Valerie Sha, the dog foster coordinator for Second Chance Companions, works with her foster chihuahua, Captain Nemo, last week.
Harley, a 7-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, is one of the many animals up for adoption through Second Chance Companions.
Since opening in 1993, the volunteers of Second Chance Companions have worked to place pets with loving families.
While Second Chance is based out of Battle Ground, they don’t operate out of a facility. Instead, all pets are fostered in private homes. Foster parents provide the care they need and help select the right home for adoption.
Recently, though, Second Chance has been facing a shortage of foster homes, at times even forcing them to turn some animals away.
“We don’t have very many foster parents. That’s our biggest problem,” said Valerie Sha, the dog foster coordinator.
“It takes a special person to do it, somebody who can be a stable home for a pet while they wait for their forever home,” Sha later added.
While caring for a foster animal sounds expensive, according to Sha, it’s quite the opposite.
“We cover all expenses for things like vet care, food, and anything they might need,” she said.
Fostering pets is one of Second Chance Companions’ biggest missions but that’s not all they do.
They offer what’s called a “love connection,” where they help owners find a new home for their pet without sending them to a shelter first.
The rescue also has a spay and neuter program, and they work with Meals on Wheels packaging pet food to give to members of the community.
Rescue testimony
While discussing the rescue and its efforts with The Reflector, Sha was asked to tell of her most memorable rescue:
“I was on vacation, camping in Hawaii. In the very last campground we stayed in, there was a wild dog. I talked to one of the ladies who had worked there and she said the dog drives her crazy by dragging the garbage all over.”
The dog had been there for over two years, and Sha could tell she had been pregnant before. Sha reached out to the local humane society, but they wouldn’t come, having failed to catch her multiple times before.
“I managed to catch her, so I took her to the humane society but because she was so scared they couldn’t put her up for adoption,” she said. “They were just going to euthanize her so I decided to have her flown over here — for $300.”
Sha said she saw so much in that dog and knew she deserved more. She named the dog Maya and decided to keep her.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever let her go just because of the bond we made, and she’s so sweet.”
