Dear Source,
The flooding of the Humane Society¹s shelter in Nadir once again stresses the need for the community to do everything in its power to help fund the new animal care facility which is to be built off the Weymouth Rhymer highway. Every little contribution will help to fund what will eventually be a state-of-the-art facility that has been so sorely needed for so long.
And, please, spay and neuter your animals and try hard to reason with your neighbors who persist in maintaining that it¹s "not natural" to spay and neuter.
Like many caring people, I feed, spay and neuter neighborhood cats and have had a great success rate thus far in reducing the feral population.
It¹s the saddest thing to see tiny animals foraging for food and then see them grow into ferals with no concept of human kindness. Their life span is too short, their life hard and cruel.
Joe Elmore (the new executive director of the Humane Society of St. Thomas) says, "This is a busy time of year for us anyway," when urging people to consider adopting an animal from the shelter.
What he didn't say outright was that this is the time of year when cats and dogs are breeding like mad because they remain un-spayed and un-neutered. Those cute little kittens and puppies grow up fast, the owner's fascination with the birth process quickly wears off and these animals quickly become another part of the hood – and are ready to breed at just six months of age. The majority get dumped.
Many of them end up at the shelter and their chances of avoiding euthanasia are slim.
This nonsense that a dog won¹t protect you if it¹s "fixed" is just that – total nonsense. My spayed female dog was my companion for over 16 years and during that time she saved me once from a mugger and twice from house break-ins, one of which was on St. Thomas when she literally threw herself through a louvered glass window to attack and chase away the intruder, despite having severed a tendon for which she had to have surgery.
This was no trained attack dog. She was the sweetest dog in the world and loved people and other animals (she was always the odd one out among a house full of cats!) and she protected because she loved. I miss her to this day.
Right now I'm temporarily housing three adorable "storm" puppies. Daisy, Maisy and Pansy are golden/tan lab mixes. They're bright, healthy, gorgeous and ready to go. I¹m looking for good homes for them and they're absolutely free with only one stipulation, which is that they¹ll be spayed at
your expense before you take them home. Call me! If I can't find homes
for them they¹ll have to go to the Shelter. E-mail toadandtart@earthlink.net or call 775-1153.
Anna Clarke
St. Thomas
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