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Our 35th year in business

By Kathryn LuppiMany Alden residents re-

acted with an unsurpris-ing mixture of rage and con-cern when they heard last fall about Smokey Bones, a mixed-breed dog that was thrown out of a car and abandoned

in Akron. Luckily, Adopt-A-Pet, Inc., a small animal shel-ter located on Sullivan Road in Alden, rescued the injured dog. He was taken to the Buf-falo Emergency Animal Hospi-tal for evaluation and then to the Corfu/Darien Veterinary Hospital where he underwent treatments for badly infect-ed cuts on his face and ear, a case of heart-worm and sar-coptic mange disease. While Smokey was in the hospi-tal fighting to stay alive, x-rays showed that dur-ing his ear-lier years he had sustained multiple bro-ken bones that failed to mend prop-erly and had been shot with

a pellet. The outpouring of support that Smokey received from pet lovers helped to put him on the road to recovery. Almost a year after his res-cue, the happy and affection-ate dog is ready for a perma-nent home.

P r o t e c t i o n of animals is the result of the in-volvement of people local-ly. Adopt-A-Pet, a nonprofit run by volunteers, was organized in 1976 with the mission to “Let no living crea-ture go hungry, homeless or un-loved” and en-courages the hu-mane treatment of all animals and the spay-ing and neuter-ing of pets. Their “no-kill” cat and dog shelter opened in Alden in 1999. “We’re surprised by the number of peo-ple in Alden who still don’t know we’re here,” said JJ Bloucha-rd, a member of the Adopt-A-Pet board of direc-tors.

Currently, 9 dogs and 11 cats live at the country shel-ter. Profiles about the animals are on Facebook (Adopta-petwny.com), Petfinder.com (www.adoptapetwny.petfind-er.com) and are available by calling the shelter at (716) 937-9292. The animals are

Adopt-A-Pet Keeps Saving Animalsstrays that have been aban-doned or become lost and will live at the shelter as long as they need a home. Stripes, an orange-striped domestic shorthair that is super friend-ly, is one of the abandoned cats that has found sanctuary there.

The shelter cannot ac-commodate animals that are dropped off outside and does not permit owners to surren-der a pet that has previously lived in a home. Because pets coming from homes are less capable of coping with shelter life, Adopt-A-Pet requests that their owners contact the shel-ter to receive their assistance with finding foster care or a permanent home from Adopt-A-Pet’s list of individuals look-ing for specific animals.

Adopt-A-Pet has success-fully adopted out over 4,000 dogs and cats over the years. The group worked with other animal welfare organizations after Hurricane Katrina and placed more than 20 dogs that came from Louisiana. “Quite a few from Alden came out to adopt,” said JJ. Although the shelter has struggled to find permanent homes for a hand-ful of dogs that have lived there for several years—some in their golden years with medical and/or behavior is-sues, in some cases caused by trauma and a b u s e — t h e Adopt-A-Pet management remain hope-ful that there are guardians out there that are good fits for each of these pooch-es. Adopt-A-Pet is al-ways looking for individ-uals or fami-lies who can make short-

term commitments to care for pets in their homes until they can be adopted. The number of available foster homes has decreased as a result of foster families adopting their foster pets, said JJ.

Responsible and depend-able volunteers and donations from the community are nec-essary to keep the shelter’s doors open, said JJ. There are many ways to give a helping hand to Adopt-A-Pet. These include spending an after-noon with the shelter animals, making repairs, buying/sell-ing a monthly lottery ticket (the cost is $5 and the num-ber is from the nightly New York Lottery), organizing and staffing fundraising events, writing grant proposals, and

donating items on the Adopt-A-Pet Wish List like blankets, bleach and cat litter. Mis-sy Sikora (a.k.a Miz Carrots) lives at the shelter and over-sees the care of the animals. An amateur clown, she may be hired to entertain children with balloon animals, tattoos, and face painting at birthday parties and family reunions with 100% of the fees donated to the shelter. (A child is nev-er too old to have a clown at his or her party). Adopt-A-Pet participates in Tractor Supply Adoption Day and hosts din-ners and an open house. Do-nations of raffle or craft items to sell at events are warm-ly appreciated. Popular craft items include dog and cat-nip toys, scarves, leashes, dog coats, pooper scoopers, signs, pet beds and collars. Coupons for dog and cat treats, food and cat litter are always need-ed--these can be mailed to the shelter.