It took us forever to find the place. We made five wrong turns and had to backtrack a few times. How could it be this hard to find an animal shelter? Were they trying to stay hidden so that no sick, malnourished, poor, pitiful, little dog or cat may wander up to the facility and make themselves at home, whatever the reason I was getting frustrated. I was driving behind my mom in my little Nissan Maxima. As I was trying to keep up with her, my white sedan was getting covered in dust by her spinning wheels as they were swinging her tan vehicle around. By the time we pulled off the road into the gravel “driveway” that was the SCHS’ parking lot my mom and I were both relieved and anxious for our meeting to start since we were already late by 30 minutes.
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| This is where the animal sanctuary will be built in the near future. |
When my mom told me about a meeting she was attending here at the newly constructed Humane Society, I immediately invited myself. She was invited to this meeting to give her ideas on how to improve the financial and physical aspects to the organization. I was hoping to get more involved to help out the animals like my mom does but instead of taking more dogs into our home and adding to the high headcount of 8, I could help animals find a home of their own. I began forming an idea of what the meeting would be like and what would be discussed. I imagined a building very similar to the vet’s office where I used to work. I envisioned an office with a window for new residents to check in and paperwork getting filled out. I also thought there would be a few waiting rooms much like a doctor’s office. I pictured there to be kennels filled with yapping dogs pleading for someone to initiate them into their families. I figured we would be discussing some volunteering opportunities or brainstorm some fundraising ideas.
I was instantly thrown off by the appearance of the building and the large plot of land it sat on. My mom made an “hmm” noise as we walked up towards the entrance. I imagine she was not impressed by what she saw or did not see rather. It didn't have any fencing or boundaries so I had no idea where the property ended. There were tall green and yellow weeds sporadically located throughout the yard. I asked her how long since the building was finished being constructed and she responded “apparently not long enough if they don’t have a fence up.” When I read Todd Martin’s article Humane Society hoping to open new clinic in spring; will give society chance to help many more animals I see that this is still an ongoing project and there are several phases that have not even began being constructed. “The building is phase one of the humane society’s greater vision for the land. Phase two would incorporate a larger adoption center on the grounds and also add an animal sanctuary, and phase three would put a small barn on the property for horse rescue.” When I look into the long yard I notice where the barn would be placed for the equine rescues. I point this out to my mom and she simply shakes her head as we get near the porch. It looked like we were entering someone’s home. It was small on the outside which made it hard for me to visualize where all the animals would be kept. I noticed there wasn't much landscaping near the front of the building. There was a glass front door that looked much like one you would find on a normal house. The glass door allowed you to see directly in at the 3 dogs inside barking excitedly as new guests approached them. The closer we got the more excited they became.
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| Barbara's german sheppard Fluffy. |
When we got inside we gave our introductions, even the dogs introduced themselves by hopping up on two legs as if to hug my mom and I. there was a lean German Sheppard named Fluffy who was getting publicly harassed by Shep, the tiny white stringy-haired terrier mix and then there was Katie, a black Lab. She was extremely friendly and her fur was so soft to the touch that I was a little surprised when I first patted her. I could easily tell she was well groomed from reflection of the overhead lights shining off her dark coat that it looked white at first. Shep and Fluffy belonged to Barbara Zekausky the CEO/CFO of 10 years. Barbara was introduced to the CEO position by a friend whom she volunteered at the Woodstock animal shelter with. Katie belonged to Tracie who has been working here part time recently. Tracie and Barbara gave us a tour of the office so we could see what all has been done.
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| Barbara Zekausky(right) and Tracie(left) outside the Humane Society. |
The waiting room was very small filled with only 5 fold out chairs that resembled the ones movie directors lounge in. There were 2 exam rooms, 1 for dogs and 1 for cats no matter how many came in at once, there were separate cages in the cat room and a kennel in the dog room. There was a spacious sparkling clean operating room with one table for the spays, neuters, dental work and any other surgeries to be performed. “None of the local vets from the county would work with me, so we hired a doctor she lives in the county but works in Oldham County. Dr. Gregory is an awesome surgeon and she truly cares about the animals.” Dr. Gregory performs surgeries once every two weeks and has done about 200 animals within this year so far. Outside of the OR were many shelves which housed gleaming silver tools which were used in the surgeries. There was also an office where the paperwork was being processed and where this meeting was going to take place. I realized that I haven’t seen any animals but the 3 dogs of the welcoming party so I asked where the animals were. There was a basement where the cats were kept and they told me there were some kennels outside for the dogs.
I walk down the unfinished steps that lead me into the basement and I can smell the sawdust from the small piles I am hiding under my feet as I descend down the stairs. It was a walkout basement so there was plenty of natural sunlight with the help of the large glass doors. When I get to the bottom of the steps, I see a bunch of cat kennels, maybe 12 or more each with 2 cats in them. These weren’t kittens they were all full grown cats. As soon as I showed my face, a symphony of “meow’s” and “purrs” flooded my ears. I could hear maybe 20 different noises all at once each coming from a different cat. There were so many cats down there in those cages I couldn’t believe it. There was no organization to the setup of the crates. They were all just placed around the room anywhere they would fit. There was enough space to walk between each cage. As I weaved my way through half of the crates I came to a fenced in room which would have been ideal for some dogs but there were more cats in that section. These cats in this area were free to roam around anywhere within the borders. I noticed that some cats were coming down from the woodwork in the ceiling which wasn’t finished either. They were all racing towards me rubbing up against the enclosure some reaching out to me. I felt like all they wanted was some attention, and so I gave it to them. I pet the ones within reach and tried playing the best I could. I started to smell the dry litter boxes with the perfumed gravel in them. There was a faint scent of urine and feces, perhaps from a combination of the 20 or more litter boxes that were placed down here. I walk towards the door and notice that outside there are 3 dogs each in its own kennel.
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| Dogs in the kennel. |
I join in the meeting and hear that they are discussing ways to improve this facility. We began discussing many of the internal flaws of the organization. A nonprofit company can be very difficult to sustain when there are many bills that need to be paid and no guaranteed cash flow. It’s also a challenge to maintain the facility when there aren’t enough helping hands being lend. I interrupt to ask who tends to the animals to find out that Barbara has to do almost all of the work due to lack of volunteers. Martin confirms this when he wrote “With a new clinic and animal sanctuary in the works, officials at the Shelby County Humane Society determined they could not devote the time needed to continue running the No Kill Mission. Although the society still supports the mission, the time and number of volunteers just weren’t going to be available to continue to support both.”
There are many opportunities to raise money for the business but there isn’t any manpower to do so. “There aren’t enough reliable volunteers that we can count on to do what they are supposed to without having to hold their hands.” Barbara has been struggling with her volunteer situation her entire 10 years being CEO however, recently has been more of a challenge than anything. She claims to be feeling helpless when it comes to finding the right amount of people needed to do even the smallest tasks to raise money for the company. Where have all the dedicated volunteers gone?
There have been many organizations popping up all throughout Kentucky that were once a part of the humane societies and have decided to leave and put their missions at the top of their priority lists. “All of our volunteers have been helping out with all of these other organizations and have forgotten who started all of them. They see their desperate need of these companies to get started and they rush to help them because it looks like they need more help than we do, that may be true, but it doesn’t eliminate our need for help.” There have been several of Barbara’s most reliable volunteers who can’t help out as much because they are devoting their time to other projects.
Many of the trusted volunteers are volunteering at the animal shelter of Shelby County or the CatSnip clinic. Since all of the companies are related it would make sense to combine them. “I am hoping that once we have everything finished on the home front we can combine all of the related organizations again and all work towards our common goal which is to help the animals.” Barbara has been a major supporter of all of the No Kill fundraisers and has put a lot of time and effort into making the mission stable. She also endorses operation CatSnip which is intended to help fund the spay and neutering of felines within Shelby county animal shelters. “By the end of our expansion I hope to have everyone together and we can get a lot more funding and delegate as needed. If we all could work together the animals would benefit immensely.” If all of the organizations would join together the volunteers wouldn’t have to make a decision about where they wanted to volunteer and they wouldn’t have to take a side. Everyone would get the help they needed. Also they would attract a wider range of people. The funding would be better too because they could generate a larger income if they all combined the profits raised.
While the economy is struggling many families are having a hard time making ends meet and providing for themselves let alone their beloved pets. Many pets have been listed on Petfinder.com because the owners can’t provide for them anymore. There have even been several cases in the news of owners tossing their pets out of their windows. Pets are losing their value and so people are getting rid of them. The best place to take them if they can’t find a replacement home would be an animal shelter. There are many animals that are found wandering around every day. People who take them to some animal shelters may think they are helping the animals by putting them in a better situation where they can be looked after. However, all of the animal shelters are reaching maximum capacity and not enough people to look after them. So soon there will be no place to take these animals and no one to care for them. There should be more people wanting to volunteer their time to help save these animals. There is nothing but time and opportunity. The humane society is so short staffed they have a hard time devoting times to even find volunteers. They were so dependent on those ones that would come in without being asked and now they have been drawn away by related organizations
Martin, Todd. “Humane Society hoping to open new clinic in spring; Will give society chance to help many more animals." www.sentinelnews.com. January 21, 2010. Web. June 16 2011
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| Blackboard was down when I got off work. |
