Valley River Humane Society manager Cheyenne Spicola hand feeds a 4-day-old kitten at the recent fundraiser Bow Wow Meow event at Steven Aft's Murphy office.
Murphy – On the heels of National Pet Month in May, and as a way to raise awareness locally of the Valley River Humane Society’s plight of being overburdened with animals awaiting adoption, local State Farm agent Steven Aft and his team wanted to create a creative way to explore more ways to bring people and animals together in Cherokee County.
The result was the “Bow Wow Meow” event on June 12 at the agency’s office on Andrews Road.
Aft’s marketing director, Mary Jo Dyre, along with team member Rosabella Debty, said the event evolved from a way to make people aware of the importance of pet insurance.
“We wanted to let the public know about our new pet policies offered through Trupanion insurance to cover their animals when unforeseen emergencies occur, as well as let them know their pets can be covered for more essential care. We began a partnership with VRHS to bring animals to our office for the event,” Dyre said.
The humane society’s staff and volunteers – along with volunteers from Tri-County Early College in Peachtree, who helped hand out out free toy Frisbees for pets – brought both dogs and cats for adoption at the “pets-tival.” There was also a silent auction to raise funds, along with a dozen vendors, including DragonAss BBQ truck for lunch offerings and Jubilee Cotton Candy for sweet treats.
Camp Happy Dog – which provides boarding along with day-care camp services to provide a well-rounded play day for your animals, instead of leaving them cooped up in your cabin or camper – and the PawSpa, which provides pet grooming, were also at the event.
Included with the vendors was local resident Aurelia Stone, who provided information on the Americans With Disabilities Act for allowing and obtaining service animals for both trauma survivors and those needing emotional support, and Critter Haven of Brasstown, which provides cremation services for pets.
Cheyenne Spicola, the humane society’s manager for the last year, oversaw the majority of the animals brought out to the event. She also had her hands full, quite literally, with a 4-day-old kitten that had been dropped off at the animal shelter earlier.
“We have a lot of drop-off situations, which is difficult for us, because we’re typically at capacity and not staffed around the clock. So we find animals and people think they’re doing a good thing, which they are, but this little fella has to be syringe-fed just to help him stay alive,” she said.
“Unfortunately, out of this bunch of kittens we lost two. So we’re helping this little guy, who has to be fed every two hours,” she added, holding the kitten in a sock to keep up his body heat while gently feeding him with a syringe filled with wet food.
The event raised almost $700, which goes directly to help the humane society’s immediate needs, such as cleaning supplies and food.
Jim Gerke, president of the Valley River Humane Society Board of Directors, along with his wife, Phyllis, said his involvement began by volunteering to walk dogs at the shelter. That evolved into further involvement when he realized the shelter’s importance to Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties.
“We have no control over how they come in to us but we have one hundred percent control over how they go out,” as Gerke described the dedication of the staff to every animal’s well-being and health once they arrive at the facility.
Gerke also described how over the shelter’s 55-year presence, with 25 of those years spent at the current location off of U.S. 19/74 in Marble, each board has worked diligently to obtain adequate funding from each county to provide these services.
“I’m at the end of my service as president, but will still be involved asking for more funding and letting people know what the shelter actually provides as the only no-kill shelter in this portion of western North Carolina,” he said.
“We want people to know that we’re here to help control the animal population with the spay-neuter programs, but we’re also here to provide people with a pet population for adoption, for fostering animals as well to help with the influx of unwanted animals.”
The event led Cherokee County Cellars owners Jim and Andria Duncan to offer dedicated space at their downtown Murphy location for the humane society to bring animals for adoption to each first Friday Murphy Art Walk through the rest of the year. And as Gerke and Spicola both reiterated, Valley River is always looking for foster homes for animals, volunteers at the shelter and donations to their wishlist, which can be found online.
Details: Visit valleyriverhumanesociety.org.