If you want to help Grant County’s homeless animals, please join us. There are several ways to do that:
Come to one of our monthly meetings, at 7 PM, the last Wednesday of the month, at the Grant County Animal Shelter, 218 Barnes Road, Williamstown, KY.
Give us your contact information on the form below, and we’ll call you to answer any questions and encourage you.
Remember, we understand that not everyone wants to attend meetings. Many of our members never do. Continue on to see all of the ways our Friends are involved.
The image of a puppy named Spirit, above, shows how the Grant County Friends of the Shelter (GCFOS) members and supporters understand their mission. Spirit was a puppy his owner didn’t want. So, his owner tried to kill Spirit with bullets. The only reason that Spirit lived was because that owner had been drinking too much alcohol to shoot effectively. Spirit was only wounded.
The arm that is holding, comforting, and supporting Spirit belongs to a GCFOS member. That member represents the whole GCFOS group. The group funded Spirit’s veterinary care. They worked together to let Spirit learn that life didn’t have to hurt, that puppies didn’t need to cower in fear, waiting for the worst. Then, they worked with the Grant County Animal Shelter (the Shelter) to help Spirit move on to the life that he, like every pet, deserved.
If YOU are someone who feels for the least-lucky, unwanted pets, someone who believes that kindness can conquer cruelty, that caring should replace callous irresponsibility, please join us or support us.
Membership in the GCFOS costs only $20 per year, but the impact is priceless. When someone becomes part of this group, she lets others, friends, relatives, and neighbors, know that she cares about ending suffering, about stopping cruelty, and about keeping unwanted pets alive to become loved pets. So, please, JOIN. Add your kindness to lives that need it desperately.
Yet, being a GCFOS member also has rewards for people. The biggest rewards come from the animals. Members can be immersed in needy pets’ care. Or, if a member’s life can’t allow that, she can get intense satisfaction from seeing the result of her commitment from a distance.
Most of all, people who are trying to do difficult deeds need each other. Camaraderie keeps them going. The word camaraderie encompasses friendship but much more, too. It means that people are united to achieve a common, important purpose. Please join the campaign. Please be part of this camaraderie, this effort to improve, and preserve, the lives of Grant County’s homeless pets.
Being a member matters! The first members focused on working with the County to improve shelter animals’ conditions and likely fate, death. In 1997, 96% of shelter animals were killed. While they waited to die, they were crammed into eight small runs, sometimes six or more to a cage. The group pleaded with officials and the community, wrote grants, raised funds, and the Fiscal Court acted to change these situations. Today the Shelter is “No-Kill”. And the dogs have individual “rooms” and runs. Cats have a family room-like space to roam and greet guests.
However, the Shelter is NOT mandated to be “No-Kill”. It’s a perpetual struggle GCFOS members and the Shelter staff fight together.
Each member does different things. There are many ways to be a member and keep the Shelter a happy, “No-Kill” resting place.
For those who want to be in individual animals’ lives, some members care for kittens who need help to survive, until they’re ready for adoption.
Mamma hurt. She hurt so much that she knew that she couldn’t live. Yet, she pulled herself into the open lot, into the tall weeds, into the place where she’d hidden her babies. She managed to get close enough for her tiny kittens to sense her, to crawl to her.
A woman found the kittens on their dead mamma’s body. The GCFOS stepped in. A member bottle-fed the babies until they were old enough to go to forever homes.
Sometimes people leave animals to die. GCFOS members rescue them.
People moved away. They took only what they valued. That didn’t include lots of cats, including several mother cats with very young kittens. The landlord found the terrified cats, shut in the house. GCFOS members needed to trap the traumatized, fleeing, hiding cats, to save them.
Sometimes members care for pets who need love, encouragement, and nursing.
Marley suffered for a long time. He was tied outdoors, with no food, water, or shelter. Yet, he held on, hoping, and believing in humans. Finally, a neighbor called for help. A GCFOS member cared for Marley for months, until he was not only well, but joyful.
At best, people who stop caring deceive themselves. They believe that a pet can take care of itself outdoors. At worst, those people don’t care what happens to their pets. Usually, something very bad happens to that pet. Some sweet, trusting, starving cats find a leg-hold trap. GCFOS members try to save them, and then rehabilitate them in a foster home.
One big GCFOS campaign is TNVR.
For 15 years, GCFOS members have been reducing the number of cats entering the Shelter by trapping, neutering/spaying, vaccinating, and returning (TNVR) free-roaming cats to their outdoor homes.
The GCFOS doesn’t forget the returned, spayed/neutered cats.
The group does all that it can, depending on resources, to help caregivers maintain these cats. The members plead for and supply food to caregivers, those amazingly kind people who regularly feed the unowned cats and are often overwhelmed by the cost of cat food. GCFOS members also “build” Styrofoam houses to shelter the cats.
The GCFOS tugs at the hearts of corporations and individuals, asking for help feeding these unowned, but surviving, with help, cats.
The gift of cat food for free roamers has come from Tractor Supply, the Ark Encounter, and kind individuals.
For people who, every so often, just need some time with a grateful pet:
GCFOS members spend time with shelter pets.
They visit giving and getting comfort from shelter residents. Members walk dogs or simply remind them that they deserve to be loved. They introduce pets to potential adopters.
When you know more about these unlucky animals, as a group and as individuals, you can be their voice. You can remind people about them, about their needs, about the fact that they’re wishing and hoping and praying for homes. Words matter. Your words may change, may save, an animal’s life.
Even if you can’t hold the wounded puppy, Spirit, in your arms, by joining, you can show that Spirit and others like him aren’t alone, and aren’t forgotten. You can commit to caring.
Founded in 2002, the Grant County Friends of the Shelter is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that strives to find a home for all the animals in the Grant County Animal Shelter.
Founded in 2002, the Grant County Friends of the Shelter is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that strives to find a home for all the animals in the Grant County Animal Shelter.
Dramatic cases of animal injury and recovery are common at the Grant County Friends of the Animal Shelter and Castle is no exception. We encourage you to read Castle’s story and learn more about how you can help this resilient cat’s recovery efforts.
Learn How You Can Help
When a law enforcement officer asks for help from the shelter staff, it can be very serious. Situations don’t get much more serious than Marley’s was. Read Marley’s story and learn more about how you can help this sweet dog’s recovery efforts.
Learn How You Can Help
Thanks to our donations, the shelter was able to construct a unique outdoor play area where shelter cats can freely jump and climb a cat post or two, catch a few rays, and socialize with other cats and people.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec a ex non lacus laoreet pulvinar. Etiam id sem mi. Praesent eget porttitor diam.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec a ex non lacus laoreet pulvinar. Etiam id sem mi. Praesent eget porttitor diam.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec a ex non lacus laoreet pulvinar. Etiam id sem mi. Praesent eget porttitor diam.
Thanks to our donations, the shelter was able to construct a unique outdoor play area where shelter cats can freely jump and climb a cat post or two, catch a few rays, and socialize with other cats and people.