My shelter is closing... (Long!)

[Zagari]

Thank you. Our return rate is very low and most of the time it is people problems, not the animals themselves.

[merriterrier]

Glad things are looking up!

[Zagari]

At the board meeting last night, they decided that we should shut our doors for good. September 30 is our last day and September 30 is the last day for the animals. Their press statement should be out Monday but they said that all animals will be euthanized if they aren't placed by then. This sucks! Worse than sucks. Ugh! This is the first time I've actually shed any tears over the situation.

We have an adoption event tomorrow that is out of county. Last year we had 19 dog adoptions at this event and we're hoping for just as many this year. That would take care of the majority of the dogs but what about the cats? We're pulling every resource! Rescues don't seem to want to take any animals unless there's a threat of them getting killed! Well, now's their chance to step up and take them!

The director says she going to pull every string and get ahold of every contact she has made over the years. We have several dogs that have been at the shelter for a long time and they will be VERY hard to adopt out. The board asked her last night, what if at the end of the month there are still animals here? She says there won't be. Even if rescues don't take them she told me today that they will disappear but doesn't know where that will be.

God! I'm a mess right now. I wish I could take on more dogs but I can't! There's one cute little pit bull there that I would love to have. She's a lot of dog and probably even to much for me. I have four cats now and my family doesn't know it yet but if my little Aurora doesn't get adopted, she will be mine. I want her to have a chace with another family first. Wow... I just don't even know what else to say.

Little Crimson... maybe 30 pounds! She's tiny! The dog mentioned in the above paragraph.
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/20737125

[ilovetyson]

Can I post about this on My FB to see if anyone can help?!

[Zagari]

Of course! You may post this anywhere that you think will help get these animals out of here!

[Zagari]

Today was a great day! At the adoption even we adopted out 16 dogs to great homes! Another group helped us out and we made sure that everyone was screened really well. We also had 12 cats adopted! Yay!!

Someone posted about our situation on Craigslist and then our Facebook page started to get swamped. Everyone is freaking out that were not doing anything and we're just going to kill our animals. That is not the case! We are doing everything we can to get them out of here! It's not like we want to and we won't! They will all be placed!

If not though, another county shelter has volunteered to take all of the remaining dogs at the end of the month. We don't have any takers on the cats yet but we have a volunteer (the same one who paid for most of our animals to be s/n, the cat room that wasn't built, and quite a bit of money) has offered to donate a large sum of money to whatever rescue/shelter takes the rest of the cats.

It turns out, I learned today, that we're actually $40,000 in debt. How does that happen? It's insane! We still have our thrift store open though to help get us out of debt. Then, maybe in 1.5-2 years the shelter can open again. Who knows.

[Zagari]

The article came out in our local paper last night on their website.

Today at least three news crews came by to cover the story.

One aired at 6 pm and one is set to air at 11 pm.


Here's the link to the video I'm in. Don't make fun of me too much! I'm the one talking about Bo and Luke. I tried to get them to focus on Crimson but I think the camera guy was scared of her. She's the pit bull not the husky-looking guy. That's Lane.
http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/local/we ... ts-closure

I wouldn't be surprised if all the animals ended up being adopted tomorrow. There are five dogs and 26ish cats left to place. HELP in Missouri has agreed to take the remaining cats at the end of the month! The Sullivan County shelter offered to take the remaining dogs. Obviously, we still want to place as many as we can here because we don't want to burden the other shelters who have animals of their own. A wonderful coonhound rescue has agreed to take on Jed, Jethro, and Ellie Mae, the bloodhound. Yay!

[patty]

I'm really sad this is happening to your shelter. This economy is just devasting everything Your shelter has risen to the task of homing or finding safe haven for the animals. Try and find some comfort in that.

We would never make fun of your TV appearance. You have a warm heart and soul. Keep us updated throughout the month.

s for all the shelter staff

[Zagari]

ALL OF THE ANIMALS HAVE BEEN PLACED!

Several rescues volunteered to take a few dogs. They said if they didn't get placed then they would take them. We placed every single dog in a home, with the exception of Jethro who really needs the coonhound rescue and someone who knows his breed.

All the cats with the exception of the sick cats and the mom and babies were adopted. The sick kittens and mom with babies are still going to HELP in Missouri. www.HELPpets.org

I'm overjoyed! But then again I'm really depressed. That means I'm out of a job sooner. What am I going to do with my life now? I've devoted myself to the shelter for the last nearly two years!

[dogs4jen]

That's good news for the animals, I'm awfully sorry about your job.