Sandy Larsen Gives the Last Kiss

From The Aiken Standard

My whole life I have loved all animals.

I never had any fear of them.

I remember when I was 5, my dad and I got out of the car on Park Avenue as an older black lady came down the street with two red chows on leashes.

I ran up to the dogs and threw my arms around them, and they licked me in the face. The lady was horrified, thinking her dogs wouldn't tolerate children, or strangers.

But those dogs were OK with me.

I have always had my own dogs and cats, and I've worked with animals for 28 years.

There is no such thing as an ugly dog or cat. Every animal is unique and, just like people; it's their personality that makes them beautiful.

Before I worked at my first shelter, I thought like everyone else about a kill shelter.

I couldn't imagine putting a perfectly healthy animal to death.

In a week, I changed my whole opinion.

I was blown away by the number of unwanted animals there were in Aiken County.

Small wonder so many had to be euthanized.

Citizens criticize the shelters for destroying animals, but the shelters are not to blame; it is the people who do not spay or neuter their pets.

Some call us, who work at the shelter, cold-hearted killers.

We are not; we are the ones who have to do the dirty work.

I never get out of bed on the mornings the truck comes and say, "Oh boy, today is the day we get to euthanize!"

I wake up on those mornings sick to my stomach and pray to make it through it. We see these babies every day, and become attached to so many.

They wag their tails at you. They even kiss you as you are taking their lives.

¬ My mother still can't believe that I am at a shelter euthanizing animals.

So many people say they can't imagine how we do what we do.

The truth is that to euthanize animals, you have to be full of compassion and love them.

I am the last person that animal is going to see.

Even if the animal is fighting the leash, I take the leash off, talk softly and¬ give it lots of love.

There is no way to save them all when we are taking in 400 to 600 animals a month. ¬

¬ So, you can imagine how the opportunity to take our adoptable dogs on Channel 12 Monday mornings thrilled me.

Lynnsey Gardner and Tim Strong have been so supportive.

In over a year and a half, I have never missed a Monday.

I also take our animals on¬ Channel 6 with Mary Morrison and Anne Sawyer the first Wednesday of every month.

And right here, we feature a couple of very special young dogs, full brothers, who are exceptionally well-mannered and will bring great joy and companionship to any home.

Come on out. Find love at the Aiken County Animal Shelter.

FOTAS volunteers work with the Aiken County Animal Shelter, 411 Wire Road. For more information, e-mail info@fotasaiken.org or visit www.fotasaiken.org.

Shelter Chief Looks to Make a Difference, Too

From The Aiken Standard

Submitted article

The most telling image of Bobby Arthurs, the chief enforcement officer at the Aiken County Animal Shelter, is of this big man in his gray uniform with a Chihuahua puppy cupped in his hands, held six feet in the air, up to his smiling face.

He's partial to Chihuahuas, a fact that might surprise some people in a man his size.

Arthurs has been a public servant his entire working life, beginning as a maintenance man for the South Carolina Department of Parks and Recreation in 1990.

A couple of years later, he was a park ranger at Aiken State Natural Area.
"I loved working there," he said, "The good part is you are always working with the public, but it was a different interaction, renting canoes and making campsite reservations."

In the fall of 2001, with a new commission as a constable, he came to the county as an animal control officer.

"I felt like I could do it, like I could make a difference in what the job entails ... helping animals."

At first, he felt like he had jumped the fence in his dealings with the public, and now he had to be the bad guy.

"But I soon learned I am not the bad guy; my job is to enforce the rules," he said.

Arthurs was asked in his interview how he felt about euthanizing animals.

"I said I could do it," he recalled, "And I felt like I gave an honest answer, too. But after I got here - and I was only witnessing it - it knocked the air out of me like someone kicked me in the gut."

He'd made a terrible mistake was his first thought, but then he went to training and learned.

"What kind of life can we give them here?" he said. "But, it's really hard to see the amount of animals coming through the door. This shelter was built to be maxed out at 100 dogs. That was 1990. Now, it's 2010, and sometimes we're holding 150 to 200 dogs and 40 to 50 cats. The overflow area - that's what we call it, overflow - is busting at the seams."

As chief the last three years, Arthurs has worked hard to make improvements.

The "Overflow Area" now sits atop a sealed cement slab that drains and can be disinfected to contain the spread of disease. A shed roof for shade was added last fall, and big fans move the air. Even so, he said, "These animals will be held for five days, and then we have to make a decision."

In late spring, when the shelter is overrun with newborn puppies and his vet tech's heart is breaking, the shelter puts out an appeal for foster homes.

"I want to foster," he said, "But I don't know if we'll get to do that again right now, because the last three we fostered, we adopted two."

FOTAS volunteers work with the Aiken County Animal Shelter, 411 Wire Road. For more information, e-mail info@fotasaiken.org or visit www.fotasaiken.org.

A Problem-Solver and a Cat Named Murphy Brown

From The Aiken Standard

Submitted article

Don't call Ernie Wolf a perfectionist.

"Perfectionists go nuts," he said, "I strive to have excellence. I'm a problem-solver."

The problem was the limited space for the cats that came into the Aiken County Animal Shelter was reduced by the gift of an industrial washer and dryer.

Such a huge blessing is hard to complain about, but tell that to the cats who had to live in cages until their time was up, or they miraculously got adopted.

The ultimate solution was C.A.T.S. - Cats at the Shelter, a place for the adoptable cats and kittens funded by FOTAS.

We owe its design and execution to an unlikely pair: a not-so-recently retired, talented engineer and his recently deceased, ancient cat that he called "Murphy Brown."

In 1988, Ernie retired from Kimberly Clark as an engineering manager who'd begun with the company 40 years earlier "pulling a hand truck loaded with rolls."

He finished his career before turning 60, one of only two non-degreed engineers, with 19 engineers working for him. About that time, a friend retrieved a pregnant cat from a dumpster and gave Ernie and his wife one of the kittens.

For more than two decades, Murphy Brown was a devoted companion. As Ernie's wife battled cancer, Murphy visited and lifted her spirits with playful pats on her chest.

After his wife passed, Ernie had Murphy's company on his worktable as he repaired and built things. Never allowed on the furniture, she spent nights on Ernie's lap as he watched TV.

Murphy Brown died this spring as C.A.T.S. got under way, just in time to provide Ernie with added inspiration.

To develop his design, Ernie visited cat colonies as far away as Camden and Lexington. He appreciated the efforts he saw.

"They made the mistakes I was bound not to make," he said.

One of the colonies was battling problems with ventilation. Another had access issues.

"We can do better than this," he vowed and set to work.

Ernie began with a customized 12-foot-by-30-foot JEMCO building and added windows for natural light, including one over the sink in the center aisle that separates the female cats and kittens on the right from the males on the left. He had cat flaps inserted in the rear walls for access to the screened in concrete patios out back with an exterior patio door for humans.

A sidewalk wraps around to the front, and there is tile flooring, good ventilation and climate control for winter and summer.

There were materials to acquire: trades people to coordinate for framing, plumbing, electrical, handicap access, and landscaping and permit and inspection hurdles to clear.

Ernie oversaw every single detail in a project not devoid of frustrations. He finished C.A.T.S. under budget and dedicated it to his cat, Murphy Brown.

He calls himself a problem-solver, which he is, but when you visit C.A.T.S. at the county shelter, "perfect" is a word that may come to mind, at least until you remember that the cats all still need a home.

FOTAS works with the Aiken County Animal Shelter, 411 Wire Road. For more information, e-mail info@fotasaiken.org or visit www.fotasaiken.org.