Lynchburg Humane Society Blog

“Oh look at her. She is so cute. We have to get her.” This is a common thing to say when searching for a new pet. But it’s not the smartest way to pick out your new family member. Just because a dog is cute, doesn’t mean that he or she is the right choice for your family or your lifestyle. At the Lynchburg Humane Society, we often see owners surrender their dogs because they are just too much to handle. What it usually boils down to is that the breed isn’t right for the family. A great example is a border collie. In my opinion, these are one of the most beautiful breeds of dogs. However, they can be a handful. They are very smart, and always need a job to do, meaning they must have some sort of stimulation or else they will find their own job to do. And in turn, you might not be happy with the job they have elected for themselves. I will be honest, I have been guilty of the, “Oh look at her. She is so cute. We have to get her.” way of thinking. Seven years ago, my husban...

Recently I gave birth to my second child. Lily Grace was born on December 20th of 2010 and so she is still waking my husband and I up a lot in the middle of the night. Last night during her 2:00 am feeding I got to thinking about partnerships. My husband and I have a wonderful partnership in parenting and in household responsibilities. He is an amazing husband that helps me in so many ways. We both have full-time jobs and so we share the middle of the night feedings of our new daughter. This way neither one of us has to take the brunt of the nightly feedings alone. So how does this apply to the Lynchburg Humane Society? Well as I was feeding my daughter half asleep it struck me that I am glad I have a wonderful husband and I don’t have to get up for the next feeding. Basically we can do it alone but it is much more difficult and when you have partners the task is much easier. Yes, I get lots of ideas at my middle of the night feedings, just ask the staff. The Lynchburg Humane So...

My career with the Lynchburg Humane Society has been rather short, relatively speaking, but what I will take with me will last a lifetime. The first thing I want to say is that I am not leaving the Lynchburg Humane Society because I necessarily want to. Due to life changing events, I am moving several states away and as much as I love this organization, that commute might be a bit long. If I could take everything that entails the Lynchburg Humane Society with me to Florida, I would. I will be honest - this is not what I saw myself doing after I graduated from Virginia Tech last May. Five years ago when I decided to go back to school, I did it because I wasn’t satisfied with my current job. It was a good job, but it just wasn’t fulfilling. So I asked myself, what am I passionate about? The answer was animals. I wanted to work in the agriculture field, perhaps working on regulations regarding how livestock animals are cared for and making it a more humane field. So I pursued a d...

I had the pleasure of having an interesting conversation with a member of another humane organization this past weekend. They are an SPCA that takes in animals for a number of localities and operates as the pound for their area. She asked how we were doing in Lynchburg and I, of course, was excited to tell her about our recent success about our save rate being 84% and having no healthy animal lose their life in our shelter in 2010 and how much the community has embraced the changes as we move toward becoming No Kill. She immediately went to defense mode and asked me loaded questions to prove I was wrong and of course explain to me how our programs wouldn’t work for them. The appointment system, wouldn’t work – pet owners aren’t responsible enough to do the right thing. People must be just “dumping” their animals in other localities.” Fact : The counties that reported their stats for 2010 in the Lynchburg area saw a reduction in the number of animals they took in and more...