These people are going to care for us no matter what

Jennifer Vanderau
Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter

(12/2021) Humans are funny creatures. Hard to predict. Tough to understand sometimes. For the most part, though, the ones I’ve gotten to know at the animal shelter are really good ones.

I came from the street and trust me, there were some not nice humans out there. Especially for a rough-looking tom cat. I had a lot of water tossed on me and brooms aimed at me and words that I can’t print here yelled at me.

But once I made it to the Cumberland Valley Animal shelter, things changed. A lot.

I was warm. I had a bowl of food every day. Clean water to drink. My own bathroom and someone to clean it. People were nice to me. They hugged me and played with me and snuggled me.

It’s been nice.

But I’ve noticed something recently. If I’m being honest, I’ve noticed something for a while now with humans. They’re acting kind of funnier than usual.

I’ve been around humans for five years. Born on the streets and lived there for the first four years. It wasn’t until recently that I made it to the shelter. It was almost two years ago when the humans started acting really strange. They didn’t go out much. They wore masks. They seemed on edge. Worried.

And it hasn’t really changed that much.

At the shelter, you could tell the people were concerned. They work every day and love us every day, but sometimes you could just sense they were anxious. It’s gotten worse recently. Some of them got sick. There were a few of my favorite helpers in the morning that I haven’t seen for a week or two.

We were open for visitors for a while, but then we closed again because more people got sick.

The cats and I talk about it at night time when no one else is here. Some of the new ones have said they heard talk on the outside of some kind of virus in the human world that’s been around for almost two years now and it’s affected pretty much everything and everybody.

They say we’re lucky being at the shelter because these people are going to care for us no matter what.

I can see it’s taking a toll on the people, though. Just the other day I heard some of the staff talking about not being able to have a real Christmas celebration again this year because of not having enough people to work and everybody being sick. They didn’t want to endanger the public by opening the shelter again, even though it’s Christmas.

They said they hope the donors and supporters will still help us, though, because Christmas is always a tough time of year for animals who don’t have homes.

I guess that means us.

I know the people at the shelter work so hard for us. I know some of them come in even though they’re tired and they’re worried, but they do it because they love us. All of us.

I sure hope they get their wish this Christmas and can find the help they need.

I know it would make all of us happy to see them be able to find a little peace.

Hi folks. It’s Jen. I wanted to let the old tom cat talk to you for a while about what’s been happening at the shelter, but I had to drop in for a bit to give it to you straight. In some ways, the final few sentences up there are more true than I’d like to really say. It sometimes feels like the animals are taking care of us now just as much as we are them.

These last two years have been some of the most difficult we’ve ever seen at CVAS. And the last two to three months have been even worse. We are feeling the strain of the employment crisis and our staff and volunteers are contracting COVID.

We are existing with an incredibly limited staff at the moment because we can’t find anyone to work and some days it’s all we can do to get our animals cared for. I’ve never seen some of our most senior staff members this stressed out.

We’ve had to cancel our Christmas Open House because there’s just no way we would be able to do it and we wouldn’t want to risk bringing the public into the shelter where we know we’ve had a COVID outbreak.

I’m sincerely hoping that doesn’t affect our donations. Our Christmas Open House is the biggest fundraiser we do every year and I know having another virtual one may upset some people, but we’ve really been feeling the strain.

I wanted to echo the words of our tom cat above by saying I sure hope people can continue to find it in their hearts to give this year and help us help the animals.

I know our exhausted staff will keep going. And it’s not for me. It’s not for you. It’s not for our board members. It’s certainly not for the money.

It’s because each and every one of them love the almost 200 animals in our care right now and even though they’re tired and even though they leave at 6 p.m. and return the following day at 6 a.m., they keep doing it despite the dark circles under their eyes for the animals.

At CVAS, it’s always been for the animals and no human virus is going to stop that.

I hope our supporters and donors understand our decision to remain closed to visitors during the holidays. I assure you we are still doing adoptions with every safety protocol in place and we are finding homes for our animals.

With your help we can continue to do so no matter what might happen with COVID 19.

As always to all of our faithful readers in the Emmitsburg News Journal: thank you so very much and I wish you and your family a wonderful, safe holiday season.

*****

Jennifer Vanderau is the Director of Communications for the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter in Chambersburg, Pa., and can be reached at cvasoc@innernet.net. The shelter accepts both monetary and pet supply donations. For more information, call the shelter at (717) 263-5791 or visit the website www.cvas-pets.org.