I know that since I took this little column of mine online, I have not necessarily limited myself to writing about my beloved Ashe County. I guess that since I’ve been out of the flow of county life for several weeks, I took my eye off the ball a little.
I was reconnected today, not that it was a pleasant reconnection, with one of the things I haven’t thought about for a little while; that is how suspicious I am of non-profit organizations.
For the most part, I have personally seen very few non-profit organizations that really operate how they say they will. Yes, some do, and if you belong to one that does, then I’m not talking about you, so don’t write me complaining.
My problem today was with one particular NPO in the county; the Ashe County Humane Society.
The story actually began last Saturday morning as my wife and I were driving out Three Top Road about three miles from our house. As we rounded a curve, we spotted this little pup (pictured above), running with everything he had uphill in the center of the road. Well, what else could we do but stop and try to get the little guy to a safe place? The pup came right to me trying to jump into my arms when I got out of the car and so he sat in my lap all the way to Blowing Rock. I was helping my wife with a wedding she was in charge of and we didn’t have time to look for its owner. We brought him home that night and took care of him, sure that we could find his owner on Sunday.
Sunday afternoon I drove around to a few houses near where we picked him up, but it soon became evident that I wasn’t going to reunite the little guy with his family, so I brought him back home.
Over the next couple of days, my wife and I tried to find a home for him but as the week wore on, we saw that it wasn’t going to happen. So, today I decided that if I was going to keep the pup from possible euthanasia at the pound, I was going to have to get some help from people who are always preaching “save the animals.”
I took a drive out to the Ashe County Humane Society office and was very impressed at how nice it looked. There was a nicely constructed house with one of the best constructed, and longest, wooden wheelchair ramps I have ever seen and not very old looking galvanized chain link fencing around a backyard with fairly expensive looking igloo shaped dog houses; I’ve seen the prices of them at local big box stores and they aren’t cheap. I honestly thought when I pulled up, “man they have a nice set-up here, this little guy lucked out.” I also thought that they must be doing a good job because there were no animals to be seen. Sometimes I lose my head in the clouds too.
When I stepped inside, wow! I have been to a few humane society shelters in my time, but I have never seen one so pristine and sanitized as the one here in Ashe. Although the place was filled with empty kennels, there wasn’t a hint of old animal smell about the place. It was, in fact, cleaner than some downtown West Jefferson businesses I could mention, but won’t.
Man, I was happy, because I knew I had made the right choice in brining this little guy there, these are the folks who can find him a home and apparently pretty quick.
Have you ever been so wrong about something that it nearly makes your head explode? That’s how I felt about two minutes after walking in.
The very pleasant young lady who was volunteering (yes, I know they are all volunteers) looked at me as if I were holding something strange and alien when I indicated to her that I expected them (her, since she was the only one there) to take the pup and place him in one of the kennels or put him in the great little backyard and then thank me for being a lover of animals and for brining him to them instead of animal control . . .
I couldn’t have been more wrong, if I had tried.
The young lady checked the phone messages to see if anyone had reported a missing dog and when there was none, she told me, in a cheerful voice, that she would be happy to give me directions to the animal control office where I could take him.
I thought I would pass out, my head sort of got a little fuzzy. I asked her what they were there for “if not to keep animals from going to the pound?” She answered by telling me she fostered two dogs already.
Nothing I could say would convince her to take the dog so, frustrated, no, pissed off, I left telling her that I would do just what I am doing now; letting you know.
My question here is what does this organization even exist for, if not to take care of lost animals in need of a home? I don’t have to ask what the donations go to because, as I said, they have a great facility; it’s empty, but it’s really nice.
If they are there only to hold adoptions on the weekends as their webpage says, (wonder how much that costs), why have the building? There are several places more convenient and with higher foot traffic to hold weekend adoptions. The parking lot across from the old Dodge dealership in West Jefferson where the yard selling goes on is just one. I bet that the ladies at Happy Tails Pet Store would be agreeable to loaning part of their large parking lot. Friends for Life do it in Boone all the time.
I know, everybody hates Boone comparisons, but this time it fits.
Why have a building, why pay utility bills and staff it if you aren’t going to do anything six days of the week but check messages. Tell me it’s not just so you have a place to hang your adoption pictures, or for bored summer residents to kill time, please.
Of course the best part was after coming home and letting off some steam on my facebook page, someone actually wrote to me and said I should have lied about where I found the dog. That I should have said a neighbor moved and abandoned him. So, in order to do something morally right I needed to lie. Does anybody else see a problem with that?
The bottom line is, if you are an NPO and you ask for and receive donations to perform a service, perform the dang service. That isn’t happening at the good old ACHS.
Somebody will surely ask the question, “why don’t you just keep him, you picked him up?” or admonish me for criticizing ACHS when I won’t keep the animal. The answer is simple, I don’t advertise that I have animals for adoption (free in some local news products) and I don’t ask for money to care for and find homes for animals, but they do.
Of the two dogs that are part of my pack, one is a rescue dog and she is wonderful. I just can’t afford to keep another animal. And my landlord wouldn’t be too happy about it either. If I could, I would, because this little guy is going to make a great dog.
Just be aware Ashe County folks, if you find an animal and you consider helping it out, that you might be left holding the bag. The ACHS isn’t going to help you out.
By the way if you want him check my facebook page for my contact info and give me a call. First good home to ask gets him. Hey, everybody loves free puppies. Well, except maybe for the ACHS.
