A visit to the animal shelter

Hip-hip hooray, I’m adopted today!" The phrase is boldly printed on Houston SPCA’s adoption kits, a small lunchbox-type of cardboard box big enough for a small cat or dog. Initially, the box contains literature on how to care for your dog/puppy/cat/kitten and some complimentary items like a foldable water dish and a collar. A family also has to pay $45 adoption fee to adopt a cat or kitten and about $75 to a $100 for a dog. The fee covers the spay/neuter of the animal and the basic vaccination shots that the animal needs. The animal has also been tested negative for AIDS and leukemia before it is given out for adoption. A discount coupon for your new pet’s first visit to the veterinarian (affiliated with the shelter) is also given out. If your newly-adopted pet dies within a month or two from the adoption date due to illness, the shelter allows you to adopt another shelter animal minus the adoption fees.

This whole adoption process is basically the same for all the shelters we visited. Some animals are returned to the shelter because of a variety of reasons, that could have been covered by a complete on-on-one with an adoption counselor. For example, yard space and allergies of any of the family members are generally discussed before a shelter approves an adoption. An adoption and sterilization contract is filled out. Then, the final stage where the cat or dog meets the entire family in the adoption room (for cats) and the acquaintance garden (for dogs).

While the adoption room for cats was quiet and comfy, filled with cushions, kitty lofts (or a mini-kitty playground, if you may), the acquaintance garden for dogs was a place where prospective "parents" could walk the dogs around in an outdoor environment.

NO BAD DOGS

The Pasadena, Houston and the San Francisco SPCAs all offer support programs to people with pets or those who have just adopted animals from their shelter. Too often, an animal is returned because of an unforeseen behavior problem like incessant barking, aggressiveness to certain types of people, chewing on furniture, etc. An animal behavior expert has a hotline or an official e-mail at the shelter where the public could get advice on how to improve their pet’s behavior or give it basic training or discipline. The Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA goes a step further and offers night classes for beleaguered dog owners (none for cat owners though). The class, which is called BEST (which stands for "Behavior Enhancing Stimuli and Training") Dog Class, is taught by Penny Fordham – a fellow of the Pet Behavior Institute, Durham, England.

During the night that I attended her class, Penny had four students: Mishka and Abe, both Dobermans, Bubba, who looked like a Rottweiler to me, and Lily, a brown and white floppy-eared dog who resembled a Beagle. All came with their respective owners who listened intently to what Penny had to say and anxiously fiddled with their things when it was their pet’s turn to be "tested" by Penny on their progress. Apparently, each had earlier been given assignments like walking the dog a few hours a day on the leash prescribed by Penny or by practicing some of the commands.

The classroom would occasionally erupt with growls and near-dogfights but Penny kept things under control armed with just a water spray. She insisted on the dogs sniffing out each other as part of the socialization process.

KELLY AND ROSIE

An episode of our internship at Pasadena that I will never forget was the day we went to Arcadia, a local shopping center, with the Mobile Adoption Unit.

To make the community aware about the shelter and to find homes for "overstaying" dogs, the Mobile Adoption crew brings animals to public places like parking lots of shopping centers or parks. The crew is headed by Laura Hinsberger.

The vehicle used for Mobile Adoption is even more impressive than the Animal Rescue Vehicle (featured last week). It is a trailer of sorts with six kennels in the back and a small living room with all the comfy chairs and tables.

Volunteer Eva Mulligan helped us load two rabbits and two dogs into the Mobile Unit. The two dogs were picked out specifically because, despite their being suitable for adoption, they remained unadopted and have been at the shelter for more than a month. This trip with the Mobile Unit was probably their last chance. In line with shelter policy, overstaying dogs had to be "put to sleep" or euthanized.

"I can’t understand why nobody came to adopt Kelly," Laura said to us as she skillfully maneuvered the monster of a vehicle that we were all in. "I brought her to the local TV station last week and she did very well in that broadcast when I introduced her. She even shook hands with me while we were on air."

Laura was referring to the tall, friendly dog who leapt on people and kissed them whenever she had the chance. Kelly was returned to the shelter by her former owner because he said she was too active for him.

Rosie, the other dog – a small, brown mongrel with stubby legs – was more withdrawn. I had a feeling Kelly had a better chance of winning people over compared to Rosie and I immediately felt sorry for her.

"She has been at the shelter two or three weeks earlier than Kelly," Laura explained. "You can’t blame her for looking and feeling so despondent."

Sure enough, when PAWS president Nita Hontiveros-Lichauco and I arrived at the shopping center parking lot, Kelly was immediately fetched by a family of four who had already been at the shelter and was looking for her there. They had seen the broadcast and waited for the weekend so that all members of the family, including two young girls, would be free to meet her. Since forms were already filled out and the family was later on briefed by Laura, Kelly went home with her family that day.

We stayed for three more hours at the parking lot hoping that something similar would happen to Rosie but nobody came. A man in a wheelchair seemed very interested in Rosie and asked many questions. Laura and Nita took pains to explain that the dog’s shyness was due to its long stay in the kennels and that it would probably be more responsive once it had been adopted. The man simply nodded and wheeled away.

The drive home was unusually quiet. All of us knew what lay ahead for Rosie at the shelter. Eva kept shaking her head and muttering things about irresponsible people giving up their dogs at the shelter thinking that they would eventually be adopted. A lot of them did end up being put to sleep because they have been traumatized by the repeated return and separation from the families they have learned to love.

When we arrived at the shelter, we found out that a man in a wheelchair had filled out forms and was looking for Rosie, thinking that the Mobile Unit would be back at the shelter in an hour. We all looked at each other and thought: Could he be the same man at Arcadia?

He was! The man whose name was George, told us that he needed someone like Rosie to keep him company. The shelter allowed Rosie to go home with George after he signed a contract that he would take her back the following day to be spayed.

"Two adoptions in a day for the Mobile Adoption Unit… not bad. Not bad at all." Laura said as we watched man and dog wheel and walk away.

Later on, in my thank you letter to her, I would say, "Laura, in our line of work, we come across so many sad scenes: dogs being treated cruelly, strays that have to be put down . . . But now, every time I would have one of those discouraging days, I will just look back on the day that Rosie was adopted. And I would find the strength and hope to go on."

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, we sent words of encouragement to our shelter friends. All of us were still trying to make sense of how a man could be capable of such acts of violence. But Nita and I only have to think of Rosie, of George, the image of Patti Mercer of the Houston SPCA bottle-feeding a baby squirrel – the small and great acts of kindness we have seen during our visits to the shelters – and we regain our faith in man once more.

I believe that for every senseless act of violence, there are hundreds more out there who are capable of many, many acts of kindness without asking for anything in return. The good still outweighs evil in this world.

I think of Rosie and George often and wonder how they are.

(The author visited the Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA last March as a scholar of the Humane Society International and the Humane Society of the United States. Part of the scholarship included undergoing a week-long training on shelter operations. Traveling with her was Philippine Animal Welfare Society president Nita Hontiveros-Lichauco.)