Profile-Ariel-Chen

Just Another Day

By Ariel Chen The city of Palo Alto hires a goat herder to use goats to help control the weeds in the baylands and one day, all 60 goats got out. The employees at Palo Alto Animal Shelter with animal control drove over to the round up the goats. They couldn’t find the goat herder or contact anyone. 59 of them were up a hill by the old dumps and one little baby goat sat in the middle of the road. A heavy woman with frizzy dark hair called out to it. It ran straight up to her and she cried out, “I want this! I want this goat so bad!”

She and her co-workers drove up the hill with the baby goat and somehow surrounded the goats with orange construction fencing.

When they finally found the goat herder, he whistled or did a weird

goat call and the goats lined up and followed him. Jeanette and her co-workers were left in awe.

Jeanette Washington and those working at the shelter are absolutely normal people you’d find off the street, but they are a part of a great cause. They are not supreme vegetarians or hippies who hate humans and yell “save the animals” in front of processing plants. They are actively helping animals in the real world by taking them in and putting them in a good environment.

Jeanette has spent the past 15 years working at the shelter. She started as a volunteer as a young adult and now works part time.

Before her time at the shelter, she has had multiple pets in her past.

It started with a lab puppy who was sadly rehomed due to

to family matters and afterwards, the family adopted a shih tzu puppy in her early teens. At the age of 13, Jeanette became responsible for a pit bull puppy. “She was a great, great dog. Very family oriented, but she was dog-aggressive, undersocialized, and not housed trained, but a great, great dog. It was my responsibility to take care of the dog.

I didn’t really know how to.”

After years of volunteering, a part-time job opened up and she applied for the position and she has been working at the shelter and with animal control to this day. “They sent me to the academy for almost two weeks and the rest was pretty much hands-on training, so it’s uh... you can’t be taught how to catch a dog. It’s trial and

error. haha” At first, Jeanette had the impression that Animal Shelters were jail like places where they house animals just to kill them, but after volunteering and working on rescues for some many years, Jeanette now knows the name of every single animal in shelter and loves every single one of them.There was a little cat was a runt named Geronimo and when he was about to be adopted, Jeanette freaked out and said her goodbyes to Geronimo.

“You be a good boy, Geronimo, you be a good boy. You be a good boy and you’re going to a good home.”

Among the animals there are, of course, her favorites. Goliath is a pit bull that came to the shelter after he was found tied to a fencepost and nearly died of heatstroke.

His previous owner and their friend were tried and are now not allowed to own animals.

Over 4 months of “rehab” and bonding, Jeanette and Goliath fell in love and she brought him home. Now she has also has 3 chihuahuas, 3 cats, and a pit bull.

The shelter is not an entirely

“no-kill” shelter, but they only put down the animals if they’re suffering mentally or physically. Some animals don’t like the shelter life and they become depressed, stop eating, or become aggressive and it’s only a last resort to have them euthanized. When the shelter opens, strays and pets that can’t be kept are dropped off. Cats, dogs, and some rodents like rabbits and guinea pigs stay at the shelter until they are adopted. Sadly, some pets stick around a lot longer than others like Mrs. Murphy, an old cat who finally got adopted recently by

by a nice old lady. Mrs. Murphy was a slightly overweight tortoiseshell who was beloved byeveryone. She was already in her double digits and people tend to want to adopt kittens and puppies rather than the old timers. In her spare time, Jeannette wanders around the cages and plays with the cats, pets the dogs, and checks up on the little guys in isolation who are place there because they are sick or were recently picked up and can be a little violent with humans or other animals.

Some of these guys are packages from people who try to drop off animals without being noticed. In the article, Shelter facilities packed; people dumping pets, Happy Tail’s Shelter in Illinois experiences overcrowding, “Recently, one man stopped by and said he wanted to leave his cat. When he was told the shelter was full, he said that he would leave it outside anyway. And he did. ‘That really angers me, when people get to that point,’ Newman-Smith said. ‘We have more pets than responsible

owners. Not to be rude, but that’s what’s going on.’” There’s a pond next to the shelter and a wildlife preserve and people have tried to leave domestic animals by the duck pond thinking that they would be fine living as wild animals. They’re usually found by the shelter and the facility currently has two wild hens and a pigeon. Jeanette said that some people have tried using domestic pigeons as homing pigeons.

“Just like people like cats, there are some people that like cockatiels, hens, roosters, hamsters, rabbits.

People do homing pigeons.”

She’s also concerned about the “chihuahua phenomenon,” as she calls it. It’s a fact that the shelter has a huge number of chihuahuas because they make cute puppies and people keep letting their dogs

have litters even though people don’t like them anymore after they grow up, which leads to behavior issues like biting, barking, and chewing things. Pit bulls also have this same problem. “If people just spay and neuter their animals, then shelters would not be overrun with, right now, chihuahuas and pit bulls.”

“We’re always looking for volunteers. It’s only two hours of your time, but it makes all the difference. We could always use people to walk dogs, do desk work, and help out with the animals. Granted we do have our time to give affection to the animals, but it does get pretty busy here, so we are always seeking volunteers.”

The shelter, in general, takes care of the animals and preps them

for adoption which includes neutering. They are also involved in a foster program where people take in injured or underaged animals for a while and then send them back to the shelter so they can be adopted. Jeanette was fostering a 3-legged pit bull until it can recuperate, but in the end she adopted him. He was found dumped in front of the shelter and his bones were broken and they had to amputate his leg. He fitted right in with her chihuahuas and cats and is now a permanent member of the family as “Atticus” named after Atticus Finch. “He’s a great dog, and it doesn’t even phase him that his back leg is gone.”

In the article, “Student residence going to the dogs (and cats),” 8 university students take care of

Daisy, an American Eskimo dog; Dahlia, a turquoise cat; and ChiChi, a rabbit, who roam free throughout the Mount Allison University’s Animal House. The old university building was transformed into a foster home for animals who are awaiting adoption.

The students live and take care of the pets and are responsible for finding them homes. On the east coast, Melvin Miller started a program that temporarily fosters pets with military owners who have been deployed and have to leave their pets in shelters or with friends who might not be willing to care for dogs and cats for over a year.

Right now, the concerns of Jeanette are to prep for the coming winter and the shelter is looking for blanket donations and toys for the animals so they stay nice and warm until spring. Jeanette plans to continue her work at the shelter and see all the animals get adopted to responsible pet owners. Until then, she’ll keep picking up strays, she’ll keep talking to the animals, and she’ll keep laughing as she wanders through the shelter. ““The only experience I had were my own pets and volunteering here”