On St. Patrick’s Day weekend some lucky dogs will be the beneficiaries of a fund-raiser that might prolong the length of time they will have a home. It might even prolong their lives.
St. Paddy Paws is scheduled for Friday, March 18, at the Simpson County Country Club. Beginning at 7 p.m., guests will be treated to a pulled pork dinner, a silent auction, door prizes and entertainment by the Fordie Hays Band.
Tickets are $75 per couple or $40 per individual, available on the Wolf Pond Sanctuary Facebook page, where people can purchase them through Pay Pal, or locally from PriorityOne Bank, Main Street, Magee. Contact 601-408-0984 or 601-382-0868.
A group of concerned dog lovers will host the event and donate all proceeds to Wolf Pond Sanctuary near Magee.
Wolf Pond Sanctuary is exactly what its name implies — a sanctuary, a safe place for lost, neglected, abandoned and abused dogs. Some dogs come there because their owners must give them up but don’t want to abandon them.
It was established by Jeri Bennett, who helped establish C.A.R.A., a no-kill shelter in Jackson. When Jeri and husband Dick retired and moved to Simpson County, they were already well-versed in how to provide compassionate, appropriate care for dogs that had been tossed by the wayside—sometimes literally. They opened Wolf Pond with the goal of rescuing dogs, improving their lives while they were caring for them and giving them a better future. That future may include medical care for existing problems, spaying or neutering to prevent more strays and, hopefully, adoption to a forever home.
It was a huge task. Jeri knew from experience what she and her staff would have to provide for their canine charges. Some of the dogs are pregnant when they arrive and produce litters of puppies that have to be cared for. Some are ill with skin conditions, heartworms or other parasites, parvo or injuries. Some are almost starved when they arrive. Others have been traumatized.
No dog is put up for adoption until it is healthy. In some cases, this means that a dog stays in the shelter a year or more. They are provided food, water, medicine and companionship for as long as necessary.
Different sections of runs and kennels had to be provided for the dogs’ differing needs. The happiest area is full of healthy, tail-wagging dogs ready for adoption to a forever home. A second area houses quarantined dogs, those whose health needs work. Another area, called “the Ladies’ Club,” is for new mother dogs and their puppies.
An inside area is provided for dogs who don’t need or want to be outside because of skin problems or anxiety. There’s a kennel area for “trauma bonded” dogs, those who need to be kept together because they have been partners through whatever brought them to the shelter, and they develop high anxiety when separated.
The work required to meet so many needs is unending. Manager Karla Harvey says, “We try to keep everything as clean as possible. Every dog’s bowl is washed every day. Floors are mopped, not hosed out, daily. We do our own vaccinating and worming. But we’ve had people visit here and say, ‘This is the cleanest shelter we’ve ever seen!’ That makes me feel so good, because we really try.”
Harvey is relatively new to shelter work, but she said that when she saw the ad for a worker last May and came out to look at the job, she felt an immediate sense of peace. “I knew I was supposed to be here,” she recalls. Her love for dogs took over, she took the position, and her work ethic gave her an immediate sense of ownership of her new responsibilities.
She heads a staff of about 10 paid workers in two shifts— morning, when the heavy cleaning is done, and afternoon, when teen volunteers also come in to help feed and do other jobs. Harvey says some of the student workers need volunteer hours for senior projects and college resumes, and the staff works with that. “There’s a lot of turnover with young people because they have to move on,” she said.
Not everyone is cut out for shelter work. Some can’t handle it emotionally, some find that they don’t relate well to the dogs, and some just aren’t used to hard work.
Harvey said, “I always thought I couldn’t do anything like this myself. But I got over it!” She says, though, that she still has to discipline herself not to look in the rearview mirror at the kennels when she drives away every afternoon. “I know they miss me and they’re waiting for me to come back.”
Money is an ever-present concern. It takes thousands of dollars a year to pay for the food, medicine, supplies, staff and vet care of the hundreds of dogs Wolf Pond tries to help every year.
The shelter operates completely on donations. They receive no help from the state, the county or the City of Magee.
The $120 adoption fee helps, as does the $35 in-take fee for receiving a dog someone is giving up. But in the last week of February, over 50+ dogs were living at the shelter with only 14 of those ready for adoption. Some are too old; some are larger, which makes them harder to place; few are the more popular purebreds; and some people don’t want to pay to adopt a dog.
The community can help. Anyone can go to the Wolf Pond page on Facebook and donate through Paypal.http://PayPal.me/wolfpondsanctuary. The Facebook page also offers a Wish List where the staff posts needed supplies. Donors can order any of those items from Walmart on that page and have them delivered right to Wolf Pond’s door.
And, of course, everyone is welcome to come and have a fun and festive evening out at St. Paddy Paws on March 18, where the price of the tickets is all donated to the shelter.
With a little “luck of the Irish,” the rescued dogs at Wolf Pond will have what they need to remain safe, healthy and happy for awhile longer.
They’re depending on us.
