We Were Adopted!! April 25th-May 1st!

Sweet boy Milner and 33 other Pets Found Happiness this week!

Milner quickly became a staff and volunteer favorite here at the Center for Pets, it was honestly inevitable with his happy, friendly, sweet personality. Milner doesn’t know the word stranger and became friends with everyone he met. He even became one of our petcation approved dogs and got to have a couple adventure days, too where he made even more friends!

We made a social media post spotlighting Milner and all his charm from a recent petcation he had been on and two days later he had a family come in and adopt him! Milner now has human siblings to snuggle and call his own. We are all so happy for this friendly boy and his new family.

Thank you so much to his adopters and to our sponsors at Petco Love for making adoptions like this and all the others possible!

Pets that were adopted April 25th through May 1st.

Cats that were adopted:

Carmel, Grant, Kennedy, Maraschino, Marcus, Misty, Peanuts, Piper, and Washington.

Dogs that were adopted:

Aster, Bagheera, Bongo, Briar, Chapo, Crow, Dixie, Eagle, Indus, Ivy, Jane, Kaa, Mikasa, Milner, Pilgrim, Rye, Shanti, Stellaluna, Tom, Lexi, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Leah, Lucy, and Luana.

Small Pets that were adopted:

Jezebel

Did you know? The Lynchburg Humane Society’s policy for taking in Lost or Stray Pets and Owner Surrendered Pets.

Does the Lynchburg Humane Society take stray dogs and cats?

"Did you know" Lynchburg Humane Society logo, a green dog icon that has a confused head tilt

The Lynchburg Humane Society takes in all lost dogs in the City of Lynchburg and cares for them until their owners find them or finding a loving home for them if their owner never comes.  Some lost dogs are brought to us through a kind citizen, Animal Control, or the Lynchburg Police Department (who we partner with but are not the same entity – they are a part of the City, we are not – more about that next week). We always take the lost dogs that are found in the City. 

If a pet is brought to us from another county, we typically will ask them to take them to the county’s shelter where they were found.  The reason we do this is because we want to give the pet the best chance of finding its way back to the owner.  If a pet is taken to another jurisdiction than where it was found, it makes it more difficult for the owner to find their pet.  Additionally, if we took in every lost pet that was brought to us from another County, we would not be able to house them all safely.  

One of our lifesaving programs at LHS is our managed intake. We do not take in stray, healthy cats found in the community. We have many cats outside in our city that do not have families and are community cats! This cats live happily outside in their colonies and after they are altered and released no longer contribute to the overpopulation of cats in our community. Unfortunately, less than 3% of cats that are brought to shelters are ever reunited with their families. For more information on getting involved in Trap Neuter Return programs you can visit our community cat resource page or check out the local group, Stray Cat TNR!

Does the Lynchburg Humane Society take dogs and cats surrendered by their owners?

 We also take in pets that are needing a new home because their owners aren’t able to care for them anymore.  There are some lifesaving policies around taking pets who are being surrendered by their owners.  For example, we ask that owners help us help them.  A shelter should be the last resort to take a pet.  We want to bring every pet into our Center safely and not become overcrowded.  We ask them to work with us to rehome their pets.  We offer them guidance, marketing, advice, and more. 

If a pet is able to safely go from one home to another without coming to the shelter, that is the best for the pet (and the other pets that are at our Center).  The shelter, even our wonderful Center for Pets, is stressful and stress can cause unwanted behaviors and illnesses.  We provide whatever resources we are able to help owners either keep their pets or keep them until they are able to find a new loving home for them or until we have space to bring in the pet safely to our Center.  Resources can range from medical care, crates, food, training, etc.  If a pet is being neglected or is a danger to the household, we will take the pet in right away.  There are other emergency situations where we might take in a pet right away. 

Our lifesaving policies also prevent quick decisions of people who may be having a tough time with their pet, have lost patience, or don’t know what else they can do. This gives them a moment to think about it and not do something they will possibly regret.  And gives us a chance to work with them on any issues we can help with.

It’s important to communicate our policies and procedures with the public so they understand how we operate.  We see ourselves as a Center for the community and we want to do what is best for the pets and the people in our community!  

We Were Adopted! April 18th – April 24th.

44 Pets Found Happiness this week, including W. Worm Esquire!

Some of you may know him as W. Worm Esquire, short for Wiggle Worm Esquire, long for Worm. A couple of weeks ago we posted on social media for a debate on if we should change W. Worm Esquire’s name to something else, simply Worm or even Miles, and we got a lot of feedback on that! Everyone really loved the name Worm and thought it really made him stand out. Some also really liked the name Wiggles! Which really fits his personality.

Well, we never got to decide what we were going to do about Worm’s name because not too long after he got adopted! W. Worm Esquire now has a family of his own and who knows, maybe a new name for this new journey.

We want to say thank you to his adoption fee sponsors, his new dad, and thank you to our sponsors at Petco Love for making these adoptions possible!

Pets that were adopted April 18th through April 24th.

Cats that were adopted:

Acacia, Billie Piper, Cedrick, Chantilly, Chi Chi, David Tennant, Fluff, Heidi, Karsh, Lovebug, Lucinda, Mama Sundae, Marshmallow, Sienna, Thistle, Tyra, and Winnie.

Dogs that were adopted:

Bane, Benny, Bhutan, Birch, Bongo, Butter, Calvin, Cambodia, Chrysanthemum, Clifford, Coconut, Cornflower, Dean, Hobbs, Johnny Bravo, Lilac, Lily, Murphy, Petunia, Queen Charlotte, Robin, W. Worm Esquire, and Wahoo.

Small Pets that were adopted:

Beluga, Ollie, Patter, and Pitter.

We Were Adopted!! April 11th – April 17th.

Suki along with 50 other Pets found Happiness this week!

Meet sweet, 5 year old Suki.

Suki is a special lady with an adorable, smooshed face, a raspy meow, and no teeth! Yep, you heard that right! As you can see, she’s perfectly fine without teeth, and looks down on others who need them to chew.

Suki hung out in our cat condos waiting for that special someone to come and make her part of their family and this week that finally happened! We couldn’t be more excited for them.

We are so blessed to be able to find homes for each of these deserving pets, like Suki. Thank you so much to our adopters, and thank you to our sponsors at Petco Love for making these adoptions possible!

Pets that were adopted April 11th through April 17th.

Cats that were adopted:

Beltza, Missy Gomez, Monkey, Paradise Point, Pepper, Piggy, Stormy, Suki, Taylor, Thunder, Tiffany, and Wafer

Dogs that were adopted:

Angelica, Aspen, Birch, Bonita, Cadbury, Chico, Cupcake, Emersyn, Graham, Grogu, Jellybean, Ledger, Lil Dan, Lola, Mars, Mercury, Miss Bunny, Neptune, Nester, Orion, Peter Cottontail, Pika, Quinella, Stella, Sugarplum Furry, Terrance, Thumper, Tiara, and Ward.

Small Pets that were adopted:

Ozzy

Did you know? Supply donations help save pets at LHS.

Help homeless and lost pets at shelters by donating supplies

"Did you know" Lynchburg Humane Society logo, a green dog icon that has a confused head tilt

Did you know that you can help pets in your community with supply donations? Pet owners everywhere know that when you have pets, it requires a lot of supplies to care for them. Food, bowls, beds, linens, and toys are just a handful of the many things it takes to care for pets. Here at LHS we can be caring for up to 900 pets at a time here at our Center for Pet and in foster homes so it takes many supplies to make sure these pets are happy and healthy. Animal shelters rely on your generosity to save pets and supplies are a great way to get involved!

There are several categories of supplies that you can collect and donate to LHS that have a huge impact on saving pets. There are more details below but you can always visit our Needed Supplies webpage for a list of supplies and our online wish lists. 

Pet Food Donations

Food is one of our largest monthly expenses here at the Center for Pets. We typically need over 2,000 pounds of dry pet food and over 1,500 cans of canned food per month. The pets here are kept on a consistent diet of the Purina Chow products, Purina Cat & Kitten chows and Purina Dog and Puppy chows. They are able to eat any brand of canned food. If you have a picky pet and have an already open bag of food you can’t use we can still accept those in the original packaging. 

Any pet food that is donated that our pets can’t eat will do into our Community Pet Pantry. Last year we gave away almost 12,000 pounds of pet food from our Community Pet Pantry to pets and their families in need in our community. Help us keep our Community Pet Pantry stocked all year long!

Animal Shelter Bedding and Linen Donations

Animal Shelter dog | Dog in bath | Lynchburg, VA

You can probably guess that we go through a lot of bedding here at LHS! Our laundry is constantly going but sometimes bedding is too soiled or used by sick pets and unable to be washed. If you are cleaning out your linen closet, the Center for Pets is the perfect place to donate those unused sheets, towels, and blankets. Our pets always appreciate cat and dog bed donations as well. 

You can also donate a comfy Kuranda bed to our pets here at the shelter here.

Enrichment Program

Shelters are a stressful place for dogs and cats. Enrichment can help! Our enrichment program includes many different things for both dogs and cats to exercise their brains. Things that help with our enrichment program include, peanut butter, enrichment toys, treats, and more! We have an Amazon wishlist dedicated to enrichment here: https://a.co/gLPTPNn

Foster Program

tiny kitten, neonate kitten, bottle fed kitten

Our fosters are often taking care of our youngest, most vulnerable pets. Many of these pets are too young to eat regular pet food and need specialized food and supplies to grow. Our foster department has a dedicated wishlist that includes many of these items. Even if you aren’t able to foster these tiny pets, you can still help them by donating formula, bottle supplies, heartbeat toys, and more to keep them healthy and growing. https://a.co/iCNJ7xK

Thank you! We are so grateful to our community for being so involved in caring for our pets and donating supplies!