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Animal Adoptions In Flux During Pandemic

With all the time spent at home, you may be wondering if this is a good time to adopt a new pet. The answer is, it depends. It may actually be difficult to adopt at the moment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many shelters have closed their doors and stopped in-person adoption.

Adoptions across the country have decreased, according to Pet Point, an online resource for animal shelters. More people are stepping up to foster animals, electing to take them home for short periods without actually committing to adoption.

The future for many animal rescue charities and nonprofits is precarious. They face funding shortages due to the economic slowdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the Huntington Cabell-Wayne Animal Control Shelter, 10 to 15 dogs are placed in outdoor kennels that are about 25 feet wide and 10 feet deep. Each kennel has a dog house, water and even a ceiling fan. Visitors can walk up and see which ones are available for adoption.

Bellomy, a two year old brindle-mix, stands on his kennel and barks in Huntington, WV.

The shelter director, Courtney Cross, said the number of dogs at her shelter currently is exceptionally low.

“We’re holding pretty steady around 20 dogs,” she said. Under normal circumstances they have between 85 and 100 dogs.

Cross said getting the number of animals at her shelter down is important for two reasons: First, it keeps low the number of volunteers and staff who have to come to work during the pandemic.

Second, shelters like hers rely on animal rescue organizations, third-party nonprofits that take animals from shelters and put them into homes. If these animal rescue organizations are unable to secure funding in the future due to the recent economic downturn, her shelter will be overrun with animals.

“We send a lot of our animals to rescue organizations. As these states shut down, if the rescues weren’t able to do adoption events, then what would happen?” she asked.

Stephanie Howell, director of Little Victories in Ona, West Virginia, an animal rescue organization, said her organization is still receiving a high number of requests for people wanting to surrender their pets.

“Typically, in a given day, we could have anywhere from seven to 15 requests. Some days, we get 25 if we’ve got two litters of kittens, or something like that. But, there’s always a waitlist here,” she said.

On a recent visit, she pointed out the dog “cottages,” with doors and windows and doggie doors.

“The porches are set and so when it’s raining, they can sit outside and be under shelter, which is nice.”

She pointed out the “cat sanctuary,” a grey double-wide trailer.

“Literally the cats just roam free in there. We have 35 cats. And what you saw out there is in the sanctuary, there are 22 dogs out there.”

Despite the fact that her organization is usually full, Howell said she doesn’t flatout reject people. When she can’t accept their pets, she offers advice on how to deal with common problems like how to potty train a puppy. Her organization has even helped out with vet bills.

But her overhead is expensive, too.

“It costs us $1,100 a day. I’m responsible for raising about $400,000 a year and we do not get any city, national or state level funding. So, it’s all through grants that we can apply for, donations, fundraising events and things like that. I don’t think people typically realize how much it costs to run this place,” Howell said.

She said her organization has made it through the first quarter of the year, but the economic downturn has her concerned about future funding.

Lucy, an 11 week old Pyrenees-mix relaxes at home with the Kinder family in Huntington, W.Va.

Huntington, W.Va. resident Amanda Kinder and her family adopted a dog, a pyrenees they named Lucy, three weeks ago.

“She’s tiny and white and cream colored and she’s got white on her little socks and on her face,” she said. “They actually call the coloring on her face badger. It’s kind of similar to a racoon mask.”

Kinder said her kids had been asking for a dog for years. But even with four people at the house, Kinder said taking care of an 11-week-old puppy isn’t all cuddles and playtime.

“Definitely her getting up in the middle of the night is kind of like a toddler. She doesn’t sleep entirely through the night yet, so we’re working on that,” Kinder said.

Kinder warned against adopting a pet on whim and said planning was essential in preparing their home for Lucy.

Pets also require lots of time. While families are staying at home right now, this won’t last forever.

“Right now she’s got unending amounts of attention and people are playing with her and if she barks, somebody in the house will definitely come to her and see what she needs or play with her or take her outside. So, I think when all of this does go kind of back to normal, I’m sure it’ll be an adjustment for her just like everybody else,” Kinder said.

When the stay at home order is finally lifted, and people go back to school and work, what sort of effect will that have on these newly adopted pets?

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals issued a statement that explained that new pets “may be left confused and potentially lonely when family members start spending less time at home” and that pet owners should start slowly acclimating animals to being left alone so they aren’t caught off guard when we go back to work.

Meet The Appalachian Goats Who Sing Along To Christmas Carols

There is a tradition in Appalachia of observing “Old Christmas” on January 6. Folklore suggests that animals speak in the middle of the night on Old Christmas.

But it turns out, you don’t have to wait till January 6 to hear goats singing to Christmas carols.

We heard about these music-loving goats through Connie Bailey-Kitts, who lives in Bluefield, Virginia. Her goats love to listen to a church organ she keeps on her property. The organ dates back to the 1920s. Her family bought it about 50 years ago.

“So my brother Darrell goes to my dad and he says, ‘How much do you think I should offer for the organ?’” Bailey-Kitts recalled. “And my dad, being the local veterinarian and world class horse trader, said, ‘Oh, I think you should offer maybe about $25 for it.’”

So, the family bought the organ from a nearby church for $25. Bailey-Kitts said she believes the organ originally was worth at least $10,000.

The organ is enormous, created to be used in a church. It has more than 600 metal and wooden pipes, and they all play a different note.

Bailey-Kitts’ family moved the organ to their farm. Her brother, Darrell, is a classically trained musician, and he would often play the organ at family gatherings, particularly at Christmastime.

A few years ago, Bailey-Kitts’ father passed away, and most of her family lives scattered across the country, so they rarely get to see each other these days. This year, her brother couldn’t make the trip, due to the weather. So, Bailey-Kitts and her husband started a new tradition of inviting neighbors over to sing carols.

They played songs like “All Come All The Faithful”, “Joy to the World”, and “Hark the Harold Angels Sing”.

Their neighbor Susan Allen played the organ for a small gathering of children and adults, and Bailey-Kitts’ goats gathered around the organ too.

“If they hear the music playing, they’ll come down from the field when the organ’s playing,” she said. “And the organ’s really, really powerful. It’s got a really big sound, and they’re drawn to it.”

Bailey-Kitts said her goats will lift their ears up like they’re trying to catch more of the sound of the organ.

“I think they don’t know quite what to make of it,” she said. “It doesn’t intimidate them either. It’s just amazing.”

This story is part of a holiday episode of Inside Appalachia.

Possum In Kentucky Artist's Mural Reveals Complicated Connection To Marsupial's Symbolism

Scavenger. Trash animal. Chicken killer. Hero. People here in Appalachia have lots of feelings when it comes oppossums — or “possums” as some people call them. A town in Harlan County, Kentucky found this out first-hand when they decided to feature a possum on a mural in their downtown.

It was a clear, sunny day in May and Lacy Hale was putting the finishing touches on a mural destined for a brick wall in downtown Harlan, Kentucky.

Panels of mural fabric sprawled across the floor of Lacy’s workspace. She walked barefoot, bent over, creating sweeping brushstrokes of vibrant greens and deep purples.

Lacy Hale puts the finishing touches on the mural in her workspace in Whitesburg, Kentucky before it is installed in Harlan, Kentucky.

“You know, possums are everywhere. You see them all the time when you’re driving around,” Lacy explained. “They kill ticks, they kill snakes. They’re North America’s only marsupial. So I thought they were super cool animals.”

Lacy worked with high school students and other community partners on the project, which was spearheaded by Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College’s Appalachian Program. Robert Gipe, a staff member of the Appalachian Program, explained that they sought community input on the mural design. “We did a long community engagement process for several months, and we had people giving us ideas for murals all over the county,” Robert said.

Community partners Carrie Billett (left) and April Collins (right) install the mural on the side of Sassy Trash, a retail shop owned by April and her husband Paul Collins in Harlan, Kentucky.

Based on that input, they chose local plants and animals as the mural’s theme. They decided to feature pokeweed as a nod to Harlan’s annual Poke Sallet Festival, which celebrates a dish made from the plant’s leafy greens.

Lacy researched pokeweed and found that it relies on certain animals to spread its seeds.

“One of the biggest proponents of that was the possum, when I was reading about it,” Lacy said. Possums are one of the only mammals that can tolerate the berries’ toxins.

In the mural, a baby possum hangs by its tail from the pokeweed’s purple stem.

‘There Were Just a Lot of Feelings’

This isn’t the first time that possums have been favorably featured in eastern Kentucky’s music and art. For example, WMMT-FM, out of Whitesburg, is fondly nicknamed “Possum Radio.” But not everybody feels so warmly toward these creatures.

A painting of a possum hovers above the on-air studio at WMMT-FM in Whitesburg, Kentucky, which is nicknamed “Possum Radio.”

When Knott County, Kentucky, named the possum their official animal in 1986, some took offense. In a letter to the editor of the local paper, one reader wrote:

“My personal opinion is that an opossum is a very low and unintelligent animal. A scavenger is a better word. This action insults the intelligence of our county and Appalachian area, which we should all love.”

When Robert showed a draft of the mural to college students in his Appalachian Studies class, the possum caused a bit of a stir.

“They felt that this possum would be perceived as a representation of our community and of them. And that they had had negative associations with possums due to [it] often being found dead in the road and in their trash cans. Maybe its rodent-like nature, that seemed to come up in some of the students’ responses. But there were just a lot of feelings,” Robert said.

When Lacy heard about some of the negative reactions to the possum, she was surprised.

“I was completely shocked because I’ve never really encountered anybody that’s been so vehemently against an animal being in a piece of artwork.”

Lacy learned that people associate possums with negative stereotypes about hillbillies that often appear in popular media. For example, the 1960s television show The Beverly Hillbillies regularly featured bits about eating possum.

‘They’re Resilient’

But increasingly, artists from within the region are turning those negative associations inside out. Artists like Raina Rue, the creative force behind Juniper Moon Folk Arts. Raina’s currently based in Winchester, Kentucky, but hails from Irvine.

Raina Rue, of Juniper Moon Folk Arts, sifts through a suitcase full of pins that she designs and makes at her home in Winchester, Kentucky.

She describes her work as “a weird ‘lil hodgepodge of rural queer art you can wear.” Her pins feature pawpaws, rainbows and morel mushrooms, with phrases like “homegrown in the holler,” and “kudzu queer.”

“My top sellers are my possums. I sell more possums than anything else. Which I love. It makes me so happy,” Raina said.

Some of the possums are cute and cuddly, some look tough and ornery. One hangs from a rainbow flag by its tail, another sports a red bandana around its neck.

Amid pins that feature images and words of rural-ness and queer-ness is a possum pin, all by Raina Rue of Juniper Moon Folk Arts.

Raina’s favorite possum design is her most recent.

“He’s punk and he’s wearing a vest that says homesick on the back and he’s crying and smoking a cigarette in a trashy alley.” Raina calls him the Homesick Possum. “It’s kind of like a little ode to displaced country folk,” Raina said.

It’s also a tribute to Appalachia’s DIY arts and punk communities, some of which are embracing the underdog animal as a kind of mascot.

For Raina, the misunderstood possum is more than just a cute, weird little creature.

“They’re resilient, they don’t need any sort of special surroundings to live in. They can live under a truck, or in the woods in a hole in a tree. And I guess I can relate resiliency, scrappiness, all those things to where I come from and the kind of people that I come from.”

Lacy also hopes more people will begin to think possums are awesome. “I would like to see them appreciated for what they are,” she said.

And her wish seems to be coming true, as possums are popping up on jewelry and T-shirts, as tattoos, in memes that possum fans share on social media, and on the now-colorful wall in downtown Harlan.

As Lacy put it, “Possums are in, possums are it, possums are the thing.”

This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the theFolklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virignia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stores of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.

Searches Cease for Python in Morgantown, W.Va.

**This story has been updated on June 7, 2019.

A 15-foot python escaped a week ago in Morgantown. As of today, it has not been found and local police have stopped their official search. According to Morgantown police, the snake was last seen Friday, May 31.

It is unclear if the python is still alive. Ginny Mule, Cheat Lake Animal Hospital veterinarian who treats reptiles, said the python is not native to West Virginia. She added that the snake requires a climate between 78 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. According to recent weather reports, temperatures dropped to 55 degrees in Morgantown.

“It could’ve died of natural causes kind of being out and exposed when it is cold at night,” Mule said. “But it’s also possible that because of their ability to camouflage that it’s still alive and just kind of hanging out there.”

In the case the python is still alive, police ask that if you see it to call 911.

**Original story from May 31, 2019.

Authorities say a 15-foot python is on the loose in Morgantown, West Virginia, in the Sabraton area. Morgantown Police say the python slithered out of a truck and escaped into the woods as a man was transporting it late Thursday.

According to a press release from the police department, at 10:48 p.m. officers of the Morgantown Police Department received a call about a large snake that escaped from a truck. A man was transporting the python, but during transport, the animal “escaped its enclosure and was inside the vehicle. The owner then exited the vehicle, and the snake escaped into the woods where it climbed a tree. Officers were unable to secure the snake.”

The snake was last seen in a large tree next to Listravia Avenue, near a Sheetz gas station outside Morgantown.

Police are asking residents to pay close attention to children and small pets while outdoors. Danny Hoover, a resident who lives close to where the snake was last seen, said he is worried “it’s going to get into our house and get our cats.”

On Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Morgantown Police Department posted on their Facebook page that they are still looking for the snake. Police are asking that anyone with information about the snake’s whereabouts to call 911.

‘He Just Kept Running’: How A Scrappy Stray Dog Was Finally Caught

Like many stray dogs, there are mysteries with Miller’s story. Here’s what we know: Miller is a small, black and brown dog, and he looks like he has a little chihuahua in him. He was found roaming free in Charleston, then brought into the local animal shelter. In November 2018, a family adopted him. But soon afterwards he escaped.

Two months later, he popped up in the East End of Charleston. One thing nobody really knows is how he got there — the family who initially adopted him live almost six miles away. Miller was on the run in the East End for almost a month during the coldest part of winter.

The Search Begins

“Miller the dog is a scrappy, independent dog that was lose for a couple of weeks,” said Emmett Pepper, a Charleston resident who once tried to catch Miller for 45 minutes. “He just kept going, he would stop for awhile, then look at us and let us catch up, and then just keep running.”

“But nobody could ever get close to him, and he was always just like a bullet,” said Candi Henderson, another Charleston resident. “He was always in like full speed, like he had somewhere to go.”

Then a cold snap in January brought temperatures into the single digits, and dozens of people became involved in the attempt to capture Miller to get him to safety. On Facebook, dozens of photos were posted of Miller.

“Any pictures of him, you could kind of see his small body but his legs were blurry, just cause he was always on the run,” said Meghan Smith, who was following the dog’s story on Facebook. She said she desperately wanted to be the one to catch Miller.

pic.twitter.com/bt2lq1uFez

— Roxy Todd (@RoxyMTodd) March 9, 2019

Fame

As the weeks went on and it became apparent that Miller was no ordinary dog., his social media status blew up. Memes were made about him. Someone made him a Facebook profile.

Brandi O’ Dell, another neighbor, was organizing the search. She put up posters with her phone number all over the neighborhood, and she was getting lots of Miller sightings.

“I was getting calls daily, and they were sightings, but he was so fast there was no way I could respond because he would always be gone by the time I got there,” she said.

Capture

But then, on Valentine’s Day, a hound dog named Charli was out walking with his owner. Miller went over to Charli to play.

The dog’s owner, Shaun Dunlap, reached out and grabbed Miller, who wasn’t happy about being caught. He began barking and tried to bite.

“It looked like he was a captured fugitive or something,” Shaun recalled. He called the number from all the posters about Miller.

When O’Dell got his call, she said at first she was in disbelief.

“I said, so wait a minute, are you telling me you have actually apprehended this dog?,” she said.

By the time she reached the scene, a crowd of people was surrounding him, offering him treats and snapping his photo. Someone had wrapped him in a towel to see if that would calm him down.

“Of course, Miller was terrified. And when I held him, tears were running down his eyes and he was just so scared, and I was just like, ‘little baby it’s gonna be ok.’ And he kissed my nose, and I knew then that it was gonna be ok, he was gonna be fine,” O’Dell said.

So What is Miller’s Future?

The family who originally adopted Miller from the shelter decided they weren’t the best fit. Miller is just too fast and needs a special owner who can train him, otherwise, he’ll probably just run away again.

Brandi O’Dell with Miller just after he was caught

According to O’Dell, several different people in the neighborhood have been fostering him, getting him to his vet appointments, and housetraining him. She and some of the other volunteer rescuers are hoping they’ll find an owner for Miller who can keep up with his speed and appreciate his wild ways.

“I think that Miller would make an awesome agility dog. He is fast fast fast. It became a joke in the Facebook world that he was the fastest dog alive,” said O’Dell.

For now, Miller is resting up and enjoying the comfort of having a warm bed. According to O’Dell, he likes to sleep in and doesn’t always want to get up in the mornings to go for his morning walks especially when it’s cold.

Pets of Flood Victims Find Temporary Homes at Animal Shelters

The devastating flood last week displaced not only people, but also many pets. Lots of folks are having a hard time finding a place for their furry friends to stay as they look for a new home. Some Humane Associations in the state are stepping up to do what they can to help – like the Kanawha County Humane Association.

Dozens of volunteers stood outside the Kanawha County Humane Association on Tuesday in the hot sun, loading up heavy bags of dog and cat food onto trucks.

“Today we’re accepting dog food or actually any donations animal related,” said Joshua Felty, Director of Operations at the Kanawha County Humane Association, “We’re using some of it at the shelter here, and we’re also loading up trucks and sending food up to Clendenin, Elkview, all over the place, just wherever they need help up there.”

Literally thousands of pounds of pet food were donated on Tuesday alone, but Felty says that’s not the only way his organization is trying to help.

“We’re offering free boarding as well, so it’s not just impoundment,” he said, “Once those animals come in, we vaccinate, and we’re doing all that for free. We’ve had several animals come in that have already went home. They’re still coming in though.”

At the time of this interview, Felty said his facility was holding about twenty dogs for flood victims.

“Some people are going to shelters, and they can’t take their animals with them, so we will hold them as long as we need to, and again that’s going to be free of charge. You know, it’s the least we could do.”

The West Virginia Division of Agriculture reports several shelters are open for pets in the wake of flooding events:

Kanawha County — Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association 1248 Greenbrier Street Charleston, WV 25311. Phone Number (304) 342-1576. Opened on Saturday June 25.
Greenbrier County — Greenbrier County Humane Association 151 Holliday Drive Lewisburg, WV. Phone Number (304) 645-4775. Opened on Tuesday, June 28.
Fayette County — Fayette County Volunteers 26719 Midland Trail (Midland Trail High School) Lookout, WV. Opened on Tuesday, June 28. Point of Contact Is: Kevin Walker (304) 574-1610.