Pets provide safety from the storm. They provide support, companionship, unconditional love, and an extra level of protection from the emotional and very real safety risks of living on the streets, in abandoned buildings, and in encampments. As a former outreach worker, I remember the heartbreaking reality of asking someone to choose between their pet and shelter or housing, trying everything possible to help that companion be able to move with the individual who had finally been accepted for housing - calling on every resource I knew to look for a temporary home or shelter for the dog, trying to get the pet approved as an emotional support service animal, finding a vet to provide a check-up and update shots for free, licensing the dog with the city, and "food drives" with our own agency staff to stock the supply closet with dog food, collars, and leashes. Ensuring that the dog also had food, "identification", and medical care was part of the case management that came naturally with the job and was usually a priority for services requested from the human I was serving.

So, when I hear about new resources and creative solutions that help our four-legged companions also be healthy and safe, my heart is warmed.

A story ran on the LA Times website yesterday about a new shelter for people experiencing homelessness AND their pets! I have pasted the text below and hopefully referenced it appropriately. If you want to go to the article, it is at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2008/07/many-homeless-p.html[url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2008/07/many-homeless-p.html]

A place for the homeless and their pets
8:00 AM, July 23, 2008
Many homeless people -- perhaps as many as 10% -- have pets. (The pets above are waiting with their owners, who are homeless, for veterinary care in Ventura County.) Loathe to abandon their companions, many often refuse housing services rather than go into them without their pets.

To address that problem, the nonprofit group PATH next month will open the PetCo Place in Hollywood, a shelter that will house both homeless people and their pets. People will sleep upstairs and their pets downstairs.

Both people and animals can stay as long as they need while they try to get back on their feet and find permanent housing. Advocates say it is the second such shelter in the U.S. The first is in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
-- Jessica Garrison
Photo: Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times
*****
I hope others will share creative ideas, strategies, and resources in their communities as well! SP

Oh my goodness thank you for this. I work at a shelter and saw a dog in a car today waiting for its owner. Interestingly enough last night it dawned on me that as this crisis increases for people it also will for our beloved, helpless pets. Like children, they rely completely on their human owners yet most of the time, affording what appears to us as a "luxury" of dog food, isn't possible and there is no choice but to give away or abandon the pet. My heart hurts deeply for this population and I will do anything I can to help.

Thank you for sharing that there are two such shelters of this type. I was thinking about contacting the Humane Society but I also want to contact the shelter in Lauderdale to see about a donation. I am so happy there are others that are thinking about our four legged (and often two) friends and loved ones.

Tristine

It is good to see that more and more people are showing both their sympathy and sensibility for those who do have any roof yet love their pets dearly. We do not have any right to force a person to his or her dear for getting a new home. Home is not juts have four walls and a roof, it is place which shelters all the members of the family and this invariably includes pets. Better to brush up our worn out concept about home rather then driving those innocent pets from their rightful shelters.

regards
Shimul

Tristine Barry it was nice to hear about your concern
Protecting our pets are our own responsibility
God has granted us brains so that we can think and help those who dont have

Thanks for the article, there are so many high-kill shelters in California, its scary. A lot of times, people don't really make a conscious choice to be homeless and many times their pets eat before they will.