I saw an email outlining the animals at the Washington County Animal Control facility, a high-kill shelter, with their euthanization date of August 21, 2008. In the email list they mentioned a “one year old white german shepherd male,” and my first thought was I know why he’s there. I lived with a one year old white german shepherd terrorist that later became the love of my life, but during the terrorist years it was difficult at best to live with him. You know the rest of the story without me going any further but I’ll share it anyway. Walking into the Randolph County Humane Society, a no-kill shelter, is difficult for those of us that love animals, but those animals are allowed to live without fear of dying. . We are fortunate that our county is served by a no-kill shelter, and with your continued donations and volunteer support we’ll be able to keep it that way.
Walking into a high-kill shelter is another experience all together. Those animals know their time is limited, and some accept their fate while others jump and bark, doing anything and everything they can to get your attention, knowing full well their lives depend on it
On Tuesday, August 19, 2008, we brought Happy Jack home to be part of our pack. His new housemates include my husband, myself, Girlie Sue (11 year old white german shepherd female) and Budward (11 year old husky mix male). From the moment we left the shelter Happy Jack was a force to be reckoned with, a bundle of energy with no manners. And the smell was beyond description. Fortunately, Best Of Show in Sparta had time available to give him the full court treatment and the awful odor of impending death was replaced with the smell of a new beginning. His introduction to his pack mates went better than expected, but that’s a relative statement. It feels like we have a 7 year old that’s been sent to live with his great-grandparents (us, not the dogs). Jack is a 51 pound bag of bones that looks as if he hasn’t eaten in months. While the only dog bones we were used to seeing were well chewed and out in the yard, Jack’s bones stand an inch above his hips when he’s standing on all fours and his skin hangs in between his ribs. He doesn’t know a stranger, and he shares his kisses and body hugs with all he comes into contact with. I have seen a few behaviors that are not the best, but he’s a quick learner and so easy to teach that there isn’t anything he does that would cause a reasonable person to banish him to the pound. He’s extremely intelligent and eager to please. He lifted his leg in the house twice after he first got here, but after my scream of dismay and a quick trip outside to finish what he’d started he got the big picture and hasn’t done it again. Our dogs are mellow and live in the knowledge they will be fed regularly, but Jack is a Starvin’ Marvin that doesn’t trust he’s going to eat again anytime soon. I left the butter out after I’d made breakfast, but when I looked for it later I couldn’t find it anywhere. I was sure I’d just gotten a new stick out of the refrigerator but finally I thought I must have been having a senior moment. It didn’t occur to me that Jack might have eaten it until I noticed the pan of bacon grease left on the stove top to cool was licked half clean. As soon as I started to look on the floor for the butter I found my answer to the great butter mystery. There was the butter wrapper, lying in full sight, right in front of the utility room door. Always in the last place you look. I walked into the living room and there was a plastic shopping bag in the middle of the floor. I wasn’t too concerned until I realized it was the bag that contained the catfish stink bait my husband had recently purchased. Then Jack got sick, right in front of the door. I was happy to see he hoped to get outside before losing his cookies, but that’s little consolation when you’re the one cleaning up the mess. In one day Happy Jack has managed to accomplish something years of nagging by my husband had not; I’m becoming a better housekeeper. Not willingly, not gladly, but I’m doing it. And if that’s the price I pay for saving another love monkey from certain death, then I’ll have to buck up and do it.
He went to the vet to have his nuggets removed on the same day he had been destined to die, and I’m pleased to report Happy Jack is still happy. So for all of you on the fence about neutering your male dogs don’t fret. They’re the same animals afterwards as they were before, so you have nothing to fear. Besides removing his nuggets, Happy Jack had to have all his shots and the rest of the tests to insure he wasn’t a health hazard to himself or his housemates. If anyone thinks the $150 adoption fee from the RCHS is excessive, I would have saved $100 just in vet fees by adopting one of their shelter dogs. But I wasn’t looking to adopt a dog. Not until I read about the one year old male white german shepherd that would die unless I intervened.
And that brings me to the uncomfortable part of this story. There is a video on the Randolph County Humane Society website (randolphcountyhumanesociety.com) titled “In Hope, an animal shelter story” that I hope you will all make a point to view at your earliest convenience. There is one line in the video that shook me down to my toes, and I’m going to share it with you:
“For every animal that dies in a shelter there is someone, somewhere, responsible for its death.”
I hope that today you will make the decision to have your cats and dogs spayed and neutered because if you don’t and you’re not a registered breeder, then you’ve become the person they speak of. Does that make you uncomfortable? It should, because it speaks the truth we prefer not to think of, that we may be the ones responsible for their suffering. It’s not a pretty truth, but go walk around a high-kill shelter and take in what is happening to these animals. While they are guaranteed a less painful death than what they might experience otherwise that’s just not good enough. We must all be part of the solution so one day there will be no need for shelters to exist. It begins with you, and lest you forget, it will not happen without you.
Posted by tailtalk 
