Cheer and Hope arrived at the Animal Friends shelter on Friday in a transfer that is expected to provide a better life for them and about 33 other cats.
The cats were transferred from the Greene County Humane Society and the Greenbrier Humane Society in Lewisburg, W.Va. Both shelters frequently have too many cats and not enough space to house them.
In the past week, Animal Friends took in “numerous transfers from at least eight partner organizations,” according to a news release from the Ohio Township shelter.
Animal Friends has a New Year’s Eve tradition of taking in animals from overloaded shelters and animal control facilities where surplus animals are in danger of being euthanized.
The shelter said this year there’s a “positivity theme.” The names Cheer, Hope and Sunny were picked before cats even arrived at Animal Friends late Friday afternoon.
Animal Friends has a lot of empty cages because 191 dogs, cats and rabbits were adopted between Dec. 14 and Dec. 30.
Holiday adoptions went up after the shelter offered “priceless adoptions,” made possible when Animal Friends board member Robert Fragasso and his wife, Janine, underwrote all adoption fees from Dec. 14 through Dec. 31.
Animals that went home for the holidays included Silver, 10, a gray tabby whose owner moved into an assisted living facility, and Ashley and Scarlett, a pair of 3-year-old bonded rabbits.
Last year the New Year’s Eve rescue theme was Crayola crayon colors. Beneficiaries were given names that included Mahogany, Orchid and Burnt Umber.
Burnt Umber, 7, a brown tabby, is still at the shelter waiting for a permanent home. He’s an affectionate and happy “purr machine,” staff says, despite having diabetes and requiring daily doses of insulin. His adopters will get a supply of insulin.
“In recent years, positive changes have been occurring in animal welfare” so a full-fledged New Year’s Eve rescue is not necessary. Instead, “Animal Friends works with animal control agencies and rural shelters year-round to transfer homeless pets” to the shelter at 562 Camp Horne Road “to give them another chance,” the release said.
Animal Friends is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today and is closed Sunday.
Linda Wilson Fuoco: lfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1953.
First Published: December 31, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
