Harford County Humane Society Un-Official Blog

In new news, the Adopt-a-Kennel program is off & running @ a fast pace. For only $450, you too can claim fame in our favorite new kennels! Please spread the word & I’ll be getting back to posting info on Kijiji & Craigslist as well. There’s also a new committee for Offsite Events this Thursday at 6:30- hope to see you there!

Also be sure to shoot Mary, the new Development Hero, a “welcome!” email so she can get to know us all.

On a more serious note, I’ve noticed there are no comments on the Yahoo Board about the article in the Aegis concerning the euthanization of animals at the shelter. That suprises me because we can post multiple times about pit bulls but have no opinions about this?!?!?! Personally, I really feel it’s a shame that all this had to be made public. I think it was a shameless form of self promotion and a power play within the organization.

We all love these animals but the reality is we are a business. We only have so much room for animals and people can surrender animals in any condition to us. We do end up getting sick and hurting animals, some with serious illnesses which are costly to maintain a reasonable lifestyle for a pet. And the truth is yes, we put animals down. I had no idea myself because we are so very successful at pairing families with their perfect pets and our turnover is really a symbol of how great our system is!

It’s unfortunate but there are people everywhere who take advantage of power and it’s a shame that things like this happen as often as they do. I know at my job, I investigate Employee Dishonesty claims nearly everyday for very well-known non profit organizations! But all this should have been taken care of in-house with discussion between supervisors and the Board. Instead, yet again, the public sees the down-side of us instead of all the great things we do, the animals we assist & all the families we’ve made happy!

The only thing we can do is work harder now. It’s the heavy burden of a volunteer to promote the idea even if the execution is less than perfect. So spread the good word and promote our Adopt-a-Kennel program whenever you can!!!

I think this is the first time in a month that there were no offsite events planned for last weekend! What a pleasant break for Sue Roberts & I to get dirty planting around the grounds. But wait to you see Karl’s new improvement- no one would ever accuse us of being unpatriotic, but we’ve officially got our first planned flag pole! So be sure to salute each time you stop by and remember the folks overseas doing their jobs so we can be here safe and sound.

Sorry for the break in communication, my laptop crashed and unfortunately a friend passed away the other weekend which is why I missed the Ikea offsite. I hope you all had fun, I was very disappointed to miss the event! Have pictures? Email me and I’ll post them or you can post them to our Flickr group (which is free, of course!).

I’m putting more Moo cards up on the volunteer porch tonight- in a weather safe container!- so stop by and pick some up to share. I hope to see you all soon and don’t forget to peek in on the Beautification Blog next week for fresh pictures & updated plans!

Be sure to visit & sign up with our Flickr site to catch all of Saturday’s event photos on the web! It was hot. There’s not much else you missed with Saturday’s events.

The Ma & Pa Trail dedication was quiet until the pedestrians emerged victoriously from the new trail to our area. We made a lot of new friends with some other vendors including Charm City Running which I’ve driven past many times but never thought to stop in- but I will be soon! Also, the Boy Scout Troop (I believe troop 777) was our volunteer’s savior with free ice cold Freeze Pops for everyone. We had kittens for the first hour or so until their foster mom had to head off to work at the ER (talk about a hero!). And our pups were hot but very friendly sniffing and playing with all of the other pet attendees!

Then I was off to KarmaFest where I met a new volunteer & pup combination. KarmaFest had us located right behind the pool & I must admit Lacey (a brindled Pit mix) & I almost broke the rules and jumped in! Instead we shared a pit beef sandwich and I had to get a snowball to cool off. The pups went back earlier than expected; they had been there all morning when I arrived around 12:30! More volunteers treked over and sat in the heat waiting for more pup troopers as I headed out for the day.

I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more foot traffic or interest in adoptions at both events but the dedication wasn’t well publicized and KarmaFest just stuck us in a bad spot. Next year, we need to request getting into the air conditioned building!!! KarmaFest wasn’t what I really expected when I returned Sunday to walk around. Our volunteers had left a few hours before I got there (due to heat- see Yahoo Board posting) so there wasn’t much to do but hop in the pool! Next year I hope it’s a bigger event- in less than Sahara temperatures preferably.

Also, the official news has broken out- our Adopt-A-Kennel program is taking off fast!!! We are asking $450 for the fee which covers a variety of costs that goes directly back to fixing the kennels and saving up for our sanitizing system (see Karl with questions on the Beautification Project Blog). So spread the word and I’ll post a link to the flyers once I get one so we can hand them out to local businesses- there were 11 out to adopt but 2 have been adopted already- yay!

Don’t forget to vote for us to be the supported cause of choice for the Harford Community College Band Festival coming up. Go visit their website at www.rocknregister.com . You’ll see my comment there already : )

Sometimes I wonder how many people are reading- even though we have statistics- it makes you wonder if people really care. Well, I’m happy to report they do!

I’ve had a lot of feedback through my email and even a few posts on the Yahoo Board and some comments on the blogs. Seems like there are a lot of people talking- so keep it up!!!!

Among my newest friends is Chris who is an amazing photographer and he’s volunteered to help me with the Flickr page & I hope to see him get more involved with the Photography Team too. I caught up with Sue (our fearless Beautification Team leader) last night to find out the Boy Scout volunteers will be on the grounds Saturday morning- so be sure to greet them and wave! They’ll be working to spread out the mulch by the Admin Building and do some flower planting for their Merit Badges.

Also exciting news- I got our Moo cards in with the new websites listed on the back- all 200 of them. So I figure I’ll drop some off at the Society and mail some out to news folks and then leave some around town.

You should see me up at McShane’s with the camera so be sure to ask me for a new Moo!

That’s right, I learned new technology- proud, aren’t you? Plus, I found a new photo resizing program which works with batches- fotosizer.com- it’s free! I’ll have to email April or do a Yahoo post for the Photography Team. Needless to say, see the Beautification Project Blog Link and click on the “Pictures” Tab.

So I did not like the way the pics turned out at all from last week so I’m re-taking them today (to include the updated Adopt-A-Kennel test kennel) and will probably see Sue mulching and watering the marigolds along the way

I grabbed a dog treat jar at BJ’s over the weekend (no bias, there were no good cat treats!) so I will be setting it over at the adoption area if they want it or the volunteer table if they don’t. I’ll put a tag on it so you can grab a few and treat the pups during your walks or for bonuses during Dog Enrichment programs!

Karl emailed me to say he’s going to clear trees over the next few weekends- I’m ashamed to say BGE would not help us out. But I’m hoping to call one more place because we simply don’t have the equipment or man-power to do this in a way I feel is safe. But I’m picky and paranoid. God forbid anything should happen! Plus, we support the community- is it so wrong to ask for some help every now and then?

My goal for this week is to have a “flyer” designed talking about the adopt-a-kennel program for review by you fine folks. I’d love to be able to solicit people now while it’s nice. I also had a great idea for an event:

“Forever Home for the Holidays” a program that runs from Thanksgiving to Before Christmas. We can pair up with some real estate folks and fire safety folks, police men (of course) and get some events going. I’d love to show movies at the Armory or maybe have a Christmas Craft Show with proceeds going to us! What do you think? Oh, I know it’s soon but these things actually take time to do right! Hmm, well back to work for me so I’ll see you at the Humane Society!

So I only stopped by the Humane Society yesterday with the intentions of picking up my basket from Harford Live (which seems to be lost) and to take some pictures of the new landscaping, but instead picked up on some juicy new information!

Ok, and I stopped and peeked at the kittens in the administration house…I couldn’t help myself, they’re too cute.

So I was wandering around, as usual, with my camera in tow and ran into Karl along the way who then introduced me to ASHLEY!!. (I’m awful with names, please forgive me if I got it wrong- I did.) Very nice young woman who is very, very talented as well! She’s doing a mural of pets and our logo in the Adoption office. She’s obviously very passionate because I got excited just listening to her talk about it. I think the fresh additions will bring a really welcoming, comfortable atmosphere to the office.

So, she needs acrylic paint- do you have any? Natural colors, paint in good condition, of course. Maybe some brushes to give? Or maybe just a few bucks to help us get needed supplies? Me? Oh, I totally went over to JoAnn’s bought a few tubes and asked for more. Yeah, I’ll be calling Corporate Monday!

Also in the adoptions office, there will be a new tile floor soon. Over the Memorial Day holiday, Karl is hoping to get some large tiles settled in before people need to walk on it again. It should make a huge difference! Oh did you hear about the proposed doggie door for pups hangin out up front with the staff? Yes, that’s why the Donation Bin got moved! The open area by the kennels will be converted to an area with a doggie door for the greeting pups to roam around in.

Don’t worry though, we’re moving the beautiful Japanese maple and the shrubs before we let pups run wild!

Also, I ran into a family friend who was dropping off a co-workers’ beagle. Imagine, someone wanting to put down a 8 month old beagle pup because they couldn’t handle it- too sad. So Miss Julia will be dropping off some plants as well and hopes to help us out with future projects as well. She’s also involved in other animal charities in the area so she’s a great friend for us to have! Small World, right?

I’m also very excited about these Moo cards I ordered- confused yet? Go to Moo.com and look at their mini cards. I ordered a bunch for us to hand out and trade to spread the word that the shelter has moved into the information age! Plus, they’re just really, really cool. I’m hoping to get some donated if people like them. I will also be ordering prints from Harford Live through Shutterfly since they’re doing a free shipping thing- so look for those on the volunteer porch in a few weeks too.

Pictures of the renovations I will be posting on the beautification blog (if it works!) so check there for specific updates and if you can help with projects. They will be better outlined there.

I’m also really hoping to get other groups their own pages for communication and pictures- hear that Cat & Dog Enrichment? Email me I’ll do all the work! I’d also really like to get some staff profiles up. Maybe one a month as our “Staff Heros” until we compile a collection. Perhaps we could interview our volunteers too- that would be a lot of fun.