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Must love waggly tails, purring

Helpers at this no-kill shelter care for animals in need of families. The pay is great: wags, purrs and cute, cute, cute.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published September 22, 2006

RUSKIN - Some have a story, like Duke, the grouchy dog in the end kennel who came from a farmer and carries the scratches and bare patches of a long life. Duke's happy with a bone and a pat on the head.

Then there are others like the little puppy whose past is a mystery. Someone found him in a ditch. There are cats turned over by teary owners moving into nursing homes. Some are there at the gate in the morning when volunteers arrive.

After a few days of regular meals at CARE Inc., tucked on 3 acres at the end of 27th Street in Ruskin, the dogs and cats settle into their new digs. The home is supposed to be a temporary one until the animals can be adopted.

CARE, which stands for Critter Adoption & Rescue Effort, is a no-kill shelter that can hold 30 to 35 cats and 15 dogs.

In June, the shelter celebrated the opening of a new surgery unit to neuter and spay the animals using the donated services of several area veterinarians. The unit was built with donations of $30,000 and more than doubled the shelter's surgery space.

With the new surgery unit in place, the shelter hopes to move on to two new projects. One is an outreach to Hispanic residents, translating into Spanish pamphlets on spay and neuter services as well as information on how to obtain county vouchers to reduce the cost to $10 an animal.

Another project on the horizon: raising another $30,000 to build a new cat house. The cat house will have three rooms: one for intensive care for kittens and prechecked arrivals, one for "juniors" and one for older cats.

On a recent day, Don Hinderliter, a volunteer and president of CARE's board of directors, stepped inside a building that used to be a carport. A flurry of fur darted his way. This is the current cat house: a large, cool room filled with cat condos, food bowls, layered cat trees and, of course, felines.

"Some are like family, like this old girl," Hinderliter said, reaching down to pet a gray shorthair named Megyn, as a half-dozen other cats darted and played around the room. The cat house has a screened-in section for those who want to step "outside" and try to chase birds and bugs on the other side of the screen.

The current intensive care space sits in a small building across the path, where kittens nudge each other out of the way, competing for Hinderliter's attention.

The center has 40 to 50 volunteers, but can always use more, including more veterinarians, he said.

Every day, the dogs get walked and sometimes get to play in one of the large, fenced grassy fields. The dogs stay outside in their pens for fresh air until late afternoon, when they're brought in for the night.

In the five years since it opened, the shelter has adopted more than 1,100 animals, and since the spay/neuter clinic opened two years ago, it has done more than 2,000 surgeries.

Until the animals can be paired with families, the volunteers often find themselves getting attached to the little creatures they sometimes restore back to health.

"For many of them, it's the best place they've ever been," he said.

Hinderliter got involved with the shelter after retiring and moving to the area in 2002. After three decades working in government bureaucracy, balancing books and handling personnel, he wanted to work with children or animals.

He found CARE and has been coming back ever since.

To help

To volunteer or make a donation, call CARE at 645-2273. The shelter is at 1528 27th St. SE in Ruskin. The Web site is www.careshelter.org.

[Last modified September 21, 2006, 07:05:46]