Tag Archives: shelter

iPhone App for Pet Adoption

I blogged recently about pet adoption. I truly believe that adopting a pet from a shelter is the best way to take home an animal companion. There are so many animals to choose form right now too. With the economy hurting, many families and individuals are finding that they can no longer afford to keep their pets. It’s sad, but true. Shelters are overwhelmed with animals. One of the local news networks here ran a story about an area shelter that suspended its adoption fees to help families adopt pets. I called the shelter to find out how well it … Continue reading →

Of House and Home

There is a big difference between a house (or any living structure) and a home. This is even more clear when people are forced by things beyond their control to call a new space “home.” While various types of temporary shelter are often not what we would prefer for our families, even these spaces can be made to feel like home. There are many reasons people need temporary housing, from being unable to purchase a home, being away at college, or being in the military, to other more unfortunate reasons such as being displaced by disaster. The first, best way … Continue reading →

Starting A Shelter: How Are You Doing?

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Running a shelter is not an easy job. There will be hard days and depressing days. There will be happy days and triumphs. You’ll spend a lot of hours sweating over your finances or cleaning kennels. You may be witness to cruel mistreatment of animals. You’re going to encounter a lot more doggy doo and kitty poop than ever before. So how do you objectively assess the success (or failure) of your shelter? The shelter leaders and board of directors are responsible for seeing your mission statement come to life. If you aren’t fulfilling your mission, then something may need … Continue reading →

Starting A Shelter: Getting the Community Involved

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Unless you have limitless financial resources and can do all the work yourself (trust me, you can’t!) your shelter is going to need community support. So how do you do it? Publicity is key. If no one knows about your shelter, no one can help you. Start a mailing list. Include your animal-loving friends and family. Ask your volunteers, workers, and board of directors for names and addresses, too! Keep a sign-up sheet available at your shelter and at all events to keep that mailing list growing. Keep your website current. A website that is never updated isn’t going to … Continue reading →

On Having a Calling

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I will never forget my retirement reception at work. Most businesses have cut back on these events and Shell’s way of doing that was to host a retirement event for two of us at the same time. The other man got up to make his speech. He had worked until he had reached full retirement age and had thirty years of service with the company, just what ninety-five percent of the audience were planning to do. He and his wife own a home located on a cliff hanging over the ocean in Maine. He talked about sitting on the front … Continue reading →

Rescue a Child

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It’s Christmas Eve and we are putting the children to bed. Last night, one of our grown children stayed at the house and let my wife and I go to a late movie. We went to see the new Will Smith movie titled The Pursuit of Happyness. It’s a good movie that I would recommend about a man who went from being homeless to very successful. Yes, I know that “happiness” is misspelled; you will understand when you see the movie. But this is not a movie review. We needed a little rest and relaxation. The movie did not give … Continue reading →

Gotcha Day #2

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One month after our first “gotcha day”, the phone rang and it was our state social worker. She was calling to say that Caleb’s older brother, Tommy, was immediately available to be moved into our home as a foster child. Tommy had been in a therapeutic home because of his health. The foster parent that had him called the state and demanded that they pick him up that day. Apparently, they could not handle him. We were well on our way in our planning to adopt all three of Caleb’s older brothers. We readily agreed to take Tommy that day. … Continue reading →

Foster Children Need Love

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Sometimes foster children come into a home so distressed and traumatized that it is difficult to imagine how they could ever adjust to anything but institutional living. On May 5, 2003, Walter and Jacob came to live with us. We already had their two brothers, Tommy and Caleb. Jacob was very difficult to handle. We now had, Caleb, four months old, Jacob, 18 months old, Tommy, 30 months old, and, Walter, who was four and a half. Tommy was having hysterical, screaming rages quite regularly. Walter was very hyperactive and obviously anxious. Jacob could not get along with any of … Continue reading →

Gotcha Day #1

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“Gotcha Day” is the name in the adoption community for the day that the child came into the home. It corresponds to the birthday of a natural child. It is a day celebrated by many adoptive homes and a time for great rejoicing. My wife and I were with a realtor looking for a new home, a larger home to accommodate young children. My wife’s cell phone rang and it was our adoption social worker who informed us that we had a baby, a boy named Caleb. He was a month old and was being cared for in a shelter. … Continue reading →

Emergency Kits: Part 1

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Someone I know had to evacuate her house a few months ago. She lives near a busy road, and there was some kind of accident, nothing too serious except that the truck involved in the accident was carrying some kind of dangerous chemical. So there she was, with her small children and another child she was babysitting, when a police officer knocked at her door to tell her to get out of the house immediately. She explained that it would take her a few minutes to get everything together and the officer told her she didn’t have a few minutes. … Continue reading →