One afternoon I helped referee a typical drama in our parking lot next to the Fort Bragg Food Bank.
A fat Labrador puppy, who had tried his best to obey his master”s very firm “stay,” instead leaned too far out of the pickup to bark at the two dogs in the next car over and seemed to bounce, uninjured onto the gravel.
Then he discovered nearly every car had a dog inside and began running about, jumping up, looking in, then retreating gleefully from the cacophony inside.
I scooped the wiggling fella up and put him back in the pickup and gave him another firm “stay.”
This time he stayed, despite the approach of more and more dogs and even one cat into the Food Bank periphery.
Pets provide cheer and sometimes chaos every day at the Fort Bragg Food Bank.
There are some people who have no houses, many who have no car or who drive cars that barely run.
But almost everybody seems to have a companion animal.
These animals are often better cared for than the cars and better fed than the persons themselves.
Homeless men and women very often pair with dogs, only a few using the dog to help beg. These duos are inseparable, making for many very happy dogs, who get to spend all day “camping” with their homeless masters.
But pets are suffering with this recession too. People have been surrendering or abandoning their pets in record numbers this past year, causing overflows at shelters across the country.
Locally, the Mendocino Coast Humane Society, the Eileen Hawthorne Fund, Support our Shelter and Second Chance Rescue are active in helping pets in need.
At the Food Bank, Second Chance Rescue gave Christmas presents of Frontline flea and tick treatments, collars and toys to 96 dogs on Dec. 23. The charity will be back at the Food Bank on Friday, Jan. 29.
According to Steve Sapontzis of Second Chance Rescue, “Second Chance now purchases 200 pounds of dog food weekly from Fort Bragg Feed and Pet, which gives them a nice discount and delivers the food, as well as over 30 pounds a week of cat food, and continues to bring up bags and bags of pet food donated in the Bay Area.”
Second Chance, the key program for feeding the Fort Bragg Food Bank”s four-legged clients, is a program of Hayward Friends of Animals. The Hayward Friends organization gets thousands of pounds of donated pet food from a variety of sources in the Bay Area, some of which ends up on the coast.
All moneys donated to Second Chance are spent to help animals on the coast, and donations from beyond the coast are brought by Second Chance to help animals here.
“Seeing the needs of the growing number of low-income pet owners living on the coast, Second Chance has broadened its programs during the past year to provide not just pet food, but also the flea/tick treatments and help with veterinary bills,” Sapontzis said.
For several years, Second Chance has also provided free canine spay/neuter at the County”s clinics and reduced cost canine spay/neuter at Fort Bragg veterinary hospitals.
The Eileen Hawthorne Fund also funds similar programs. When we adopted a dog from the Lake County pound who had heartworm, it cost $1,000 to treat her. Hawthorne gave us $100 to help with that unexpected financial bomb, and the dog is happy and healthy today, two years later.
Mendocino County Animal Care and Control Services helps Second Chance get the Frontline Plus medications at a bargain price.
But each Frontline Day costs Second Chance about $600, just for that medication, Sapontzis said.
Second Chance has also given away at least 300 collars and as many leashes this past year.
“Many of these were donated items we”ve been collecting for years, but Second Chance has also bought hundreds of collars and leashes to give away. We also bought 100 doggie toys and had many donated,” Sapontzis said. “Coast Grooming is one of our largest toy donors and we gave those donations away, too.”
For pet lovers who have online access, Support Our Shelter now has a Facebook page and Twitter updates.
Support Our Shelter (SOS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the animals at the Mendocino County Animal Care shelter in Fort Bragg.
Find SOS on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SupportRShelter. Donations to SOS can be made at http://bit.ly/6ikNub.
At the beginning of this series, I mentioned a severely disabled woman living in her van with her two friendly dogs. She has returned to the area next to the Food Bank, where my other office is located.
As I suspected she is very private, very proper and didn”t give me her full name. She lost her home and said she has been searching for a place to rent. I suggested she contact Social Services, but so far the Food Bank is her lifeline.
I did learn the names of her dogs — Boo Boo Bear and Star — who are very well trained and have even gotten better at watch-dogging.
“Living in the van is harder on the dogs than it is on me,” she said.
Season of Sharing concludes
The purpose of Frank Hartzell”s series of stories about the Fort Bragg Food Bank is to bring home the fact that hundreds of coast residents, and many pets, don”t have enough to eat. Without adequate nutrition, happiness and productivity can elude even the most determined man, woman or child.
The goal of the Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon”s annual Season of Sharing fund drive is to raise money the Food Bank can use year-round to feed your neighbors, friends and co-workers.
This year”s target was an ambitious $36,000, which would bring the total raised since our first fund drive in 1995 to just over $200,000.
The total came to $21,890.29 with this week”s final donations, short of our goal but a substantial contribution in support of the Food Bank and its mission.
Our sincerest thanks to all of this year”s donors, Charles and Sandra Lyon, Kathleen and Rod Cameron, Boyd and Mary Kay Hight, David and Laura Welter, Ronald and Susan Munson, Tracy Barrett, Joe and Myra Figueiredo, Joseph Duvivier and Joan Kennedy White, Susan Larkin and James Ehlers, In Memory of Fred and Nonie Grass, Jack Rappaport, Laurie Maitre, Angela Speck, Sueann and Robert Horvat, Edwin and Theresa Branscomb, Marta MacKenzie, Jane Vartanian, Donna Feiner, Elizabeth Owings, Julee and Tom Estes, the Mendocino Coast Gem and Mineral Society, Andrew Klacik, Gale Harrold, C.D. Grant and Eric Neel, Firmian Designs, Michael and Mary Schuh, In Memory of Connie R. Cinnamon, Linda Jupiter, Janice Boyd, Dr. P.P. Coukoulis, Barbara Barkovich, Henry and Florence Simonson, Diana Leon, Frank and Shirley Collins, Emily Rzeplinski, Christina Rzeplinski, Travis Rzeplinski, Mabel and Mark Regalia, Michael Dell”Ara, Marianne McGee, Christina and John Rossum, Fred Zatkoff, Trinity Lutheran Church Hope Circle, Mel and Susan McKinney, Susanne and Richard Norgard, Ben and Nancy Housel, Ronald and Lola Brashear, Winston and Becky Bowen, Jeanette Hansen, Jeffrey and Linda Lasell, Leanne Cole and Joseph Jones, MaryJean and Howard Makela, Thomas and Nancy Riley, The Bookstore/Jennifer Wolfman, Roy Wachsmuth, Clifford Lang and Dianna Allison, Audrey Tyson, Patricia Galligan and Dianne Miller, Craig and Megan Blencowe, Bruce and Karen Smith, OB Staff at MCDH/Kitty Bruning and Dr. Devaskar, Myra Beals and Ida Matson, Bonner Armbraster, Carolyn Kinet, J.R. Harrison, Computaccount, Patricia Sinkay and Alice Ivec, Forest and Patricia Tilley, Bruce and Roslyn Moore, Bob and Chris Sowers and 12 anonymous donors.
