A couple of years ago a long time volunteer of the shelter was performing her weekly duties, cleaning out cat cages, helping to make sure the animals were well taken care of.
This particular volunteer was especially fond of taking the time to cuddle and love each animal as she performed her duties. After months of doing this and noticing the same cat in the same cage week after week that had not been adopted, a lightbulb finally went off over her head and she said “I think this is my cat.”
It’s not always so easy to tell, a 6-pound black cats is a 6-pound black cat, how do you know yours from someone else’s if it happens to escape out a window one day and get lost? But this was literally her cat that had run away, someone had picked her up and brought her to the shelter. Her mother had cared for her and cleaned her cage and never even realized it was her cat until months went by.
Even at the shelter, where volunteers handle the same animals several times a day, if you put four black cats down on the floor it’s often difficult to determine who is Millie and who is Ellie. It’s just not so easy if there isn’t one with a stray white whisker or a dot of gray on a toe.
The Shelter in the past has used breakaway collars to help identify the “guests” who reside, awaiting for new homes, and this procedure will be reinstituted under the new management. This isn’t just for the fun of it, this isn’t just to keep the names straight, but it’s imperative that records be accurate so that vaccination records can be updated, spay/neuter records can go with the right cat.
It’s just as easy to identify your own pet in this way, especially an outdoor pet, with some kind of identification “just in case” your little one gets lost. Just remember that “break away” is important. You don’t want Fluffy to get caught up in a branch and choke because of a collar, you want her to be able to free herself.
Similar to this story about the cat reunited with her owner after months of shelter living, staff recently had the joy of seeing a dog reunited with his owner under some very unusual circumstances. The owner, working out of town, asked a relative to take care of his dog. He called frequently, “How’s Rover doing” and was told “Rover’s doing great” and then one day the owner got a call that he should stop by the shelter, friends of his had been visiting and noticed a dog that they were sure was this man’s dog.
A quick visit to the shelter, a dog that could not contain himself for the pure joy of it all, shelter staff in tears over watching the two reunited, and a happy ending for all involved. How Rover could be doing well when he wasn’t at the friends house at all, that’s a mystery to be resolved between the owner and the caretaker. I often wonder how so many beautiful animals can come into the shelter and so few people call asking if their dog or cat has been brought in, but then a story like this comes along and you think you know where your dog is and you think you know someone is taking good care of him, so who would ever think to call the shelter when you were sure Rover was at Joe’s house?
If you are an animal lover, we encourage you to stop by and visit the shelter after 11 a.m. any time. Visit, volunteer, sign up to host a fundraiser. I believe you will be encouraged by what you see, and feel compelled to become a part of a growing team focused on a positive future filled with happy endings.
