It's the start of a new decade and things are looking a little different here at the York Animal Home, so we wanted to take a few minutes to tell you about some of the changes we've made and why. 

Firstly we've had to say farewell to some members of our team. Due to ongoing financial pressures we've had to make some reductions in the number of animals we can look after and the number of staff in some of our support roles. I hope you'll join us in wishing the staff affected all the best for the future and thank them for their contributions over the years. In order to make the most of our resources we've had to reduce the number of staff we have in reception, this may result in slightly longer waits while we try to streamline some of our systems.

If you're reading this then you have probably had the pleasure of seeing our new website that launched back in November. The aim of the website was to create a place that allowed us to showcase ALL of our animals and allow people to learn about them and adopt them with ease. Hopefully you'll agree that this has been a big improvement and we're continuing to add new content and features to the website.

One of the things you've been asking for for years is an easy way to donate money to the home online. When the new site launched in November we introduced new ways for you to make a one off donation and sponsor a specific animal for a month. In the next few weeks we will be launching a brand new monthly giving scheme called "SuPAWters" along with a special pack for the first 100 people to sign-up. more information about SuPAWters will be coming out soon, but you can already sign up on our donation page by selecting the monthly donation option.

Anyone who has been into the home over the Christmas period will have seen the changes to our reception area. In order to become more organised and ultimately give our human visitors a better first experience we've separated off the open plan reception office and created a dedicated front desk along with quieter office spaces so we can actually hear you when you call us on the phone. This should hopefully lead to a more efficient rehoming process and allow us to get animals into their forever homes faster.

Along with the physical changes to reception we've also launched an online Perfect Match Form. This will allow you to fill in the forms prior to coming into the home and also provide us with additional information like pictures of your garden, which will help make the rehoming process quicker and more efficient. Don't worry though if you still want to come into the branch and fill in your forms by hand you can do.

From January 20th our opening hours will also be changing. We'll no longer be closed on a Monday and instead will be closed on a Thursday. Tuesday has been a very busy day for us for a while and we're hopefully the new Monday opening will result in a more manageable level of demand during the week.

Finally, we are extremely proud to announce our new partnership with Green Vets. If you read the York Press you might have seen the recent article. Green Vets came out on top during a recent tendering process, offering great savings and a clear desire to work with us to improve the services for our animals. We've now been working with Anne and Rob since January and are thrilled with the level of care and attention all of our animals are receiving. We couldn't have hoped for a better team during a challenging time for the home.

The future of the home is uncertain but we're hopeful that with your support we can keep improving things and continue to help the hundreds of animals that come through our doors each year.