As the COVID-19 pandemic loomed, local residents continued to provide new homes for animals that had been sheltered at South Suburban Humane Society.
SSHS adoptions continued even after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued his stay-at-home order, which went into effect March 21.
In the 11 days leading up to the order, 90 pets were adopted and 99 were fostered. Since then, 88 additional animals have been placed as foster pets and there have been 166 more adoptions.
Bissel Pet Foundation ran an “Empty the Shelters” emergency relief fund that allowed adoptions to take place for just $25, which ended earlier this month.
Emily Klehm, the humane society’s CEO, said the organization decided to temporarily close its Homewood adoption center before Pritzker’s order.
“In advance of the shelter-in-place order, we consolidated operations and closed Homewood,” she said. The agency’s Chicago Heights shelter remains open by appointment from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
With the Homewood shelter closed, staff shifted to finding a way for adoptions to continue without people coming in to the shelter.
“We mobilized quickly to minimize contact and conduct paperwork and payment electronically,” said Klehm. “Our adoption manager is conducting Zoom meetings with potential adopters and foster families so that they can e-meet first and minimize any face-to-face contact. It’s working very well.
“We began proactively seeking more foster families (in March) in anticipation of staffing shortages and fewer adoptions,” she said. “As of now, we have the number of regular foster families that we need. However, if anyone has no pets at home, we are actively still seeking foster homes for our harder-to-place dogs.”
Cheryl West, a Chicago resident, decided to serve as a foster during the shelter-in-place order.
“I have been fostering for seven years now for South Suburban Humane Society. Fostering is always very important to me, but especially so during this uncertain and unprecedented time,” said West. “As a teacher now working from home, I am able to foster two dogs and a mother cat and her four kittens. We are able to see true personalities, behaviors and habits in foster and provide for medically or socially needy pets. This also frees up space for other pets, and given the uncertainty of whether staff would be ill at any time now, fostering became that much more important to lessen the animals needing care.”
The West family is fostering Ashes, a cat who was pregnant when she came to their home and gave birth to four kittens on March 23. They’re caring for them until they are old enough and big enough to be adopted. The kittens were named Charmin, Scott, Cottenelle and Angel Soft, inspired by the toilet paper frenzy, said West.
They also took in a chihuahua mix named Coral.
“Coral is a foster that I took in before the pandemic because her owner died in their home in Homewood. She was scared and needed some medical care for a respiratory infection. She has acclimated well to my home and dogs. She will be available for adoption,” said West. “Harriet, a whippet mix, came here at the beginning of the pandemic when schools closed. She was very thin and scared. She hid behind my bed at times for several days, but is now in the mix with my own dogs and would do best in a quiet home without children.”
West enjoys being able to provide a secure home for these pets as they transition into moving into permanent homes.
“Each have their own needs and personalities. My son and I enjoy fostering and being a bridge between their old life and their new one. This is an excellent time to foster as we are home all of the time and to know we are making a difference in the lives of a few shelter pets is rewarding in these difficult times,” said West.
The Rapatta family of Homewood also volunteered to take in a foster animal during the quarantine.
“When SSHS calls, the Rappatta family answers. Especially when the call is about a three-legged dog who lost his fourth leg due to gunshot wounds and suffered additional injuries requiring some extra TLC before he could be put up for adoption,” said Vicky Rapatta. “Champion is a fun-loving, two-year-old brown lab and after six weeks in foster care, is ready for his forever home. He would love a home with a yard, as he loves to lounge outside. He has adapted well to disability but hasn’t had much experience — or desire — with navigating stairs, outside of a step or two off a deck or porch. He is house-trained, gets along well with dogs (not so much cats) and likes petting and snuggling.”
Klehm is pleased at the huge adopter response they’ve seen in recent weeks. “I think people are home and realize it’s a great time to acclimate a pet. It’s also a great family distraction and comfort in these uncertain times,” she said.
“We’re truly grateful to our community for the response to fostering we have had so far,” Klehm added. “Our long term goal coming out of this crisis is to find a way to continue this level of fostering.
“Our next great need from our community is financial support. We rely heavily on earned income from our Low Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic, adoption revenue and our Second Chance Resale Shop in Steger. With two of those three cut and the third (adoption revenue) extremely limited due to our inability to take more pets in, we are going to struggle financially very soon,” Klehm said. “Additionally, our major fundraising event, our gala, was postponed to October and other small scale fundraisers have all been canceled or postponed.”
Donations to the South Suburban Humane Society can be made online at southsuburbanhumane.org.
So far, SSHS hasn’t taken in any pets due to owners that have been infected with coronavirus, “But we are very prepared for those intakes. SSHS is a critical part of Cook County’s emergency response to COVID-19 and we are prepared to follow the CDC guidelines to intake affected pets,” Klehm said.
“Our biggest message to our community is to have an emergency plan in place to prevent pets affected from ever needing to come into the shelter.”