BALDWIN, Md. — Her heart and her home are full of love, yet Veronica Gardner’s family is missing something.
“I have three little boys,” said Gardner as she waited to fill out the paperwork for a new pet at the Baltimore County Animal Services Shelter in Baldwin, “Two of them are adopted and they like pets, because I have a little dog and we had a cat, but she passed so we’re missing a cat.”
“Life is Better with Pets.”
That’s the message behind the shelter’s new campaign to help stem the tide of animals being surrendered by those who can no longer afford them.
“A lot of times, families really don’t want to have to make that decision,” said Abby Isaacs, the shelter communications manager, “and so we want to ease that burden if we can. We created a new Pet Care Resource Guide that puts all of the resources offered in our area into one place whether it’s grant opportunities, if they’re looking for a pet food bank, low cost vet care resources.”
In addition to trying to guide pet owners to economic assistance, the shelter is also trying to make it easier for families to locate their pets, to become reunified with them, once they’ve become lost or stolen.
Of the more than 33 hundred stray dogs and cats, which have winded up at the shelter this year, families have only reclaimed 20 percent of them.
The shelter is offering free microchipping to pet owners this month to help help turn those numbers around.
“It’s just a chip about the size of a grain of rice,” explained Isaacs, “It’s inserted in-between the shoulder blades, and once you get the chip inserted, you have to register it with your contact information online, and then, it’s as easy as scanning it, calling the number and ‘Hey, we found your dog.’”
They are measures to help keep families together and to keep their pets from ending up at the shelter where existing unwanted animals can spend weeks, if not months, awaiting a forever home.
“They greet you as soon as you come in the house. They’re greeting you,” said Gardner as she prepared to leave with her newly-adopted cat, “My dog is jumping up and almost wants to hug me, and the cat—-she’ll come around and just rub your leg and that’s a warm feeling.”
