Sharing is caring
Did you know that 68% of U.S. households, or about 85 million families, own a pet, according to the 2017-2018 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association? That’s a great statistic in the animal sheltering world and one that we hope continues to rise. Knowing that over half of the available households already have pets, can make it difficult to find placement for pets that are particular and cannot live with other animals. We often hear people saying “I would adopt them if I could!” or “If only he liked other dogs!”
Even if your household is full, or if you already have a pet that is particular at home, you can still help these picky pets find a home! How? The wonderful world of social media, of course!
We are lucky to be located in a community that cares about pets and more specifically, cares about shelter pets! Did you know that we have pets featured weekly on a variety of local media outlets?
- Every Wednesday morning on WSAW’s Sunrise 7 program we feature two adoptables; these pets are also typically featured on WSAW’s website as well as their Facebook page.
- Every Thursday evening we have a pet featured during Pet Savers on WAOW; this segment runs toward the end of the 5:00pm show and sometimes ends up on their Facebook page.
- Every Tuesday morning we are in studio with Bryan Scott of 101.9 WDEZ with an adoptable pet; this segment is recorded on Facebook live and featured on their website blog.
- Each week we have two adoptables featured in the Wausau Daily Herald with photos and descriptions; sometimes these photos are also featured on their Facebook page.
- Each week we have an adoptable dog featured on 93.7 WHDG Hodag Country’s website in their Hodag Country Critters blog.
- Each week Fox Wausau or WZAW features two of our adoptables on their website and during their newscast.
In addition to the pets we get to feature on different platforms, we are constantly posting about our awesome adoptables on our HSMC Facebook and Instagram pages.
Still looking for how you can do your part, even though you can’t adopt? It’s coming!
Even if you cannot adopt one of our awesome pets, you can still help us tell their stories. You can do this by “sharing” the posts you see on our social media sites, as well as on other local media outlets. “Sharing” a post improves the reach that each of our critters can get and increases the likelihood that someone out there in this great big world of ours will fall in love with that pet. Someone may come into our shelter to see one specific pet and end up falling in love with another. Someone may come out to visit and bring a friend or family member with them that may fall in love with an adoptable pet. So many wonderful things can come from something that takes so little effort.
We ask you kindly that the next time you see a fun post about an adoptable pet on one of our social media outlets, you press that little “Share” button and help us spread the love and the wonderful stories behind each one of our furry friends!
Including your pet in your New Year’s Resolution
It’s that time of year again. It’s time to reflect on the last 365 days and think of how your next 365 days can be even better. It’s common to have a New Year’s Resolution that includes improving your health, and why not include Fido in that quest?
We have a few suggestions of how you and your four-legged companion can get healthier and happier in 2018.
Don’t have a pet? No problem! We have over one hundred that would love your company and be happy to help you better yourself. Whether you have your pet or not, signing up to be a volunteer at HSMC (or any other shelter) is a great way to not only give back to the community, but also to stay active and feel better about yourself! Dog walking is a great form of exercise that benefits you and a shelter pet. We have a beautiful walking path over one mile long around the shelter, not to mention that Sunnyvale Park and Man Made are right next door. Put on that bright green vest, collar up and hit the trails! What’s better than fresh air and enriching the life of a shelter dog, while getting your heart rate up? Not only will you and the dog have fun, but did you know that regular brisk walking can help you to:
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Maintain a healthy weight
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Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes
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Strengthen your bones and muscles
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Improve your mood
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Improve your balance and coordination
Pets aren’t presents
With the holidays fast approaching, we thought it was fitting to share our opinion on giving pets as Christmas presents. And our opinion is, don’t.
Too often after the holidays we see pets being surrendered because the grandkids thought they’d get grandma a kitten and she didn’t really want one. Or we’ll meet the boyfriend who got a puppy for his girlfriend and now that they’ve broken up, no one is prepared to handle the expenses and responsibilities on their own. These pets will now be at the shelter trying to adjust to a new environment without their family and it happens every year.
Aside from surprising someone with a living, breathing creature, this time of year is not conducive for everyone to accommodate a furry houseguest they weren’t expecting. The holidays are a very busy and stressful time for not only you, but your pets, too! All of the hustle and bustle in addition to trying to establish routines and do proper introductions can be a hassle for even the most experienced pet owner. Consider the amount of stress put on that new pet who has to meet the whole family in one weekend or who gets started by Aunt Sally’s dog who isn’t the best around new dogs or the grandchildren that have never been around pets before. A lot of people travel for the holidays as well; the last thing you’d want to do is gift a pet to someone who is then going to be gone for one week and not able to bond with or transition their new pet into their household.
Our policy at HSMC is to not adopt pets out as gifts and here’s why. We want everyone in the household to be a part of this decision as well as be onboard for the responsibility and the fun that is to come. It’s important for us to see the interaction between our adoptable pet and everyone in your household as well. We have a lot of adoptables who arrived to us as strays and we don’t know their whole story or all of their likes and dislikes. We’d hate for you to find out the hard way that Sparky (whom you just adopted) is afraid of granny’s walker or terrified of dad and his beard. The other piece of the puzzle? If you’re looking to bring a new dog home and already have a canine companion at home, we want to make sure that both dogs are going to get along together. We strive to make our placements permanent and successful and these aren’t steps we aren’t willing to skip in keeping with the spirit of the holidays.
Unfortunately giving a pet as a gift, portrays the sentiment that this living, breathing thing may be just one more thing the kids can outgrow this year. Pets are not disposable, they are a lifelong commitment that will require a lot more maintenance than the presents wrapped under the tree. Giving pets as presents can teach children that they are more of a commodity than a responsibility. We want your children to be a part of the process and part of the research required to bring home a new family member.
One of the reasons HSMC does not do same day adoptions is because we don’t want people to adopt a pet on impulse; we want the decision to bring home a new family member to be a planned and prepared one. Allowing a minimum of 24-48 hours to process an adoption application and take a pet home gives the potential adopter the time to think about what pet will be right for them, prepare for having a pet come home and consider the pros and cons of bringing home a new family member. When an animal is gifted to someone, that time to process and prepare is taken from the equation and sometimes to the detriment of the new four-legged family member.
A great alternative to gifting someone a dog or cat, is to gift them with books about how to choose the right pet, how to train your new pet or breed specific publications. There are also magazines you can subscribe to. Better yet, your present can be committing your time to go with that person and volunteer at the local shelter to see what it’s like to care for pets.
Please consider other alternatives to giving a pet as a Christmas present and educate others who may be considering giving a life instead of a gift.
Poem to an Abandoned Gift
Author Unknown
‘Tis the night before Christmas and all through the town,
every shelter is full – we are lost but not found.
Our numbers are hung on our kennels so bare,
we hope every minute that someone will care.
They’ll come to adopt us and give us the call,
“Come here, Max and Sparkie – come fetch your new ball!!
But now we sit here and think of the days
we were treated so fondly – we had cute, baby ways,
Once we were little, then we grew and we grew –
now we’re no longer young and we’re no longer new.
So out the back door we were thrown like the trash,
they reacted so quickly – why were they so rash?
We “jump on the children”, “don’t come when they call”,
we “bark when they leave us”, we “climb over the wall.”
We should have been neutered, we should have been spayed,
now we suffer the consequence of the errors they made.
If only they trained us, if only we knew…
we’d have done what they asked us and worshipped them, too.
We were left in the backyard, or worse, left to roam,
now we’re tired and lonely and out of a home.
They dropped us off here and they kissed us good-bye…
“Maybe someone else will give you a try.”
So now here we are, all confused and alone…
in a shelter with others who long for a home.
The kind workers come through with a meal and a pat,
with so many to care for, they can’t stay to chat.
They move to the next kennel, giving each of us cheer…
we know that they wonder how long we’ll be here.
We lay down to sleep and sweet dreams fill our heads
of a home filled with love and our own cozy beds.
Then we wake to see sad eyes, brimming with tears –
our friends filled with emptiness, worry, and fear.
….. In parents’ haste to think of a gift for the kids,
there was one important thing that they missed.
A dog should be family, and it’s just not humane
To put a living, feeling pet outside on a chain.
If only Santa exclaimed as he rode out of sight,
“You weren’t giving a gift! You were giving a life!”
Compassionate care at HSMC
Our mission statement is as follows: “The mission of the Humane Society of Marathon County, Inc. is to relieve the suffering and abuse of animals and to foster an awareness of their importance in our community. We achieve this through leadership in compassionate care, placement, public education, humane services and example.”
Compassionate care is a very important piece to the puzzle that is animal sheltering. The work we do is hard; it’s physically and emotionally demanding. We get bitten, scratched, peed on, yelled at, criticized and overwhelmed. Yet, we do it all for the animals. We come back everyday and are willing to face whatever challenges the new day may bring because we care about the animals and we want to do right by them. What it all comes down to is that no matter how many bad days there are, the moment the scared dog lets you pet him or the senior aged cat finally comes out of her shell, that one moment is more powerful and encouraging than 1,000 bad days.
There are a number of ways we are looking to improve the compassionate care we provide at HSMC and there are ways that you can be involved, too!
We are currently going through the process of having a zoning ordinance on our property changed to allow us to install individual outdoor dog runs. All of the humane societies in the counties that border Marathon have outdoor facilities that allow for multiple dogs to be outside at once. We, residing in the biggest county in the state, would like to be an example of an ever-evolving shelter that is constantly adapting to meet and exceed the needs of the pets in our care. We currently have a large fenced in area behind our building that can be used to let one dog out at a time, or multiple dogs if they can get along in a play group (usually 2-3 dogs at a time with supervision). Our future plans would allow us to have our entire dog adoption room (30 kennels) outside at once! This means we can clean our kennel areas without the dogs being inside the building; this will reduce stress to the dogs in our care and improve processes and efficiency for staff which will in turn free up staff time for other important projects and programming! Our new outdoor runs will be covered to allow protection from the elements and will not be used as permanent housing for the dogs; no dogs would stay out overnight and this would not be an area that the public would enter for visits. We would also have the capability to give dangerous dogs or bite quarantine dogs time to be outside in a safe enclosure where they will not pose a risk to other animals or the public.
Another initiative we have started is providing music to all of our kennel areas. Studies have shown that different types of music reduce stress depending on the species. We put out a call for donated CD players and you guys came through! We have soothing music playing in four of our seven animal areas 24/7. We’ve already noticed a difference in our dog and cat areas that our guests seem to settle more quickly after visits and our human guests seem to enjoy it, too! We are still looking for extra CD players if you or someone you know has one they’d like to donate!
Next on our list of improvements is new kennels for our cat nursery! Our nursery gets a lot of use during the spring to winter months and we often times do not have enough space to accommodate all of the moms and kittens that come through our doors. Adding new kennels and more of them will allow us to properly house those that come through our doors and specialty cages will allow for more comfortable and compartmentalized housing for moms with litters. We plan to have cages specifically for housing litters with separate compartments for litter and food, as well as a shelf to allow mom to take a break if she needs one! Another fun feature? Cat portals! Cat portals are placed into the walls of two side by side kennels and are essentially a door that allows you to turn one kennel into two! Adding cat portals to our new nursery kennels will allow more socializing and play time to our adolescent felines who may have come in without their litter mates. The bonus about this feature? If we aren’t overfull on kittens, we can turn a regular kennel into a luxury suite by giving one cat the space usually used for two cats!
Along with improving our nursery space, we’re looking to improve our new arrival cat area as well. This is where a newly surrendered or stray cat will stay for an extended period of time until they are able to be moved into our adoption room (depends on space), adopted or reclaimed by their owner. Studies show that providing cats with a place to hide is one of the best ways to reduce stress. Along with a place to hide, it is best to minimize handling of cats during the first few days of their stay to allow them to adjust to their new surroundings, while keeping items in their kennel familiar and with their scent on it. We are looking to purchase Kitty Kasas or bedrooms for each one of our new arrival cages! Kitty Kasas are brightly colored, plastic enclosures perfect for hiding in or climbing on that will provide our feline guests with the privacy they need. Having one Kitty Kasa per kennel means that Kasa can stay with the kitty until the kitty leaves the room, which means their scent stays on it and helps reduce stress. The best thing about Kitty Kasas? They can be sanitized in between cats or in the event of an accident. If you’re interested in donating a Kitty Kasa, we are looking to make a bulk order and would love to add your $40.00 donation to our total! Go to the website, Kitty Kasas to find out more about this great company and their awesome products.
We’ve also made some changes to our volunteer program, which will be re-opening soon, that have really allowed us to focus our volunteers and their time on helping the animals. We want you to be an advocate for the critters, just as we are. We’re open to new fundraising ideas and input from the community as to how we can improve the care we provide to the animals, the presence we have in the community and how to be the best shelter we can be.
We invite you to come in and see the changes, share your ideas and be a part of this process. If you’d like to donate toward one of the projects we have in the works, we’d be so grateful. After all, we can’t do any of this without you.
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