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Kiss dogs
What do you do with 100 feral dogs that need a home and lots of love?
If you are the Humane Society of the Ochocos, you take them in and give them all a home. On Tuesday, the shelter was celebrating the three-year anniversary of the adoption of the “Kiss dogs”, a group of canines that were taken into the shelter.
In August, 2007, 100 feral canines were taken from a property in Powell Butte, and placed in the care of the Humane Society of the Ochocos. Randa Speck, an employee of the organization, said that the Sheriff was going to take them to Redmond, but there was a chance they would be euthanized, so they were brought to Prineville. The Humane Society in Prineville does not euthanize animals.
Several of the adoption owners were there to celebrate, and among them was 10 year-old Christa Champagen. She has adopted three of the dogs, and had her pet Daisy Mae with her.
“I was looking for a pet that wanted to be loved,” said Champagen. Daisy Mae had actually escaped from the kennel, and Champagen and her mother saw her running by the highway. She put on her rollerblades and chased her for two hours, and finally caught up with her. After taking her to the Humane Society of the Ochocos, she adopted her, and has now had Daisy Mae for about six months.
Everett and Joan Agee were also there with their adopted dogs, Shy Kiss and Kissy Poppins. They have had their dogs for about 18 months. Immediately after Kissy Poppins was adopted, she ran away and was gone for about four to five months, according to Joan.
“He ran off for the entire winter, and lived off from hunting and drinking out of the river,” said Everett. She said the Kiss dogs were all wild and timid around people, and they are not the kind of dogs you can immediately be close to.
“They are not social with other people, just us,” said Everett. “They take lots of time and lots of patience, but they are just great.”
Susan Mackay, a kennel attendant for the Humane Society of the Ochocos, said that she started her first day of work the day that the dogs were brought on board.
“It was total chaos, and they (the Humane Society employees) didn’t think I would come back,” said Mackay.
She said that the shelter didn’t take them in all at once, but over the course of one year. The shelter has had to erect more kennels to accommodate the dogs, and when they first came in, several had Parvo. The shelter had to rent out the old Redmond Humane Society building and other temporary buildings to allow a separation of the sick animals from the other animals at the shelter, because the parvo dog disease is caused by a virus, which spreads, from one dog to another. The shelter lost six of the dogs to the disease. Total, the shelter still has 15 of the 100 dogs left for adoption. Mackay said that these dogs are hard to adopt, because it is hard for them to compete with the other animals in the shelter.
Mackay said that she recommends that prospective dog owners for these animals spend time at the shelter getting acquainted with the dogs before adoption.
“They’re not the kind of dog you can just take and put in your yard and expect them to stay,” said Mackay. She said many of these dogs have been through some horrendous ordeals and survived, in spite of their circumstances. Many were living under cars and an old barn.
Mackay has personally adopted 11 of the dogs. “We started together, and we are going to end together.”
