The OHS has received a generous gift from one of our fellow emergency response teams. The Ottawa Paramedic Service will be sponsoring the Oxygen System: Operating Theatre in the new OHS clinic — a gift of $40,000! This crucial piece of medical equipment allows oxygen to flow freely into the clinic's operating theatre. All surgical operations performed at the OHS — including critical care and life-saving operations — make use of this oxygen system to ensure the safety and health of our animals during complicated surgical procedures.

Thank you to the Ottawa Paramedic Service and its members for helping to provide a better future for Ottawa's animals!

The staff and volunteers are looking forward to all aspects of our new building, but they're especially excited about the new community cat rooms. The adoptions area will showcase adoptable cats in two new cat group housing areas that can accommodate up to 15 cats. The rooms will be constructed out of glass and will feature lots of natural light. There will also be seven smaller 'cat condos' that can house up to four cats each.

Group cat housing encourages cats' natural behaviours. Cats can behave like cats when they are able to climb, perch and play. As an added bonus, the cats will be able to enjoy the three-season cat porch — a place where cats can enjoy sunlight and fresh air! Another wonderful addition to one of the community cat rooms is that deep set 'jewel box' windows will be interspersed throughout our donor wall, and will look directly into the room.

When visitors enter the adoptions area, not only will they see the names of all those who have helped to build this new home for the animals, but they will also see cats enjoying a 'cat nap'.

Mary-Louise Blair first became aware of the OHS when she took a tour of the facility as a little girl. She visited here as part of a Brownie fieldtrip when our Champagne Avenue facility was only a few years old. As a child, Ms. Blair remembers thinking how the building looked so big, but now she reflects on how it is far too small and cramped for the needs of Ottawa's animals.

Ms. Blair saw that the need for a new home for the animals was very real, and decided to dedicate the exam room in our clinic after "all the creatures who have owned (her) heart." One of those creatures was her beloved walker hound, Annie, who passed away a few years ago. Annie was especially fond of her veterinarian, Dr. Lee James of the Greenbank Animal Hospital. So much so, in fact, that Ms. Blair decided to give another gift to the campaign, naming an anesthetic machine after Dr. James, her veterinarian of 30 years.

Currently, Ms. Blair has three cats, Alice, Gracie and Bria, all littermates from the Ottawa Humane Society. Ms. Blair's generous gift has touched the hearts of many here at the OHS, and will help to ensure the success of our new building.

If you were unable to visit the Breaking Ground tent at this year's very successful IAMS Wiggle Waggle Walkathon to see the plans of the new building, there will be other opportunities. We are having upcoming information sessions that will detail the progress of the building, and explain exactly why this new shelter will be the greatest leap forward for animal welfare in Ottawa in decades.

We have two upcoming information session dates;
Saturday, Oct. 2 at 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 7 at 6 p.m.

To confirm your attendance please contact, Jessie-Lee Wallace, building campaign coordinator at jessielw@ottawahumane.ca, or by calling 613-725-3166 ext. 254.