FoJAS Summer Newsletter: Agility Course, Pet Safety & More

In this issue: a new agility course for shelter dogs, pet safety, community events, volunteer spotlight, and updates from the FoJAS board.

A New Agility Course for Shelter Dogs

In September 2025, Joint Animal Services launched a Dog Enrichment Program to help combat kennel stress in its shelter dogs. As dogs in the shelter spend most of their time in kennels, mental and physical stimulation are critical to maintaining their mental health. Holding true to our mission, Friends of Joint Animal Services (FoJAS) moved to support JAS in this endeavor by raising money to purchase agility equipment for the shelter’s off-leash area. Thanks to a grant from the Nisqually Indian Tribe and individual donations, FoJAS purchased a tunnel and two dog jumps to provide doggie entertainment.

Kennel stress is a grave issue for shelters. Staff and volunteers work tirelessly to stave it off in shelter dogs in hopes that someone will adopt the dogs before they decline mentally and become difficult to adopt. Kennel stress can lead to distressing behaviors such as excessive vocalizing, drooling, licking at the kennel walls, spinning, and jumping in circles, and walking through their feces. JAS designed the Dog Enrichment Program to prevent these behaviors from occurring by providing multiple forms of mental stimulation, making their shelter dogs more adoptable by reducing their stress and normalizing their behavior. The new agility equipment provides one more activity for the dogs to do.

DOG-ON-IT Parks, an Everett, Washington company, makes equipment from recycled plastic and stainless steel that will not rust, built specifically to endure outdoors. We are fortunate to have an industry leader in dog park equipment in our own backyard. Not only did DOG-ON-IT Parks guide us in making our purchases, but the company also offered a discount because of our 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and our mission to support an animal shelter. We thank them for their generosity.

In addition to purchasing agility equipment, FoJAS made other purchases to spruce up the off-leash area, which sits at the back of the shelter property next to a wooded dog walking trail. Thanks to that same grant donated by the Nisqually Tribe, FoJAS erected a pergola, and purchased an outdoor supply cabinet, picnic table, ball buckets, and a pet waste station. Since having a nicer play yard for the dogs makes volunteers feel better, we assume it must make the dogs happier, too.

Shelter volunteers use both the off-leash area and the trail regularly to exercise dogs, get them out of their kennels, have fun playing, and, most importantly, show them love. From your first day volunteering at the shelter, you realize that you must accept that you cannot rescue all the animals that need rescuing. What you can do, however, is give every one of them patience, kindness, and love.

Shelter dogs return that love ten-fold. Teaching dogs to run through a tunnel and jump over jumps, all with a big happy grin on their faces, warms your heart and puts a smile on your face. That, alone, is worth all the work we do as volunteers and as members of FoJAS.

The biggest goal of Friends of JAS (FoJAS) is helping the pets and people in our community! Some of the projects we are focused on take place at the Joint Animal Services (JAS) shelter like cleaning up the front of the building to reassure potential adopters that the shelter is a well-cared for site inside and out and is a safe place to find a new pet.

So far the major changes to the front of the site include washing the JAS sign and replacing the phone number lettering. Thankfully a couple who are members of FoJAS have a truck with a bucket so this could be done safely! And a new block front walkway was added after removing the last of the small stumps and the sad-looking wood chips.

Other landscaping projects have been weeding, pruning, sweeping and spreading bark donated by The Bark Store at 3025 Martin Way E which is just across the street from the shelter. In the back of the shelter clean-up continues with rearranging storage items, sweeping, mowing, and pressure washing.

Next outdoor tasks include more landscaping, old window-decal removal, general clean-up, some painting and frequent summer mowing in the dog exercise area. Indoors it is finally warm enough to paint the dogs’ meet & greet room. If you would like to help with any of these projects, email us at projects@friendsofjas.org.

This fall, Friends of JAS hopes to help Joint Animal Services fund and host its first low-cost or no-cost pet immunization clinic. JAS vaccinates animals before they leave for their new adoptive homes, but we know many families struggle to afford follow-up veterinary care after adoption. By supporting vaccine clinics, FoJAS can help more pets stay healthy and help families keep up with important preventive care.

To make these clinics possible, FoJAS is raising funds for vaccines, veterinary time, medical staff, supplies, and an appropriate location. We will also need many volunteers to help the event run smoothly. If you would like to volunteer, please contact projects@friendsofjas.org. To make a gift toward this effort, please visit our Donate page.

Friends of Joint Animal Services (FoJAS) attended the 4th annual Tumwater Dog Days on Saturday, June 13. Despite the 85-plus-degree weather, both two-legged and four-legged FoJAS volunteers stayed hydrated and in good spirits for the four-hour event. Held at Pioneer Park, Dog Days, hosted by Tumwater Parks and Recreation, celebrates the companionship between humans and their dog friends. The event included vendors, demonstrations, information booths, and puppy play zones.

FoJAS sponsored a booth to further our mission to educate our community about Joint Animal Services, its needs, and ways in which we, as a community, can support the shelter, its staff, and the pets reliant on it for their survival. We signed up more than 30 new FoJAS members during the event. Thanks to those who stopped by the booth, met our FoJAS pups, and signed up to join us.

Thanks also to those FoJAS members who staffed the booth. Truth be told, not all our volunteers pulled their weight when it came to work. Four-legged volunteers Benji, Maya, and Nash showed more interest in meeting new dog friends, playing on the splash pad and chasing balls in the pool. Their joy was infectious!

Friends of JAS will again participate in the Capital Lakefair Parade on Saturday, July 18th. This year our theme will be “Too many shelter animals, especially big dogs.” We would love to have your help with the float, or we hope to see you waving and cheering along the parade route. You can also read about last year’s float on our website.

And, as always, we will not use live animals in the parade since late afternoons in July can be scorchers! If you or your loved ones have any large stuffed dogs that could ride on our float, please let us know at projects@friendsofjas.org. After their moment of fame, they will be returned safely to you.

Did You Know that pet poisoning is highly common? I didn’t. Recently my cat started acting out of character. Her signs were very subtle, my husband didn’t see them, but I did. She wasn’t eating or drinking normally, she was quiet, not as active, then she started hiding.

Honestly, her symptoms were subtle enough that I started questioning myself, but a voice just kept telling me something was wrong. As I was thinking about her, I noticed that one of the two plants in the house had been chewed on. As I put these events together, I decided to take her to the vet to get checked out.

There they determined it was poisoning from the plant in our home. They contacted the Pet Poison Helpline to help determine a course of treatment. After almost 2 weeks of treatment, and 3 more trips to the vet, she fully recovered. Guess what the first thing I did when we got home from the vet?

Did you know that most pet poisoning involves everyday human foods, medications and household products. Dogs account for most of these cases (approximately 85%), with cats making up 15% of the cases. The primary causes of poisonings are human over-the-counter and prescription medications, household cleaners, human foods and pesticides. Use extreme caution with these common household hazards:

Medications: over-the-counter pain reliefers (Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Acetaminophen), antidepressants and ADHD medications
Foods- Xylitol (a sugar substitute in gum and mints), chocolate, grapes, raisins, onions and garlic.
Household items- Rodenticides (mouse or rat poisons), insecticides and essential oils.
Plants- Lilies (are highly fatal to cats), sago palms and tulips.

If you suspect your pet has ingested a toxic substance, time is the most critical factor. Inducing vomiting is not always the best or first course of action to treat poisoning. The recommended first course of action is to consult one of the following resources as soon as possible:

ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center- call 888-426-4435, available 24/7, consultation fee applies
Pet Poison Helpline- call 855-764-7661, available 24/7, consultation fee applies
Local Emergency Vet- Contact your nearest 24-hour veterinary clinic

A Modern Cat Named Thomasina and Her Three Lives

Joint Animal Services may be called upon to rescue animals from hoarding situations, and that is a big strain on resources. Recently, 18 cats were brought to the shelter from a hoarder and I was lucky enough to be a foster parent for one of those special kitties.

The small, under-fed tortoiseshell kitty was so scared that she hid under the towel in the carrier during the ride home. She regarded me with suspicion the first few days, but her sweet nature emerged as we got to know each other.

She became comfortable and sat in my lap while I read. I introduced mouse toys, and she would bring her favorite mouse back to me after chasing it across the bed. She became very talkative and showed her bright, affectionate personality. I named her Thomasina, after a 1960s movie called “The Three Lives of Thomasina”.

This current-day Thomasina had three distinct lives:

First was a stressful life in a trailer with 17 other cats
Next was her life living with me, learning to trust and relax
Third, she had her chance to meet a permanent, loving family at a partner shelter in the area

Cats like Thomasina are saved daily by Joint Animal Services. When you support the Friends of JAS, you help make these success stories possible. Please support us!

At the risk of embarrassing Janine, a modest Friends of JAS member and JAS volunteer, we must give individuals who accomplish so much and have such high levels of commitment their due. As much as she likes to stay out of the spotlight while giving so much of herself to her community, Janine deserves recognition and a hearty thank you. In May and June, Janine raised $2,200 for FoJAS, gave up a Sunday to help beautify the JAS shelter grounds, and followed up by adopting a shelter pup and giving him his forever home.

These are impressive contributions for anyone over any two-month period. But Janine accomplished all these things in five days between May 29th and June 2nd. With the help of her family, Janine held a two-day garage sale of which all proceeds went to FoJAS. FoJAS, in turn, spends all donations and grants it receives on supporting, improving and promoting Joint Animal Services. The two-day sale netted $2,200.

On day three, Janine attended a FoJAS work party at the shelter. Nine volunteers weeded, mowed, spread new bark, and laid pavers to beautify the shelter grounds. This is the fourth shelter clean-up event organized by FoJAS this year. In true Janine form, she showed up early, and stayed for the entire event, even though she could have bowed out having spent the previous two days running the garage sale.

Janine would have completed her trifecta of giving in four days had the shelter been open on the following day, Monday. As the shelter is closed on Sundays and Mondays, Janine had to wait until Tuesday to rescue her new family member, Bruce, from JAS. She made up for her one day of leisure on Monday by also volunteering at the shelter doing laundry on that Tuesday, Bruce’s adoption day. Thank you, Janine, for all you do for our community. You continue to amaze us.

As board members of an organization called Friends of Joint Animal Services, we obviously spend a plethora of time thinking about the shelter. Although we value and respect Joint Animal Services’ management and staff and their commitment to animal welfare in our community, we lament JAS’s shortcomings, none of which are the fault of the humans that work there. Local governments underfund, understaff, and house the shelter in an antiquated building that does not meet the needs of the community it serves and the animals it cares for and protects.

If you have not visited the facility, located at 3120 Martin Way E in Olympia, we encourage you to do so. The building that has housed the shelter for the past almost 30 years is too small to provide the increased services the significant population increase in Thurston County demands. The Industrial Air Products Company originally built the structure in 1978. Airgas bought the building in 1986 and used it as offices and a warehouse. Joint Animal Services acquired the building in 1997 and retrofitted it into an animal shelter which opened in 1999. If you do pay a visit, consider the size of the shelter and that it has not increased in square footage since inception except for a modular added behind the shelter to serve as a vet clinic. Also, the poor condition of the building is disconcerting.

Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater, and unincorporated Thurston County – the Joint in Joint Animal Services – have outgrown the shelter. But as these local governments face budget shortfalls and struggle to fund services, building a new shelter does not appear to be in the cards anytime soon. Although as board members of FoJAS and animal advocates we all dream of a new shelter and as an organization we will do anything we can to support it coming to fruition, we must be pragmatic and focus our efforts on improving the existing shelter conditions for the animals, the staff, and the volunteers who live and work there.

FoJAS has been in existence for two years. Our initial efforts focused on becoming a federally registered nonprofit. Since accomplishing that feat, we have worked to grow our membership, educate the public about the shelter and its needs, and fund small projects around the shelter. For example, we funded, through grants and individual donations, beautification of the shelter grounds, improvements to the dog off-leash area and the dog get acquainted room (where potential adopters meet their future four-legged family members), and purchase of equipment and supplies for cats and the vet clinic. At present, we are focusing many of our resources on the clinic because that is where we think we can make the biggest difference.

The shelter employs a full-time veterinarian, a small support staff, and trains volunteers to help with certain functions. Before animals go up for adoption, the vet team screens and medically clears them. The vet team also performs most spays and neuters in house. Prior to the addition of a vet clinic and team just over two years ago, local vets managed all screenings and procedures off site, an inefficient and expensive practice. On-site services eliminate transportation costs and time and speed up adoptions and the timeliness of medical care, freeing up bed space for more animals and decreasing euthanasia.

If FoJAS can raise funds for additional medical equipment, the vet team can perform procedures more safely. They can also perform a wider range of surgeries that JAS would otherwise have to transport to an off-site veterinarian or, if financially prohibitive, would leave an animal unadoptable. Stay tuned. We will let you know how these efforts progress.