Jamboree set for Sept. 10-11

Comment by RedShannon: Tuesday, September 7

The Jessamine Jamboree has been and always will be a trashy operation. There are no REAL crafts off...read more...

Fiscal court buys Nicholasville Cafe building

Comment by RedShannon: Tuesday, September 7

That restaurant is NEVER open when you think it will be. Mrs. Deeken is rude to guests, and so is M...read more...

Stanford man arrested on burglary charges

Comment by JohnT: Tuesday, September 7

I am also responding to the online jailer poll. I do not believe my vote was counted either. I vot...read more...

» Read more recent story comments
» Register for your account

Pippen came into the Jessamine County S.A.V.E. Center bloody and frightened, his fur ravaged by Demodex mange. Employees took him to the vet, who said that without treatment, euthanasia was the only option. Leslie Boysel, who had just begun volunteering at the shelter, was devastated.

“It was a Saturday, and it was my first meltdown day,” she said.

S.A.V.E. Director Jenise Smith asked the vet for an hour to try to raise the money for treatment, which she did. Pippen went to the house of another volunteer, Jennifer Lathery, to recover during the treatment process, and four months later, he was adopted out.

Lathery and Boysel have been volunteering at the S.A.V.E. Center for approximately a year, and throughout that time, they have seen hundreds of pets come through that place.

“It can be stressful at times — a little overwhelming — but it’s rewarding,” Boysel said. “When you find that perfect home or one that we’ve had for a long time gets saved.”

Boysel, the volunteer coordinator, works to get more volunteers to the center to help with adoption events and just to spend time with the animals.

“Come for an hour on a Saturday morning and get a dog out of the cage,” she said. “After they’re here a while, they tend to get what we call ‘kettle crazy’ — not having enough interaction with people.”

Lathery is a foster coordinator, and she works to get pets into people’s homes for either an adoption trial period or to help the animals who are having a hard time at the kennel with other pets.

There are currently 68 cats and 62 dogs at the S.A.V.E. Center, but only 10 dogs and two cats are out in foster homes now.

“We always need foster families,” Lathery said. “We don’t have a lot of people who take in cats. Some they took home just because they were urgent, they’ve been here quite a while, or they had a situation with malnourishment or a health issue that needed some treatment.”

Lathery once had a dog that didn’t interact well with people, so she took it in as a foster pet and loved on it to the point where it became a great people pet.

It was adopted out to another state to become a therapy dog and recently helped a man with Alzheimer’s disease begin speaking to his wife for the first time in three months.

“Those are the stories that you share with everybody, and they make it all worth it,” Lathery said. “We gave them a second chance, and it’s like they pass that on to somebody else.”

Of course fostering isn’t for everyone. Boysel tried it but couldn’t bear parting with the dogs after keeping them in her home.

“I tried, but I can’t do it,” she said. “I just want to keep them all. Thank God for people like (Lathery) because we need them.”

But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get to reap the benefits of volunteering.

Boysel walked through Pet Smart recently and saw a dog in the distance that looked really familiar.

“I said, ‘I know that’s Pippen,’ and I went up and talked to his new owner,” she said. “It was just the best feeling to see him running around and playing with other dogs.”

She called Lathery, who was out of town on a family camping trip. Lathery’s husband had to ask why she was crying.

“Pippen found a great home,” she told him.

That’s all the reward the S.A.V.E. Center volunteers need.

For more information on volunteering with the S.A.V.E. Center or fostering or adopting a pet, call 881-0821.

Story comments

Read all comments on this article (1) »

Posting comments on this web site requires free registration.

• Create your account
• Log in to your account