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

 

The Joy of Adopting a Shelter Pet

The Joy of Adopting a Shelter Pet

by Joanna Samson, FOTAS Board of Directors

as seen in the "Aiken Standard" 12/8/13

My husband David swears that shelter dogs are grateful.  He says they know they have been saved and that you saved them, and that their love and devotion are expressions of that gratitude.  

Now I can’t say for sure that our Maggie dog’s love is an expression of gratitude rather than a reciprocal response to our love and care, or that the depth of our terrier mutt Jack’s devotion to us is somehow greater than, say, a pedigreed poodle’s devotion to its owner.

But I can say this: for most of us, the choice of that special companion from a shelter is not deliberate or particularly rational.  We visit the county shelter, and somehow, despite the pain in our hearts we feel for all of those animals with an uncertain future, we are drawn to a particular animal by some primordial feeling emanating from that mysterious, magical place in our soul where the spirit kindles love.

Stormee and Chase Cato and their daughter, Kayson knew what kind of dog they wanted after their beloved Deuce, a pit bull, passed away: another big dog or maybe a Brittany Spaniel.  Nevertheless, they decided to visit the Aiken County shelter before purchasing a new puppy, more out of a sense of civic responsibility than a conviction they might find a suitable dog.

When the Cato’s pulled up to the shelter, they saw a beautiful brown spaniel cross named Woody romping with other dogs in the fenced yard, and they just knew, somehow, he was special.  Was it his soft eyes, his joyful frolicking or the gentle way he played with Kayson in the yard?  The Catos can’t say for sure, but they knew their search was over; Woody was the one.

Lynn and Woody Malone have a similar story.  They weren’t certain they were ready for another dog so soon after the death of their long time canine companion.  But their friend Edie Hubler and long-time FOTAS shelter volunteer Sandra Procter just had this feeling that a sweet, black lab mix at the shelter named Lewis would be a perfect fit for the Malone’s.

And he was – they were instantly smitten.  Was it Lewis’ soulful, big brown eyes? The playful, sometimes silly personality?  Who knows?  The Malone’s took Lewis home, renamed him Charlie, and made him a member of their family.

One might be tempted to attribute the spontaneous attraction of the Cato’s to Woody or the Malone’s to Charlie to something more mundane, like opportunity or pity, but I do not.  Fact is, there were lots of other dogs at the shelter on those days worthy of their selection.

I believe it was destiny.  The Cato’s brought Woody home the very day Chase’s father died, and Woody has been instrumental in helping the Cato’s, and particularly Kayson, cope with that painful loss.

As for the Malone’s?  Well, Charlie has filled the void left by the death of their dog with joy.  He’s claimed the sofa and the chair, steals tomatoes off the table, pesters the cat and runs around the yard with a ten gallon plastic flower pot in his mouth.

Your destiny may be waiting for you right now at the Aiken County Animal Shelter.  Maybe it’s an adorable puppy, a goofy dog or a regal cat.  Please consider adopting your new pet at the Aiken County Animal Shelter – it’s a choice you won’t regret.

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”

Nov.  23 - Nov. 30, 2013

 

11 dogs and 2 cats adopted

Year to Date:  

668 terrific pets adopted

 

THANK YOU AIKEN COUNTY COMMUNITY!

Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week!”

DIAMOND -- pitt bull terrier mix, female, 1 yr old, 32 lbs

DONALD -- Domestic Short Hare, male  -- 5 mos. old, 4.8 lbs.   Only $35