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Cashiers-Highlands Area Humane Society 200 Gable St. Cashiers, NC 28717 (828) 743-5752 |
WHLC
and the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society have teamed up to bring you
the
Read a Letter to the Editor in the The Highlander,
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| Ruby is a seven-month-old Australian Cattle Dog (Blue Heeler) with looks, brains, personality and energy to spare. She needs a home where her many qualities will be appreciated, challenged and fulfilled. | Sweet Pea is a roly-poly, 10-week-old border collie mix with short, soft, black-and-white fur and a happy-go-lucky nature. This fun-loving little girl wants to let the good times roll with playmates for life in a forever home of her own. |
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Wanted: Companions and compassion By Carol Childs for CHHS Smart, active, sweet, petite and ironically named “Ruby,” this seven-month-old gem of a Blue-Heeler pup is being fostered at Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society (CHHS) by the executive director of the shelter, Cassie Welsh, until Ruby finds a forever family to love, work for and please. Found as a stray in mid-February in the Lake Toxaway area, Ruby has been fostered for the past three weeks by Welsh. “She’s as smart as a whip,” Welsh says, adding that this lovable young Blue Heeler (aka Australian Cattle Dog) is already housebroken and basic-obedience trained. Ruby curls up in bed next to Welsh every night and is looking for a home where she can continue to be a beloved indoor pet that shares lots of outdoor activities by day with her forever family. Ruby would make a great (and grateful) agility dog, and that kind of training would provide an excellent outlet for her stamina and intelligence. She’d also happily and tirelessly join you hiking, biking, or jogging as well as going on to meet the challenges of more advanced obedience training and/or competition. Ruby definitely needs daily physical and mental exercise, because a bored Cattle Dog/Blue Heeler can quickly become a mischief-maker. Ruby is good with kids, crowds, even cats! She loves meeting new people and going new places, wagging all the way. Herding dogs like Ruby are ever-eager to learn and please, making them attentive, loyal companions and faithful friends for life. FOODBANK: In these tough economic times, with folks across the country losing their jobs and homes, unprecedented numbers of surrenders of family pets to shelters are becoming a nationwide crisis. If you find yourself having to choose between feeding yourself or your pets, CHHS can help out temporarily, so your four-legged friends won’t have to miss any meals or be surrendered. Call or come by CHHS for information about receiving free dog chow or cat food from the foodbank. On the other hand, if you are in a position to donate unopened bags of pet food to the shelter’s foodbank, you can help less fortunate families in the community keep their beloved companions. Your kibble contributions to the foodbank can be deposited in the CHHS donation box at the front of the Ingles store in Cashiers or brought to the shelter in-person.With the support of CHHS, you can help reduce the number of homeless strays in our area, too. Coupons for free or discounted spay/neuter procedures are available at the shelter and other locations in Cashiers, Highlands and Sylva (see details below). CHHS will also help capture feral cats and supports spay/neuter and release programs. Volunteers needed: Even if you're not in a position to adopt a pet right now, you can still help the shelter animals tremendously by volunteering to walk dogs (they are jubilant about walking with volunteers instead of just running the fence line), which helps socialize them and increases their chances for adoption. Join the group of dog-walking volunteers at CHHS every Friday from 10 a.m. till noon, or bring a friend or co-worker to the shelter on your lunch break any other weekday for a meaningful dog walk instead of dessert. Dog walking not your bag? How about cat cuddling in the community room or playing with puppies in the Greta Somerville Community Dog Park located on CHHS grounds? If you care about animals, you can help—no other qualifications are necessary! Even if you're not in a position to adopt a pet right now, you can still help the shelter animals tremendously by volunteering to walk dogs (they are jubilant about walking with volunteers instead of just running the fence line), which helps socialize them and increases their chances for adoption. Join the group of dog-walking volunteers at CHHS every Wednesday from 10 a.m. till noon, or bring a friend or co-worker to the shelter on your lunch break any other weekday for a meaningful dog walk instead of dessert. Dog walking not your bag? How about cat cuddling in the community room or playing with puppies in the Greta Somerville Community Dog Park located on CHHS grounds? If you care about animals, you can help—no other qualifications are necessary! CHHS needs kitty litter and Milk Bones! As donated dollars are all budgeted for food, shelter maintenance and improvements, staffing, and veterinary care, we need material donations, too, like old sheets and towels for bedding, newspaper for puppy pens, and kitty litter, lots of kitty litter! Next time you shop at Ingles in Cashiers, please add a box of any type or brand of litter to your cart, which you can then leave at the CHHS donation box at the front of the store on your way out, or buy litter wherever you shop and bring it to the shelter in-person, where you can meet the many benefactors of your kindness and generosity. Bringing Home a New Dog: Crate Facts. According to the Paw Rescue organization, housetraining problems are the top reason people give up dogs. Crates aid in housetraining because of dogs' den instincts; they avoid messing where they sleep. Crating is cruel only if the dog is physically uncomfortable or if left too often or too long. Limit crating to 4-5 hours maximum a day. Important: Teach your dog that good things come in the crate. Place appealing toys in the crate; feed in the crate. Stay in the room awhile and praise when the dog rests calmly in the crate. Resist letting the dog out if she cries. However, if she has to relieve herself, honor that. Over the transition period, gradually open the crate door and increase the number of rooms to which she has access. Do not keep dogs in dark, damp basements, garages, or non-family areas; this thwarts your efforts to raise a socialized, well-behaved, house-trained animal (http://www.paw-rescue.org/dog_guide.php). Bringing Home a New Kitty: Please keep in mind that the move from a shelter to a new home can be quite stressful for an adult cat. "Most cats take about two weeks to adjust to a new environment. But understand that each cat is different; some take a day, some 5 days, others can take up to a month to get used to your home" (http://www.nsalamerica.org/pet_talk/cat_home.html). A little patience for starters will be greatly rewarded in the long run, when the bewildered kitty who cowered under your bed for a week becomes a well-adjusted, loving member of your family. Declawing Cats: More Than Just a Manicure: According to The Humane Society of the United States, "Too often people believe that declawing is a simple surgery that removes a cat's nails, the equivalent of a person having her fingernails trimmed. Sadly, this is far from the truth. Declawing traditionally involves the amputation of the last bone of each toe and, if performed on a human being, it would be comparable to cutting off each finger at the last knuckle." (http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/cat_care/) Please keep in mind that the move from a shelter to a new home can be quite stressful for a cat. "Most cats take about two weeks to adjust to a new environment. But understand that each cat is different; some take a day, some 5 days, others can take up to a month to get used to your home" (http://www.nsalamerica.org/pet_talk/cat_home.html). A little patience for starters will be greatly rewarded in the long run, when the bewildered kitty who cowered under your bed for a week becomes a well-adjusted, loving member of your family. The Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society (CHHS) is organizing a volunteer fostering program to provide temporary homes for stray dogs and cats on the shelter's waiting list until adoptions free-up space for the animals to move up the list and into the CHHS no-kill community. Besides a big heart, volunteers for dog foster-parenting should have a fenced yard, and the purr-fect cat foster folks must be ready, willing and able to keep a kitty indoors for a limited time, until the shelter has space to take in a cat or two from the waiting-list. Vaccinations and veterinary checks and even spay/neutering procedures will be provided for animals in foster care through the CHHS shelter, and the vaccinations of existing family pets in foster homes must be complete and current as well. You can help save a life by fostering a stray dog or cat, rescuing them from the streets or a trip to a kill-facility. Please call Angie Williams or Karen Foster at CHHS (743-5752) to make an appointment to visit the shelter for an in-person interview and answers to any questions you may have about the volunteer fostering program.
The stray critters of the
community, large and small, certainly do appreciate your generosity and
support. Spay/Neuter: Coupons for free or discounted spay/neuter surgeries from your veterinarian are available to the public at the CHHS shelter in Cashiers, at Cool Cats and Hot Dogs in Highlands (526-9990), at Signature Properties of Highlands (526-4218), and in Sylva at Cope Creek Animal Clinic (586-3584). Call the shelter for more information. Lost & Found Pets: If you lose your pet or find one, immediately alert the local radio station (WHLC FM 104.5 FM) which broadcasts lost and found pet information as a public service. Inform the shelter and place a notice with the pet's photo on the bulletin boards at Ingles in Cashiers and the Hudson Library in Highlands. Both the Crossroads Chronicle and The Highlander will publish one free lost or found pet ad. Now is the time to make sure your pet has correct identification. Engraved tags are available at our shelter. Free pet food is available at the shelter for pets of needy families or individuals. Donations, memorials, and memberships are deeply appreciated and can be mailed to the CHHS, PO Box 638, Cashiers, NC 28717. We accept donations online (see below) and by credit card. All donations are tax deductible and go a long way toward supporting the CHHS animals. Location: Visit our shelter in Cashiers on Highway 64, 2.3 miles east of the crossroads behind Reid Real Estate, and meet our wonderful animals. Our hours are 10–4 Monday through Saturday, closed on Sunday. Visit us online at www.chhumanesociety.org All our animals have been spayed or neutered and micro-chipped and have received necessary inoculations, veterinary care, and preventative treatment for fleas, ticks, and heartworms. For more information about animals available for adoption or to learn about opportunities to volunteer or foster, please phone the shelter at 743-5752. |
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And
please remember that WHLC broadcasts lost and found pets.
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