Life can take a sharp turn in the blink of an eye. Sometimes the turn is wonderful and glorious, like the birth of a child. Sometimes the turn is dreadful and heart-breaking.
In George’s case the turn in his life was a chain of events that began with an devoted owner who was fighting Lupus. Miss Gina considered George her best friend and therapy dog. Then it happened. George’s doting owner became too ill to walk George. There were no other family members who could help.
George needed attention and exercise and Miss Gina knew it. She wanted to keep George but it was impossible to take proper care of him. Reluctantly, George was returned to the same Shelter from which,months ago. he was so eagerly adopted.
When you help at a Shelter it is a gut-punch to see pets brought to the Shelter. It is even worse when the pet being surrendered was rescued from that very Shelter and,now, is back in perilous circumstances. This pet was totally acclimated to living indoors, constant attention, comfortable bed, abundant food and endless love. Through tears, Gina turned to say goodbye to her furry friend and in that split-second Georges life was turned upside down, again.
Fayette Friends of the Animal Shelter members noticed George right away. He had the look that said “Where is my owner?”. Members could tell that he was house trained and that he had been given exceptional care.
Miss Gina inquired about George but was helpless to assist him. Time passed and he had been at the Shelter for a dangerously long period of time. Our members knew George to be friendly and energetic. They loved seeing him except for the dread that his days were coming to an end. Despite the joy he brought to Shelter work it became more and more obvious that having been adopted as a puppy and kept until he was an adolescent hurt George’s chances of being adopted now. Puppies are more easily adopted out. Now that he was older it would be more difficult.
All of us fall prey to having favorites. Sometimes pets become favorites at the Shelter because they have been there awhile and we get to know them better. Sometimes a pet becomes a favorite because we know how precarious their tenure has become. George had been at the Shelter too many weeks.
Every group has their “Alpha”. Fayette Friends of the Animal Shelter is fortunate to have many. One of ours is Ms. Toni Robertson. She had been following the progress of George and she new the circumstances under which he was surrendered. She knew he was a Shelter adoption in the first place. Toni put in the request for us to focus our attention on finding a home for George and find it quickly. That is well and good and we all like to accommodate her wishes, but how are we going to find a home for George? We had already featured him in numerous social media posts, even including incentives for him to be adopted. We had made video clips and put them to music to help gain attention for him. We had not listed George on Petfinder.com. We had chosen not to list him since our limited experience with Petfinder seemed to indicate that it is most effective for puppies and kittens.
While debating other avenues we made a post on Petfinder with a short story, some pictures and the video. To our amazement, within hours, we received an inquiry from a couple in Pennsylvania. The couple that called about George had owned an American Foxhound. He died. They loved the dog. He was a member of the family. They thought that the best therapy for the loss was to replace him. It was especially important to them that they were going to save a Shelter pet in the process.
Happy end of story right? No so fast! How are we going to organize transportation for George to Pittsburg? How much will it cost and who will pay? Even though Miss Toni offered to pay for transportation, we first had to organize it. Where do we turn for such a long trip?
Luckily, already on the Fayette Friends of the Animal Shelter website, there is a page dedicated to Pet Service. Mr. Donnie Yates of Fayette was listed as owning a pet transportation service. We called him. By shear coincidence Donnie was to go to Missouri the following week to pick up a pet and take it to … wait for it… Pennsylvania!!! Donnie asked the other client if they minded having another dog on the trip. They said it was fine. WOW!! Now, what will the cost be? Will George’s new owners be willing to pay for transport? Will we need multiple parties to contribute or will the cost be so high that the deal will fall through???
Donnie offered to take George for $400. That is a very reasonable price. He could only offer that price because there was another dog also sharing the cost. Donnie also wanted to make the transportation cost as low as possible because it was a part of a plan to save a Shelter pet.
Now we have a family. We have transportation. We have a price. What is next? First, who will pay? The adopting couple were happy to pay. That’s great! Any other details? A few.
FOTAS wanted to be sure George was healthy before sending him to a new home. No problem, right? Just take him to the vet. All well and good but who is going to the Shelter to take him to the vet and where will George go after his vet visit? We don’t want George to go back to the Shelter after his check-up in case a virus is introduced into the Shelter that George could pick up.
So,first, let’s get George to the vet, which we did on Wednesday. Two of our Alphas went to the Shelter and picked up George.
Miss Toni and Alyssa Stutts (Meadows) went to the Shelter to take George to the vet, Dr. Kimbrell. Neither Toni nor Alyssa could take George after the vet examined him so we had another challenge: where does George go after his exam? Toni organized to pay for his exam AND to board at the vet overnight. Then another FOTAS angel, Jamie Davis (FOTAS members) offered to take George from the vet next day to her home where she and her husband will keep George and work with him to help relieve some of the stress imposed on dogs in a Shelter.
As of this writing George is playing at the Davis home. The Pittsburg couple is eagerly awaiting George. Donnie Yates is preparing to make the trip with George on Tuesday of next week. It took a LOT of cooperation to accomplish this. It isn’t over until George is safely at his new home BUT it is looking good, really good.
Stories like this, most less complicated, have occurred many times since the formation of Fayette Friends of the Animal Shelter. We make a material impact on the lives of Shelter pets in many ways. Further, we have real, concrete, reasonable plans to make more enhancements to the lives of pets and humans in Fayette County. Among the many plans we have the one that could have the most impact on otherwise disinterested neighbors is the program we will propose to seriously reduce the number of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens. As we know unwanted pets are often “dumped” in your yard. Our plan is to change the culture, dramatically increase the number of spay and neuter procedures and pursue enforcement of Alabama Law. (Note: dumping a pet or mistreating a pet is a violation of Alabama Law)
We don’t always have members who can donate to pay vet bills and boarding charges like Miss Toni so graciously agreed to provide in this case. We would appreciate a donation you can make right here at the top of this page. Soon we will be asking for any donation you can make that will directly go to “fixing” pets. We are pursuing the most cost-effective methods for obtaining the most sterilizations for dollars spent. We also will insist owners pay for the procedures up to the maximum extent their circumstances will allow, up to and including 100% if finances permit. We intend to make it easy and to get good value for these procedures.
If you would like to give back to the community and feel better about yourself visit our
” Events” page and register to join us for a Shelter day , a meeting or any of the opportunities we offer to contribute.
Footnote: Some confuse our assistance with the Shelter as in some way, disrespecting the Shelter and it’s staff. We consider our role at the Shelter similar to the role played by PTA for Schools. We all respect the work done by schools and teachers to educate our children. We respect the vital role played by the Shelter and the staff. Without a Shelter and staff, there could be no stories like this one. At the same time no one would suggest that Shelters or their staff have the mandate to do some of the tasks that we provide.
Teachers conduct classes as mandated by the BOE, their budget and State BOE guidelines. When parents think changes need to be made they lobby for policy changes, not changes in teaching staff.
We want the best for pets and we are willing to invest our labor and money to accomplish that. We need cooperation from the County leadership to implement proven best practices. We have surveyed many other, larger, shelters and learned what works best to make adoptions happen and to keep pets healthier while at the shelter. We are confident we will have that cooperation, just like PTA receives cooperation from the schools. We ask you to tell your County Commissioner that you agree with making improvements to the Shelter policies.