I Like to Fix Things
“I like to fix things,” explained Ginny, the director of Tazewell County Animal Shelter in southwest Virginia on the West Virginia line, when I asked how she came to work at the shelter. Prior to that, she’d been working for…
Virginia
Shelter Tour Was Inspiring: A Few Things We Learned
Last week’s shelter tour was inspiring. To be honest, I had braced myself, expecting the worst, as headline after headline declares shelters everywhere are overwhelmed. And yet, we met amazing people making the most of tough situations. For sure the…
Nonprofit/Municipal Shelter Success Story
You know something is different from the moment you pull onto the campus at Rockingham Harrisonburg SPCA. They hadn’t opened yet to the public, but the parking lot was filling up and the place was bustling with volunteers walking dogs,…
Sheriff’s Department Runs Shelter
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…
Rural Municipal Shelter Success
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…
Another Shelter Tour!
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…
Roanoke’s Regional Center for Animal Care and Protection is a Model for Small County Animal Shelters
It’s a pipe dream that every county in every southern state should have a progressive animal shelter that functions as a community resource and adoption center. There are simply too many small counties and too many stretched budgets. Instead, many…
Keeping the Animals Out of the Shelter
Owner surrenders are swamping this tiny county as they labor on offering foster care and advocating for spay/neuter.
Saving the Bullies
Fact: Rescue is hard. What's even harder? Rescuing pit bulls.
Fall Shelter Tour Part One
Traveling through the south this time around feels different. It’s not just the masks that are sometimes prevalent and other times completely absent. As we wind through the mountains on our way to Nashville, I wondered about priorities. Is it…