The Crates They Left Behind.....

A discarded carrier thrown by the side of the building stands as a testament to a discarded pet. My friend, Debra White, has a lot of stories to tell. She volunteers at the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control shelter in Arizona, and spends her days, trying to raise the consciousness of people who dump their cats with lame explanations, like, "He's not that playful," or "I don't like him anymore." Hello? These are reasons? Abandoned dogs won't go for long walks on these leashes anymore. Anyway, she wrote the following story which I just had to share. "Fluffy, an apricot Poodle, was left at our shelter with her favorite chew toys, and other pet paraphernalia. For unknown reasons, Fluffy’s owner suddenly decided her three-year old dog was an inconvenience. The bewildered Poodle, like all incoming dogs and cats, was escorted into a cramped, cold cage. If she’s lucky, a volunteer will get the chance to walk her. If not, she’ll sit there. Finding a new home may not be possible despite Fluffy’s pedigree status. The county shelter takes in several hundred dogs and cats every day. Fluffy has a lot of competition. Blankets animals came in with are stacked up in the back of the shelter. Along with their unwanted animals, I've seen owners hand over everything the animal once used...as though making a clean sweep of it. I see lined crates and carriers that once transported pets on family vacations, food bowls pets ate regular meals out of, scratching posts that kept curious cats satisfied, comfy beds pets snuggled in, medicine to maintain pets' health, and leashes to walk dogs every morning. Shelters lack the manpower to dole out squeeze balls, fake mice, or see that Fluffy eats her morning meal. They are too busy trying to attend to the puzzled cats and dogs who were once adored, and now abandoned. Fluffly won't be playing with this toy anymore. For shelters, money is always a problem. Even private shelters scrape by for operating funds but municipal shelters, like Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, barely manage. A self-funded agency, it receives no taxpayer funds. Sometimes our canned supply of cat food is scarce because of our budget. (We rely on donations of that.) So during hard times, I limit the moist food to kittens, older cats, or cats who seem to be having a harder time than most. When donations are plentiful, though, everyone gets a scoop. I also supply the old, injured, and frightened dogs and cats with a blanket. I tell them I’m sorry we couldn’t do better, and their eyes tell me they understand. These are some of the many crates and carriers people left behind. I’ve done this since 1997 when I moved to Phoenix from upstate NY where a pedestrian car accident left me disabled. I could have easily died that night,but I didn’t. I believe that's because I have a three-fold mission: to cut down overpopulation among cats by spreading the spay/neuter message, to urge people who want a pet to adopt one from a shelter, and to get people to understand that animals are part of the earth's family. And they shouldn't be discarded on a whim...like a crate or a toy." A great message, indeed. Thanks to Debra and shelter volunteers around the world for all you do. Visit http://www.maricopa.gov/pets/ to see how you can help. All photos by Debra J. White, copyright c 2008