No Place Like Home for the Holidays

 

No Place Like Home for the Holidays

by Joanna  Samson, FOTAS Board of Directors

 

Is there anything sadder than being alone on Christmas?  Maybe you’re out of the country, in the service, stuck in an airport.  Maybe your family lives far away and you can’t afford the annual trek.  Maybe you don’t have a family.  Whatever the reason, being alone on a day when it seems like (whether it’s true or not) the rest of the world is luxuriating around a Christmas Tree in front of a fire surrounded by friends and family is down right miserable.

This Christmas season, while the rest of us hustle and bustle to make Christmas special for our own families and loved ones, many adoptable animals will spend their day in a cage in the closed and dark Aiken County Animal Shelter, with no chance of interacting with staff or volunteers the way they do when the shelter is open.

I am the first to admit that I am guilty of rampant anthropomorphism, but the thought of those homeless animals curled up on some ratty blanket in a drab crate awaiting their ultimate fate breaks my heart.  I know intellectually that Christmas has no meaning for an animal, and that animals live in the moment.  If in that moment, they are fed, warm and protected . . . well, that’s a pretty good moment no matter where they are.

But still . . . what if we could make that moment even greater?  What if in addition to basic care, those animals could curl up in a loving home where they can play and be hugged and fussed over (like Woody, a recent Shelter adoptee pictured here with his owner Kayson--she put reindeer ears on Woody) . . . wouldn’t that be a better moment?

We folks at FOTAS and the Aiken County Animal Shelter think so, and we are sponsoring a Holiday Foster Program, where local families can sponsor an adoptable dog or cat for two or three days over Christmas and/or over the New Year’s holiday.    The foster family would pick them up before Christmas or New Years, keep them over the holiday, and return them to the shelter after Christmas or New Years.

I know what you’re thinking.  No, no, no!  I’ll get attached.  I’ll feel guilty taking them back to the shelter. 

I get it – but why not think instead: By giving this dog or cat a bunch of moments full of love and attention, I can override negative experiences with good ones, make the animal happier and thus more adoptable, and increase its likelihood of finding a forever home.

I wish I could remember what wise person said, “The only love I regret is the love I didn’t give,” but isn’t that the truth?  Please consider fostering a shelter animal this holiday season.  Contact the shelter at 803-642-1537 or stop by the shelter at 411 Wire Rd.

If you have been thinking about adopting a pet, now is the time. You would be saving a life as the Shelter’s kennels have become so overcrowded in the past few weeks with so many pets who were abandoned or surrendered.  Through January 4, 2014, the County Shelter adoption fees are reduced to $35/dog and $20/cat.

 

Foster, Adopt, Love and Merry Christmas, one and all.  There’s no place like home!

 

 

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”

 

Dec. 9 - Dec. 14, 2013

 

12 dogs and 1 cat adopted

Year to Date:  

694 terrific pets adopted

 

THANK YOU AIKEN COUNTY COMMUNITY!

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!” Holiday special prices -- Shelter closed Dec. 24, 26 and Jan. 1

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

DUFFY     Lab mix puppy, male, 20 lbs  Only $35 

 

BANFORD   Domestic short hair -- male -- 6 yrs old, 12 lbs  Only $20