SECOND CHANCE: OTIS & CROSBY

26 Sep SECOND CHANCE: OTIS & CROSBY

Editor’s note: It’s no secret. The Telluride region is dog heaven. Unless you are one of our furry friends who gets caught in the maw of neglect and abuse. Then heaven is on hold until Second Chance Humane Society comes to the rescue. Second Chance is the region’s nonprofit dedicated to saving animals’ lives and promoting responsible pet parenting and human-animal bond. Every week, executive director Kelly Goodin will choose to profile two of the many animals from the no-kill shelter, Angel Ridge Shelter, a dog and a cat, hoping to find them loving homes. The column will be sponsored by Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch & Kennel, who from time to time exercises his skills as a dog whisperer and partners with Kelly and her staff to help train a particularly challenging animal. Below is Kelly’s third blog.

Crosby, close enough to a lap

Second Chance Humane Society has been providing animal welfare services and programs to the San Miguel and Ouray County region for almost 19 years. But the nonprofit has undergone significant development along the way.

As Second Chance begins its new relationship with TIO readers, I offer a quick overview of all that Second Chance makes available to the region. Let me first emphasize that the constant throughout the history of our organization has been the critical role  community support plays in saving animal’s lives today and tomorrow.

Second Chance was founded in 1994. The organization has grown and transformed from all-volunteer to strictly used foster homes for rescues (until they could be adopted) to professionally run with a broader reach and greater capacity to save lives. The Animal Resource Center, located at Angel Ridge Ranch in Ridgway, not only receives homeless pets from throughout its service region –San Miguel, Ouray, and Montrose Counties – but also offers a host of animal welfare services and programs.

The mission of Second Chance is Saving Animals’ Lives and Promoting Responsible Pet Parenting & the Human-Animal Bond.  By operating dynamic programming and services, Second Chance works to impact the regional and nation-wide pet overpopulation problem while promoting the undeniable human-animal connection and resulting benefits and liabilities.

Our programs and services grow and transform in alignment with the need in our service region.Currently we offer the following:

•    Shelter/Foster Program – provides abandoned, abused, neglected and homeless dogs and cats a second chance (Second Chance is committed to maintaining its shelter policy that adoptable pets are not euthanized to create space for others).
•    Wags & Menace Medical Fund – funding for special medical needs of shelter pets to increase their adoptability and quality of life.
•     Spay/Neuter Programs – provides financial assistance and low cost spay/neuter clinics to low-income pet owners.
•    Animal Control Assistance – support services for regional government animal control.
•    Placement Program – assists families in finding homes for pets they must surrender.
•    Pet Counseling – provides assistance to pet owners in correcting behavioral problems so that pet can remain in the home (rather than be placed in the shelter program).
•    Feral Cat Program – trapping, testing for disease, spaying/neutering, vaccinating, and returning feral cats into their original habitat (to humanely control these populations).

In addition to the above programs, Second Chance operates a broad Community Outreach Program, to be discussed more in depth next week. Now I would like to introduce Otis and Crosby, two adoptable pets available today at Angel Ridge Ranch.

Otis

OTIS:

My name is Otis and I am an adorable four- month-old tabby hoping that “A Change is Gonna Come,” as Otis Redding sings and I am adopted soon. With less than 16 weeks of life in me, I was found outside, alone, wandering, helpless, scared, sad and vulnerable. But being rescued by Second Chance and then named after Otis Redding is a cool thing as I really relate to my namesake. I would love to be “Sitting on the Dock of a Bay” right now and I am always ready to “Try a Little Tenderness, “but most of all I would find great “Satisfaction” from someone willing “Stand by Me” and take me home.

Just saying…

CROSBY:

My name is Crosby and I am one lucky boy. My diminutive size and lack of fondness for adventure left me unprepared for life as a street dog. (I kept thinking to myself: Me? A street dog??? Come On!!!)  But thank goodness my survival instincts led me to Second Chance, where I arrived in pretty bad shape with rotting teeth and a lump on my belly. But the caring folks at my first real home, however temporary (I hope), had my teeth cleaned and my belly assessed – and fortunately the vet believes the bump is just an old trauma that has healed over time – and I have been neutered and vaccinated. Now I am ready to bring my coolness to your casa, where I will remind you over and over I am not a street dog. I am a lap dog. Laps are my friends!!!

Note: Call the SCHS Helpline at 626-2273 to report a lost pet, learn about adopting a homeless pet, or about the SCHS Spay/Neuter, Volunteer, Feral Cat, or other Programs.

View our shelter pets and services online: www.adoptmountainpets.org.