Jenny Gibson is wary. She’s Bloomington’s Animal Care Control volunteer coordinator, and the shelter is emptier than she’s ever seen it. It feels like something is waiting in the wings. She knows when there are a few more stretches of warm days, animals are going to come flying through the doors. Starting this time of year, the shelter counts on piles of kittens.
The shelter accepts any animal that comes its way. Most days, that means cats and dogs. Sometimes bunnies or guinea pigs. Occasionally a bird or lizard. But then there are the weird days, where the shelter takes in a rooster or a red-tailed boa snake. And sometimes it’s not even one weird day — it’s several in a row, and the workers at the shelter begin referring to it as “The Year of the Horse” because in 2014, volunteer coordinator Gibson said, the shelter rescued tons of horses.
“The Year of the Horse” also saw a rescue of a cluster of four cows that hopped an electric fence and a runaway goat. The goat, which was later adopted and named Sweetheart, horned a car before Gibson and her coworkers were able to chase her down.
This year, it’s been alligators. There aren’t supposed to be alligators in Bloomington, but Gibson found someone trying to sell two baby alligators on Craigslist and immediately put a stop to it. The 26-inch-long creatures hissed like cats. Gibson said she wanted to name them Allie and Gator, but the names never stuck. Eventually, they were picked up by a refuge shelter.
For Gibson, every day at the shelter bleeds into the next. Adoption season is going well for Animal Care and Control, with a current total of 525 adoptions for the year as of Wednesday — what shelter manager Virgil Sauder said is on par with past years. But with breeding season beginning, workers fear the day when the animals come pouring in at a less manageable rate.
Last year, 2,247 animals were adopted from the shelter. Typically, Gibson said, the shelter has more cats than dogs. The first Friday of every month, they hold “Feline Friday” events, where the adoption process is the same, except the adoption fee is waived.
A.J. Ginther, a December IU grad and the volunteer coordinator support intern at the shelter, said June tends to be the busiest month in terms of the number of animals brought into the shelter, but she expects more to be brought in soon as the weather continues to warm up.
“They’ll come flooding in buckets and buckets at a time,” Ginther said.
Because Animal Care and Control isn’t a no-kill shelter, they sometimes have to euthanize animals. Typically, euthanasia happens when an animal is very ill or has severe injuries, Gibson said. Very rarely are animals put to sleep for space reasons. That being said, Gibson said the workers at the shelter do have to make sure there’s enough space for animals to live comfortably.
“You have to consider the quality of life of an animal,” Gibson said. “If I see an animal here that’s in a kennel for 40, 60 days, they start to deteriorate. So think about a whole life in a shelter like that, without having enough space for yourself.”
About a year and a half ago, junior Kaytlin Thomas adopted a dachshund and named him Coop. Her schedule last year was more accommodating to Coop’s needs, but this year, she’s busier, so the dog is in his kennel more often. Although she wishes she could be there all the time with Coop, she’s glad she took him in because if she hadn’t, she said he’d be stuck in a kennel in a shelter all the time.
“It’s not something to be taken lightly because you’re all they have,” Thomas said. “I have to find a way to make my life work for having him.”
Gibson and Ginther agree that sometimes college students adopt an animal without thinking through the full responsibility of owning a pet. At the shelter, the adoption process is thorough because employees want to make sure that when a pet leaves, it will be in safe hands for a long time. As part of the process, Gibson has to approve every application before a family can be allowed to adopt.
On Monday, it was a slow day at the shelter, Gibson said. Still, in the span of 50 minutes, a volunteer came in her office three times to have her review an adoption application. The first one she looked at was for a dog named Micah.
“Alright, what have we got with Micah?”
“Seems like a nice couple,” the volunteer said.
Gibson studied the form.
“And not going to be outside by himself too much ... very nice,” Gibson said, flipping a page. “This dog is nice too. Micah is a nice dog.” After she was satisfied, she signed the bottom of the sheet.
“I feel good about it,” she said. “Let’s do it.”
