Admin @
..............................................................................................

First of all. I posted my first new article ever. [link]

Secondly I've written down some really fun ideas for some more organized photography shoots. Motion in place to actually follow through.

Thirdly, with all these articles coming out about the horrors of shelters, I really feel that people need to hear the upsides too. Or the less-than-evil ends.

I mean yes, I agree, if you're moving, don't just dump your dog at the shelter. But well, here's the view from inside a shelter that's doing everything it can.

I worked at this particular shelter for 8 months. And in that time only two dogs got euthanized. One was Cybil, Cybil was a pitbull, a very loving one to the staff, but she'd attack strangers. Our Humane Officer did some work with her and just couldn't solve the problem.

The second was Sandy, a nervous wreck of a golden retriever mix. Sandy failed her temprament testing evaluation and was beyond help.

The third was Marley. Marley had been at the shelter for a little over 6 months. She was a calm dog didn't run around and bark all day like the others. She was all black and most likely a Flat-Coat Retriever/Setter mix. She growled at a board member and he went on the war path to get rid of her. I said "screw that!" and took her home. She died a month later of complications from her spay surgery.

I'd also like to introduce some owners who I cried for.

One man, with a walking stick on one side to counter out for a bad leg, brought in Brutus. Brutus is a beautiful purebred black lab only 5 years old. This man has raised Brutus from a pup. The dog was gorgeous, friendly, and shear power. Just an amazing dog. This man bawled the entire time he was there dropping Brutus off. His much younger siblings and his two kids, were all insistant that he needed to be living an assisted living community. So since, they had his power of attorney and he had trusted them. He had even signed the deed for his house over to his son about 2 years before all this. They picked out a community signed him in, and sold his house. The head of the community allows some pets, so the man, very hopefully took Brutus with him. Community owner immediately said Brutus was too big and had to go. Would this man's family take his dog for him? Certainly not... but they'd drive him up to the shelter to dump him off. Thankfully, Brutus got a great home with a couple of kids. But I can't blame this man for this.

Secondly, there was Kaden. Or Kaden-Baby, as he owner said she likes to be called. Kaden was a beautiful shepard/husky mix. She was 4 years old. When she was 2 her family had a new baby. Which was great, Kaden still got all the love and attention she needed, and she loved the new baby. About a year into this child's life he developed a severe heart condition, causing this family to spend many sleepless night at a Children's hospital an hour away from home. They were, and still are, back and forth to the hospital constantly. This was leaving Kaden alone at home several days a week with only the neighbors stopping by to feed her and let her outside. She was getting anxiety problems with them being away and started destroying the house. They'd had problems before and brought in a behaviorist, but they were on the verge of selling their house over medical bill only partially covered by insurance, so there just wasn't the money, or the time to be home to correct the problem. Kaden was taken home by one of our volunteer walkers and it is truely a fantastic home. But I can't blame her original owners. I feel even worse if the kid were to not make it, and this mother to be left without both her babies.

Just two stories where you can't blame the owner, anymore than you can blame the dog. Sure in Brutus's case there are people at fault, but if they're such an ass to their own father, or brother, I can't really fathom them even considering his poor dog.

At this shelter and a few other shelters I did a TON of rescue work. For purebreds, and one saintly all-breed rescue that has taken and placed tons of our dogs. Our Humane Officer is also constantly transporting our dogs to other shelters, as well as arranging exchanges to get dogs a new chance in front of a new set of adopters. And it works many many many times.

We also take the animals out to public events to keep the exposure there, and keep thier faces fresh in people's minds. Public coverage does wonders. I took a big black dog named Bear to a local winter festival in our up town area. The next day some people arrived and asked if anyone else had adopted Bear yet because they saw him up town and just could not resist applying for him. Bear was given up because the people owned 6 dogs in a townhouse.

It's not all 72 hours and gas chamber filled horrors. Those things exist and they suck. But it's no reason to just give up. The shelter I've been talking about used to put-down an entire kennels-worth a week. But policy changes and can be changed. Now owners must go on waiting lists to bring in owned dogs, and we call when we have space. We have an excellent and well-advertised foster program that helps us keep space... any many times leads to adoption in the end as well.

Just felt I needed to share the bigger picture of shelter life. And how things can be changed, and they can be better. But someone has to get the idea out there.