These people are doing a really tough job. Being an open intake shelter brings so many challenges but compared to the local open intake shelter in my original hometown of Miami-Dade County, Fulton County Animal Services is doing the best they can for the animals that end up in their facility.
I was thinking of adding another dog to my little zoo at home and started surfing their website. I love how most of the dogs on their site have high quality pictures and some of them are even adorned with cute bandanas or accessories. This shows me that they truly care and are doing their best to show the dogs in a good light to improve their chances of finding their human.
I saw several dogs of interest online that I easily saved to my favorites on the account I created. Then I went to the shelter a few days later to meet some of those dogs in person. When I got there, I checked in at the front where they explained where to go to see the dogs and how the process works.
I looked at every dog there that day and narrowed it down to 2 candidates even though it was love at first sight with one of them. I knew Titan was the one but wanted to see both dogs out of their cages to be sure. Both dogs were beautiful but Titan was perfect for me. However, it was my existing dog, Rex, who had to have the final say. They suggested to me that I could do a trial adoption of 30 days to see if he is a good fit for my household, which was exactly what I needed to feel more secure about the decision to take him home without knowing if Rex would approve or how Titan would react to my cats.
I am happy to report that Titan (now Kane) is officially in his forever home. He won Rex over and though the cats and my other older rescue dog are not thrilled about the new addition, Kane has been great about ignoring them and not causing any trouble.
I had 30 days to decide but went online after about 4 days to pay the very reasonable adoption fee of $85 and finalize the adoption. Kane was neutered and microchipped before I picked him up. They gave him to me with a ziploc bag of the food he had been eating, a stuffed bear, antibiotics for the surgery recovery, some pills for a skin condition he has, one dose of his heartworm/tick/flea medication, and a who rescued who magnet for my car. I have adopted from shelters before and never received so many things with my dog, so that was a nice touch.
The work they do at this shelter is heart wrenching. It is so hard to care for so many animals and even harder to find them quality homes where they will have a chance for a good life. I appreciate the entire staff at this facility and the hard work they put in to help the animals in their care.
For the general public, I hope that you will spay and neuter your pets to help curb the overpopulation problem and that when you are ready to add a furbaby to your home that you adopt rather than shop because you will literally be saving a life.
If you want to help but aren't sure if you can commit long term, consider fostering, trial adoptions, or even taking a dog out for the weekend only just to give it some relief.
I encourage you to visit the shelter and meet some of the dogs in person. There are so many beautiful souls there that need you and you may just find that you need them too. read more