"FUR BABIES"

Many years ago, I worked at the Richmond SPCA.  It was a wonderful, yet painful experience. I was a receptionist and I helped receive unwanted pets and adopt them back out again.  I learned a lot about dogs and cats and even more about people.

Summer time was the hardest of all to bear.  We would receive 50 to 100 puppies and kittens a day, 5 days a week, the entire summer. That would be an estimate of 4,500 babies needing a home. Not to mention the adult animals we already had coming in every day as well.

At that time, it was a kill shelter.  Many fur babies never got a chance, there was no space to house and care for them.  The lucky ones that we were able to put up for adoption, only received a day or so, for their chance to live.

The kennel attendants were the ones that cared for all the animals.  They fed them, cleaned the cages and of course became attached to many of them.  They were also the ones that had to "do the deed." It was extremely hard on us all.  Stress and anxiety levels ran high, it was a dreaded time of year.

I cried a lot at night, at home.  I prayed many a prayer for many cats and dogs.  I had lots of nightmares.  Mostly I would dream we were stuffing kittens and puppies up into Heaven and Heaven was full.  There was no room for them.

There are more no kill shelters now.  They don't euthanize, the animals are kept until they are placed in homes.  But that limits the number of pets they are able to take in.  When they become too full, they have to stop excepting them and turn them away.

Guess what people do with them if they're turned away.  Many are dumped in nearby neighborhoods, left to starve and wander alone, unprotected from bigger, hungry  animals and cruel people.  I have even seen boxes of puppies and kittens dumped in the middle of busy highways and streets, to be run over by traffic.

The answer to this horrible dilemma is not just to build bigger and better shelters.  The answer is to Neuter and Spay as many cats and dogs as possible, until the number of unwanted pets is somewhere near the number of available homes.  This is not accomplished in a short amount of time.

Although euthanasia has gone down, there's  still about 920,000 cats and dogs euthanized a year in the US.

The buck has to stop with each one of us.  When we get a new pet, spay or neuter it.  This must include purebreds as well.  Even back when I worked at the shelter, there was plenty of purebred cats and dogs turned in for one reason or another, unwanted.   No breed is immune to this overpopulation problem.  Someone try telling the puppy mills that, as well as the catteries.  No one wants to hear these awful facts.  Too often, we turn our backs and just kind of "forget" for a while.  But a while has a way of turning into years of suffering for many, many cats and dogs.

The wonderful part about working at the SPCA, was the animals themselves.  They truly are fur babies.  They provide unconditional love and acceptance for their people.  They are totally unabashed and full of their furry little selves!  They make great companions and are a wonderful addition to any home that has love and TIME to see they are properly cared for.  They have important needs that must be met, just like any child would.  Working at the shelter gave me a great opportunity to help them find homes, as well as become knowledgeable about the great problem of pet overpopulation.  We can't fix what we don't know is broken. We can fix it together.

Below is a picture of Alexis Clayton and her rescue cat. 

Maggie.  Kelly, Earl and Alexis were driving on interstate I64, when they spotted her.  She was a tiny ball, about 4 or 5 weeks old, wandering around lost in the lanes of traffic.  They got off at the next exit and came back for her. Miraculously, they got a hold of her and never let her go.  She's been a happy Clayton kitty ever since.  You can see her kissing up to Alexis, but she really wants the remote.  Have a great weekend, my friends, furry and all.

Charlotte Ann