To Be a County Shelter Foster Family is a Love Calling

If you move to Aiken, as foster-parents Marcia and Dan did, because you confused eventing jumps with the name of a town, life after that has to be an adventure in happenstance.

They lived in Chicago, and followed their serious event-riding daughter Sam to North Carolina. Then Sam was jumping “Aikens” in Blythewood, SC, and said they “just had to see it.”  Confusing names, Marcia and Dan took a look at the town called Aiken and immediately fell in love. That was about 1999.

Preferring to board their horses, Marcia and Dan bought a townhouse.  Sam and her then-fiancé followed and bought a small farm in the eventing district off of Shaws Fork. 

“He could be happy wherever there was a computer and pizza delivery,” Marcia said, “but out here there’s neither.”  So the two couples swapped houses, and that is how Dan and Marcia ended up on Linger Longer Farm.

Visiting a local veterinarian’s office, the couple saw a picture on the wall of two lovely and very sad Labradors who needed a home.  They had a farm, and decided to add the dogs.  They were told that the dogs had only just been taken to the county shelter.  Dan and Marcia bee-lined it to the shelter only to be told in the most offensively officious manner that no such dogs were there.  They weren’t even allowed to look.

Marcia said, “I was so upset that I vowed would never set foot in that place again.” 

Ten years go by, a lot changes, and there was an article in the Aiken Standard about fostering puppies.

“What caught my attention,” Marcia said, “It said that if you foster puppies they won’t be put down.” 

That’s true, unless the animals are seriously sick, if you foster an adoptable animal, the County Shelter staff and FOTAS will see that it finds a home.

Marcia and Dan went immediately to the shelter to sign up to be an approved foster home.  They started with two puppies.

“There were all these people at the house for a Super Bowl party that year,” Marcia says, “and I remember being so proud of those puppies.”

Since then, they figure that they have fostered about 100 dogs, adults, puppies, mothers with puppies. 

It isn’t always easy.  Homeless, motherless puppies, especially if they have to stay in the current shelter because there aren’t enough foster homes, are so very vulnerable to disease, particularly Parvo.

Dan and Marcia were lucky with the first 3 or 4 litters, but eventually they had to learn the signs of trouble, how to intervene, and to continue to try to save as many as they can.  They love it.  They even got their pastor and his family involved in fostering.  And every so often, they take a break. 

The Foster Care program understands.  This is a commitment with emotional highs and lows.  You do what you can when you are ready.

“We all have our gifts,” Marcia says.

Adoptions are half price until March 2nd. 

FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

February 4^th thru 10th  

Received: 82 dogs and 19 cats

Adopted: 22 dogs and 3 cats

Put down:  7 dogs and 14 cats

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!”

BUFORD - 10 yrs.  This elegant hound warrants a smoking jacket to join you by the fire.  $35!

  

ANN – 3 yrs. Her eyes glow in a lovely face.  $35 

                              

*All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip.

Dog Adoptions HALF-PRICE until March 2nd!

The Tale of Dudley, the Carry-out Dog

The week before Christmas, Sandra, a regular FOTAS volunteer, found the boney black lab mix curled against the back wall of his cage at the County Shelter.  No amount of coaxing would get him to come out.

She didn’t learn Dudley’s history, but it could not have included enough to eat or positive associations with humans.

 “He curled into smallest ball imaginable,” Sandra said, “and if you got near him, he would try to squeeze himself even smaller.”

It did no good to put a leash on him.  He wouldn’t move.  In a way it was lucky that Dudley was so underweight, at only 32 pounds. Sandra picked him up and carried him outdoors.

“In the beginning, I didn’t even try to take him out to the play yard.  I just carried him out to the bench and sat with him.”

When she carried him back to his cage, she gave him extra food because he was so thin.

Each time Sandra went to walk the shelter dogs, that week, Dudley had to be carried out and carried in.

When Sandra did take him down the hill to the play yard, Dudley seemed lost.  He did not play, or even interact.  He would walk around as if he didn’t know why he was there.

Dudley originally had a cage-mate who was also very timid, and when that dog was pulled by a rescue group, a slight change came over Dudley.  When Sandra arrived at his cage, Dudley was standing.  And when she opened the cage door, he took a step towards her.

He allowed her to attach the leash, and he followed her cautiously to the building exit, but no further.  “That was it,” she said, “I had to carry him from there to the play yard.”

Sandra can’t explain it, but she has a special love for the black lab mixes.  They are very common at the shelter, and are often overlooked for adoption.

During the weeks before and after Christmas, Sandra was at the County Shelter walking the dogs twelve of fourteen days, including Sunday and Christmas Day.  It paid off.

Dudley began approaching the cage gate and walking to the outside door on his own, but he still needed to be carried to the play yard.

Then one day Sandra arrived at Dudley’s cage and there he was up and ready.  She attached the leash and out he walked: to the door, through the door, and straight to the play yard.

The transformation continued.  Dudley would allow anyone to walk him to the play yard, and when he got there he would run, play with other dogs, and chase a ball.

“He was a happy, happy, affectionate dog,” Sandra said, the pride and satisfaction clear in her voice. “We didn’t know the dog that was in him,” she said, “We went and found him.”

In January, Dudley was transferred to New England and quickly adopted to a good home.

Volunteers make a difference, sometimes one dog at a time.  

FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line  www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

January 21 thru 27, 2013  

Received: 29 dogs and 22 cats

Adopted:  11 dogs and 3 cats

Put down:  26 dogs and 14 cats

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!”  VALENTINE SPECIAL! Half price all month!

BRANDON- 9 mos.  A very special Tree Walker Hound for Valentines.. $35 This month!

SEBASTIAN - 3 yrs. This gorgeous guy is a perfect valentine love!  Only $35

 

 

*All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip

 

Teamwork Puts Spay/Neuter Front and Center in Aiken County

On November 30^th, 2012, a FOTAS volunteer was approached about spaying a “neighborhood dog” by a gentleman from Perry.  Of course, the dog was already pregnant.

“Do you want to lose the pups?” asked the volunteer.

With a pained expression, the man assured the volunteer that they would likely find homes for the pups.  The woman bit her tongue and handed the man her card. 

The call came six weeks later.  There were eight puppies; only one had been adopted.  It took three days to recover the others from under an abandoned building they called home.  In the process, one of the young men who helped in the capture asked if he could add six pups he had at home.  Their mother had died.

Arriving at the County Shelter with the 13 pups, the volunteer was told that all the foster homes were full and there were 35 puppies back in the shelter pens. 

The lucky 13 were wormed, given their shots, and went home with the volunteer to be fostered until they could be transferred up north.  The fate of the other 35 was far less promising.

Two mother dogs, 14 puppies, let’s say half are female and that each has seven pups.  If half of those are female, and they have pups, in one more generation there will be 1,715 dogs, most of which will be unwanted, lead short miserable lives, and continue to breed.

We cannot impound, rescue, foster, adopt or transfer our way out of this reality.  Fortunately, a magnificent confluence of events offers a better option. 

It began last August when FOTAS launched our first targeted spay/neuter assistance program (SNAP) in Wagener with a tiny grant from Pawmetto Lifeline in Columbia.  When those funds ran out, the Aiken SPCA picked up the program, and by December 1st we had spayed and neutered 160+ cats and dogs.

A couple of weeks ago, FOTAS and Aiken County Animal Control presented the SNAP model to Mayor CH Williams in Burnettown, one of the county’s trouble spots for unwanted animals.  Like the Wagener Mayor, Mayor Williams was enthusiastic about the program, and eagerly offered his office and staff to assist.

This week, the SPCA Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare opened its new clinic with the potential to perform 18,000 spay/neuter surgeries a year.

FOTAS has already identified an area coordinator for the Burnettown program.  Stacey Fincher, owner of Palmetto Pups in Warrenville, has offered everything short of doing the surgeries herself to bring this badly needed service to the Valley.  (Information will be released in February for the start-up in March.)

Gary Willoughby, in his column last Tuesday, arrived at the same point we do here: we need your support to realize the potential of the incredible opportunity.

 The missing piece is money. You can donate to FOTAS-SNAP or the SPCA spay and neuter fund. Or, if you have the skills, help FOTAS apply for grant funding for SNAP and Lennie’s Brigade, our feral cat project.

Together, we can see that no adoptable pet has to die unloved.
  
FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

January 14 thru 20, 2013  

Received: 87 dogs and 34 cats

Adopted:  6 dogs and 5 cats

Put down:  20 dogs and 43 cats

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” 

 

ANSEL- 1 yr.  American Bull Terrier mix.  This guy is even sweeter than he looks. $70 is a deal!

RAGGEDY ANN – 1 yr. This colorful calico kitty delights to purr for you!  Only $35                              

 

*All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip.