Nurse delights in being a friend of sheltered animals

Oregon: “When you have an animal in front of you and you have to put a bowl of food down on the floor in order to tell which end is the little guy’s face, you know that animal needs some help,” explained Cathy Nechak.

No stranger to animals in need nor to the hectic and oftentimes depressing lives of animals housed in shelters, this woman decided to do something about an issue that affects a great number of animals in Oregon.

A registered nurse by day, Nechak proudly identified herself as one of the founding members of Oregon Friends of Sheltered Animals, or OFOSA, a non-profit that started with a couple of good friends putting in some extra time to help animals and the shelters they called their temporary homes.

The agency’s mission includes providing support to shelters by fund-raising for them; providing community services, such as the senior smiles program, where senior citizens are aided if they can no longer care for their pets; and, of course, providing rescue services where they rescue shelter animals and then adopt them out.

“All we did at first was try to raise some money. We worked at this for about a year before we became a non-profit. Mainly we would bathe the animals and groom them. If people see an animal being bathed and see them looking all cute right then, that is often the time when they decide to take that animal home. Being bathed and well-groomed enormously improves an animal’s chances of being adopted,” she said.

“Shelters do not have a closed door policy … most shelters will take as many pets as they need to. People who work there are big-hearted people and we just really saw a need for a support service for these great places,” she explained.

Nechak is big-hearted herself, though this quality seems to come to her naturally.

She speaks in glowing terms and in great detail about some of the precious puppies and dear other animals she’s worked with, rescued, and nursed back to health over the years.

“It would just break my heart to see so many animals in shelters,” Nechak said, “and to see these shelters that double up kennels and do their best to provide for the animals, but which just can’t be everything to every animal.”

She recalled instances when local shelters had to put down or euthanize all of the animals they housed due to a specific illness.

One of the saddest things, as Nechak shared is that, “… only about 15 percent of sheltered animals are owner-abandoned. Of the dogs in shelters, 80 percent of them are simply lost.”

This is an important number for people to remember when they consider adopting a pet. Many families are concerned about adopting a pet from a shelter because they fear it is unhealthy or has not been well-socialized and that may be why it is in the shelter, but, as Nechak explained, that is simply not the case.

In fact, a good number of animals also end up in shelters because owners are moving to apartments where pets are not allowed, or because young adults go to college, marry or experience other life-changing events and can no longer keep their pets.

Nechak talked passionately about animals in shelters, the importance of caring for them and what wonderful pets most of them make once they are placed in a loving home.

When she spoke about helping people find the ideal pet for their lifestyle, she said, “I tell people to close their eyes and describe to me their idea of the perfect pet. It’s hard because some people have a specific breed in mind and they think they want some exact type of dog because they saw one once and it was so well-behaved, or they read about one or they just like the way it looks.

“Many people do not realize it takes a lot of patience and training and attention to have a well-behaved dog of any breed. But then, I say to them, ‘Okay, close your eyes and tell me what your ideal pet is like,’ and they go on and describe how they want the pet to behave and what they think life will be like with this pet and, quite honestly, we recommend Toys R Us to some people.”

Nechak said there are just some people or some families who come into the shelter that are simply not in a good place for any sort of pet, and the fact that OFASA staff are honest with them is very helpful to all involved in the long run.

“There is so much to do for these sheltered animals, and for the shelters … we’re only doing part of it,” Nechak shared of the work that OFOSA is involved with. She did say there are many opportunities for new people to become involved in this issue by volunteering to groom or spend time with animals, to be foster parents for pets on a temporary basis, or even to donate much-needed food and other supplies for shelters. For more information on OFASA and how to become involved, go to the Web site www.ofosa.org.

A nurse in labor and delivery of human babies, Nechak smiled and shared, “I have fun at work and I have fun at OFOSA!”

Originally from Michigan, she moved to Oregon in 2000. She had worked as a traveling nurse and had the opportunity to visit the Pacific Northwest with her husband, and she said of the area, “I like the temperate weather and there is always something to do nearby!”

(Jennifer Priest Mitchell is a freelance writer in Beaverton. She can be reached at jnjmitchell@yahoo.com.)