Animal shelters and care centers across the United States often have more cats and dogs than what funding will allow.
Rifle’s Journey Home Animal Care Center is finding a way to serve hundreds of miles in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valley — and beyond — despite this.
Journey Home isn’t just a shelter. It also has a clinic for pet wellness exams, provides spay and neuter and vaccine services to feral cats and facilitates adoptions.
Hattie Rensberry is the development director at Journey Home.
She spoke with Aspen Public Radio’s Regan Mertz about funding problems, how many animals they’ve served this year, and the bond between a pet and their owner.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Regan Mertz: How do you stand out from other shelters or animal care centers?
Hattie Rensberry: So, most shelters are actually moving towards that socially conscious sheltering and fear-free training. It's funny how animal welfare has changed in just the past 10 years or so. We're definitely in that group that's moving towards upholding a standard of compassion and care that is more in line with how we as pet owners treat our pets at home.
You would think that that's normal for all shelters and rescues, but there are some antiquated beliefs that I think a lot of shelters are moving out of — especially those that are, you know, handling community care in a way that we're trying to do more of.
Some of the care we've provided recently to try and keep pets in homes. Because that's how we reduce the numbers of pets in our facility and the pets that we have to get adopted, is by giving people options to make sure that they can stay in their house and keep their pets and be able to financially still keep that animal that they love so much with them.
Mertz: Why is that relationship between an owner and a pet so important? Why is that such a big part of your mission?
Rensberry: We can talk about all sorts of things to go with that. We can talk about how pets provide stress relief. We can talk about how they're great companions, and they're wonderful support for your emotional and physical health. But also, sometimes being a human and having bonds with something that is not going to judge you, that loves you unconditionally, and can provide that comfort, is so important.
Mertz: This type of work is probably rather costly. So, how is Journey Home overcoming this?
Rensberry: That's a really good question. A good portion of how we're able to afford what we do for our community comes from our fundraisers, and that is a decent chunk of our budget. And a large portion of our budget is coming from private grant foundations, coming from organizations that focus on animal welfare.
It's a collection of things that make this possible, and unfortunately, due to budget cuts in a lot of parts of the county in recent years, there are several of our organizations that have recently lost a decent chunk of funding, just because of how much the counties had to cut back. But we're still trying to make sure that we fulfill what our community needs, and what the animals need, and maintain our standard of care. We're just trying to find ways to fill in that gap.
Mertz: Could you talk to me about the numbers? About maybe how many animals you've helped? What services you provide?
Rensberry: Over 500 adoptions so far this year, as well as a total of, by now it'll be over 800 animal intakes. That includes kitten season. It includes stray dogs. It includes animals that come in for say a medical hold or something. It's a very wide variety. And almost 200 of those, as of September were, from Garfield County.
So, we're seeing a decent chunk of them from this area specifically. And then we have people coming to our clinic from, you know, Rio Blanco, sometimes Mesa, Eagle, a lot of the surrounding counties.
Mertz: Is there any sort of story that you'd like to share, or a moment that comes up, that you were like, “What we do matters,” or “This is why you're going to keep doing what you do here at Journey Home?”
Rensberry: The ones that stick with me and probably with some of our other staff members are the ones where we're able to provide support for people, even if their pet's not a sheltered pet.
We had someone recently who had their dog stay with us during a medical hold. This person was in the hospital for an extended period of time. It was extremely hard on them, and we were happy to provide support. And this person got to take their dog back. Everybody was super happy, and then we saw them again a couple weeks later because this poor little dog came in with an abscess on his face.
Mertz: Oh my gosh! Could not catch a break.
Rensberry: Could not catch a break, and this woman was having the worst time. And in this case, our vet team took one look at this little dog and said, "Oh, oh, his tooth is a mess. Of course, his cheek has an abscess. Let's fix that for you." And we were able to do that, and he got to go home within like four days.
Mertz: Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Hattie.
Rensberry: No problem. We're happy to have you.
Support for this Nonprofit Spotlight series comes from the Aspen Community Foundation.
