Sylvania Telephone readers have gotten to know a handful of the dogs and cats rescued by Screven County’s new rescue group in its first year of business.
There was Miracle, the pit bull who was frighteningly emaciated but after surgery and loving care filled out and became a beloved pet. Then there was Dee Dee, the puppy who cheated death twice – first by hiding at the county shelter while her mother and siblings were euthanized and later by surviving parvo virus she contracted there.
Then there’s Beau, the black-and-white cat who lives at the Friends of Screven County Animals shelter on W. Ogeechee Street and who is running for county commission as part of a fund-raising campaign for the non-profit group.
They are but a few of the 128 dogs and 21 cats adopted through the group’s shelter in its first year of existence.
The work at the shelter is in jeopardy because of a lack of volunteers. “We’re in desperate need of volunteers,” said Friends’ treasurer Dale Reddick. If the group can’t get more help taking care of the animals at the shelter, “We may have to close.”
She said the group has about a dozen faithful volunteers who are covering 14 shifts at the shelter every week – one each morning and one each night. When those people have to miss shifts to do other things, it means more strain on the remaining volunteers to take on additional shifts.
A shift can take one to four hours, depending on how many animals are there at the time, how much cleaning and walking and socializing must be done and how much help the volunteers have.
Shelter Chairman Christy Campo said dozens more volunteers are needed – the more the better. If volunteers covered only two shifts per month, for example, they would be fresher and better able to work without stress.
Campo also said the group could save more animals if it had more volunteers to help at the shelter and to foster animals in their homes. “When you have the same people every week, it puts a big strain on them,” she said.
Reddick said she’s hoping churches, schools, clubs, families and businesses will hear the group’s cry for help and volunteer to take on a shift caring for the animals.
One example of how it can be done is the family who covers a night shift each week. Melissa Lariscy said she and her 14-year-old daughter Cara began volunteering about three months ago and soon her husband, Bucky and 6-year-old son Colby joined to help.
Now they go as a family to cover the one shift each week.
“You have to really love and enjoy animals,” Melissa Lariscy said. They enjoy helping make sure the animals have some fun while their waiting to be adopted, instead of just spending time alone, as if they were serving a jail sentence.
She said the visits teach her children responsibility, patience and compassion. And she said they get something in return: “I get great satisfaction from it,” she said. “I love every animal before I leave. We’re not just there to feed them and clean their cage.”
Another volunteer, Katie Blalock, said she’s glad to see her grandfather’s vet clinic used as a shelter. “He would be so touched to know that animals are still being care for, loved on in his clinic,” she said.
The Blalock family is donating the use of the building to the non-profit, Reddick said.