new friend

Your New Best Friend

Adopt for free? Seniors get

Photo by Tom Bauer/ MT 55 deals at the Humane Society Keila Szpaller Montana 55

When Mike Skow hops in his fullsize pickup truck to head out on his recycling route, Maddie, 10, rides shotgun.

“She is mellow. She minds really well. And she’s even learned not to eat the cat food,” said Skow just a couple of weeks after adopting the happy dog. Skow, of Clinton, has had dogs all his life, and several months ago, his pooch Hyde died. (His son, who lives on Skow’s property, still has Hyde’s brother, Jekyll.) Skow had heard about the Humane Society of Western Montana’s “Seniors for Seniors” program, and he decided he’d give it a try. Seniors for Seniors waives the adoption fee for people 65 and older who adopt pets 7 years or older.

“This is the fi rst time I’ve gone to a pound to get a dog. All my other ones were gifts from friends or I hear about a dog (that needs a home),” Skow said. So he went to the shelter to inquire. He was open to a big dog or a little one, long hair or short, tail or no tail. Really, he had just one requirement.

“The only thing that kind of mattered is I would have preferred a female because the other two dogs my son has are boys, and I didn’t want any hassles,” Skow said. “Maddie has turned out to be a good choice.”

She has soft, golden fur, a tail that wags easily, and a belly often turned up for scratches. She’s “a mutt like me,” Skow said, and, as Maddie rolled on his lap, a “connoisseur of comfort.” The Humane Society’s Seniors for Seniors program has been around a long time, and the premise is simple, said Marta Pierpoint, executive director of the nonprofi t. The primary objective of the shelter is to send animals home because home, of course, is preferable to a temporary residence.

“So many seniors are so very available to their pets. So we want to make it easy on them to adopt,” Pierpoint said. “Also, there are health benefi ts to seniors to having pets, so it’s a win win.” For example, scientifi c study shows even just petting an animal lowers a person’s blood pressure, Pierpoint said. “That’s a pretty well-established benefi t.” But she said other health perks science is coming to document is that having a pet can reduce anxiety and even help regulate blood sugar, and she talks about those benefi ts with community members who may not be pet owners.

“Why should I care for programs you have for people and animals?’” Pierpoint said of a question that sometimes arises. “The answer is, ‘It leads to a healthier community overall.”

Sometimes, she said older seniors worry about whether the Humane Society would take their animal back if they pass away, and Pierpoint said that’s always the case. Sometimes, people even leave a note on their refrigerator for the shelter.

“We would of course take an animal back, and of course we would take care of it,” she said.

At the shelter, she said cats are popular for seniors. “If someone comes in and they have mobility issues, the cat is a great option.” Some seniors end up taking home a pet that has a medical condi tion that mirrors their own, such as poor eyesight.

Big Tom, a large feline gentleman at the Humane Society, had a painful eye condition, and the 10-yearold needed surgery in both eyes. Now, the gray shorthaired cat has just one eye, and he’s not in pain anymore and is a much happier cat thanks to the shelter’s vet erinarian, Pierpoint said. She can see him making a good pet, possibly to someone who also has trouble seeing. “We also have lots of seniors come in for dogs as well, and the program works for both,” she said.

Older cats and dogs both offer advantages over young er pets, too. For example, an older cat probably already knows how to use a litter box, and older dogs often already know how to walk on leashes and respond to some commands.

The “California littles” are popular, the small dogs flown to Montana in warmer months by Dog is my Copi lot from full shelters in the Golden State. But larger dogs that are older and need more love and companionship than hard-core exercise do well with some seniors too.

Sammie, for instance, is 7 years old, and she’s a big dog, but more of a sweet “couch potato.” At the Humane Society, dogs have “office hours,” times when they hang out with shelter staff in their offices instead of in the kennel, and Sammie appeared to be an expert at hanging out.

“She’s not the kind of dog that’s going to need a whole lot of hard, strong exercise,” Pierpoint said. “ ... She just needs a home. Of course, most dogs are that way.” By many measures, Maddie has shown herself to be a well-mannered family member, minus those couple nibbles from the cat’s bowl in the beginning. Skow believes her previous owners had to move and couldn’t take her with them because she came with all her records since she was a puppy.

“She was taught so well that she doesn’t get on the furniture,” Skow said. In fact, he doesn’t mind having a dog sit next to him on the couch, but he has to coax her up. “She hasn’t got up there by herself. She’s a marvel.”

She hasn’t run out of the yard either, like some people who have stayed at his resi dence with their dogs. She also appears to be a pacifist, which works out well on the property.

“She hasn’t killed a

Mike Skow with Maddie, 10.

chicken or a duck. All the other dogs have at least killed one chicken,” Skow said. Skow started dumpster diving years ago, and now, he drives his truck around town to places such as Secret Seconds that will save items with recyclable material for him. He’ll take them home, remove the copper and brass parts, and sell them, although he said President Donald Trump’s trade war with China hasn’t helped his bot tom line.

Certainly, his route has been improved since Mad die came along, and she rides with him to pick up the goods. She’s new to the cir cuit, so she hasn’t met all the people along the way who are sure to become her fast friends and fans, but she’ll start getting to know them on the two- or three-hour route soon enough.

Skow appreciates his se nior pet, the affordable price (free for people 65 and up), and the friendly staff and pets at the Humane Society. When he visited, three senior dogs were available, and Skow ventures a guess that he’d have taken a liking to every single one.

“(Maddie) was the first one I looked at. If I’d have seen all three, I’d have prob ably took all three,” he said.” MT55

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This project was supported in part by grant numbers 90MP0163 and 90MP0015 from the U.S. Administration on Aging, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their finds and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official Administration on Aging policy.