of Highlands Today
Published: December 2, 2007
SEBRING — October was the best month in the 45-year history of the Humane Society of Highlands County.
The 111 adoptions — of 58 dogs and 53 cats — jumped above the monthly average of 60 to 80 and the previous all-time high of 87.
But the record-breaking month is cause for both celebration and concern.
Expanding services is straining the non-profit organization's budget of just under $150,000, raised entirely through donations and community fundraising, said Marvine McPhee, executive director.
"We're spending right now more than we are taking in in donations," said Barbara Shrewsbury, a volunteer who does everything from newsletters and data entry to cleaning out kennel cages.
"We keep a reserve for times like this," she added. "But we can't keep drawing on it for very long. So, we're hoping that the more people see what is being done here, the more they can help, because we definitely need more funds."
"With 110 cages, we're almost always full, and there is always a waiting list (for intake)," McPhee said. "Most dogs and cats at the shelter on Haywood Taylor Boulevard, near Sebring Regional Airport, are surrendered by owners, while some are strays picked up by Highlands County Animal Control."
Like adoptions, pets entering the shelter in search of a new home are rising, too. October also saw the humane society take in 100 dogs and cats. Shrewsbury said that rate is likely to continue through the winter – if adoptions can keep pace to free up cages.
Numbers, though, tell only part of the humane society's tale.
Adoption numbers are rising because no animal in the humane society's care is treated like "a number."
Take the story of Jake. On the day this spotted, 75 pound, black-and-white Lab mix was adopted, some of the staff and volunteers couldn't hold back tears.
"Some of us cried when we heard he was adopted," McPhee said. "Jake was one of our longtime residents, he was here for more than two years. And when he finally got a home it was such a fantastic feeling."
This "no kill for space" shelter never gives up on an animal with even the slimmest chance for adoption. Dogs and cats there are rarely sent out to be euthanized, and only in two unavoidable circumstances, McPhee said. "Either they are very sick, to the point they are going to die or they are in constant pain," she explained, "or they are unadoptable because they are aggressive."
Jake arrived as one of three abandoned puppies that, because of their fear of people, had obviously been mistreated.
"They were so frightened of people, so absolutely terrified," McPhee recalled. Jake's two litter mates recovered quicker and found adoptive homes, but he remained extremely timid.
So timid, McPhee recalled, that "Jake would hide in his (dog) house and wouldn't come out" when people looking to adopt tried to check him out.
Some of the humane society's volunteers – 20 to 30 in the summer, 40 to 50 through the winter – provide foster homes for special needs pets, and that's what saved Jake.
Belinda Forlifer of Okeechobee fostered Jake for months and when he returned to the humane society shelter "she had brought him 'out of his shell,' so to speak," McPhee said. Jake's good heart and great disposition shined through. He has a home now, and his happy-dog photo is featured in the humane society's brochure.
"Volunteer foster homes are very much needed all the time, for kittens and for dogs," McPhee added. "We could never have too many, they're just a lifeline for some of our animals."
With eight paid staff, five full time and three part time, the humane society depends on volunteers for everything from office work to housekeeping, transporting pets to veterinary care and community events to telephone follow-up on adoptions, updating its Web site and producing promotional videos.
Photo by: KATHY WATERS/HIGHLANDS TODAY
John Keckler, one of the humane society's volunteer dog walkers, and two of his canine buddies take a rest during their exercise/play time at the shelter.
John Keckler, a retired trucker, is among the volunteers who walk and play with the dogs, so that every dog regularly gets not only exercise but companionship, too. He stops in two to three times a week for a couple hours, taking the dogs out on leash and then letting them run free and romp around in the spacious, fenced exercise area.
"Sometimes I wonder who is benefiting more, me or them," Keckler said. "I just play with them and have a good time with them."
With a hearty laugh, he recalled when "I walked into a pen to take out this new puppy, and he was so excited the way he jumped all over me I said, 'My gosh, nobody's ever been this excited to see me."
The volunteer dog walkers' role is a key factor in keeping the dogs adoptable, according to Barbara Clark. Along with Heather Sparks and Ray Mills, she is a professional dog trainer who volunteers by assessing every dog coming into the shelter and leading obedience classes, provided free with every adoption.
"A dog that is kept in a cage 24/7 is frustrated, it's stressed, it gets confused and it's not a happy dog," Clark said. "And bad behaviors can tend to develop when you have a dog in a cage all the time, especially when they're close together (in a kennel)."
The cats and kittens also need, and get, regular play and companionship.
Jan Rusak, a retired dog groomer, spends four to five hours every Monday with the cats.
"I feed them and then take them out into the special play room we have so we can have the cats and kittens playing together," she said. "And in the end I wash the litter boxes and food bowls and mop the floors, too."
Before calling it a day, she said, "I go over to the dogs and give them all cookies, because I love them too. To take them for a walk, though, they can be a little overpowering for me, a little more than I can handle."
Bobbi Holstein, one of the many humane society supporters from the Buttonwood Bay retirement community, concentrates on secretarial and record keeping work at the shelter, using her administrative skills from a career at The Ohio State University Veterinary Hospital.
"In the four years I've been going there," she said of the shelter, "it has improved a thousand percent."
Improvements to the facilities have been dramatic and ongoing since the shelter was battered by hurricanes three years ago, Shrewsbury said.
"The hurricanes of 2004 almost did us a favor, because it forced changes to be done," she said. In the aftermath of those storms, "this place was very depressing and run down," she said. People who haven't visited the humane society since then, she said, "wouldn't believe the difference today."
In McPhee's view, bricks and mortar are important but the key to running a good shelter always has been, and will remain, the commitment of staff and volunteers.
"They are very passionate about the animals," she said. Whether in paid or volunteer roles, she said, "it's not just a job to them, it's their passion."
The vast majority of adoptions succeed, Shrewsbury said, because staff and volunteers come to know each animal, and give people the time and detailed information they need to pick a dog or cat that will fit in at their home.
"My dog is a big Labrador , and you'd think he would need to be outside, but he hates to be outside, he wants inside," she said. "You take him for a walk, he'll go about two houses with you and then he wants back into the house.
"You'd know that about a dog only if you spend time with it."
McPhee has a long wish list for improvements if additional funding comes in. At the top is a van or a minibus, so that transporting 10 dogs to a vet or a community event won't take 10 volunteers in 10 different cars. Next is a new septic system, and, long-range, a bigger main building to accommodate more animals.
"Because of the increasing number of animals, right now we're spending between $2,000 to $2,500 a month just on vaccines and medical treatment," she added. "That's just one of our needs, we are very happy to do it, but the costs are increasing all the time."
McPhee says the Humane Society of Highlands County operates under three rules: "It's all about the animals. It's all about the animals. And, it's all about the animals."
Like Jake, Rocky is a dog that won't be forgotten at the shelter.
Another Lab mix, he came in as a puppy with litter mates who soon found homes, but Rocky was passed over again and again and again ... until his stay stretched out way beyond a year.
"Rocky was sweet and lovable," McPhee said. "But," she added after a long pause, obviously choosing her words carefully, "he wasn't the most beautiful dog in the world, in the eyes of some beholders, and he kept getting passed by."
Great personality, she added, but he "wasn't like the ones that know how to work people, you know, they look at you and your heart melts and off they go."
Finally, McPhee said, "he just clicked with someone."
"There is somebody for every dog and cat," she said. "If only we can connect them, if we can hook them up."
