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Columbia-Greene Humane Society
125 Humane-Society Road
Soft Paws By Aaron Clause “110”, “100”, and “1” Greetings, animal lovers! This week, I’m going to discuss how important the numbers “110”, “100”, and “1” are. Funny numbers, you say? Not to us. Let’s start with “100.” To us, “100” is not a century, or a birthday, or an anniversary, as important as those events are. No; to us, “100” is the number of spaces we have available to house dogs and cats. That’s it – 33 dog kennels and 67 cat cages. Sometimes that number is even more important; for instance, when we have them all filled. It becomes a day-in day-out game, trying desperately to free cages up through adoptions and owner-returns for other animals that are coming in to our safe haven. Which, in turn, brings me to the second important number, “110.” Why is this number so critical, you may ask? Well, given that we have 100 spaces, the fact that, at this very moment, we are housing 110 animals is indeed a serious, almost grave, matter. Yes, it means putting dogs together with other dogs (giving them each about 5’ by 5’ of living space). Yes, it means putting cats together with other cats (giving them only about 2’ by 2’). It means holding dogs in the office instead of kennels, and overflowing our free-roaming cat room with extra candidates. Not only that, it takes a great amount of time from our staff to deal with the extra general animal maintenance – time that alternatively could be used for bathing, walking, and training – while constantly under the black cloud that is the consequences of a severe space crunch; consequences which could include animal illness, aggression and/or cage-craziness from attention deprival, constant strain on animal caretakers, and worst of all, the threat of euthanasia. It is a scary world here because of “110.” The last, and most important number is that which all our hopes rest on – “1.” “1” is the dog or cat we find a home for. “1” is the cage we can use for another unfortunate companion animal, once we place the previous tenant in an adopter’s warm and caring hands. And one by one, we barely manage to sweat and struggle by. Barely. My challenge to you all – if you can provide just “1” with food, water, shelter, health, and friendship, please come see us. Our animals are out of space. Help us to get them home and avoid the inevitable fate and tragedy that faces them if our incoming numbers continue to outweigh our outgoing numbers. Just “1.” Some of you have been to the shelter; others have not. If you have, we would love to see you again. If not, come look at a shelter pet’s face, the hope and love in their eyes, the desire to earn themselves a home in their behavior. They have much to offer. Our annual Adoptathon is running May 5-6, and only you can make it a success. Our goal is (you guessed it) 110. Can you just do “1”? For more information on adoptions or the Adoptathon, please call us at (518) 828-6044. Better yet, stop down and visit all of our unique and wonderful shelter animals; we’re located on Route 66, 1 ¼ miles south of the intersection with Route 9H, just outside of Hudson. See you soon!
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