Skip to main content

Blizzard! Lori Cline takes care of business at LHS

We are often asked how the animals are managed when the shelter is closed and during inclement weather. Of course shelter workers are always scheduled to come in to clean runs and cages and feed the animals whether we're open to the public or not. The LHS shelter staff are fiercely loyal to the animals and would never neglect their duties.
Lori Cline, the shelter supervisor, left work Friday just as the monster blizzard was starting. She decided she just couldn't leave the animals alone and returned to the shelter. She said she was afraid the storm might be so bad that no one would be able to get back on Saturday to look after the critters. She made up her mind to spend the night at the shelter. I asked her how she spent the time. She cleaned, did some laundry,visited with the animals, did some paper work, and watched old Seinfeld reruns on the internet. She finally made a bed from blankets, freshly laundered of course, on the floor in the break room and with Baxter, one of the shelter dogs, for company slept. How lucky are we to have Lori Cline at the LHS!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

When the tables turn

It is not unknown for people to be scared of dogs. Animal shelters throughout history were built on that fear. Dog catchers were employed to capture packs of nuisance dogs that were roaming and pestering communities. Pounds were built on the edge of towns near the dump to remove stray dogs from towns and in most cases, destroy them to prevent public endangerment.   Fast forward to now and shelters are referred to as centers, instead of strays we say adoptable, we don’t say animals we say pets, and dogs are family members. Getting a dog without a home into a family is a community effort and #adoptdontshop is a movement.  So how strange it is that the COVID-19 pandemic has made us fear being too close to people and has increased our desire for pets?  People want to foster or adopt pets, now more than ever! At the Lynchburg Humane Society’s Center for Pets there has been an increase of 85% more pets in foster care than at this time last year. The Lynchburg Humane...

What I Now Know

What I Now Know.... When joining the Lynchburg Humane Society as their new Executive Director last month, I thought I knew A LOT about this community shelter.  After all, I was from Lynchburg and had adopted many of my family's pets from LHS over the years.  I knew that the shelter had once been housed in a cramped cinder block building back behind the City Stadium, and that the community had rallied around the need for a new facility - - -  coming together to build a beautiful new building on Graves Mill Road in 2015.  I had visited this new facility on numerous occasions, sometimes with a goal of selecting a new family addition and other times simply wanting to have cuddle time with those pets waiting to be adopted.  I knew that that I always left these visits feeling uplifted by the wagging tails of the dogs and the purring and "biscuit making" of the cats.  Like I said, I thought I knew a lot. BUT... Since working with our staff and volunteers for...

Kittens Kittens, Kittens!

Kittens...482 of them! Yes. you read that number that correctly. Since July 1st, the Lynchburg Humane Society has taken in 482 kittens under the age of 6 months. Of those, 260 were under 8 weeks old. We see day old kittens who need bottle feedings every 4 hours to litters of 6-week-old kittens who just need a little time to grow. The shelter is not a hospitable environment for a tiny unvaccinated kitten because of all the viruses and illnesses that can be present. Our foster program is instrumental in saving these precious lives. Since kittens are not able to be adopted until they are 8 weeks old, the foster program allows us the freedom to use the space at our Center for a pet that is ready for adoption. It also gives the kittens a jump start into socializing, staying healthy and learning what home life is all about. And another bonus - foster parents are really great at finding homes for their kittens! We have been asked about what affects kitten season and how do we handle it. S...