Champ is a playful boy that loves fun times with buddies and earning treats. Champ can obediently sit, shake, and even lay down, but needs to go to a home without cats, small dogs or other small animals.
L.D. Large and in charge, this handsome 7-year-old is looking for a new home and family after arriving at the shelter when his prior owners were no longer able to care for him. A new family that can keep up with his new weight loss journey would be a great fit as he is quite a big boy.
The Humane Society for Southwest Washington in Clark County is the home to a little over 300 cats and dogs on a regular daily basis.
Unlike most all other animal shelters though, it’s more like a hotel for its furry residents. On average the animals brought to HSSW only stay for 13 days, which is an impressive in-and-out turnover rate for a pound.
The reasoning behind the success of HSSW is a multitude of contributing factors. For starters, the agency has 760 unpaid volunteers.
“Clark County is just filled with animal lovers,” said Denise Barr, vice president and director of marketing.
Many of the first time adopters from the shelter return to it for another animal, oftentimes even in addition to the new friend they just acquired.
“Honestly we don’t have enough animals to keep up with demand,” Barr said.
The problem is certainly a good one to have, especially when that’s not the case in so many other places. In California, for example, there is significant overcrowding of shelter animals. To combat that, HSSW entered into a partnership with organizations in the state a few years back to ship animals to areas where adopters were willing and waiting. Today transportations occur as frequently as once a week, both via ground and air travel. Additionally HSSW is doing the same for animals from Hawaii, but on a more sporadic basis.
Ultimately HSSW has a tremendous amount of confidence in their resources and staff to pull off successfully caring for the dogs and cats despite such heavy demand. Manner training, multiple walks per day and veterinarian work are examples of why customers are so satisfied with adopting a dog in Clark County as opposed to other more standard shelters which as a whole tend to have negative connotations. As a result HSSW has a save rate of 83 percent.
Barr said just simply saying “euthanization” makes her sick and it’s one of the primary motivators for the organization.
As the holiday season draws near there is naturally an anticipated increase of adopters soon to be making their way over to the shelter in search of an animal present. According to Barr, the best way to go about the adoption process is to take your new animal home on a weekend or holiday as opposed to during the middle of the week. This will allow you and your new pet to get to know each other better before the work week starts and extended separation sets in.
Picking out the cutest pet can be done online as well as at the shelter. The shelter offers a constantly updated page that shows in real time which dogs and cats are available. Next to at least one (but usually several) photos of them there is a detailed description.
“That’s just the way so many people fall in love with pets to start, seeing a picture of them,” Barr said.
Before adopting people are allowed on site to have “socials” with selected animals to see if there’s a connection. During these little get togethers potential new families can interact with the dog or cat on a multitude of levels and even bring in a dog or cat they already own to see if both parties would be a good fit.
Any animal that leaves the shelter for adoption has the following: Spay or neuter surgery, microchip ID and national registration, select vaccinations, free veterinary exam with a local participating veterinarian, animal training information and 30 days of free pet insurance.
To visit the self proclaimed matchmakers of the area stop by HSSW from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday Through Sunday, located at 1100 NE 192nd Ave., Vancouver.
