♪♪
[ Meowing angrily ]
-Their entire existence is short and bleak,
but one group is working to give feral cats a much better life.
-Busking has always been a constant in Seattle.
-Some places discourage buskers, not Seattle.
Here, the city welcomes them to play and pays them.
-Many of the same things that happen to people
happen to animals.
-Plus pets helping pets.
Humans aren't the only ones donating blood.
These stories and more next on "City Stream."
♪♪
[ Barks ]
♪♪
I'm Enrique Cerna.
Welcome to "CityStream" from the Seattle Animal Shelter.
♪♪
It's clear we love our pets.
In fact, USA today ranked Seattle
the nation's number one city for a happy and healthy dog.
And when it comes to caring for pets,
the Seattle Animal Shelter is a valued resource,
providing everything from a pet food bank
to free vaccination clinics.
And of course, the shelter is a great place
to find your next four-legged family member.
More on the shelter just ahead.
Yes, this place is filled with animals
that could become your next best friend.
But outside,
other wildlife that look like pets
live a far different existence.
Producer Jenny Cunningham and photographer Greg Davis
follow a volunteer group
working to give these animals a better life.
It's like nothing you've ever seen.
-The kittens are in here in their little special place.
-This is a story about cats.
But before we tell you about these kittens
purring and pampered,
you need to see where they came from.
[ Yowling angrily ]
[ Hissing ]
[ Growling ]
[ Hissing, yowling ]
Claws that scratch. Teeth that bite.
[ Meowing angrily ]
Paws that run and run and run when humans are around.
If we spoke cat, we would hear them...
[ Hissing ]
...curse.
Such nasty creatures.
Who would care about them?
Welcome to the wild world of Alley Cat Project.
In a South Seattle neighborhood of foundries,
highways, and homeless encampments,
a young woman walks with a cage.
She places the cage on the ground.
One end is open.
On the other end, she puts the bait
and then the Alley Cat Project volunteer waits...
and waits.
There's a lot of waiting.
Before this,
Deb Sorensen founded Alley Cat Project in 2010.
-I never intended to do this. [Chuckles]
It was -- It was never my plan.
I just started out volunteering at the shelter.
And I found out at that time
that 80% of all the cats that the euthanized were feral cats.
Hey, guys, are you ready for some food?
-Feral cats are tough to find homes for.
They don't trust humans as opposed to strays
which have lived with people at some point.
There are more free-range cats than you realize.
Approximately 40 million in the United States,
according to the Humane Society.
Wild cats often live a short, hard life.
-They are very much in danger.
They fight to survive and they fight to mate.
-The big idea with Alley Cat Project
is to help cats living outside live a better life,
If they can get them adopted,
that's the cat's meow.
For hardcore feral felines,
there's something called TNR.
Trap. Neuter. Return.
Capture wild cats. [ Meowing ]
Step two, get them spayed or neutered.
Finally, return them to where they were captured
with clipped ears to show they've been fixed.
Then wild cat colonies are happy places
where cats can live years and years.
No more macho male fights for mates,
no more litters and litters of kittens.
-They can have 2 or 3 litters a year if --
if they don't get caught in time.
-Let's do the math.
A female cat will give birth to an average 12 kittens a year.
In seven years,
a single pair of unaltered cats
and their offspring could produce 370,000 kittens.
Alley Cat Project has made great strides creating
contented colonies of fixed and vaccinated
wild cats in Seattle.
Volunteers feed them in raccoon-proof stations.
-We spend over $50,000 a year on food alone.
-But there was a hotbed of feral litters
where Alley Cat Project could only scratch the surface.
Homeless encampments,
which attract rats that bring in cats and then...
-One of the cats up here had a litter of kittens.
And I've had them ever since they were born.
-When we met Leah Shipley,
she was living in a tent in Sodo with her cats,
Master Mittens and Mister Stench.
-Yeah, they keep me happy
and I do everything that I can for them.
-Alley Cat Project had a tough time
convincing encampment residents
to get their animals spayed and neutered.
That changed when volunteer Morgan Sandys showed up.
-Homeless people are just normal people
going through really rough time,
and the connection they have with their pets
is -- is often life saving.
And that should not be undermined for any reason.
-Sandy's day job is in homeless outreach.
That's one reason Shipley
and the other campers allowed Sandys
to take their cats away to be fixed.
The other reason --
Sandys used to live here.
-I myself was homeless for about half a decade,
not too long ago.
-Sandys understands what it means to have this
when you have so little.
-I love them to death,
and if I didn't have them,
I don't know what I would do.
♪♪
-That's the power of the kitten.
Okay, here are those baby kitties we promised.
-I got them when they were 2 or 3 days old.
-Now they're six weeks old.
And foster parent Catherine Schatzel
is in love with six kittens born under a rhubarb bush.
She's especially smitten with the kitten
that almost didn't make it.
-I called her "Wee One."
She was only three ounces when I first got her,
and I syringe fed her and bottle fed her,
and now she's a whopping pound and eight ounces.
-Hold on, hold on. Yeah. Whew-ah.
The runts are always the feisty ones.
-And all the others, uh, follow her and learn.
Learn by her antics.
-For Alley Cat Project's 130 volunteers,
it's all hands on deck April through November.
Kitten season offers the best chance to change a life.
-Almost three quarters of all the cats
we trap our kittens.
-Way to go, Morgan! Way to go! Oh, my God.
-The urgency for trappers,
there's a window of time
when kittens born in the wild can be tamed.
-So I think these kittens are spicy
by the way they are freaking out right now.
But I got all three and the mom
in a very short amount of time.
-Experts say that socializing window closes around 16 weeks.
The younger the kittens are when they're put into foster care,
the better the outcome.
Last year, Alley Cat Project
placed a record 254 kittens
born outside in two loving homes.
Back at Schatzel's house in West Seattle,
Deb Sorensen gives the kittens flea treatments.
Then it's time for fun.
-Oh, there you go. There you go.
Oh, my gosh, you got it. Yes you do.
There it is. Ah!
-Even the wild mama cat is getting more chill.
-I worked out when I walked past her
I shouldn't look at her and then she wouldn't run away.
-Very soon the day will come
when the puffins will be ready for their forever homes.
It's a day Schatzel looks toward with a mix of sadness and pride.
-For me, the hardest is when the first day or two,
or a week after they've all been adopted and it's too quiet.
And then I'll just check with Deb
and see what's next in the pipeline.
You never know.
♪♪
-Well, during the heart of kitten season,
Alley Cat Project needs fosters.
If you're not able to do that,
you can help kittens get adopted at an Alley Cat event.
To learn more, go to their website AlleyCatProject.org.
Next on "CityStream,"
some cities frown upon buskers.
In Seattle, the city hires them to spread joy.
♪♪
-What better way to enjoy a sunny afternoon
than to listen to soothing music in a Seattle park?
♪♪
The city is renowned for its music.
In parks around town street musicians,
better known as buskers,
share their sound with anyone willing to listen.
In some cities, busking is frowned upon.
Not in Seattle.
For the past 18 years,
Seattle Parks and Recreation
and the Associated Recreation Council
have hired local talent to perform in public.
Producer Chris Barnes takes a look.
-♪ Knowing that creatures flicker through a landscape ♪
♪ Painted black and blue and gray ♪
-Busking has always been a constant in Seattle,
you know, thanks to Jim Page,
who 50 years ago challenged the laws that prohibited busking.
And since then, it's just been flourishing and growing.
We have a vibrant busking community down
at Pioneer Square, City Hall Park, Hing Hay,
Cal Anderson, Denny Park, Pike Place Market.
We have a lot of buskers
around the Seattle Center, Ballard Commons.
♪♪
The Seattle Center and the Pike Place Market
have busking programs that are independent of ours
at Seattle Parks and Rec.
-♪ I met a pretty gal at a fortune telling place ♪
♪♪
-We have a wide variety of cultures represented too.
We actually have a blind busker.
We have a trans busker DJ.
We have buskers that represent all kinds of music
from all over the world too.
We really try to, you know,
have a slice of our community
represented in our artistic and musical performances.
♪♪
I was a professional musician
and I toured in the '80s and '90s.
I kind of retired from that
and wanted to cross off some things on my bucket list,
one of which was to be a busker.
So I decided to busk a summer at Alki Beach,
and on my first day I was out playing and someone came up
and cut an article out of the newspaper.
It said, "Seattle Parks Department
Hiring Musicians to Perform in the Parks."
So I answered the ad
and we met this woman, Adrienne Caver-Hall,
who started the busking program.
-A leadership volunteer told me about busking.
I then went and researched it and found out what it was.
And then I realized that Pike Place Market
had a busking program
and we ended up having a budget to activate the downtown parks.
So we started with the busking program.
-My name is Philip Craft.
I'm the busking program coordinator
for the Seattle Parks Department
and the Associated Recreation Council.
And so that was kind of the beginning of a relationship
between me and Adrienne.
She took me under her wing,
and she, um, taught me a lot about activating parks
and saw that I really believed in the program.
And that's been, you know,
kind of my baby, you know, since.
I've been doing it for 18 years.
-♪ And I don't understand how you can be so mean ♪
♪ To someone so sweet ♪
I have been a busker for, like,
almost seven years and about a year with the program.
Other cities kind of criminalize it, honestly,
like they -- like in certain parts,
they won't let you play music,
like, kind of considerate panhandling.
So this is a really lax city
when it comes to the laws and ordinances about playing.
So I love it here.
This is one of the better cities.
♪ Start to fly beneath the eye ♪
♪ Do you know where she might be? ♪
-♪ Willing so I'm told ♪
♪ And though I feel so old ♪
♪ I'm still trying, try... ♪
♪♪
-♪ In other words ♪
♪ Baby... ♪
-We help out the buskers by giving them
a safe place in which to play.
We enable them to be able to play amplified,
our concierges will make sure that they're safe.
We give them a stipend for their performance.
-♪ I weep from the ink in my pen ♪
-I get paid, actually, an hourly wage.
So we're not just living off the tips.
We're just trying to bring, like, the music to the parks.
That's what's the important part.
So that's why it's really beneficial,
is that the program provides us with stipends,
because there's not a lot of paid artist gigs like that.
-♪ Leaving me empty all over ♪
-One of the things that I really find joy in
is helping struggling musicians.
And there's no better way, you know,
than keeping the busking program alive and vibrant and safe.
-Thanks to Philip for, uh --
He's always putting the schedules together
and making it possible for us buskers to just,
uh, play in the parks
and do what we love to do and get paid for it,
and it's a really sweet gig.
So how about a round of applause for Philip right here?
[ Applause ]
[ Mid-tempo guitar solo playing ]
♪♪
-I know I'm making a difference in the parks, you know?
I know I'm making a difference in the personality of the parks.
I know I'm making a difference
in the lives of the people who enjoy our parks.
And I'm making a difference in the lives of our buskers
who can live their dream.
And, you know, many of which can play music year round,
you know, and I'm helping facilitate that.
♪♪
-♪ Perhaps they never will ♪
♪♪
-This year, Seattle's Busker program has 46 musicians,
an all time high.
For them, they say it's a dream come true
since they get a chance to share their music
and get paid to do it.
Just ahead, for those facing homelessness,
a visit by Animal Control is concerning,
but no enforcement here, rather help.
The story as "CityStream" continues.
♪♪
Welcome back to "CityStream" from the Seattle Animal Shelter.
Now, for pet owners experiencing homelessness,
a visit from an animal control officer is rarely a good sign.
But an outreach program offering pet food,
bedding and other supplies
is being met with a much different reaction.
Chris Barnes explains.
[ Barking ]
♪♪
-So the program for outreach
is our Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation provided a grant
to the shelter for us to go out
and purchase supplies like dog jackets, toys,
food, bedding and shelter.
And we'll bring them out to RVs, tent encampments,
tiny homes to try to bring supplies out
to the pets and people that need the most.
We have collars that we hand out.
We've got some toys and other supplies that we have over here,
some enrichment items.
We fill these full of kibble,
and the dogs can then roll them around and play
and the kibble falls out, keeps them entertained.
-Hey, how's it going?
It's Robert from the animal shelter.
Did you need any dog food?
We -- We give out supplies from the animal shelter
once every couple of weeks.
Don't have a harness, but give you a collar.
And at least that serves as a backup.
That'd be great. Thank you so much.
Alright, where would you like to leave this?
-So the program was started by us
recognizing a need out in the community
and working with our foundation
to go directly to individuals that needed that support.
-Here's a bag of dog. -Okay.
-Our officers were out there seeing individuals in their RVs
and their tents that were lacking of food and supplies
and toys and -- and enrichment items,
and just wanted to go out there and make sure
that we had an impact out in that community.
♪♪
So the pet food comes from a donation from our foundation,
so they will grant the shelter dollars for resources.
And so then we will purchase that food to then give out
to the community.
-This is not kitten.
Do you want some dry kitten?
Yeah, I mean, generally people are very excited to see us,
especially since I think a lot of times
when they see us as an enforcing role,
they have a preconceived notion
that we are there to enforce something
or some sort of violation.
-Yeah, yeah. Great. -Good?
Alright. Thanks, man. -Thank you very much.
-Yeah, the people that, uh, receive our services
are very grateful and very accommodating.
They, um, you know, spread the word to their other friends
that are struggling out there.
And so it's a great way
for our officers to meet and engage with the community
in a positive way.
♪♪
-Positive, indeed.
Now, that's just one of the programs
that's offered here at the Seattle Animal Shelter.
And joining me now to talk more about what happens here
and the work that's done is the executive director,
Esteban Rodriguez.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
-Good morning. Thank you for having me.
-You know, as we saw in the story,
one of the things you're really trying to do
is get people not to fear your officers,
but really to seek help.
-Really, yeah, it's just about seeking help
and actually building a relationship with our community.
As we've shifted to a more community-centered organization,
it's really meeting people where they are
and providing the resources and services
that our community needs.
-You know, you offer a lot of things here,
like a food bank, as well as spay and neuter services,
vaccinations and vaccines.
That's very important. Tell me about that.
-Yeah, vaccinations and preventative maintenance
for your pet is -- is an impact to the community.
This January 2024, we started a new program
where we do vaccine clinics in our community,
and we go out and we figure out where we're going to set up.
We do a vaccine clinic and every clinic
that we've had on a monthly basis,
we've been able to vaccinate somewhere
between 110 to 150 pets.
We're helping anywhere between 60 to 100 families.
And that's a -- that's a great benefit to our community,
but it's also gives us that opportunity
to build a relationship
with community members in the city of Seattle.
-So the information about all of this
is really on your website and what else can you find there?
-Yeah, everything's on our website,
from vaccine clinics to becoming a volunteer
to becoming a foster care provider,
um, our hours of operation.
-Let's get to that important thing
about people in the community if they want to adopt a pet.
What's the process? Tell me about that.
-Yeah, if they want to adopt a pet,
they can go to our website.
They can see the animals that are available,
uh, fill out a questionnaire form,
or they can just come to the shelter.
We're open Tuesday through Thursday, 1:00 to 5:00.
You can show up Saturday and Sunday.
We're only closed on Mondays and Fridays.
So any time you want to come in 1:00 to 5:00,
you can come look at the pets, talk to our great staff
that are here to give you all the information about the pet,
what we know about the pet,
and hopefully make a good connection
so that we can give that pet a forever home
with that community member.
-What do you want people to keep in mind
about the whole process of adopting,
about whether getting a pet is a good idea?
-I think what I want people to understand
is that it's a live being.
You have to care for it, take care of it,
and we're a resource for those community members.
If they come and adopt from us, we're -- we're --
we're committed to that pet as long as you have it.
And for the life of the pet.
-I take it you're a pet owner.
-I am a pet owner.
-So tell me about your pets.
-I, um, I have Vetter is the pet
that I got here from the shelter.
He was a case that came through.
We ended up fostering to get him out of the shelter setting.
Give him a break from the shelter.
And once I took him home, my wife kind of said,
hey, we're going to end up adopting this dog.
So -- So we adopted him and he's been with us now,
I believe the last two, two and a half years.
He now weighs 80 pounds.
When I took him, he was maybe like 20.
Uh, so he's an 80 pound pup.
But yeah, he's a great addition to our family.
-And so what motivates you?
What really drives you about doing this work?
-You know what motivates me is the people, right?
Because there's not an animal
that comes to a municipal shelter on its own, right?
There's always some connection with -- with a person.
And if you start to really invest in people
and build those relationships to make -- create a bridge
between organization and community,
you start to solve the problems by providing resources
where people need them most.
And it's really just about I guess what gets me going
is being able to, um, meet people where they are.
-Esteban Rodriguez,
executive director of the Seattle Animal Shelter.
Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.
-Oh, thank you for having me on, I appreciate it.
-Next on "CityStream,"
people have long rolled up their sleeves to donate blood.
Now pets are donating to help other pets.
♪♪
Some advancements in medical science
are now being mirrored in the animal world,
as life-saving procedures for dogs and cats
become more common,
there's a growing need for pet blood donors.
Diane Duthweiler reports.
-When it comes to canine blood, one breed is the outlier.
-Greyhounds are our super donors.
They have the highest level of red blood cells in their body
as they have genetically, over time,
just been bred as athletes.
-Power, a rescued greyhound racing dog is checked by a vet
before donating a pint of blood for the 21st time.
-He looks good to go from me.
-Yay! Good job, Power! -Does he get any treats?
-Missing most of his teeth due to neglect early in life,
Power can't eat many of the treats
he's being offered at North Seattle's Access Blood Bank.
-That's awesome.
Power, do you want to try one of these?
Look, it's a little softer. -Is it soft?
It's a little bit softer.
-Access uses donated pet blood for veterinary surgery
and other procedures.
The northwest has a strong network of Greyhound rescuers
who work to inform new owners
that their dogs can be super donors.
-Believe he's from the panhandle of Florida,
Jefferson County Kennel Club.
Not one of the better racing tracks in Florida.
They had high hopes for him,
but he didn't last that long.
He only had a six month long racing career,
and once they start losing, then they take him off of the track.
And now there's rescue groups that get these guys, um,
before they were shot or put down.
I guess they can help up to four dogs with one donation,
depending on the size of the animal.
Um, so they think that he's helped dozens of dogs
is a pretty neat idea.
-Bernie. Right here. Bernie. Right here.
-There you go. [Dog barks]
Blood donor Bernie is not retired in any way.
He's an active part of the family business,
testing snacks and carousing with customers at Dogwood Park,
where his owners run a gourmet dog treat bar.
In fact, Bernie is responsible
for Ben and Dawn Ford's business.
-He came home and he changed our whole lives, for sure.
We started a dog walking service because of him,
because he required so much exercise.
He joined the blood donor program.
-Dawn developed an interest in pet nutrition,
which turned into The Barkery,
Seattle's only food truck for dogs.
She also started taking the family cat in
for blood donations at Access.
Unlike dogs, cats must be sedated.
-Well, if anything were to happen,
she's in the best place possible.
She's at the animal hospital, right?
And they're going to take the best care of her.
And -- And we only had good experiences.
I mean, she only --
And they would like trim her nails
and do you know, give her a little shave down
and do a little things for her when she was put under
that you would never be able to do to a cat regularly,
so they try to make it worth your while.
I think they understand that people
aren't thrilled about that, you know.
-Dawn says there are incentives for pet donations.
-Their blood work was done for free every year,
which is something that's required annually.
Um, they get free vet checks each time.
You get a free blood transfusion,
um, if you ever need it.
-Bernie is giving his 30th donation today
and knows the routine.
He barely notices a small pre donation
blood sample from his leg.
The same for the blood drawn needle into his neck.
A common veterinary technique.
20 minutes later...
-Good job Bern.
-Okay. -Good job.
-We have been called as an emergency donor.
Just like we're really low on his type.
We've been there where donating or his blood
is literally going right into a dog in surgery.
And that just feels so great
that we were able to help or contribute.
-Many of the same things that happen to people,
happen to animals,
and where you'll need a blood transfusion.
You wouldn't necessarily think,
oh, somebody would do dialysis for their pet, but they do.
-Dr. Waldrop says cat blood typing
is somewhat similar to humans,
but canine blood is more complicated,
and Access is helping study the best ways to type and reuse it.
Access Blood Bank has nearly 100 cats
and slightly more dogs on its donor roster.
All volunteers.
-But we run out a lot and we have --
we scramble and sometimes have to buy blood for our patients.
-Additional units are purchased
from commercial blood banks or universities
that might own their animal donors.
-They have animals who may be purpose bred,
but they also may be shelter animals that are brought in
and kept for a certain amount of time on property,
uh, treated like kings and queens.
But, you know, they're -- they're kept on property
when someone gives us blood, uh, from their pet,
the, uh, blood actually goes to our inpatients
or is sold because we don't want the blood to go bad.
We really do need donors.
We're not profiting off of this.
-And that wraps up this edition of "CityStream"
from the Seattle Animal Shelter.
If you'd like to learn more
about the many services and programs
offered by the animal shelter,
check out their website at Seattle.gov/animal-shelter.
I'm Enrique Cerna along with Teboe.
Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.
♪♪