Cheddar. Image courtesy of Jennifer Grove
Jennifer Grove insisted that her new cat wouldn’t be kitten-age, but an animal rescuer talked her into meeting 6-month-old Cheddar at Abrams & Weakley, the Susquehanna Township pet store.
She loved the energetic, creamsicle-hued kitten but decided to think about it. As she closed the store door behind her, Cheddar ran up and put his little paw on the glass.
“Well, that’s it,” she thought. “I’m done.”
Now a year old, Cheddar is no longer climbing the bookcases of Grove’s Harrisburg home. He is content to venture into the backyard wearing a harness, sleep on a window ledge, and accept scritches from visitors.
A happy story, matching a willing human with a beautiful tabby that had been lingering among Harrisburg Area Rescue Team’s adoptables. And while fairy-tale endings remain on track in animal-adoption land, some stories are ending in sad surrender, while post-pandemic Harrisburg-area shelters and rescues, stretched to their limits, struggle for volunteers and resources.
“The national trend has been, since COVID, that intakes are outpacing outtakes,” said Amy Kaunas, executive director, Humane Society of Harrisburg Area.
While HSHA’s cats have been relatively consistent, in contrast to a tidal wave of felines washing over foster-based rescues, the volume of stray dogs “is definitely outside the norm.”
Plus, as other rescues agree, the peaks and valleys of past years have flattened to a constant stream that strains volunteer capabilities and expenses.
Why? It’s too early for data. Speculation points to the pandemic, when spay/neuter was deemed nonessential and halted. Perhaps it’s inflationary pressures on pet owners, or a rise in backyard breeders looking for quick money.
As the dog population suddenly swells, HSHA is putting a sit-stay on existing plans to redesign its dog kennels in response to a decades-long decline. In the meantime, HSHA is trying to ease the pressure on its shelter by participating in the Home to Home network, an online pet placement that facilitates owner-to-owner surrender, foster in or foster out, or adoption of a local pet.
The foster-based, all-feline Harrisburg Animal Rescue Team is feeling the post-pandemic effect, said founder Bill Forgey.
“I thought 2021 was bad, but 2022 was worse,” he said. “We’re expecting it to be bad again this year.”
Forgey is fostering 17 kittens in his Susquehanna Township home, plus—he counted in his head—“one, two, three, four mother cats.” With 10 to 12 foster humans who can only be asked to do so much, HART has been known to reach its limit.
“We do very good at keeping sustainable, but we got so swamped last year that we had to put a halt to the intake in September,” Forgey said.
It could happen again this year, he added.
At foster-based Castaway Critters, the dog program, which primarily took in dogs from southern shelters, is on hold. They hope to resume soon, but it’s a tough ask of volunteers as they retire, age or move.
“You have to be kind of on call all the time,” said office manager Jamie Balla of West Hanover Township. “Because we don’t have a brick-and-mortar shelter, it’s very difficult if there is an emergency. Are you willing to be that person? It’s hard to find a kennel, especially in the middle of the night.”
Never Ending
At Helen O. Krause Animal Foundation, Inc., in Dillsburg, manager Janet Cremo is fielding the saddest calls possible.
In one morning, she took three relinquishment requests, one for a dog and two for cats. The calls are often tearful, forced by homelessness or eviction or the choice between feeding families or feeding pets.
“They want their animals to be in a safe place,” Cremo said. “They’re reaching out to get help, instead of just dumping them.”
Space restrictions limit HOKAFI’s intake capabilities, but Cremo will “try to lead them in the right direction” by suggesting resources, such as Facebook rehoming sites, foster-based rescues or low-cost clinics.
In the meantime, HOKAFI adoptions are dwindling so much that some adoption days—Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m.—see no one walk through the door.
HSHA also pointed financially strapped pet owners toward resources—pet food banks, low-cost spay/neuter and veterinary services, behavioral resources.
“Call your local shelter and see what they can do to help,” said Amanda Brunish, HSHA director of marketing and outreach. “Anything to keep you from deciding to give up your dog.”
Many rescues struggle to find volunteers. Castaway Critters’ foster corps is shrinking, possibly because homelife is returning to the pre-pandemic normals of going out and traveling.
“Most of the fosters we have now are ones that were with us pre-pandemic,” Balla said. “They stuck through it.”
It’s a hard road for TNR (trap-neuter-release) and spay/neuter programs. From an old bank, Steelton Community Cats spays and neuters feral, colony and dumped kitties brought in through municipal contracts and a network of volunteers and rescues with cat traps.
“We filled the building for our May trapping,” said volunteer Rosemary Loncar. “It’s going to be like this the rest of the year, I’m sure. It’s just never ending. Never ending.”
In today’s inflationary spiral, rescues and shelters feel lucky that donors continue to open their wallets.
“If I put a request out for food and litter, people respond,” said Forgey. “They’re all animal lovers, and I think that’s why they donate.”
Now What?
Steelton Community Cats cherishes the volunteer services of Dr. Diane Ford, of Vetting Zoo, Palmyra, but must contend with rising costs of medical supplies for monthly surgery clinics: oxygen, anesthesia, vaccines and syringes, sterilization packs. Cat food has risen from 25 cents a can to 80 cents.
“All these animals cannot go into a shelter,” Loncar said. “If people don’t jump on the TNR wagon, what do you do? Here’s what happens. The cat that’s pregnant—you’re not dealing with just one cat. If she has five kittens, you’re now dealing with six cats that need to get done. And within five or six months, those six cats can become 20 cats, and the numbers keep going up and up and up.”
At HSHA, “obviously, we don’t have a lot of things we can sell” to raise funds, said Kaunas. The organization decided to raise adoption rates, which have not increased in nearly a decade, to bring them in line with fees at other shelters in the region. They also bumped up prices for their veterinary services, a fundraiser for the nonprofit.
“Some of the drug prices have gone up so high that we weren’t even charging what we were paying,” Kaunas said. “We want to keep it low cost, but we can’t lose money on it.”
The question lingers: How are rescues and shelters addressing the root problem of too many animals? They say they are doing everything possible.
“If you have numbers creeping back to before and you have the prevention programs in place, now what?” said HSHA’s Brunish. “Do you just do more?”
HSHA continues its mission of “getting out and educating people on the services we have and how people can take care of their animals,” she added. “We want people to keep their animals in their homes.”
The world needs more donors and more foster programs to place pets in homelike settings, where their personalities can shine for potential adopters to see, said Balla.
“We can save more if we have more fosters,” she said.
Jennifer Grove, cat mom to Cheddar, is doing her part for TNR. Her block’s self-sufficient stray, fondly named Tom by the neighborhood, would go to no one but her. She trapped him and got him spayed. Now, she provides food and water and allows him inside when he’s inclined.
Grove’s adopted fur baby Cheddar is her morning cuddle companion, gently purring beside her in bed until he signals that it’s time to eat. Grove adopted Cheddar through HART and is now “so glad to be able to finally bring in one of their kittens and give it a good home.”
“I know they do such good work, and they’ve been inundated with so many kittens and cats,” she said. “They’re so easy to work with. If they can help in any way to rescue a cat, they’re there, and I feel really fortunate to be able to continue supporting them.”
A Pet Fur You
For adoption information or to make a donation, visit the websites of organizations mentioned in this story:
Castaway Critters, www.castawaycritters.org
Harrisburg Animal Rescue Team, www.hart-harrisburganimalrescueteam.org
Helen O. Krause Animal Foundation Inc., www.helenkrause.org
Humane Society of Harrisburg Area, www.humanesocietyhbg.org
Steelton Community Cats, www.steeltoncats.org
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