chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035
MEBANE — There is no video flirting or cyber-roses to be tossed in this match-making service, but Paws4Ever attempts to link owners with the right pets, according to Tracy Carroll, who has worked at the animal rescue shelter for 10 years.
For example, Paws4Ever places active owners with active pets. Older animals generally have a longer stay, but some adopters come in looking specifically for an older animal.
The adoption fee is $160 for a dog and $100 for a cat. It includes five on-site training lessons for owner and pet. The lessons are taught by a volunteer with experience in dog training. Housetraining, commands and socialization are a big part of the lessons.
To save pets, Paws4Ever workers visit local shelters and test potential pets to check their temperaments, Carroll said. With a rubber hand, they poke the animals and touch their food bowls. They don’t take a pet if it nips. They want to make sure that a family receives a good pet.
Paws4Ever would take all the good-tempered animals if it could. But while the number of abandoned pets is not in short supply, space is. The facility sits on the Felicité Latané Animal Sanctuary, a 50-acre piece of land named after the donor. It has a 2,800-square-foot area for the pets. It can house 50 cats and 18 dogs at a time.
But being around so many animals doesn’t prevent workers from getting attached to certain creatures, such as Bob, a sad-eyed, domestic, short-haired manx cat.
“We were walking out of Caswell County shelter, and we didn’t need any more cats,” Carroll said, recalling the first time she saw a frightened Bob in the shelter. “I walked by and said, ‘That one’s coming, too.’ ”
The workers often get time to bond with the animals, and it can be sad to see them go. The average pet stays three months, Carroll said.
