We Only Had One Chance

Since beginning this blog, one of the major issues I have written about was the deplorable conditions of the Virginia Beach Animal Control Shelter.

I also said that we needed to build a new animal shelter and forget about any attempt at rehabilitating the old one. It was too far gone, too out of date and not worthy of so many animals lives having been cut short from illness and disease that ran rampant through this sad building tucked away from the sight of the public.

We now have an animal shelter in Virginia Beach that is worthy of our great city and as I have maintained throughout the uphill fight for this facility, we would only have the chance to do this once in our lifetimes.

The new shelter has it's first adoption event today and after 34 animals left for new homes, it was a great start to a shelter that will hopefully be there serving the needs of companion animals long after I no longer walk this earth.

Things were hectic today and I was running late, I was supposed to be there at 10:00am to do pictures with Santa-I was the photographer and brought all of my gear so I could take some great pictures that wouldn't disappoint those who wanted a picture of their new pet or children with Santa. I snapped off some good ones and got more than a few ooh's and ahhh's from those who wanted their picture made. I was happy to do it.

Mada, one of the volunteers from the "Friends of Animal Care and Adoption Center" was there and acting as the duty traffic-cop, making sure everyone who wanted to be waited on had a number, dog lovers made it to the dog runs, cat lovers found their way to the new cat environment and did everything she could to keep everyone's spirits up and those animals heading out the door.

The young ladies who were staffing the counter which I renamed "The Phalynx" focused on their jobs like a laser and kept the stream of people moving through and I only heard one complaint all day from a man whose patience was wearing thin. I told him, "Look, it's opening day, they have some new procedures, they've been dealing with a few glitches and they're dealing with more people than they've ever seen before-why don't you cut them a break, huh?" He agreed and ended up taking a new pet home after a while.

Oh sure, it wasn't the 27 million dollar palace we in the animal welfare community had hoped it would be and there have been complaints about the final cost but I think that the service this building will eventually provide the city will be more than worth the cost in todays dollars. There are still more who call this a four-star hotel for dogs but I would simply submit that a project like this was long overdue and hey, if they're going to overpsend on something, it may as well be on something that the city actually needed and will use for years to come rather than a shiney new hotel.

So it was a strong start to what I hope will be something that helps change the minds of a lot of pet owners in Virginia Beach-I hope it convinces more people to spay and neuter, I hope it teaches them to obey the law where their pets are concerned and I hope it lives up to Virginia Beach being a "community for a lifetime" long after I'm taking a dirt-nap.

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