A shelter sleepover

Humane society welcomes residents to be part of Valentine’s program

WINTERSVILLE -- The Jefferson County Humane Society hopes area residents will open their hearts -- and homes -- as part of a first-time "Valentine's Day Shelter Sleepover."

Individuals 21 and older are welcome to participate in the free event that involves taking home a dog or cat from the Jefferson County Animal Shelter for one or two nights -- Feb. 14 and 15 -- in what Brandi DeNoon Damewood, community outreach manager, sees as a "purr-fect" opportunity for a "dog-gone" good outcome.

"Valentine's Day is always a couple's holiday, and so the single folks feel even more single and extra lonely during this time of year," Damewood said. "We have a lot of lonely pets here in the shelter, so what better way to embrace people who might become a little extra lonely, and they can take home a pet for a couple nights and see how the animal does in a different environment," she said.

"This is our very first sleepover, and if it is a positive experience for both the host and the pets, we hope to continue for other holidays, birthdays, etc.," she said, explaining how the event will be structured.

Beyond the age requirement, for instance, participants must complete an application, have a home check and be involved in a brief session on how to care for the pet and what to do in an emergency. Humane society representatives will categorize a list of dogs and cats to note, for example, whether they are or aren't good with children or other pets.

"Some of the things the application will ask is where the animal will be sleeping, how many pets are in the home and what kind of pets and if there are small children, different things of that nature," she said of the effort for a good match to be made.

"Really, we try to keep it pretty open to most folks. One big thing is any owned animals have to be up to date on vaccinations," Damewood said. "That's a big one, because we don't want any illnesses to be passed from either animal. Ours are all vaccinated, of course, flea-treated and dewormed, and they're micro-chipped before they go off on their little adventure."

It's also preferred that any animals already in the host home are spayed or neutered. "There could be some exceptions to that depending on age and different things like that," she said. "Our animals are all spayed or neutered that would go into these environments, so it's just extra precaution."

Pick-up and drop-off days and times will be scheduled.

There are multiple reasons for having the shelter sleepover event, according to Damewood.

"One is to give our shelter pets an escape from shelter life," she said. "Some of our shelter pets have been here for a long time. We are a no-kill shelter, so the pets can be here indefinitely, so we try our hardest to find homes and placement. Sometimes that can be difficult, because we don't know how they behave in a home environment. We only see how they behave here so there might be a dog that seems to be aggressive while they're in the kennel, but in the home environment, where it's nice and relaxed and calm, they're not," Damewood explained.

"It gives us good insight as to whatever household this animal would do best in," she said.

The participants will be given a "doggy/kitty journal" to monitor behavior in different situations, offering "a glimpse of how the animals are outside of the stressful shelter life that doesn't give us true information on behavior in a relaxed environment."

In addition to giving staff feedback on household behavior for better adoption placements, the program gives the dogs and cats "a much deserved day to relax and have fun," according to Damewood.

It also focuses attention on the foster program.

"It gives people a short-term commitment as an introduction to fostering," Damewood said. "Maybe someone is on the fence about being a foster and afraid to take on a longer commitment time before knowing what it's like. A lot of folks say they don't think they could foster because of getting attached, but a short period gives them the opportunity without a lot of time for attachment, making it more appealing for them to try it out." She added, "Ultimately, it is great for the shelter resident to get a little break from the shelter life."

For those who might think it unkind to take a shelter animal home only to return it a day or so later, Damewood said, "To be honest, that was my first response to it as well, but studies have shown that this has a positive impact on each of the shelter animals. Since it's such a short-term outing, it's not something that they become acclimated to. Now if the animal was in a home for maybe two weeks or so getting into a routine, really bonding with the other members of the family, then that would be a little more difficult for the pet."

Hosts can chose from one to two nights and can apply to adopt, if they have been completely smitten, Damewood said. "If we have too many homes and not enough pets, we will keep them on file for the next sleepover or even foster opportunities."

"Hopefully this is something that we'll be able to build upon and offer it more times just kind of depending on how things go this time around," Damewood said. "It's been done at different shelters across the nation, so it's not a unique idea I can take all the credit for," she said with a laugh. Damewood had read an article about a Christmas sleepover in which half of the pets were adopted.

"In the end, our hope is to encourage more people to sign up to be a foster," Damewood said. "We have kitten season coming up which means we're going to have a lot of pregnant mamas too far along to be spayed, and essentially keeping a full litter of the mama and kittens here at the shelter, it holds up an available kennel for two months. With our cat crisis that we're in, it's really important that we keep the flow going through the shelter bringing in the surrendered cats and getting them adopted out so whenever we're clogging up a lot of our space two months at a time, that's a lot."

Damewood said the shelter could accommodate four mother cats and their litters. Fosters homes for a mother cat and her kittens would be helpful to free up space.

In noting other programs the humane society has in place, Damewood cited the "awesome volunteer program, and it's available to all ages and all abilities. There's something for everyone to do here. If there is a wheelchair-bound person who wants to come in, they can socialize with our cats. Our cats need socialization, so they can sit and brush cats or whatever it is the person wants to do, we will try and accommodate their interest."

In September, the humane society started hosting field trips for schoolchildren, tailoring the information to any curriculum and any ability.

"We've had upwards of 65 students here at a time, which is a big number considering the size of our shelter, but we found a way to rotate through the shelter through different stations where the students will learn different parts of what we do," Damewood said. "For instance, we have one station where they learn about the humane agent and the humane laws, one is where they will learn about trap-neuter-return, and one is where they learn how to interact with the dog, how to assess a dog to see if it is friendly, that kind of thing," she continued.

The students also learn how to interact with the cats and get to hear what the feline specialists do every day.

"They also learn about the medical side of our facilities, such as why it's important to vaccinate our pets," she said.

Since September, there have been more than 150 students participate.

One field trip was reading oriented and involved students reading to the animals.

"We found that whenever children are reading to an animal or a cat or dog that they tend to do a lot better, because they're not nervous or worried about what that animal is thinking about them or judging them on their reading ability, so they really open up and relax, and it's good for the animals, too," Damewood said. "It gets them socialized and some enrichment, something to do during the day, so that's a big thing here in the shelter, because there are only so many of us, and we can't spend as much time as we need to with each animal. We try, but in a day you can really only spend just a few minutes with each animal. Everyone gets outside every day, but not everyone is going to get that one-on-one experience with a human, so that's why it is really important to have enrichment and different things like the sleepover. The animal is going to be getting a lot of attention, a lot of care, kind of our extended hands," Damewood said.

The shelter is located at 200 Airpark Drive in Wintersville. For information, call (740) 314-5583.

(Kiaski can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronline.com.)