Animals in need of a home
QUINCY - It's a rainy Saturday afternoon as Jim Parmelee sits in the office of the Quincy Animal Shelter.
The Puyallup man is at the shelter to adopt a mixed breed Chihuahua named Emma. Kristie Wolfe, a staff member at the shelter, is excited because Emma will be the third dog adopted today.
"We depend a lot on Petfinder.com," she said. "So when people see them on Petfinder, most of our adoptions come from far off. We're talking Montana, Idaho, Orcas Island, like this guy was in Puyallup. We get them up by the Canadian border. Somebody e-mailed me today from up there wondering how long it took to get here."
People adopted an average of 10 a month during the past year, with the high being 13 in a month, Wolfe said. They see the most during the summertime.
"We've got 14 kennels, we get 18 to 20 dogs," she said. "We'll have five to six in here at any given time. At one point last year, we had 36 cats. So, that was very trying."
Inside the office, Wolfe has a file on the computer of each dog they've gotten in the shelter. She smiles as she lists off the names, pointing at the dogs with names like Odie, Mr. Jones, Lady, Mama Jill and Lilly. Each of the animals has a story about how they ended up in the shelter.
"There's Wesson. I've got Wesson at home now because he became unadoptable, and we had to put his brother down, so it was either put him down or find him a home," she said. "I had gotten this special connection with him, which is rare. Normally that doesn't happen, but I took him. I couldn't help it."
The entire shelter is run out of the city's former pound, a facility which Police Chief Richard Ackerman said isn't adequate for it's new mission.
"We're having issues with the plumbing. We're having issues with cats and dogs being brought in. You need to separate aggressive dogs," he said. "It was supposed to be a 72-hour pound. The building is inadequate in its design and layout."
The chief and Mayor Jim Hemberry said the city is looking at replacing the animal shelter within the next couple of years. Ackerman said the group running the shelter is in the process of applying for non-profit status and will be able to apply for grants as well.
"I don't believe the city council, as a group, wants to go back to a dog pound," Ackerman said. "It takes time and effort to find the funds ... It doesn't happen overnight. We're taking baby steps."
The police chief said they try not to euthanize any of the animals, unless they are too sick or aggressive to be adopted.
Ackerman credits Debbie Latimer, the shelter's organizer, with making sure the shelter doesn't become overcrowded, saying she's transported animals to Wenatchee and the coast to get them adopted.