Help Us Build a Play Yard

If you haven't heard yet, our annual fundraiser, The Bark & Wine, is coming up on Saturday October 20th. This years event will be highlighted by guest speaker Sergeant Major David Dantzler and his dog Iram, whom he rescued while on a combat tour in Iraq. Aside from this heartwarming story, the focus of the event is to raise money to benefit the animals we care for here at the shelter. Each year we choose a project for the shelter that we need help funding, and the proceeds from the event go to doing just that. In the last two years we have funded the remodeling of our cattery, and our dog isolation unit as the focus for funds raised at the Bark & Wine event.
This year, we hope to raise money for behavior modification  and training for the animals in our care. You will have to attend the event to hear the whole plan, but the main focus will be to raise money for the building of a multi dog play yard.. This play yard will provide a place where as many as 20 dogs may be playing at one time. A chance for them to relieve kennel stress, and improve social skills prior to adoption. Many other shelters are using these yards to increase adoptions, and provide much needed stress relief for the dogs they care for. Here at LPCHS, we like to stay  current with best practices in the sheltering world, and a multi dog play yard will help keeping us on the cutting edge. Most importantly it will help all the wonderful dogs who come through our doors, especially those who need more time to work out the behavioral kinks they may have come with.
The play yard is going to cost us over 15,000 dollars. A few days ago, one of our supporters called me with an offer to help. She said that she wanted to start a pre event pledge drive to get this play yard built. She has graciously offered to do a matching donation of up to 1,000 dollars. So Im asking all of you, to help get this play yard built. Lets do this together, and make a play yard here at the shelter, that the whole community can be proud of. Even if you cant give more than 5 dollars, every little bit will hel. Remember she will match every dollar up to the first 1,000 so please give if you can, and please join us at the Bark & Wine on October 20th. follow the link below, to make a donation for the play yard, and thanks for your support of LPCHS.

www.lpchumanesociety.org/playground.html

Reflecting on 10 years

Last Month I celebrated my tenth anniversary of coming to work for  LPCHS. I'm happy and proud to say that Ive never worked anyplace else this long. The fact is, that I love this place. When I came here, I had no intention of staying more than a year or so. I certainly didn't think Id make a career of it, but that is what it has become. Even more than that, it has gotten in my blood, it is a passion. Im not sure when or how it happened, but somewhere along the line, it did.

Over these ten years, there have been many laughs, and lots of tears, and probably a few words spoken that are not fit for print. Overall the journey has been a great experience. The best part, has been watching the changes that have been made here at our shelter. We have gone from barely keeping our heads above water, to the premiere shelter in the region. We have made euthanizing animals for space, a distant memory. We started a low cost spay/neuter program that has reduced our intake by over 10% in the past 18 months. We have transferred out over 800 dogs through the Petsmart Charities Rescue Waggin program, where they have gone to Boulder to be adopted. We have gone from having just a few foster homes, to well over a hundred. These changes and others, have been tough, but the end results have been so worth the effort, especially for the animals in our care.

To wrap up id like to walk down memory lane a bit, and mention some of the animals and people who have made my time here so great.

Lets start with he dogs. There was Radar, Wing nut, Sarge, and Calvin, German Shepherds all of them, and special for many reasons. Who can forget the mighty Khan, an Anatolian who ruled the roost around here for quite a while. There was Brutis, and Knuckles, and Vinny the Nose. Gila, Pepsi, Paco, Okie, and Bucket. Who can forget big ol Buster, and Old Red, and the notorious little Wagman.

 If you know me, than you know I am  a dog guy by heart, but there have been lots of cats that have stuck in my memory. At the top of the list would be none other than Tilly. She was an 18 pound white cat whose attitude was less than stellar. One day I discovered that Tilly loved nothing more in life than playing ping pong. Every morning for the next 3 months, we would bat the ping pong ball around the room until she was adopted. There was Samurai, And Chester both large orange tabby's. I remember Snizzlefritz, and Fat Jack as well as Leo, Monster and my old friend Cosmo.

 As for the people, there are to many to mention all, without leaving some out. Instead I will just say thanks for the memories and all your support. Here is to ten more years, I cant wait to see what we've accomplished in 2022.
 

Adoptathon

Today is the first day of our 10th annual Adoptathon, and I am happy to report that we have already adopted 20 animals. That takes us half way to this years goal of 40 adoptions in a two day period. We still have a bunch of great pets available to choose from. The event runs until 8pm tonight, and from 8 am until 8 pm tomorrow Saturday June the 2nd. Come o down and change the life of one of our furry freinds, and let them make a change in your life.

If you cant adopt a pet right now, you can still come down and help out the animals. We are grilling up some delicious burgers and bratwurst on the bbq., and we can always use financial support. Pet Haus is also here selling dog and cat toys, with 20%  of proceeds going to the shelter. Our dogs  are also in need of a few specialized items for behavior and enrichment. The dogs need some cans of cheez whiz, as well as new Kong toys, and nylabones. These items are used to provide enrichment for the dogs while they are waiting to find their forever homes.

Thanks for your continued support of LPCHS, and please come by and help us reach our goal of adopting 40 animals during this years adoptathon.

Welcome to the Directors blog

Welcome to the first edition of the La Plata County Humane Society Directors blog. My name is Chris Nelson, and I have been with LPCHS for almost ten years. It has been my honor to be the Director of Animal Services for the past six years.

I will use this forum to communicate what is going on here at our shelter. I will  post about issues concerning our operations, animals, and  share my experiences working in an animal Shelter. It is my hope that the you will be entertained, and gain some insight into what life at an animal shelter is like. Over the years I have met some very interesting characters here at the shelter ( two and four legged). Ive also witnessed  some sad, humorous, and frustrating events,  posting them on this blog, seems like a great way to share them with you, our supporters.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for your continuing support of LPCHS.