Daniel and Gary at Eufaula Al Animal Control defy the stereotype. Many of the men we meet in shelters, especially ACOs, tend to be gruff, all business, following the rules, and a bit indifferent to the dogs in their care.…
The Laurens County Sheriff’s Animal Shelter is a typical municipal shelter with too many dogs, only two volunteers, and very little community engagement. But that’s where the similarities end. Despite having nearly twice as many dogs as the shelter was…
It’s been a week since we returned from our latest shelter tour. Once again, it was a learning experience. We visited ten shelters in five states – South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Kentucky. We spent most of our time…
My mother-in-law needs a dog. That was the impetus for my visit to Humboldt County Animal Control Shelter in McKinleyville, California. We were visiting, so I suggested we go visit the shelter. I was curious to see if California municipal…
It’s time for another shelter tour! This time we’re headed to five states with ten, possibly eleven stops, so it’ll be a lot of driving and a lot of gathering stories, meeting heroes, and of course, hanging out with adoptable…
Our winter shelter tour leaves on January 29. This will be a (relatively) short one, just five or six days. We’re still nailing down our stops, but it looks like we’ll visit shelters and rescues in Virginia, North Carolina, South…
Westmoreland County Animal Shelter sits at the end of a lane, past a young vineyard, just outside the town of Montross. It’s a large, well-kept cement building surrounded by grassy space. We met Deputy Kriz, one of the Animal Control…
The Richmond County Animal Shelter in Warsaw on Virginia’s Northern Neck was built in 2019. It’s a small, bright, clean building with 9 regular kennels, 2 isolation kennels, and a cat room with a bank of cat condos. The lay…
Northumberland County Animal Shelter is on the path to proving that it’s possible to operate a successful, open-intake municipal shelter that saves nearly all the saveable dogs (and cats) in a rural area with few resources. They have all the…
This Sunday we will be heading off on another shelter tour – this time sticking close to home. We’ll be visiting six shelters in my home state of Virginia. On our way out, we’ll have a quick, fun stop at…