Reagan, submitted by reader Jeanne.
“Hello, my name is Reagan. They already wrote me off as an old lady who belongs in a nursing home.
What do they know. Sure, I pee a lot. But doesn’t mean I don’t have years ahead of me. And special powers. May be a plain brown tabby with ratty fur from a bad case of fleas. . . but I can turn your life around. Heh. We just need to find each other. And I won’t scratch up the lap of luxury once I arrive–some fool declawed me and I’m probably already spayed. I have a sponsor now and an offer to temp foster (told you–special powers).”
Athens Clarke County Animal Control
45 Beaverdam Ext.
Athens, GA 30605
Open daily (except for Wed.) 10 am to 4 pm
Dog shelter 706-613-3540
**Cat shelter 706-613-3887** (call this number for questions about Reagan or to arrange rescue or adoption)
This shelter’s 2007 kill rate was 25%.
Hi Jeanne,
If you are reading this can you get Regan’s kidney function tested? Peeing a lot can be a sign of kidney disease (one of mine had it). It can be very treatable if caught early.
Daniela
Thanks for posting Reagan as Shelter Pet of the Day!
Much as I dread it, I’ll call the shelter soon to get an update on her. Hope she got adopted. No rescues have responded yet.
Hi Daniela,
She has $200 in sponsorship funds for vetting but that can only go to a rescue. A sponsor committed to $100 plus another $100 in matching funds from Merck as long as the rescue is a 501c3. Unfortunately, the shelter doesn’t do any vetting on cats that don’t have a rescue or adoption pending so I wasn’t able to arrange for a kidney test. She may have early stage kidney disease or diabetes or possibly a UTI. But maybe she just came in dehydrated and drank a lot of water! It’s just impossible to tell without testing. But they did say she’s eating well and seems to feel fine.
All those are treatable conditions. She’s just in early middle age!
So can a UTI. What a GREAT write-up. I love creative write-ups on pets that don’t lie but give them some flair. This girl will get a home (special powers).
This cat is just so pretty. She’d be a great pet AND fashion accessory for the home!
Reagan was killed at the shelter this morning. I think the kill rate for cats is much higher than the 25% for dogs. The cat shelter hasn’t been open for a year yet, so no annual statistics are available. But they get very few adopters and almost no rescue groups.
Suck.
Do they post their monthly stats so we could get an idea on the cat killing?
No, they don’t post monthly stats anywhere that I know of. The website at http://www.athenspets.net is maintained by vols and doesn’t include any stats. I get weekly stats by e-mail from the dog shelter that include number impounded, turned over to other shelters (rescues), adopted, citations issued–but nothing about how many they kill. Cats are included in impounds. I can ask the cat shelter for an estimate. Heard they also killed a 1 year old neutered male cat named Rocko who was turned in for being “too rough” when he played with a toddler. Where is the kill shelter for idiots when you need one?!
Okay, talked to shelter superintendent Patrick Rives who is e-mailing me the complete stats for 2010. He hasn’t compiled any stats for the cat shelter yet because they’ve only been open since mid-Jan. He said the save rate is up for dogs–over 90% for 2010 so that’s good news. Also said they expected the save rate for cats to be very low at first but hope it will increase as more people start coming in. Not to diss a guy who just told me the dog save rate is UP–but is the shelter actually DOING anything to bring more cat adopters in? Don’t think so.
Plus if the attitude is “We’ll have to kill lots of cats in the beginning, until word gets out about us being a swell place to adopt”, I’m not so sure that plan is going to work out. Can they get us the cat shelter stats since they opened?
Rives told me he hasn’t compiled any cat stats yet.
I’ll be watching for them, though.
Here are some of the dog stats he sent me today–
Animals Adopted 576 (27.48 %)
Animals Turned Over to Other Agencies 589 (28.10 %)
Animals Reclaimed 432 (20.61 %)
Available Animals Euthanized 168 ( 8.02 %)
Unavailable Animals Euthanized 302 (14.41 %)
Note: “Available Animals” means adoptable; “Unavailable Animals” means
never made available for adoption due to severe illness, aggression, etc.
Here’s another stat you might want to see–
Volunteers 3,063 (+31.6 % from FY09)
As the save rate goes up, so does the number of volunteers! The community really does want to help when the shelter goes low-kill or no-kill!