in there and they're smiling.

The kitties just touch them so deeply.

It just gives me goosebumps.

It's so beautiful to see that connection.

- Doing their adoptions today and getting to hold them and spend time with them.

They're, they're some of the most socialized kittens that, that I've seen all season long.

- All right, kiddo, on to your new life.

- I think today's a happy day.

It's a day of transition, working in conjunction with Pima Animal Care.

They're actually able to breathe life and opportunity into these vulnerable animals, combined with a vulnerable population, and together beautiful things happen.

- Oh, that's cute.

- He's had a ball.

I mean, I've seen these videos that people have been sending where he is been taking the string and the cat's been jumping up and down and - You've enjoyed the kittens, John.

- Yeah.

- You really have.

- Okay.

Time to give Sherman to his new mommy.

Here you go Sherman.

- Today was a great day.

We adopted out five kittens.

They were the first five kittens that Handmaker bottle fed.

- Get your tail in.

- It's even moreso special because it opened up space.

We're bringing five more kittens from the shelter back here tomorrow morning.

Freeing up space in the shelter, freeing up resources.

So it's just, it's a win-win all around, it topped off a great weekend.

We're heading to Copper Canyon to drop off their second litter.

It's six kittens that were actually abandoned in a box outside of the shelter while we were closed.

- When Justin came today with the kittens.

I mean, even the anticipation, it's interesting 'cause they see Justin and they associate him with the kittens.

They know something's going on in that room.

So we already have a crowd out there and they're missing s'mores.

They, they'd rather see the kitties than have s'mores for the snack.

That says a lot.

I can't imagine not having this program here.

So we will continue to collaborate with PAC and with Justin and we will continue to have kittens here.

- I'll love you any time, anywhere.

- Seeing the residents faces, seeing how the families have responded to seeing their loved ones smile and laugh... - We love kitties.

...has really just reaffirmed why I do this work - Hi.

- Here with your next litter.

- Oh my gosh, they're so cute.

Five little babies for you.

- Look at that.

- We're really hoping that this program can be something that we can do for a long time.

And hopefully other facilities like us will actually take a role into it as well.

Because there's plenty of animals to go around.

And these kittens could actually offer an opportunity to really brighten their day and brighten their experience here.

- Shelter work in general is stressful.

It has its ups and downs.

Yet a day like today leaves me, you know, feeling happy, like I made a difference.

Being involved in this program has completely reenergized me.

It's something that's really brought our community together.

And by the end of the year, this program will have saved hundreds of kittens' lives.

I love doing this work.

♪ I can see the painting on the wall ♪ ♪ The mixture of different colors ♪ ♪ And I go walking in the Arizona sun ♪ ♪ Slow walking peace of mind ♪ ♪ The cactus blooms, the sand dunes ♪ ♪ No city lights, I can see for miles ♪ ♪ And my mind goes on forever.

♪ ♪ The sun goes to bed deep in the sky's firey red ♪ ♪ Each step takes me closer to heaven.

♪ - Petco Love lost.

A national lost and found pet database can help.

Using image recognition technology so every pet can be back where they belong.

- Oh my baby.

- Home with the families that love them.

Petco Love Lost.