It's time to show our gratitude!

Typically, I tend to send reminders to the citizens in our community about caring for their pets, and to try and remind my fellow pet owners to be be a little more vigilant regarding the wanderings of those pets.

Today however, I would just like to take a few moments for another purpose. I would like to speak for a little while about those that work behind the scenes, to make the lives of those animals I do wind up taking in to the pound a lot easier.

There are many, many wonderful organizations out there, whose sole purpose is to provide love and homes for the less fortunate animals in our midst. Those animals that have been discarded like an old tire, abused, starved and generally cast aside for whatever reason. Without these organizations, the pain, loneliness and suffering these unfortunate animals go through would be mind-boggling. The one I would like to focus on, is the Lifeline Animal Placement & Protection Organization (LAPP for short), out of Wichita, Kansas.

Perhaps some of my more ardent readers may remember me mentioning how during my first year in this job, I had to put down over two hundred dogs and cats that I simply could not find either the old owners for, or even find new owners for. That is two hundred animals in a town whose population runs less than three thousand. It kept me awake at night, more often than not, trying to figure out how and where I could find an alternative solution to this vexing problem.

As a community, we should all be concerned about the message it sends when we have so many lost and discarded animals in a town this size. Really, whether you own a pet or not, it affects us all. Stray and wandering animals are often left to the mercy of speeding vehicles, angry home owners who often vocalize their dislike of trespassing pets to the extent of wanting to shoot them, and also to other predatory animals. Animals that are dicarded and left to fend for themselves often contract diseases, which they can then pass on to our house pets via feces or perhaps even a bite. In some cases, they might even contract rabies, which they can also pass on to our household pets or our children.

The City of Eureka has a Animal Pound. We are not an Animal Shelter. The difference lies not only in the policies that govern the animals we can pick up, but also the type care the animals might recieve once they are picked up. I am essentially a one-man operation. I feed, clean & care for all the animals I have in the pound by myself. A Shelter on the other hand, might have several people working there, one of whom may be an in house Vet. In many cases, a Shelter has a vet on call 24/7 if they do not have one on staff.

Many Shelters are "No Kill" Shelters. They will keep an animal as long as it takes to find them either a foster home until a more permanent placement can be found, or a new family right away. Animal Shelters are most often "not for profit" organizations, which means they survive on grants from larger organizations like the American Humane Society, the ASPCA and private donations. The Eureka Pound however has very specific limits regarding the amount of time we should keep an animal before it is either returned to the owner, or adopted out. If either of these options fail, euthanization has been our only other option.

Until the wonderful people at LAPP came along that is.

LAPP is a "No Kill" Shelter. I had been calling around, looking for other options last year, when a contact at the Kansas Humane Society in Wichita told me about Patricia "Pat" Morriss, and her wonderful organization. For the past 8-10 months - honestly I've lost track - LAPP has sent numerous volunteers to our fair city to take virtually every adoptable animal we have had. Cats, dogs, puppies, and kittens. Pregnant and old, they have taken them and found them homes with loving families. In several cases, they even arranged to send dogs to places where they recieved much needed Vet care before final placement. And to make what this organization has done for our community even more special - as if what they have done wasn't enough already - in special cases, they have even been kind enough to help out the less fortunate in our community who for health and financial reasons weren't able to keep their beloved pets, by making special trips to take their pets for placement in new homes as well.

Since LAPP has started coming to Eureka, I have only had to euthanize two dogs. Both were animals that I picked up that had severe health issues where euthanization was the only option to stop their suffering. Well over 60 animals have gone through LAPP to new homes. Some animals have gone to Colorado where many cities have a shortage of adoptable pets. In the case of many purebreds, they have gone on to animal rescue groups that handle those special breeds, like German Shorthair Pointers or Austrailian Shepherds. I have frequently recieved e-mails with the pictures of many of the dogs once residents of our Eureka Pound, now lying around their new homes, relishing the love and attention of their new families.

And I can't help smiling. As you should. Smile because you know that without the help and concern of organizations like LAPP in general, and LAPP in particular, most probably all of those animals would no longer be with us. They would have been doomed to an all but too brief existence, thanks to the carelessness or callousness of their former owners. Smile because thanks to LAPP, these loving, beautiful animals now have a bright & loving future, instead of a terminal existence.

So, in closing let me say that we all, pet owners & non-pet owners alike, owe a much deserved debt of gratitude to LAPP and it's many volunteers, who have made the future existence of these animals possible. And the next time you are thinking it might be nice to donate a few dollars to a worthy cause, think of the animals LAPP has taken from us...for us...and give back what you can to help them keep doing it, not just for us, for all the other Eureka-like communities out there who need their help and support.

Thank you LAPP! And God bless you every one!