Lynchburg Humane Society Blog

I would never tell anyone how they should donate their hard earned money. But, I can't resist blogging about an incident that happened here at the Lynchburg Humane Society. A nice woman came in to our facility with an arm full of towels, papers and some food. She approached our counter with her checkbook out and asked if we were No Kill. When the front desk staff member said no, but we are working towards becoming No Kill. The woman loudly said, "well, I only give to No Kill organizations." She closed up her checkbook and left. That got me thinking. Why wouldn't you give to an organization that was in the process of becoming No Kill. This is the time when those types of organizations need the support from the community the most. It is expensive to create a No Kill community. It is much easier to raise funds when you are No Kill but why not get on the wagon early to help bring about these types of efforts? Unfortunately, this person didn't allow us to expl...

Copied from an article by Jessica Bullock in the News and Advance At the Lynchburg Humane Society, we always chuckle to ourselves when people come in the shelter looking for a “house dog.” When confronted with this phrase, most people think of Chihuahuas, Yorkies, Dachshunds and other small breeds. Some people have the mistaken impression that small dogs are easier to deal with in a home—however, that is not necessarily the case. Any dog can be a house dog, regardless of whether he or she is five pounds or 80. It all depends on the dog’s personality. We have had a number of large dogs that would (and are) perfect for any home. Some recently adopted dogs are great examples of large house dogs. One was a 60-pound lab/chow mix named Bear. He loved to relax and be loved on. Sure, he sometimes liked to get out and run, but he would have been a wonderful dog for any sized home. The same scenario goes for the 45-pound Bella, a black lab mix who was fairly quiet, shy, and housetrained to a fau...

On September 2nd I lost my dog Parker very suddenly to a cancerous tumor that bled out in his abdomen. For those of you who follow this blog Parker was featured in a number of posts but most recently in a fun blog about my office affair. If you are like me, your pets are like kids. Even after I had a two legged child of my own, my dog was still very much my four legged child. So to have him pass away so suddenly has left a real hole in my heart. Parker was a special dog that was famous in his own right. He was featured on an Animal Planet "adoption story" called Cooper, he was in Newsweek, USA today, The Times Dispatch and was in TV commercials for the Richmond SPCA because he was so well trained and represented the family dog so well. He was special to me and everyone who met him. So while this is extremely sad for me and my family, it is in my nature to find the positive in any bad situation. About a week before Parker's sudden passing, I brought home a fo...

Copied from an article by Ann Holland in the News & Advance His name is Paddock and he is our puppy. My husband and I had planned to adopt an older dog in large part because we did not want a puppy. Puppies are a nuisance – housebreaking, chewing, jumping – no, thank you! And yet somehow here he is. In our house. Chewing on our baseboards. It is a tremendous responsibility to raise a puppy to be an upstanding member of society. And when things aren’t going as planned, it’s easy to become frustrated and overwhelmed. When a puppy is little, his adorableness makes it easy to forgive him for eviscerating your throw pillows. Young puppies are also fast learners, which makes training fun. But once a puppy reaches adolescence (a period ranging from 6 to 18 or more months), watch out. Suddenly he has “selective hearing,” forgets that he’s housebroken, chews on everything and is, in general, an obnoxious brat. To make matters worse, adolescent puppies a...