For the animals at ARF, home is where the paw is

A man and a woman get married. The man has two Siamese cats that have been together for four years. This displeases the woman. The husband is left to figure out a solution to this little problem and save his new marriage from an early demise. His solution is the Animal Rescue Foundation, or as it is more commonly known in Milledgeville, ARF. With special cases like this one, ARF likes to embrace their humanity. The typical price of adopting a pet is $80 but in the case of the Siamese cats, ARF is adopting both the cats for one $80 fee. Keeping in mind the animal’s best interest, ARF does what it can not to separate animals that have been together many years. The foundation has been serving Middle Georgia since 1983. It is a place dedicated to finding homes for abandoned animals and to educate the public on proper care for their pets. The year 2008 is a year-long celebration for ARF. It is the foundation’s twenty-fifth anniversary and some new methods of fundraising and training pets are already underway. One new training method is "clicker training" where animals learn positive reinforcement through a trigger, which in this case is the clicking. Pavielle Ludlow, a senior, is the volunteer coordinator at ARF and has been volunteering for three years. She is one of the volunteers who is a clicker trainer. "Basically, it’s a mental photograph for the dog," Ludlow said. "The click means ‘good’ and that’s how we start them off." Though cats can be clicker trained, none of the cats at ARF are due to the lack of volunteers to oversee the training. Clicker training causes no aggression and becomes ingrained in the animal. "They associate the clicker with treats and goodness," Ludlow said. "Eventually you don’t need the clicker." Micro-chipping is another service offered by ARF with help from HomeAgain, a pet recovery service. It can be obtained by paying an extra $40 fee when adopting an animal. "What it does is it inserts a tiny grain sized micro-chip into the dog," Ludlow said. "Should your pet get lost, you call in HomeAgain, and HomeAgain sends out a notification to all the human societies, animal shelters, vet offices and other people who have the HomeAgain Program." A new addition to the ARF building, and something the people at ARF are especially proud of, is their new dog room. The dog room opened a few months ago and has larger cages for the canines. "They are happier, they have more room, (and) they can bounce back and forth," Ludlow said. "The volunteers, if they don’t want to walk (the dogs), they can just sit and play and just brush them and play with them." A large portion of the construction was donated to ARF, and the labor was entirely donated. "We are strictly a non-profit organization so we rely strictly on donations," Ludlow said. ARF’s adoption fee is $80 which includes spaying and neutering and all up to date shots. "It’s actually cheaper than if you were to go get an animal, take it to the vet (and) get all those shots," Ludlow said. Certain guidelines always apply for people looking to adopt from ARF. "We generally don’t adopt animals out to people who have animals who aren’t spayed and neutered," Ludlow said. "Also, we don’t adopt out to people who keep the animals on a chain." Volunteers are in short supply at the foundation. Some professors require that their students volunteer with ARF, but these students tend to not stick around after they have satisfied their required volunteer hours. Leah Nazzaro, a student at GCSU, has been volunteering at ARF for about a week. "I actually came here to get a cat and just decided to volunteer instead," Nazzaro said. "These animals are well loved, and they’re very happy," Ludlow said. "A lot of people think they’re stuck in cages, (or) they’re miserable and everything. However, we’re doing the best to our ability." Upcoming events for ARF include the tenth Annual ARF Auction "It’s Reigning Cats and Dogs" in March and "Doggie Fashion Show" in the spring. In addition, ARF is hosting a Build a Brick Campaign to memorialize special pets and loved ones.

To get involved with ARF visit AnimalRescueFoundation.org.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 25 2008. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry