TIPTON, Iowa — The Friends of the Animals shelter in Tipton needs community support in the form of donations and temporary homes for cats while some much-needed updates are completed within the shelter.

“We need foster homes for 15 cats. We really need someone who has a small kennel in their home or a garage to keep them in,” said Gail Kurriger, acting president of the Friends of the Animals Board.

The shelter is located in a former mechanic garage at 320 W. Sixth St., Tipton. The floor needs to be resealed.

“We’ve had a terrible time even finding a sealant, something we can do ourselves, that will hold up to daily bleaching,” Kurriger said Friday. She has a sealant sample that she plans to try. If it works, she’d like to get the animals out of the shelter within the next few weeks so that the floors can be done and the animals can be brought back in as soon as possible.

Kurriger, of Muscatine, said the cats would need to be at the foster homes for about a week while the sealant dried and the fumes aired out of the building. She added that a family can foster up to four cats at a time and that if the volunteer wanted to use the shelter’s cage that they would need a pickup truck to haul them.

Litter boxes, food and litter will be provided for the cats.

The shelter also has 10 dogs but volunteers have already stepped up to foster most of them.

The shelter is operated by volunteers and is short on funding, Kurriger said. Volunteers are holding a flower bulb fundraiser and requesting donations. For more information on fostering, fundraisers or donations go to http://www.foa.thinkhost.com/index.html, call 563-886-2361 or e-mail friendsoa@yahoo.com.