Animal Shelter Society May Pupdate

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By Jessica Johnston, Assistant News Director

Chelsea is a 3-month-old Coonhound, American Staffordshire Terrier mix. She came into the Animal Shelter on April 26 as a stray. She weighs just over 13 pounds and appreciates attention from anyone that will pet her.

She has not been spayed yet, but will be ready to find her forever home soon.

Upcoming events

Summer Jam — On Saturday, June 1, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the YMCA the Animal Shelter Society Inc. will host its annual Summer Jam event. The family-friendly event features about 15 to 20 vendors, as well as food trucks.

Dogs will be available for adoption. Micro-chipping will be available at the Summer Jam for a reduced price. The event is also dog-friendly, as well as free and open to the public.

“Fun place to bring your dog, walk around, get some food, hang out for a couple of hours,” Executive Jody Murray said.

Ice cream social — On June 27 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. the shelter will host its annual ice cream social featuring adoption specials on both cats and dogs. Free Tom’s ice cream will be available for attendees.

The event has been steadily growing every year and typically attracts around 50 people.

“We kind of do that so families can come to the shelter,” Murray said. “So, if like you got mom and dad and one of them works during the day they can’t always come together, so we’re staying open until 7:30, having ice cream, so it’s a family opportunity for mom and dad both to come.”

Fundraisers

Five Below is hosting a week-long fundraiser for the Animal Shelter Society, Inc.

From May 19 through May 25, the store will donate ten percent of purchases to the animal shelter. Anyone wishing to have ten percent of their purchase donated must take the fundraising flyer to the cashier upon their purchase.

Five Below is located in Colony Square Mall and is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Fostering and volunteers

The animal shelter is in need of fosters for various animal circumstances including mother cats with their young kittens, mother dogs with their puppies and dogs with more specialized needs.

For those who can not foster but would like to be involved with the shelter, volunteering to walk dogs rather than take them home offers less commitment but is still beneficial for the animals.

“We would love to have some people that come in a couple days a week, spend an hour walking dogs,” Murray said. “It’s really important for the dogs to get out of the kennels, on a leash, with a human giving them direction, helping tune their behavior a little bit. (It) makes them much more adoptable.”

Each volunteer is required to fill out a volunteer form prior to their first time volunteering.

Animal identification

With the weather getting warmer and school coming to an end, many people spend an increasing amount of time outside and so do their animals.

Murray said he always recommends that people schedule an annual check up for their pets to get flea, tick and heart worm prevention for the year.

Additionally, Murray said it’s important to ensure pets have identification with owner’s first and last name, as well as a phone number.

“We get dogs in here all the time with a nice collar, well groomed, well fed, good behavior, you know it’s somebody’s dog (but) no way of tracking them down,” Murray said.

With cookouts, friends and family visiting, fireworks and other outdoor activity, it increases the risk of animals getting out of the house.

If a lost dog gets to the shelter, employees will call the owner and hold the dog until the owner gets a chance to come pick them up. But, if a pet does not have identification, the animal will be processed into the shelter and vaccinated. The shelter is required to stray hold a dog for 72 hours before it can become available for adoption

“We encourage people, if you lose your pet, get in touch with us and the pound like every day,” Murray said. “And I always tell people, actually come here and talk to us directly, walk through because you can call and say, ‘hey did you get a brown and white so and so,’ and what you call a brown and white so and so I might call a black and tan something different.”