Idaho Falls Animal Shelter mascot Nigel the cat celebrates birthday and makes a wish

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)- Nigel the cat has been living at the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter for nearly 10 years. During that time he has been helping the shelter volunteers and workers visit the animals housed in the shelter and seeing how they feel around him. Nigel just like anyone who is celebrating their birthday has made a wish.

"As much as Nigel loves animals that come to the shelter, dogs, cats, birds, everything alike, his biggest wish would be to find a good home for all of his friends so they wouldn't have to stay at the shelter for months on end," Idaho Falls Animal Shelter Animal Control Officer Maja Relleford said.

Relleford shares how in order to help Nigel's wish come to reality they threw a big birthday bash in Tautphus Park. The party was to help raise funds for the shelter.

"We're doing this fundraising to help the Idaho Falls animal shelter gather funds to be able to lower adoption fees. Unfortunately, right now a lot of people are not adopting, partly because of the adoption fees, partly because of housing situations. So we're hoping to be able to help with that a little bit with lowering the fees," Relleford said.

Relleford also shared how some of the money raised at the birthday bash will help many of Nigel's friends who need some medical help or extra help that they need.

"We're also going to use these funds to help with our medical cases. We have been receiving a lot of animals with severe medical conditions that we have to find the money for to be able to treat them. So we're going to use the funds for that, too. And then we're also going to use this to get some of our extreme behavioral problem dogs into specialized training," Relleford said.

Currently the Nigel lives with nearly 130 friends that he is hoping will find new homes. Nigel is also encouraging people to come help out and meet his friends in the shelter.

"If anybody would like to come to the shelter and volunteer with us, we need dog walkers all the time because we know that the animals are really small and the dogs don't get out all the time. So if you can come to the shelter to walk our dogs, it would be wonderful if you can come and fill three dispensers for the dogs or cats or cat tree dispensers for the cat. That would be absolutely wonderful. And if you have the means and you would like to donate to help our efforts with the animal shelter, you can you can send us a message and we can give you a number to text or we can send you a demo where you can also donate to the animal shelter," Relleford said.

Some people are already answering Nigels call for help. Mallory Ellis and her family often Volunteer at the shelter. She says the do it for the animals there.

"It's very important to go and look at the dogs at the shelter. And and it's important to support them just because these animals are special and they need special homes. And we love animals and we love to support," Ellis said.

She says seeing the joy the animals have to meet a new freind and stretch their legs a bit is a wonderful feeling.

"They have great staff there that help. And and we love to go out there and walk the dogs and and see how happy they are when they get out and and out of their little space and and stretch the legs," Ellis said.

If you are looking for a new addition to your home whetHer its feline or kanine you can visit the Idaho Falls Animal shelter at 2450 Hemmert Ave, Idaho Falls, ID 83401, or you can visit their website here.