- Will you consider this?

Older people and older pets can certainly be a match made on Earth, I'm Christine Zak-Edmonds, together we'll learn more about pets for seniors and pets for saving.

(upbeat music) It's a rescue group unlike many others, of course, these pets are looking for their forever home.

Funding comes in a unique way from the community, and we would like to welcome two volunteers, Sarah Kammerer and Cindy McKone, who'll fill us all in on PFS details.

So PFS stands for both, pets for seniors and pets for saving.

Oh, I forgot to mention Arlo, that's Arlo, isn't he sweet?

Alright, so Sarah, tell me about the shelter.

- So the shelter is, yes, PFS stands for pets for saving and pets for seniors.

Calm down, buddy.

We adopt to anyone over 21, but we have a special program for seniors, so anyone over 60, if they adopt a senior cat, which is a cat older than seven, seven and older, if somebody should need to go into the hospital or into rehab.

- [Christine] Or whose passed away.

- Or is ill or has passed, we will take that cat and care for the cat while the person is in the hospital or in the rehab facility, and that's just part of the deal.

And it works out really well, we find that animals are a really good companion for older people, for everybody.

But for older people, it gives a purpose and somebody to keep them company, and we really like to do that when we can.

- Okay, now, Cindy, I'll just ask you a little, you're a cat lover?

- Right, absolutely.

- They have cats and dogs too, though.

- Yes.

Most of the dogs are in foster homes, we have a shelter where the cats are housed.

Usually have about 20 to 30 cats in the shelter at any one time, and then there are kittens too that are fostered, raised in foster homes, 'til they're old enough to come to the shelter.

- And they're treated at the shelter too, you have veterinarians who come there and help with the meds and do all of the shots and all that.

- We do, all the cats that we adopt out are either spayed or neutered, and they're up to date on all their vaccinations and have had a good health checkup.

And if we discover anything, we certainly let the adopter know.

And if they're comfortable with that, then we proceed, and if they're not, then we understand that, but we don't let them go unless we know all about them.

And the kittens are in foster homes because we find that it really makes them more sociable cats.

they're taken care of or they're around people, and if cats are brought up around people, then they like people, right?

- How do you make the matches?

- Oh.

Sometimes people come in having connected with a picture of a cat they see on our website, and sometimes people come in just looking for a cat.

And oftentimes it really is the cat who picks the person, and you just sort of watch that connection happen, and it can be really special.

- But, the cats aren't really in cages 'cause I visited there, they're not in cages, they are free to roam.

- They are, they are.

We have them in cages for about 10 days when they come to us.

It's kind of their quarantine period so that we make sure they don't have any contagious respiratory conditions that could pass to the other cats and make kind of a nightmare.

And then we do, we let them out into the open room where they socialize with other cats and they play together, and Arlo is one of our, well he's our biggest cat at the moment.

- [Christine] And how much does he weigh?

- He weighs just shy of 17 pounds.

- [Christine] Arlo, you cat you.

(Christine laughs) - Yeah.

- Well, you also, Cindy you told me that you get to know their personalities too, I mean, they can be pretty persnickety.

- Oh, they can be, absolutely.

And as far as the cats choosing the people, that happens a lot.

In fact, we adopted a kitten to join our four year old cat in March, and we went to visit the litter and we were kind of had our eye on one, but Gunner came out and chose us, you know me, take me.

(Christine laughs) - Yeah, hello, let me give you a paws up, yeah but you don't just take, well... What cats and dogs do you take then?

I mean, you don't have somebody who's got a feral cat out of the yard, do you or do you?

- No, we take, mostly we pull from other animal-- - [Christine] Domestic.

- Bigger animal shelters around town, animal control and such, sometimes we will take an owner surrender, especially if that owner has adopted from us, and that cat came from us originally, we'll always take that cat back.

We don't often take a stray directly, we encourage people to go through animal control for the strays, and then we can go from there.

- Great, great.

Well now tell me about the store.

In front of the shelter you have this wonderful store with all kinds of wonderful things to get, and tell me about the store and the purpose of it.

- Okay the store is the forever home resale store, resale shop.

And our purpose is to support the shelter and support the animals and anything that we, everything is donated to us.

It's not consignment, and everything that we sell, the money that we make over our expenses, goes to support the shelter.

And we celebrated our fourth anniversary just last week.

- How did it all come about?

- The shop?

I guess a couple of the people on the board had visited shops in other areas, and kind of gotten that idea, And then there were, well, our current shop manager has experience, retail experience, and also has resale experience.

- And you look up the prices for everything and make sure that people are getting deals, but it's not like they're paying.

- No, usually it's less than 50%, it's kind of a fun thing, since I've been working there, or volunteering there.

It's a fun thing to look up, you can get a Google, which I didn't know about, Google photo, and look up the item, and then it'll tell you, usually, sometimes it comes up right away, sometimes, you might be taking a horse figurine and it will come up with a Palomino or live horse or something.

But we clean everything very thoroughly, and if it has any little flaws or any nicks or anything then we re-donate it.

- Alright.

All of that money then goes to...

So the veterinary bills and the food and whatever care, special meds, that sort of thing.

So it is completely donor funded.

- Yes.

- Yes.

Completely donor funded, and some of these cats go through quite a bit of money early on, they get sick and they go through that money quickly.

But we'll always do everything we can to save a cat and get a cat healthy enough to have a good home.

- What is the most challenging part of all of this for either one of you?

Because Cindy, you're a cat lover, you wanna take them all home.

- I do wanna take them.

- [Christine] And Sarah, you probably do too.

- I do too, yeah.

Not being able to take them all home, my children volunteer with me and there's always one they're in love with, and we just can't take that many home.

But I think the hardest for me is watching the cat stay longer than I think they should.

When I think we have a cat that is amazing and sort of the perfect cat and then to watch people pass over that cat over and over again, it just, it kind of breaks my heart.

- Do you go out and try to sell it?

- No, not really.

(all laughing) - [Christine] Because you know, you miss this.

- We know if we're patient, the right people come along for the right cat, and it always does seem to work out in the end, but it is hard to watch some of them stay longer.

- I bet, I bet.

Well you have-- - [Cindy] It is.

- I remember you had a female cat that she was kind of the alpha female there for a while, wasn't she?

Last year or something?

- Yes, she was, I can't remember her name.

- [Christine] But she was - - She was.

- She definitely let everyone know who was the boss.

- [Sarah] Oh yeah.

- Right.

- [Sarah] We have those.

- Yeah, and they, but they all get along pretty well.

- [Sarah] They really do.

- Which is interesting because cats you know, have a reputation.

But they have managed to figure it out at the shelter.

- They have for the most part, we do have a couple that are too shy or they're scared of the other cats, or they just don't like them, and we have the space where we're able to separate those out so that they don't have to be in contact with them all the time, which is nice.

But for the most part, yes, they all get along like one big happy family.

- Right.

And it's nice, even with those cats, when the volunteers are there socializing, then they can come out, and because there's somebody there to kind of watch out for them.

- Well, and they, they have a playroom kind of, Right?

- [Sarah] Yeah.

their social room.

And then I, if I recall there's a room where there are some cages.

That's the quarantine, or if they're having some bad behavior?

- We have an isolation room.

If somebody is sick, generally, that's where we'll put them.

When we don't have anybody sick, we're able to use that room for cats that are shy and give them their own little space.

- Or intake.

- Or intake, yes.

- Cats that have just come in.

- The ones that have just come in, yes.

- Well, you're located in Peoria.

You have certain hours.

How do people find out about you?

Arlo, Arlo pay attention.

Pay attention there, buddy.

- So Arlo is six years old, and as of right now, he's available for adoption, but I'm hoping by the time this airs, he will not be anymore.

He's six years old.

And he was actually adopted out as a kitten from animal control here in Peoria.

And then just a couple of months ago, found as a stray in a junkyard.

And obviously he was eating very well in the junkyard.

He's a big boy.

But they contacted the people who had adopted him and all those phone numbers had been disconnected.

So unfortunately he has been abandoned and we just fell in love with him.

So here he is at PFS, getting a second chance.

- [Christine] He has forgiven everybody.

- All the animals we have available for adoption are on our website, petsforseniors.org.

And you can go and take a look, see pictures and descriptions.

And then if you want to meet them, we suggest you make an appointment.

Or we have open shelter hours starting this month, starting in October on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, you can come on in and meet all the cats at the shelter.

- But you don't want people just dropping them off at any time?

- [Cindy] No, no, no, no, never, please.

- No, no.

- What are the restrictions there?

Is that also posted on the website so that they know when, if they have the opportunity or if the circumstance has arisen, that they need to find a place for the animal.

- We ask that you call the shelter and we'll work with you.

If we can't take the cat, we'll find a place that can, if it's a behavioral issue, we'll help you through that too.

Sometimes we have people call who want to return a cat because it is not using the litter box properly, for example.

Sometimes that's as easy as a urinary tract infection that hasn't been diagnosed and treated, and that can be taken care of.

And then that the cat can stay, sometimes it's behavioral or they're uncomfortable in that house.

- And Arlo's going, "This is going on way too long".

- He's ready.

- He's ready to get down, he's not a mouser or maybe he is.

- [Sarah] Maybe he is, I don't know.

I think he probably is.

- Well, how long have you been involved with the shelter, Sarah?

- I have been volunteering with my kids for a year, but we adopted a cat from PFS about five years ago.

Was recommended to us by a friend and we just fell in love with PFS and how they do things.

They knew all the cats and what their personalities were and which one would fit better in our home.

And I just, I was so thrilled that we knew we were getting the right cat for us, - [Christine] Right.

- That when our, that cat passed away during the pandemic, and we immediately went back to PFS to find another cat to fill that hole, and... - [Christine] That's when it starts.

- That's when it started, my 16 year old decided she'd like to volunteer there and it has turned into a big family event.

- [Christine] That's awesome.

- And we love doing it together.

- And Cindy, how long have you been involved?

Since the beginning, or?

- No, just about a little over a year.

Maybe close to two years.

I've been working in the shop for about a year.

I initially thought I would want to socialize with the cats, but I really like retail and I think I would get, like Sarah, so attached.

I may not be able to... (laughs) I might, you know, "No, you can't have this cat."

(Sarah laughs) - Aren't there books about that?

I know there's one that I used to read to the kids that "The Old Man and the Afternoon Cat".

And then there's another, the cat lady who had a hundred cats or something.

And that would be a problem.

Oh, look, we're very relaxed now.

- Oh yes we are.

- Settling in.

- [Christine] He knows he had a closeup a moment ago, so we're good.

- (whispers) Good boy.

- What are the big challenges then?

If you have way too many animals, is that a huge challenge from time to time?

Are there certain times of year when that happens?

- There are.

Kitten season is in the fall and that is often a challenging time, there are kittens everywhere.

So we also encourage you at home.

If you have cats that are outside, please spay and neuter them, there are more kittens than we can find places for.

That's challenging.

It is hard.

We can only take so many.

- [Cindy] Right, yeah we only can... - We just, we only take that many.

It's challenging when they get sick.

We've had a couple of pretty risky respiratory viruses spread through, and that's very dangerous for the rest of the cats.

So those are challenges, medically, I guess, cost for the medications and vet treatment is always a challenge for a small shelter.

We have very generous donors and we do well with that, but we can always use more help.

- Oh yes, always.

- So more volunteers and more volunteers at the shelter and in the shop?

- And in the shop yes, in fact, yeah, a couple of our workers, our volunteers at the shop, are having some other issues going on now.

So we're actually closing a couple of days, but traditionally, we're open Wednesday through Saturday 11 to four.

And we also have on Facebook, the forever home resale shop, we show our monthly features.

We do a lot of special holiday things.

Now we've got a fall and Halloween display things for sale.

- [Christine] Right and then you'll have... - Christmas, yes.

- Christmas as well.

What sorts of things do you not want for the shop?

- We do not take clothes or shoes or mattresses or anything like that.

We do take some small furniture items.

We have a lot of glass wear right now, collectibles, we have three very nice wall clocks, for example, the larger ones.

It's kind of amazing what we have, what people donate.

People are very generous.

- [Christine] People are generous, absolutely.

- Oh, very generous.

- [Sarah] Very.

- Someone brought in two big bags of board games the other day.

And so we have a lot of board games, puzzles.

We have everything from that to-- - Oh and you have DVDs and books?

- [Cindy] DVDs and books.

- [Sarah] And Animal supplies.

- And animal supplies, oh yes.

- And lots of costumes.

(laughs) - Yeah.

I'm a cat person, obviously not a dog person.

And I've just been amazed at the clothes that people buy for their dogs.

Really?

- The dog costumes.

Okay, well Halloween you know, they gotta, they can't just go out as a dog.

- Right?

We have Halloween costumes for dogs.

- Well, that is really cute.

And who are his friends at the shelter?

Has he done pretty well?

- He's done very well.

- Any girlfriends?

- No girlfriends.

There's a group of boys that play pretty well together right now.

This guy, and who's your good friend now?

Hmm?

Oh, Gizmo and Rocky.

- [Christine] But you don't name them, or do you name them?

- Sometimes we do, sometimes they come named.

They've been named other places.

And if we like the name, we'll keep it.

- [Christine] Okay.

- Generally we try to.

- [Christine] Are they chipped?

- Yes, we micro chip all of them.

If they aren't micro chipped when they come in, they are micro chipped when they go out.

With our adoption software, it gets automatically registered to the new adopters.

So there's no having to call and change the registration.

- [Christine] Find that out.

- Yeah.

Hi buddy.

- Well, you said just a minute ago that there was some respiratory difficulties there for awhile.

You call the vet immediately?

- [Sarah] Absolutely.

- [Christine] Do you have many different vets or one?

- We have one that's our go-to of one that's well, two really that are kind of our go-to.

We have another one that we go to when we can't get in or for emergencies.

But yes, they always receive that care when they need it.

We will find someplace and we'll get in.

So the vets have been really supportive of us and you know, we really appreciate that 'cause we couldn't do it without the vets.

- And you go, well, you said your kids go with you too.

You really go to kind of play with the kitties.

- We do, we go and play with the cats, but that helps the cats get comfortable with people.

And it helps the rest of the volunteers understand which kinds of people that cat gets along with best so that we can make the right adoption match.

So sometimes we'll have a cat that is afraid of small children, but is good with older ones or prefers men to women, we've had those too.

- [Cindy] Oh yes.

- And we like to be able to say that when people come in to adopt a cat, so they don't get returned right away.

- [Christine] Right.

- Yeah.

- How many hours do you volunteer then?

A week?

- Well, the kids and I go in about an hour, hour and a half a week to play with the cats and then my older daughter and I end up spending some more time helping with adoptions and photographs on the website and writing up their little bios, so.

- Did you ever imagine you would be doing this?

- No, not in a million years, but I love it.

And it's a great family activity and yeah.

- [Christine] And how about you, Cindy?

Did you ever imagine you'd be doing this?

- No, I never, I really didn't.

- [Christine] Didn't factor it in, had no idea.

- No hadn't thought thought about it, no.

- But it's a great group of people.

- Oh, it is.

- I mean, it sounds cliche, but it really is kind of a family of volunteers, both the shop and the shelter.

And...

I know you're ready to be done.

- [Christine] Oh yeah.

Look at that.

Are you yawning?

Now, what about the dogs?

So the dogs are fostered and then how do people find out about them if they're not at the shelter?

- We have them on the website as well, and people can call anytime.

They can see the pictures of the dogs.

We can't have dogs in the shelter right now because of the way the building is zoned.

So those are all in fosters.

So we don't do as many dog adoptions as cat adoptions because they're not onsite, but yeah, they go to the website just the same.

And we bring them in to the shelter when we want to do an adoption, yeah.

- And sometimes we'll have a kitten day in kitten season when you meet.

And the fosters will come in for a certain period of time and to meet the public.

- So you really have to gauge it all throughout the year.

- [Sarah] Yes, it's always changing.

- Yeah.

Well, that's good, you know?

- [Sarah] Yeah.

- Evolution.

But so how old are the dogs?

Are there puppies?

They're not puppies too?

Are they generally older dogs?

- We generally don't have puppies.

- Not usually.

- We do have a lot of senior dogs.

- A lot of dogs with the situation of the person going to a nursing home or dying or something like that.

- And the other family members or whoever, they don't know what to do.

- Right.

Right.

Or they have too many pets already or something.

- And how do those people find you other than the website?

Cause a lot of people aren't real savvy with computers and things, so it's word of mouth?

- Word of mouth.

- Word of mouth, mm hmm.

- We have a lot of people that come in who heard from their neighbor or they're, you know, at a retirement home, somebody across the way adopted a cat from us, and so they come too.

We had two from the same retirement community one weekend.

(laughs) Kind of back-to-back it was very cute.

- (Christine laughs) - We're just the place to go, I guess.

- Yeah, right.

- Yeah, word of mouth.

- Yeah, and you're enjoying it and you're enjoying the time with the cats?

And, oh my goodness.

Oh my, we are very shy right now.

- Yes we are.

- You will not resist this guy.

- But you're enjoying it, mot only for the cat's sake, but your family time.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I do recommend it for anybody.

If you want to spend time with your kids come and pet cats.

- [Christine] Or service hours.

- If you're lonely, come and pet cats.

- [Christine] Right.

- If you can't have a cat of your own, come and pet cats, it's great therapy, it's free therapy.

- Yeah.

There you go.

And Cindy, so your husband, Dick, does he go and help you at all?

I know he's a cat lover too.

- He is a cat lover, not so much.

But he loves every opportunity he can to go there.

But he's very supportive with the shop.

He's helped us move a few things into.

- What's the most fun that you have had in your association with the shelter and with the shop?

- I think, just being there and getting to know the cats.

I don't know them as well, 'cause I'm mainly with the shop.

I've always loved retail.

So I like the challenge of getting things in and you know, cleaning them up and selling them and learning about them.

And the people that we meet that we have regular shoppers.

We have a lady that comes in just about every Tuesday I've been working on Tuesdays, so.

- When do people bring their donations?

So you have certain hours for that as well?

- They can really bring them any time.

We prefer they bring them either on Tuesday when we're not open or Wednesday through Saturday, when we are open.

We do ask that people to tell, you know, they can leave them in the hall.

We ask them to come and tell us when they're bringing them in so we know, because sometimes they can go away.

- Yeah, well that's life, isn't it?

- [Cindy] Yes.

- And then Sarah, what has been your most exciting, fun or rewarding experience?

- I love watching them get adopted.

I love those connections that we see being made.

I think that's probably my favorite, followed closely by I've gotten the opportunity a couple of times to go visit animal control and pick some of the cats that we bring back to the shelter.

And that is both hard and wonderful all at the same time, 'cause we can't bring them all.

- [Christine] Right.

Were you ever a dog person?

- I've never had a dog.

I don't dislike dogs, I'm just, much more comfortable with cats.

- [Cindy] Yeah, me too, same.

- Right, yeah, right.

And some people are that way.

Like I'm good with him except I have a lot of black on and I have someplace else to go.

So otherwise you are now kind of his-- - I'm done for the day.

(laughter) - You need to take packaging tape with you wherever you go, or a lint brush.

- [Sarah] Definitely.

- Right, right.

Well, what do you recommend for our audience then if they're interested?

They need to call the shelter?

- If they're interested, call the shelter, go to the website, fill out an application.

It's a no obligation application.

And that way we can review that application and approve you for an adoption.

So if you come into an open hours or you make an appointment, then we can send you home with the cat that day.

Otherwise we have to wait.

We always check with the vet that you've been using.

Make sure you've been taking your current animals to the vet.

We want to make sure these guys are going to be taken care of.

And we will check if you live in an apartment, we want to check with your landlord to make sure it's okay.

So fill out an application and then either make an appointment or come to an open hours.

- Do you have a lot of situations like that?

Where really they want the pet, but they're not allowed to have them?

- We have some, yeah.

- [Christine] Which is kind of sad.

- It is sad.

- You can fill out.

It's just an application online and then it can be done by the time you come in.

That's what we did with Chris with Gunner.

- So what's the amount of time that that takes?

- If it's during the week, a day, couple of days.

If you turn it in on a Friday, we probably aren't going to get you until Monday or Tuesday because the vets are not in the office, the landlords are not working, so, you know, during the week it's pretty quick.

- Yeah, he is just doing great.

Arlo.

- He's doing great, he's about done.

- [Christine] And how old is he again?

- Arlo is six.

- [Christine] Six years old, all right.

- And he is a lap cat.

He's just, he's a big Teddy bear.

- A lap cat at almost 17 pounds.

- [Sarah] At almost 17 pounds, that's right.

- He doesn't realize, he thinks he's still a kitty and didn't weigh a whole lot back in the day.

- He sits on my kid's laps and they're much smaller than mine.

He doesn't really care.

- Well, they are as cute as can be.

And I'm so glad that you came to enlighten us about... Is there anything that I missed that we need to know about?

- I can't think of anything.

- Like the pets for seniors though, that is a really nice match.

And it is nice companionship.

- And the pets we're saving with our kittens program.

One thing that I think is kind of unique about the kittens.

There were so many foster kittens, they were naming them.

Like there were the, I got one of the Vikings, which I didn't even know.

- They tend to name them in themes.

- Right, there was a Toy Story litter.

- A Jungle Book litter, we had a Clue litter, Mrs. Peacock and Mr. Green.

- He's weighing in here.

Did you not like those litters?

He said, "Let me loose.

"Just let me loose."

All right.

Well, I want to thank you for being here.

What's the phone number at the shelter?

Do you know it offhand?

- I don't know it.

- [Christine] Okay, all right.

- I'm sorry.

- We can Google anything these days.

- And we're on Facebook, so you can look us up there too.

- Right.

And enjoy your pets.

Thank you so much for both volunteering for such a worthwhile organization that a lot of people don't know about, but they're gonna now.

- [Sarah] Thanks for having us.

- Yes, thank you very much for having us.

- Thank you, Sarah, thank you, Cindy.

And I'd like to thank you for joining us and enjoy your day.

Stay safe and healthy.

(upbeat music)