Holiday Fund also helps our four-legged friends Holiday Fund also helps our four-legged friends (December 23, 2005)

Valley Humane Society, an animal shelter that finds homes and saves lives
by Carol Bogart

"Tyson" is not at all sure he likes the other cats slinking around Valley Humane's outdoor enclosure. For several days, this new arrival has been confined to a cage as he adjusts to his new surroundings.

That Tyson had Valley Humane to go to when he "didn't work out" in his adoptive home is due, in part, to generous donations to the Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund.

Those contributions improve the shelter's ability to care for errant and unwanted kitties.

When Tyson did not adapt well to the adoptive home--with resident cats--his owners brought him to Valley Humane. Here, too, Tyson initially lived up to namesake Mike Tyson, and proved to be a pugilist with other pussies.

Marked remarkably like an ocelot or leopard or some other larger feline ancestor, Tyson hisses, spits and smacks long-time shelter residents around as he tries to establish that he is, indeed, King of the Jungle.

Although Tyson doesn't play well with others, he is unlikely to meet the fate of millions of cats killed each year across the country in overcrowded shelters, where perfectly pleasant cats often experience an untimely demise. Too many cats. Too few homes.

Valley Humane operates differently.

There are 30 slots. When those slots are full, other cats go on a waiting list. At the Pleasanton shelter, no cat -- unless its really sick or infirm -- is euthanized.

Because the demand (lots of cats) exceeds the supply (places to put them), Valley Humane has a new shelter in the works. Just how soon the capital fund will get underway is still a bit up in the air, but it won't be long before Valley Humane starts looking for money for operations.

Even before construction begins, the old building on Spring Street with its outdoor cat run will be vacated. The resident cats will be housed in temporary quarters until the new adoption and education facility is finished. The new shelter will again include a space for outdoor exploration. Besides creating room for more cats, for the first time it will take selected dogs.

Meantime, Valley Humane remains the home of last resort for many misbegotten cats -- some of them older and in need of expensive medications. In addition, the no-kill facility spays and neuters as many as 400 animals a year, to the tune of $20,000.

As shelter manager Wendy McNelly arbitrates disagreements between Tyson and existing residents, she explains what help from the Pleasanton Weekly's Holiday Fund means to Valley Humane.

Put simply, it means, "The facility can save more animals."

Last year, McNelly remembers the shelter received $4,000-$5,000 from the Holiday Fund. The money was used to help feed, neuter and treat cats nobody wanted.

Ultimately, though, 100 percent of the cats find their way to a good home, she reports. Unless a cat is really sick and euthanasia is the kindest outcome, none of the cats is put down, no matter how old or, in some eyes, unattractive.

Sooner or later, McNelly is sure, each cat--even Tyson--will find its purrrfect match, but until that kind-hearted human comes along, gifts like those given to the Holiday Fund help keep the now-healthy kitties happy.

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