Volunteer Family Marks FOTAS ‘Making a Difference’ for 3 Years

It was 1999, and Marcia and her teenage daughter, Samantha, were at a local veterinarian’s when they spotted the notice of urgent need for two homeless dogs on the wall.  Having recently moved to Aiken with their equestrian experiences and equestrian dreams, they had a farm and decided that they could save the dogs.

Unfortunately, the clinic had just shipped the dogs to the county shelter, so Marcia and Sam set out Wire Road to rescue them.  At the shelter, when they told the woman seated beyond the glass window what they wanted, she acted as if recovering the two dogs was not just impossible, but absurd.  The dogs could not be found and she would not bother to ask anyone to look.  That was 1999.

For ten years, Marcia, husband Dan and Sam, would recoil in horror at any mention of the Aiken County Animal Shelter. 

Then, around 2006 or ’07, one woman chose to challenge the status-quo regarding homeless pets.  She was serving on a policy committee for county animal control and was appalled at the prevailing attitudes about our public shelter.  The woman began by walking one dog, proposing one volunteer policy, recruiting one animal advocate, at a time. 

Then a transfer policy, one dog or cat saved, an entrenched attitude, one ally, one risk, one favor, and one miracle at a time, FOTAS was born, summer 2009, already teamed with a renewed and reenergized county shelter staff. 

One day, Marcia and Sam see the article about FOTAS and the Aiken County Animal Shelter in the paper.  The story tells how badly foster homes are needed for puppies and kittens.  It quotes the shelter’s commitment not to euthanize healthy litters that are fostered.

“We can do that!” the mother-daughter team decide, and off they go to join the cause.

That was seven or eight litters, lots of lessons and many stories ago: like the promise that if they kept a puppy they were out of the fostering business…well, except for Misty May who Sam adopted because she had to.

“That’s the only one we ever kept,” Marcia says sheepishly. Then she gives credit to their Chow-cross, Nina, who says, “No more dogs!” and means it. 

Samantha’s career has taken her and Misty May to Florida, but Marcia and Dan carry on. Their vacant barn hosts the litters and the fallow garden pen makes a secure play yard. 

In the last three years, the couple has learned that a determined dog can climb a 10-foot barrier to escape a box stall; that a normally sweet stray can be pretty fierce about protecting her pups; that not all babies survive; and, that the job comes with enough joy and miracles to be worth it.

“Any day you save a dog’s life is a good day,” Marcia says.

On Friday, Dan and Marcia hooked their double-axle pickup to Herbie Brown, the FOTAS Rescue Waggin’, to haul nine lucky dogs to catch a transfer north.

Now that’s Making a Difference! 

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

For July            2012    vs.  2011

Received	449	461
Adopted Cats	18	7
Adopted Dogs	34	46
Transferred	41	12
Euthanized	(72%)  324	(81%)  373

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” are HALF PRICE*!

BRANDY – 1yr. Lab mix. Affectionate, energetic, intelligent.  Highly trainable great pet!   $35!

JESSE – 1yr, gorgeous green-eyed tabby, already spayed.  Come get her for $35!

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

half price thru 9/8/12!

 

Paws for a Cause is a Great Way to Come Together

If you can get seven teenagers to a track at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning, it must be a good thing…or an important thing…a really fun thing, or all of the above.

It was.

Paws for Cancer held its 13^th annual walk to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society’s fight against the dread disease, and it created a new opportunity for special people to come together to support an important cause.

Katie organized Team Lula for a second year, and Valerie, coordinator for South Aiken High’s Serteens, saw a chance to include the Aiken County Animal Shelter’s adoptable dogs in the event. 

Delighted to fund the cause, FOTAS, and the  Serteens, joined Team Lula with 4 dogs and a wagon-load of puppies!

Mary Lou, a FOTAS founder, has been working with Serteens from the beginning, and loves it.  “They are so responsible, so polite, and fun, and they are so good with the dog,” she said, “I've known a couple of these kids since they were freshman and had to be driven to everything, now they drive themselves.  They are so committed.”

She also provided the gardening wagon for the pups.

Susan, a teacher, joined Team Lula.  Susan is super-dedicated to FOTAS and the County Shelter.  She accompanies the Serteens one Saturday a month at the shelter, and then comes many additional Saturdays with her own daughter to volunteer.

County senior Vet Tech, Sandy Larsen, brought the 4 dogs, two small and two large; and 3 puppies, that she had carefully chosen, to participate in the event.  That they were so well-behaved demonstrates the magnificent work that our FOTAS volunteers do with the adoptable dogs.

For example, Sasha, a lab/hound mix came to the shelter as a court case, so scared when she arrived that she just cowered and trembled.  Sasha walked the Odell Weeks track, on her leash, wagging her tail.  She is a beautiful dog who will be featured on channel 12 tomorrow morning at 6:20 am.

Of course, the puppies stole the show.  One of them had so much energy it kept scrambling over the rails of the FOTAS Puppy Wagon. 

Those puppies stole little hearts, and even challenged a Grandma’s devotion when her granddaughter fell in love with the little black fur-ball.  They already had one dog and Grandma knew that puppies, and promises to care for them, mostly do not last.

Big dogs, small dogs, and the puppy wagon all did the mile walk with the Serteens.

 

Also, a Girl Scout troop working on a community service badge was at the event picking up trash.  The busy girls proudly assembled for a small ad-hoc ceremony and presented FOTAS with a $100 donation raised from their cookie drive.  Thank you!

Although no county dogs were adopted that day, we were proud of them, and of our volunteers.  It was a great day in the Aiken Community with our Community Shelter doing its part. 

FOTAS welcomes all help.  We especially need temporary foster homes.

  

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”

For April 30th thru May 6th 2012  

Dogs taken in: 58

Cats taken in: 34

Dogs adopted: 5

Cats adopted: 7

Dogs euthanized: 48

Cats euthanized: 34

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” 

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

MOZEY – 5 year old gorgeous female Labrador.   

This special dog is longing for a home. Only $35!

 

BUZZ – 3 yrs. He is a beauty, a purr-fect

 adornment for a window sill for only $20!  

Exciting and Inviting Aiken County Animal Shelter Planned!

“Exciting and inviting,” is how the architect envisions the new Aiken County Animal Shelter, “It should meet the needs of today and be flexible enough to evolve over time.” 

Plans are finally officially underway!  Aiken County and FOTAS have selected the architectural firm McMillan, Pazdan & Smith to design our new County Animal Shelter.  The county signed the contract last week.

Already working with County Council on the new county complex, MPS Architects have also designed other county shelters in South Carolina and a private shelter in Greenville, and all of the end-users are very pleased with their facilities.

Last Tuesday, shelter staff and FOTAS’ president met with the architects and spent a few hours talking about the work, touring the current shelter, and defining realistic demands that will be placed on a new one.

They talked about space needs while standing in the cramped room that serves as the “office.”  From here, nine employees serve the public who may be dropping off strays, or unfortunate pets; searching for lost animals or adopting new

ones; bringing and retrieving animals for spay/neuter; or picking up foster care litters. They also answer calls, maintain records, hold meetings and eat. 

The tour proceeded through the “adoption section” where of the 17 cages only six have outdoor access.  In the back of the facility, the few cages that have guillotine doors to the outside are closed off to make two pens out of one because of overcrowding. 

The architects noted that there is no way to segregate healthy animals from the sick or vicious ones.  The cats in 5-day “quarantine” live in cages in one closet while surgeries are performed in another one.  Euthanasia takes place in the same open space that laundry is done and that holds the “post-operative” patients in cage banks.  There are no storage closets for bedding, food, or supplies.  There is no break room.  There is no hot water where the food dishes are “cleaned.”

Public demand has determined that a minimum of 35 adoption kennels, 35 quarantine and 15 isolation kennels are needed.

“But only if our programs continue,” says Chief Enforcement Officer, Bobby Arthurs, “Or we’ll be back where we are now.  We need to hammer down on spay/neuter and keep our transfers, foster homes and volunteers going.  We can’t slow down.”

Architect Cary Perkins is charged with ideas for the project.  She envisions a design that will be flexible to meet the needs for today and still evolve over time.  “We want it to be something the community will rally around and fall in love with.”  And it doesn’t have to be extravagant for that to happen. 

Cary believes it is always about the people, and she thinks our Aiken County team is the perfect group to work with: collaborative, dedicated, enthusiastic, and deeply committed.

“Clearly the staff is very good at what they do,” she says, “Because it is amazing the job they do in that space.”

Please support or join FOTAS in this remarkable journey.
  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”

For April 16th thru 22nd, 2012 

Received: 50 dogs and 42 cats

Adoptions:  12 dogs and 14 Cats!

Euthanized:  39 dogs and 35 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter Pets of the Week

Adoption fees cover shots, worming, heartworm test, microchip and spay or neuter!

ISABELLA – 1 yr old Staffordshire Bull Terrier.   

As sweet as she can be.   $70 and this baby is yours!

BRISTOL –This guy is too sweet to stay any longer.   

4 yrs, a perfect darling is now $20!

One Citizen, One Program, and a Step Forward for Spay/Neuter

If you cringe at “By the Numbers,” or don’t even look, 70 dogs were euthanized week-before-last at the County Shelter.  In one day, thirty-five homeless dogs came in.  The staff is scrambling to find foster homes while bursting with unwanted mama cats with kittens.  The SPCA received a transfer of one cat with a litter of ten! 

When intake numbers explode, with the obligation to receive them all, not nearly enough space, and the requirement to keep strays for five days, too many potentially lovely pets have to die.  We can’t adopt out, transfer, or house indefinitely, so many animals. Not even a new shelter can fix that.

If Aiken County Animal Services were to join the top echelon of community shelters around the country that don’t euthanize adoptable pets, it will be due to aggressive spay/ neuter programs, essential components of an appropriate animal shelter.  There is no other way to bring the intake numbers down to a level where animals that come in stand a reasonable chance of finding a good home.

Last year the veterinary community of Aiken County rose to the occasion with their Stomp Out Strays Program, contributing their services for spay/neuter to pet owners needing financial assistance.  The demand soon overtook their capacity.

Aiken County dedicates $30,000 dollars each fiscal year to subsidize spay/neuter with the County Spay/Neuter Voucher Program.  The shelter makes the vouchers available at the first of each month, and there are never enough.

Even with the spay/neuter assistance programs funded by Aiken County and private organizations such as SPCA, too many pet owners, especially those in rural areas, do not know about, how to qualify for, or cannot even pay the minimal fees necessary to take advantage of the assistance. 

Then along came Carol, a woman who cared enough about this problem to try and address it, and who backed up her commitment with personal funds to get a program started.  She called her initiative SNAP: Spay Neuter Assistance Program.  Since January, SNAP inaugurated collaboration between FOTAS, the County Shelter, and the Aiken SPCA, who administer the funds.  The SPCA provides its own vouchers to the county shelter, which added its own innovation: most of the SNAP vouchers are handled directly by the county officers in the field.

Animal control officers have direct contact with the neediest households to benefit from spay/neuter financial assistance, especially those with multiple animals.  Until SNAP, the officers could only refer them to one of the existing programs. 

Chief Enforcement Officer Bobby Arthurs recommended providing the SNAP vouchers to his officers so they could give them directly where needed.  

Since January, 75 vouchers have been distributed.  Of those, 24 surgeries have been performed at SPCA and 33 more surgeries are scheduled.

Carol cared enough to start SNAP.  We need your help to keep it going.  As of this summer the SPCA will be able to do 1000 surgeries a month.   Imagine the possibility!  If this is your issue, send FOTAS a check with “SNAP” in the “For” line, or go to the FOTAS website under “Donate.”

 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”

For April 9 thru 15, 2012 

Received: 58 dogs and 31 cats

Adoptions:  13 dogs and 3 cats

Euthanized:  70 dogs and 21 cats

Aiken County Animal Shelter Pets of the Week

Adoption fees cover shots, worming, heartworm test, microchip and spay or neuter!

CODY – 1 yr/60 lb Boxer mix.  This guy is a darling! $70 is a steal of a DEAL!

JINX – 3yr gorgeous male kitty.  A perfect companion for any home.  $35!

What County Shelter Volunteers Get for Their Time

“I’ll do anything; just don’t ask me to go to the shelter,” say most of the dog and cat lovers who want to support the Aiken County Shelter and volunteer with FOTAS. 

Of course it’s heartbreaking.  You walk in and all those eyes are watching you, following you.  “Please, please, please pick me,” pray those eyes amidst a cacophony of barking.  If you love dogs (of course you do; you are there), you want to be the answer to those prayers, and you can’t.

It is much the same in the cat house, you sit and the cats come purring, eager for a neck rub, a fanny scratch, a cuddle.  You watch them cavort and compete for your attention and think how lovely it would be to do this from your own sofa, but you can’t.  So you plead, “Don’t make me go to the shelter. I can’t.”

So what would you get, if you could and you did?  There are some very special people who do go, regularly.  Four days a week, every week, some FOTAS volunteers are at the shelter walking dogs on leashes, teaching them manners and simple commands, or just how to trust that someone cares.  Others go twice a

week and stay until every adoptable dog has been taken out of its cage.  Even once a week makes a difference.

Caroline recalls intending to volunteer one day a week and for two-and-a-half years she has gone four days, every week.  Why?  She says it is so rewarding to make a difference in so many lives.  She loves seeing the dogs get a new home.  She loves helping with the transfers to our northern rescue partners.  She loves helping the new volunteers learn the ropes.  “People should come and find out they can do it, Caroline says, “Don’t get discouraged; the dogs can sense it, and some are already so scared.”

Jim and his wife, Carol, joined Sybil Davis’s “Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound” program at the shelter.  Sybil taught them when the dog pulls on the leash, to just stop; don’t let them pull you.  They learn.  Carol walks the smaller dogs and leaves happy, in a dirty shirt, knees covered in dog hair.  With or without Carol, Jim stays until all the dogs have gotten out.

Denise and Sandra spend four days a week with the dogs. “It’s a calling,” says Denise, “You have to have a passion for it.  If a dog is sick, we notice.  If I miss a day, I want to know what happened at the shelter.  It’s where my heart is.”

“I was an RN for 40 years,” says Sandra, “I like nurturing, but there were days when I didn’t want to go work.  I never feel that way about going to the shelter.  I think of that special one who is waiting for me.  I love dog kisses and the dirty shirts!”

Why not try it?  You will find love at the Aiken County Shelter, and may help others find love, too.  Until April 7^th, all dogs and cats are half price. 

  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”

For the Week of March 12th thru 18th 2012

Received: 73 dogs and 25 cats

Adoptions:  9 dogs and 3 cats

Euthanized:  30 dogs and 14 cats

BRUNSON 1 yr 27 lbs Darling $35 includes shots,microchip, neuter

“Pets of the Week” Spring Adoption Special ½ Price!

MANDY Petite Precious Calico 1/2 price $20!