Fetching Fido: The Animal Center Expands Its Scope Of Care

By Nancy K. Crevier

The Animal Center is well known in Newtown for its efforts fostering and placing homeless cats, as well as assisting with spaying and release of feral felines. Since March, however, the animal rescue organization has made a switch from exclusively a cat rescue operation to one that includes dogs.

“It’s long been our dream to help not only cats but all animals, and thanks to some amazing new volunteers and the community’s continued support, the launch of our dog program puts us one more step along the path toward this dream,” says Monica Roberto, president of The Animal Center, in a recent press release.

Newtown resident Leyla Nichols, who has promoted animal welfare for more than 18 years through her involvement with various animal organizations, is the coordinator for the fledgling dog rescue program, which takes in adoptable puppies and dogs scheduled to be destroyed.

Most of the canines come from southern states, where kill shelters are more common. “We usually grab the dogs the day they are to be euthanized,” said Nichols, working through a network of groups that tracks and notifies each other of urgent situations.

“To date, we have taken in 14 dogs, with three more scheduled to arrive the weekend of April 9th,” Nichols said. The turnaround on placing the dogs has been heartening, with most remaining in local foster care only three to four days, particularly the puppies and younger dogs.

The dogs are temperament tested by Nichols prior to being placed in foster care, or scheduled for adoption. “I test how the dog is with kids, other dogs, and cats. I see if it has a food aggression, or a toy aggression,” she said. Because most of the rescued dogs have never lived in an actual family situation, though, she does caution new foster families and owners to be a bit patient. “Even ordinary things in a household might spook one of these dogs, like a light fixture, for instance. They just have never seen one. They have no experience with some very common things in a home,” she said.

Dogs that do not pass her initial temperament test remain in her care, and are taken to a trainer who works with rescue dogs. “He can usually take care of any problems in a short time,” Nichols said.

One of the recent successful adoption stories is that of Matlock, a large mixed breed dog adopted by Renae and David Horn and their three boys, Grant, 8, Gavin, 6, and 23-month-old Nolan, of Sandy Hook, three weeks ago.

“We have three cats, and I thought that would be it,” said Renae Horn, who had met Nichols through their children. “I had seen Matlock in his foster situation, and I thought maybe we would try to foster a dog, after talking to Leyla,” she said. But when the Horns attended an Animal Center adoption event hosted by Your Healthy Pet on South Main Street, March 19, and saw Matlock was up for adoption there, “I thought, ‘This is the dog for us,’” she said.

The Horn family was very impressed with the dog’s mellow personality and how gently he responded to the boys.

“Matlock has eased into our family. He takes the rough-housing from the boys, and he is just great,” said Renae Horn added. 

Nichols is pleased with the success of the program to date, but what pains her is knowing that many more dogs could be rescued and placed in “forever homes,” if only there were enough foster families willing to participate.

“That is our biggest hurdle now,” she said. “We are in great need of foster homes. The number of dogs I can pull from these kill shelters depends entirely on how many foster homes we have.”

Fostering a rescue dog is not hard work, she added, and The Animal Center offers complete support in every foster situation.

“What we are looking for is someone who doesn’t work outside the home all day. We need people who have a good sense of what it takes to care for a dog, who are willing to socialize the dog, and we want to expose the dogs to a lot of different situations,” Nichols said. Families with children, with other dogs, or with cats are all candidates to foster a rescue dog, she added. “We do match the foster families and dogs or puppies. My biggest thing with foster homes and new adoptions is that people have to realize that the dog does not know you. It has to be leashed at all times.”

The Animal Center provides everything needed to make fostering a dog easy: crates, food, leashes, and collars. All the foster family adds is love and patience.

Transporting and caring for the rescue dogs involves a cost for The Animal Center, so cash donations to the 501 (c)3 publicly-supported charity are welcome. For information on donating, becoming a foster home for a dog or cat, or to view the Center’s “wish list,” visit www.theanimalcenter.org, or contact Nichols at leyla@theanimalcenter.org.

“People worry that they will ‘fall in love’ with a rescue dog, so they don’t want to take one in. But if you can get past that and disrupt your life, just a little, for a few days,” said Nichols, “you can save a dog’s life.”