Animal Shelter | Monroe County

As always, the pace here is unbelievably fast and always busy. We are always full and it is difficult to turn away people that we know are in need, but we simply do not have the room.

There are so many people to thank who volunteer and donate to us, without them I don't know where we would be. None of the Veterinary Hospitals are able to provide discounts to shelters, at least that we know of, so we pay the same price that the public does. If you have taken an animal for care lately, you have some idea of what we face daily. If not for Dr. Tina Lyngvar of Legacy Pet Care of Westland and Dr. Marion Schenk of Dundee Veterinary Clinic in Dundee these two dedicated doctors come here to the shelter about once a month and do rabies vaccines and check over any animals, we are worried about. This is a huge savings but when an animal needs attention outside of those times, we take them to Heritage Hospital which gives excellent care, but it is a cost we did not plan on.

Food has gone up in price and the cost of the medications we purchase also is at an all-time high.

We are launching a new membership program soon with new member only shirts. There was an art contest for the entire month of August, we had 12 entries and each week, sometimes twice a week, we visited different locations and had voting open to the community. Each vote was $1.00, it raised around $4,000 for the care of the animals and was a lot of fun for everyone. The winner was Connie Gotz, 2nd place was Rylee Dunn and in 3rd was Bailey Mruzik. So contact us about becoming a member and joining in with a new designer, members only shirt.

All of the artists are listed on our web site, voting was hard because all of the works are fantastic and made with love!

I mentioned having to turn away people who are trying to surrender animals. We try our best to take in as many as we can and as one is adopted out another takes its place.

The stress of this job takes its toll but at the same time it is one of the most rewarding things you can do.

What weighs a lot on my mind are the number of homeless animals, especially cats. In June and July we were turning away about 100 cats per day. Sounds like an exaggeration? I wish it was. People would call with a mom cat and kittens, or a box of kittens left in their yard, cats taking over people's yards and garages. Three of us in the office taking calls over and over. Multiple calls for a mom and 5 to 8 babies each time adds up fast. Then calls with multiple litters. On top of that people who are calling looking to rehome their pets, dogs and cats. The reasons run the spectrum from legitimate to ridiculous. We or any shelter or rescue can only do so much. Today is Tuesday and I alone have taken calls for 4 adult cats, 13 kittens with 2 moms and 4 dogs all looking to be surrendered and it is only 2:30.

Michigan State is coming to our shelter a few times to spay and neuter our shelter animals and this has been a God send, but even with this help so much more needs to be done. There needs to be community spay and neuter clinics. I do not know what the answer is or how to get there, yet.

But if you have an animal get it fixed. If you are thinking of surrendering an animal because you don't have enough time, or it poops too much or sheds to much or is to affectionate or not affectionate enough, DON'T. Adjust your life to make it work, you made a commitment to this animal and it is not the animals fault, or you find a home for them. Which will take time and meanwhile you get them fixed. Expensive yes, put away a few dollars each week. An animal at home that doesn't get much attention like it should is 1,000 times better off than coming to a shelter.

And if you are coming to a shelter or rescue to adopt, come with an open heart and an open mind. We have people come in for a particular dog or cat but that may not be the best for you. So please come with some time to meet different animals you may not have considered. It will help you to make an informed decision, and it will be great for the animals.

We had a large family come in for a lab only, none of the labs were very interested but I asked them if I could bring out one of our sweetest dogs. It was love at first sight for this very large family with a small black and white pit bull named Checkers. On top of that Checkers who had not been taken care of in her previous life, had health problems including heart worm. This amazing family took Checkers anyway, this little dog with nothing but love to give won the lottery with this family, all because they agreed to look at something besides what they were sure they wanted.

Lastly, I want to point out that Christmas is just around the corner we have a limited number or shirts by Australian artist Karen Agar, along with hoodies, crew necks and other shirts, all for sale at the shelter. These make excellent gifts for those you love, teachers, that friend you can never think of what to get or for yourself. We also have dog and cat toys, lots of outfits, harnesses and collars. It's worth a stop.