Thinking of pet adoption? Now’s the time to act

Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Rex is not up for adoption. He’s the office cat for the little red house on Wilkinson Street.

There are, however, as many as 25 of his fellow felines on any given day who are looking for the right loving home in Baldwin County.

June is the right month to go from thinking about pet adoption to acting on the notion, for it is National Adopt a Shelter Cat Month. At the Animal Rescue Foundation – Rex’s home – the cats to choose from are fixed in addition to any other veterinary needs already met and are indoor pets. The process may be a little more complicated than in times past, where one could walk in, pick one out, and be done with it.

Allene Veazey is president of the Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF), which is in its 40^th year serving Baldwin County.

“We have a lot of cats,” she said, and not exaggerating at all, 35 on June 12. Their main issue is they needed a ‘No Vacancy’ sign, for on that same day, before 1 p.m., she had to turn away seven people looking to turn in a stray animal.

“Our goal is to get them adopted out to homes,” said Veazey. “Right now, we are slap full. Cats. Dogs. Doesn’t matter. We turn them away multiple times. We are what they call a limited-intake shelter. We are rescue. We are only able to take in what we can care for.”

In contrast, Veazey said Baldwin County Animal Control, part of the Baldwin County government, is open-intake.

“They have to take everything that comes their way,” she said. “We do try to work with Animal Control as much as possible. We also have cats that are left on our front door, like a couple of weeks ago. Like Rex.”

Rex, adorned in grey and white, has been at ARF for five years. The lore of Rex is if you can pick him up for 30 seconds, he’s yours.

“He’s very happy here,” said Veazey. “He has his bed. He occasionally makes claims on beds that come in as donations. We could leave the front door open all day and he wouldn’t go anywhere.”

Also, Rex only has three legs and recently lost an eye when a dog got loose.

Friends of Baldwin County Animal Services is also invested in the issue of cat and dog adoption. Its function is to support the Baldwin County Animal Shelter.

“By finding the animals of the shelter either safety with licensed rescue partners or forever homes with loving adopters,” said Ashton Branch, rescue and adoption coordinator for Animal Services and head of FOBCAS. “Doing the fundraising for medical needs or needs within the shelter.

“We love any month or day that highlights an animal need. Getting these guys advertised to the people who are able to give them homes is the ultimate goal. Giving them the life they never knew existed.”

The ARF adoption process that looks at previous veterinarian references. That means there is an application that includes listing of veterinarians.

“We want to make sure they are going to the best home possible,” said Veazey. “Someone who is going to take care of them, take them to the vet for their yearly stuff. We don’t allow our cats to be outside cats.

“Animals get sick. They require care. State law requires a least a rabies shot every year or every three years.

“All our animals are fixed before they leave … and they are up to date on their shots. Also, in conjunction with our local animal control, offer low-cost spay or neuter clinics every so often when we have the funding. We have one coming up in August. The reality is there’s not a huge amount of funding for it.

“We have a terrible feral cat problem in Baldwin County. They are working really hard to trap and release … the cats that aren’t really bothering anybody, but we don’t want them to create larger colonies. It’s not really an official program. They’ll tip their ear. They fix them, give them a rabies shot and rerelease them where they were. When you do that, they tend to keep the other cats from coming into the area. Truthfully, they are cats that would not be happy as house cats. Yes, they are going to have a shorter life span, but we do what we can to keep them healthy.”

“Unfortunately, in a rural community, responsible pet ownership is not the norm,” said Branch. “Spay or neuter, containing pets, having tags on pets, all are not the norm. That’s not to say we don’t have those individuals. Combating animals that are getting lost, roaming and adding to the pet overpopulation problem is a constant battle.”

Branch said the intake for dogs and cats at Animal Control is 1,000 to 1,500 a year. She said there is a ‘no-kill’ status Animal Control attained, which means that 90% of the animals in the facility make it out alive (or less than 10 percent has to be euthanized).

“We have been able to maintain that rate, which is something our local volunteers and adopters and supporters and vet clinics and everyone in our village, ARF as well, comes together to save as many of these animals,” said Branch. “It’s still an uphill battle.”

And it all does cost something. Instead of more strays, perhaps ARF would rather find boxes of cat food or cat litter left at the door as a gift to the cause. Or, if the line was people bringing cash, checks or gift cards so Veazey and her helpers can go get what they know they need.

Veazey said the Baldwin community is good about coming through when they say they are low on something. Tilly is a small cat they are sure was thrown out as two others were found dead with her in the parking lot across the street. She had life-threatening bruised lungs and a broken leg. But they got her the proper treatment to be ready for adoption, though the leg may need to be amputated.

“A lot of days end at negative,” said Veazey in regards to available funds. “We have some long time donors who donate regularly. We always need donations of cash. Our Wal-Mart gives us their broken bags of food. We are very blessed and grateful for that. But the need in this county is unbelievable.”

For the past 10 years, ARF has run Peaceful Pet Crematory next door that supplements their income. The building itself has expenses with property taxes, insurance and utilities. Those vet bills are “very expensive” even with discounts the vets provide when they can.

Veazey said the summertime is the natural breeding season for cats and dogs. Some have been in ARF for multiple years (one dog has been there three years and “perfectly happy”), and Veazey said it’s rare an animal basically lives out a life in the shelter.

“We have some gorgeous cats,” she said. “We have cats for every lifestyle. Cats we affectionately call our ‘crazy cats.’ We have the sugary sweetest cats you’ve ever seen. We have one … I’ve never seen such a sweet cat.”

Milo has been around ARF a couple of years and has a condition called Megaesophagus, a mild case but has to be held upright in order to eat.

“It’s as bad now as it was 10 years ago,” said Branch about when she first got involved with FOBCAS. “That’s the case across the country. We have rescue partners in Maine, New York, Alabama, Florida. Everybody is feeling the same pressure. The lines of people outside of shelters to surrender or abandon animals is much longer than the line of people waiting to adopt. We need the support from the community helping us with supplies, donations. Of course we need people to adopt them, give them loving homes.”

As far as the process, Veazey doesn’t want anybody to be discouraged by the notion of ‘too much red tape.’ No, it’s not walk in and walk out anymore with rescue with the cautions they at ARF must take.

“We don’t want to see them back,” she said. “It’s a simple application, takes five minutes to fill out. Sometimes we have young people, particularly college students, who want to adopt from us. They don’t have those (vet) references. Totally fine. We will use their parents as references. A lot of times people do what they know. They will follow their parents’ example. Once an application is approved, we’ll set up an appointment.”

ARF began with Bobbie Thompson in 1983 (before Veazey arrived to her home).

“She had a great board. They got on good footing,” said Veazey, who unfolded newspapers as a volunteer and advanced to paperwork, and ‘somehow ended up president.’ “We progress. We change. We become more technology savvy. Some of our board members have been around a very long time, 20 years, 10 years. The rescue part is very emotionally draining. That’s a serious problem in our field, what they call compassion fatigue. We’ve had cats that had cancer.

“Animal Control, they get the worst cases when they are having to go in and confiscate, things like that. Hancock County just got an animal control. Wilkinson County has no animal control. We have this serious lack of resources, education, people who can’t afford to (spay or neuter). You do the best you can, but there’s never enough.”

Baldwin County Animal Control is open to the public from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Branch said anyone is welcome to come get set up as a volunteer during these hours. Georgia College & State University has Shelter Buddies help train volunteers. Branch said there’s PayPal for monetary donations, an Amazon Wish List, and the animals are listed on Pet Finder. They also work with Old Capitol Pet Care where donations can be made to their account. See www.facebook.com/BaldwinShelter/ for links.

ARF info can be found at animalrescuefoundation.org.