Kinder Shelter
The Friends of Upland helps dogs find homes even as it faces an uncertain future
I begin to lose hope as I get back in the car and drive away from another animal shelter. I just can’t find the perfect dog. My criteria are high — I need a dog that can be calm and receptive if it’s going to be an Emotional Support Animal for me. After stopping at two shelters, I’m exhausted. Each dog I greet is happy to see me, but all dogs have their own personalities and I need the perfect personality to fit in with my home.
I’ve been looking for the perfect dog for several months now upon the suggestion of my therapist. A dog would be perfect to get me out of bed on the days it feels impossible and encourage me to be more responsible throughout the day. For that, I need a dog to be calming and intelligent, to let me know what it needs but without being overly excited to make my day more stressful. Shelter dogs are usually slightly older, which makes it easier to determine their personalities.
My last chance for the next few weeks, maybe months, due to my schedule, is the Friends of Upland Animal Shelter. The shelter, hidden behind the driveway next to a larger hospital is hard to find. But it looks like my patience pays off when I see a cheerful, barn-like structure. Out front are a half dozen benches t surrounded by flowers, next to a large brown statue of animals. A wide walkway is split down the middle with a short row of trees that are full of butterflies that dance around my head as I walk towards the entrance.
As soon as I walk in, I hear the birds the shelter takes care of. They aren’t up for adoption, just like the bearded dragon they keep in the entryway. The shelter rescued them and decided to give them a home.
The Friends of Upland Animal Shelter is a temporary home to dogs and cats, as well as rabbits, guinea pigs and the occasional reptile. The building is also where City of Upland Animal Services, an animal control company, has its base. A row of kennels — nicknamed the dungeon kennels because it takes several turns to get to them — are set aside for the animals brought in by animal control. This is where lost dogs wait for their owners to come find them before they are put up for adoption. The shelter also has veterinarians that come in periodically to check on the dogs and occasionally perform surgeries for the dogs that need them, including but not limited to spaying, neutering, and inserting microchips.
I am quickly greeted by an employee and the wagging tails of the dogs that belong to the shelter employees. These dogs have their own space behind the front desk. Most, if not all of the dogs behind the desk were adopted by the employees from the Friends of Upland shelter. I’m soon allowed into the kennels to look for a dog.
The Friends of Upland Animal Shelter is a nonprofit company that runs the Upland Animal Shelter in conjunction with the city’s animal control officers. It’s been in operation for three years at no cost to the city. As a nonprofit charitable organization, it relies on donations given to the shelter in the form of money, pet food, blankets, pet toys, collars, and leashes that people no longer need anymore and can give away instead of throwing it in the trash.
Friends of Upland does its best to give every animal brought in a fighting chance. It is a low-kill shelter, meaning it only puts down animals when it has no other choice. According to one of the employees, that only occurs if an animal is too sick or in too much pain to carry on. Or, if after months of working with it, an aggressive animal doesn’t improve enough to be considered safe.
As some of the animals are sick or aggressive, the shelter insists that no one attempt to pet any animals through their kennels. A dog had to be put down when a woman reached into the kennel and the dog bit her hand. Thankfully, most of the dogs can be worked with through patience and practice, but employees must conduct the meet and greets.
Among the dogs I meet is charismatic, energetic Jenny, a smoky grey pitbull mix. The information card pinned to Jenny’s kennel tells me she is almost three years old and has been at the shelter for almost a year. She plays fetch with me for several minutes, panting her way to the ball and back endlessly. The volunteer who introduces me to Jenny is not as familiar with her as she is with some of the other dogs. So, she refers me to a Mark, who knows the most about Jenny.
Mark has a round, red face, with lines that betray how much of his time is spent smiling. He smile is contagious and soon my girlfriend and I are smiling with him. Mark takes Jenny out for a walk with me to show me a little bit more about her. Mark warns me that Jenny is very protective of him and even snapped at a friend of his who came over to give Mark a fist bump.
Mark tells me that he has made progress with Jenny, but that she would be a perfect match for someone who lives alone and has enough time to properly train and socialize her. Being a college student who works part time and has a roommate, I know she would be unhappy in my life. Unfortunately, I have to say goodbye to Jenny and ask the volunteers to help me find a different dog.
I discuss my situation and what I’m looking for with a volunteer who tells me she knows the perfect dog for me and leads the way to a dog I had previously overlooked because she wasn’t the breed I was looking for. Alice is small, black and white dog and resembles a chihuahua with an underbite that caused my brother to later nickname her “stoned Yoda.”
When the volunteer brings her out, she didn’t flinch at the row of kennels filled with dogs sometimes ten times her size all barking to get the attention of the the volunteers. Then, when another volunteer brings out a large doberman who strained against his leash to get close to Alice, the little dog didn’t blink and just turned her back to the doberman and continued her walk. I immediately liked her.
He warned me that meeting Alice before did not necessarily mean she would be as welcoming this time around and I still needed to wait for Alice to come to me.
Outside of the shelter, the volunteer told me to let Alice come to me, because she was known to be shy and fear-aggressive. Fear aggression in a dog means that when it is scared for its safety, it may become aggressive. Such dogs are not naturally aggressive and will generally only bite if they feel threatened.
I was prepared to wait a long time for Alice to be comfortable enough to come towards me. Before I knew it, though, Alice was up on the bench sitting next to me, letting me pet her and leaning into me when I faltered. I felt an immediate connection and the volunteer noticed as well. Knowing my family has another dog, the shelter, in keeping with its policy, encouraged me to come by later that day to make sure the two dogs got along.
Part of that policy stems from not knowing an animal’s background. When animals are brought in, it’s often because someone found a stray somewhere and wanted to help it. They don’t know where the dog came from, if it used to be a pet that was abandoned or ran away, or if it’s always been a stray. Because of that, the shelter can’t guarantee that the dog will have a positive reaction to new things. The shelter does its best to ensure that when a dog goes to a new home, it will be the right one.
Friends of Upland also takes in dogs from other shelters, particularly shelters that have a high kill rate or are too full to care for more animals. Friends of Upland has a high adoption rate, so many shelters that have trouble finding homes for dogs send them to Friends of Upland.
When I was able to return with my other dog and my family I was helped by a tall, thin employee named Chris who wore a too-large shelter t-shirt and a beanie that seemed to elongate his face to match his frame. Chris told me that when Alice got to the shelter, she would not let anyone near her. He said one of the volunteers, Mark — the same smiley guy who worked with Jenny — spent months waiting outside her kennel until she got used to him being there.
Slowly, he worked up to being in the kennel with her and taking her for walks before she let him pet and even hold her. Mark was able to introduce Chris to Alice and Chris quickly earned her trust as well.
He warned me that meeting Alice before did not necessarily mean she would be as welcoming this time around and I still needed to wait for Alice to come to me. Fortunately, she warmed right up to me again, exchanged smells with my other dog and climbed into my mom’s lap. Chris was visibly excited and told me that was an extremely successful greeting.
Satisfied, I sign the papers and pay the small fee to adopt Alice into my family. The shelter asks me to bring her back some time to say hello. Chris says that he’s going to miss her, but “there’s no better feeling that watching a dog go to the right home.”
When I make it back to the shelter with Alice, Chris is unfortunately absent for the day and Mark has just gone home. The volunteers at the shelter ask me to wait, they’re going to call Mark and let him know Alice has come to visit. They’re confident he’ll turn around and come back. Sure enough, Mark walks in the door minutes later and Alice recognizes his smell, jumps up to say hi, wagging her tail as fast as ever.
“There’s no better feeling that watching a dog go to the right home.”
Friends of Upland tells me that its contract to run the shelter is up in June 2019. The contract will then go to the highest bidder with no guarantee that whoever gets the contract will operate it as compassionately. Friends of Upland is circulating a petition it will present to the City of Upland in support of its bid to renew and extend its contract. While new operators does not necessarily mean the shelter will be impacted negatively, large and sudden change is stressful for these animals and Friends of Upland wants to continue serving them.
Before Alice and I say goodbye, I go to check on Jenny, hoping I won’t be able to find her in the kennels. Unfortunately, she’s still there, waiting for the perfect home to take her in.
For more information about the animals, adoptions, donations, the petition, and about the shelter itself, visit the Friends of Upland Animal Shelter website at https://friendsofuplandanimalshelter.org/.
