A New Leash On Life Pet Rescue Program Saves Hundreds Of Dogs, Cats From Sure Death

A small black Labrador retriever mutt wriggled with excitement and jumped up against the gate whenever someone approached.

Down the corridor, a husky mix with haunting blue eyes struggled as she was forced back into her kennel.

“Ranger,” a large black Labrador/ shepherd mix lodged between the others, wore a faded scarf around his neck and a look of resignation.

It was as if they knew this was their last chance to be saved.

Passing by their pens was a small parade of people, many of them volunteers from Pet Rescue, a group devoted to saving dogs and cats on death row if it thinks someone will later adopt them.

“Hush!” volunteer Vicki Eckert told the doomed husky mix as its high-pitched barking rattled down the concrete corridor. “She knows she’s breaking my heart. She just won’t quit.”

Eckert was enamored with the dog’s markings and friendly nature, but she had already reached the limit of four dogs and four cats per house set by Pet Rescue.

The next day, the husky and two Labrador mixes were dead.

The dogs were among a declining number of animals killed at the Spokane County Animal Shelter.

Three years ago, almost twice as many dogs, about 1,400 annually, were being euthanized.

Animal Control director Nancy Sattin attributed the decrease to Pet Rescue, a Spokane non-profit organization that formed in 1992.

“We’re thrilled with Pet Rescue,” Sattin said. “They’re taking animals in at the 11th hour.”

The adoption rate for dogs at the shelter has leaped from 26 percent in 1993 to 44 percent this year. The national average is in the 30s.

Cat adoptions have gone from 17 percent to 28 percent, “which is absolutely fantastic,” Sattin said, looking over her statistics sheet. “These are excellent rates.”

Pet Rescue volunteers visit the shelter on Mondays and Tuesdays, scanning the kennels and cages for dogs and cats scheduled to be euthanized.

Colleen Riccardi signed up earlier this month as a volunteer after visiting the shelter late on a Tuesday and finding “Casey,” an Akita and German shepherd mix scheduled to be put down the next day.

“They were about to lock the doors on me, and I said, ‘No, don’t put her to sleep,”’ Riccardi said.

The dog got a stay of execution while Riccardi arranged to have her yard fence repaired. She returned on subsequent days to give the former stray a bath and visit.

“This is my first, and you are the lucky one,” she said to the fawn-colored dog as she knelt down and slipped treats through the kennel’s chain-links.

Across the way, the husky mix gnawed on its fencing and yipped.

Gonzaga University Professor Dick Green, another Pet Rescue volunteer, stopped in after work just before closing time. By the time he left the shelter, dog hair speckled his neat, black slacks.

“I’m looking for a dog we have a good chance of placing,” he said as he surveyed the pens.

“Those springers would go in a second,” he said, pointing to a pair of spaniels. The young shar-pei also would be easy to adopt out, though some people might find its wrinkled muzzle ugly, he said.

Green continued down the row until he found dogs whose paperwork showed they would be euthanized the next day. Most get 10-14 days before their time’s up. The shelter is closed every Wednesday for administering the lethal shots.

“I love Labs,” Green said, kneeling to poke his fingers through to the welcoming tongue of a black Labrador mix. “But they’re tough to place. He’s in trouble.”

Black dogs are the most difficult to find homes for, volunteers said. They don’t know why.

Green eventually settled on a yellow-blond shepherd mix so anxious to flee its confines that it gagged itself as it strained against the leash.

Once the dog is spayed, has its shots and its foster parents know its habits, Pet Rescue will use classified advertisements to find it a home.

“We have a 100 percent adoption rate,” Eckert said proudly.

This time of year, Pet Rescue volunteers are wary of people seeking pets to give as Christmas presents. More animals tend to turn up homeless after the holidays, and in the summer when people go on vacation.

Eckert refuses to adopt out an animal unless she can first quiz the potential owner. But, she added, volunteers have to take care not to get too attached or take on too much responsibility.

As the shelter doors locked behind her last week, Eckert continued to agonize over the loss of the blue-eyed husky, even as she reminded herself, “You can’t save them all.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo