Pets with nowhere to go

For a few Cape Girardeau County animal lovers, there's always room for one more four-legged house guest.

Twenty area families currently are signed up with the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri to provide foster care for abandoned or abused dogs and cats and the occasional horse.

Even fewer families can be counted on to provide foster care regularly, said Requi Salter of Cape Girardeau. A Humane Society board member and pet owner -- she currently has three dogs and five cats -- Salter has provided foster care for dogs and cats periodically for 15 years.

Some people won't take in puppies or pregnant dogs. Some only want to care for cats or only care for dogs. Some are teachers who only want to provide foster care in the summer when school is out, she said.

Charlotte and Bill Craig have a menagerie of animals on their Gordonville-area farm. They own four dogs, three cats, three horses and two geese.

For now, they also have a pregnant house guest -- Angel, an 18-month-old Pekingese mix who soon will have a litter of puppies. Angel was abandoned at the local animal shelter three weeks ago,

Charlotte Craig temporarily took in the dog at the request of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri.

Craig, who has been involved with the Humane Society for nearly 30 years, knew the dog needed care. The society's animal shelter doesn't have the space, and the shelter staff doesn't have the time to raise puppies until they can be adopted, she said.

Craig expects to have Angel and her puppies for about two months, the time it takes for puppies to get weaned.

It's a big responsibility, Craig said. "You're tied down just like when your kids were babies."

The Craigs keep some of their orphans.

Their Pekingese, Sweetie, was abandoned at the animal shelter. Another Pekingese pet, 11-year-old Fletcher, was rescued from a Southeast Missouri puppy mill when he was 3 weeks old.

"He looked just like a little pink rat," she said. "He was the last one pulled out."

She kept Fletcher close day and night, even taking him to her office at the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, where she is the director. "He had to be fed every couple of hours," she recalled.

The Craigs have a black chow, a stray that they adopted. Their fourth dog, a beagle mix, had been abandoned at the animal shelter.

As for Angel and the expected puppies, Craig said she's not ready for another permanent pet. She intends on giving the animals up for adoption.

Salter and Mary Stuart, program coordinator for the Humane Society, said the need exceeds the number of area residents willing to take in temporary pets.

Over the past seven months, Stuart estimated, the Humane Society has been able to place only 10 to 12 animals in foster care.

The animals can be in foster care for a few days or even a few months, Stuart said. The reasons for being in foster care range from pregnancy to emotional and health concerns.

The ultimate goal is to get them adopted.

"It gives an animal a chance," said Salter.

Craig wishes more people would provide foster care for animals.

"If we had more foster homes, chances are our adoption rates would go up," she said. About one in five shelter animals -- about 1,100 a year -- get adopted.

But those in foster care are virtually assured of adoption. Families want to adopt animals that have been well cared for and have proven in foster care to be good pets, Humane Society officials said.

The Humane Society doesn't place animals with just anyone who wants to provide foster care. The staff checks out applicants, who must have their own pets properly vaccinated to protect them from any disease foster pets might have.

Priscilla Mabuce is an enthusiastic foster caregiver. She routinely takes in strays or abandoned dogs left with the Humane Society shelter.

Mabuce and her family reside on 3 acres just west of Cape Girardeau. In addition to her husband and 11-year-old son, the family includes two dogs and three cats.

Sometimes her Humane Society guests -- pregnant dogs and their subsequent litters of puppies -- will stay for two months. The puppies aren't made available for adoption until they've been weaned.

Parting with the animals can be emotionally difficult. She most recently provided foster care to a collie for four weeks.

A volunteer at the shelter, Mabuce said the abandoned collie was timid and scared. "I grabbed her and took her home with me," she recalled.

The dog was adopted earlier this week. Mabuce took her to a local veterinarian to get spayed and transferred to her new owner. "I cried when I left," she said.

Her evenings are different now. "I don't have my collie girl curled up beside me." Mabuce said.

But she knows it won't be long until she has another foster pet by her side.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123