Pet Talk

    Wow, what a week! If you read last week’s column, you noticed that we mentioned Earl needed a home, and Bandit, and Puff, etc., and this week all of them found new homes! How exciting is that! In just one day, we adopted out five cats and two dogs, just one day! It amazes me that every single adoption continues to affect me just as much as the first. I get all teary eyed and excited every time a new home is found for a victim, and yes, these animals are victims.
    Just this week, even with all the exciting adoptions, more animals were victimized, abandoned, released, by owners who for whatever reason, would not come to the Shelter during regular business hours to ask us to help them with their animals. Instead, they dumped them, one bunch on Sunday night, when it was freezing cold, just left a carrier full of kittens sitting all night long right outside the Shelter door. The poor babies were half frozen in the morning, they had messed in the carrier and the messes were frozen to the carrier and to the kittens. The kittens were not only cold, but flea infested, scared half to death, and had to be bathed to remove the frozen caked on urine and feces.
    I know there are hundreds of reasons why someone might have to give up a pet, or several pets. Perhaps you are moving and can’t take your cats or dog with you. So start making arrangements for your pets in advance, don’t wait till the day of your move. Maybe you just had a new baby and the new baby is allergic. We certainly understand this and we work with families like this all the time. Maybe you have an elderly relative who has suddenly become ill, gone into nursing care, or who has passed away, leaving animals behind. We work with these situations too, we will help you, somebody will help you, don’t just dump the animals outside somebody’s barn or outside the animal shelter or leave them to half-freeze in a crate overnight.
    I had one cat turned in because it had an “attitude” and as it turned out the reason the cat had an attitude was because the cat’s nutrition was so poor its teeth were rotting and falling out. After a visit with the Vet and several extractions, this kitty’s “attitude” turned around and she was placed in a warm loving home where never again will she have to worry about getting a nutritious meal or a warm lap to sleep in.
    Nobody is going to judge you if you have to give up an animal. Sometimes things just don’t work out and if you are thinking of what is best for your pet, sometimes it’s best to find a different home. While the shelter is there for stray and abandoned animals, when we have the space, we do and can help you, but this is what we ask of you first.
    If you can’t keep your pet: Network with friends and family to try to find a new home. Perhaps something on Facebook, perhaps an ad in the newspaper, flyers at the grocery stores, an ad in Uncle Henry’s. Make sure that you fully investigate the new owner so you are sure the new home is a good home. And while you are doing this, call the shelter, let them know what your situation is, give them the information about your pet and they will put you on a list and anybody who calls or comes in looking for maybe a “big black female long haired cat”, if we don’t have one and you do and your name is on the list, we’ll match you up.
    Example, I run into a lady who tells me she has this beautiful little dog to place, I happen to know of a lady looking for a beautiful little dog, I call her, she calls the first lady, the dog finds a new home! This little pup never went to the shelter, didn’t have to! 
    Please do not abandon your pets. Those little kittens could have frozen to death overnight. The dog that was tied to the Shelter door could have choked to death. If you found this dog running as a stray and came to the shelter after hours and nobody was there, then call your animal control officer, they have a key, they could bring him in and make sure he’s warm, fed, and watered. You cared enough to come to the Shelter, take it that one last step and do it right, that’s all we ask, just do what is in the best interest of the animal.