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...

Recently a good friend of mine from my home town contacted me for advice on getting a dog. Her family had never had a dog before so she had many misconceptions and questions. During her search for the right dog, she learned many lessons. She had in mind what kind of dog she wanted. She preferred a smaller dog, and wanted a puppy. I asked her to keep her mind open because great dogs come in many sizes and ages and that an older dog that was already housetrained might be the way to go since she didn't have much experience with dogs. My dear friend has virtually no patience, and once she sets her mind on wanting something, she wants it now. I told her if there was ever anything that you should be patient about, it is choosing a dog. This was her first lesson, and probably her hardest one. A few days later I received an excited phone call from her. She said she found a place that had over 30 puppies up for adoption. I wondered what kind of place this was, it wasn't the time of yea...

Holiday promotion helps pets find a home | The News & Advance

In the last few days we have learned a lot about ourselves and the community. We did something that made us nervous and was out of our comfort zone. We gave away adult cats for three days. We have talked about doing this promotion quite a bit as a joke, especially during our busy kitten/cat season but we always felt uneasy about it and decided not to. Then we walked down that path just a little with the “name your own price” promotion and were pleasantly surprised at how well that event went and how wonderful the adopters were. So when we found ourselves literally out of space and cringing every time the door opened in fear it was another stray cat or dog or an owner who wasn’t willing to wait or help us, that we found ourselves in a bit of a moral conundrum. What do we do? Do we break our 15-month accomplishment of not euthanizing for space reasons or do we give cats away and reduce our dog adoption fees to an all time low to make space? When you really look at this issue ...