Tough times for Kootenai Humane Society

HAYDEN - Luce spends 20 hours a day in his kennel at the Kootenai Humane Society.

Likewise for Mac F, another older, Labrador retriever mix that doesn't have a home.

Both dogs, along with 50 others at KHS, spend their days waiting to be adopted. Their breaks from behind their caged, metal gates come when they're let out in the mornings to play while the kennels are cleaned, and later in the day, when they're walked.

But their daily strolls are down to once a day, sometimes none at all, for about 20-30 minutes. Declining donations and rising costs with a steady flow of incoming animals forced KHS executive director Rondi Renaldo to cut about 50 hours a week from the staff that operates the adoption center and two thrift stores.

"It's tough," she said. "The last thing I wanted to do was cut anybody out at the adoption center."

KHS has about 50 "solid" volunteers who give 20-30 hours a week and 200 more "miscellaneous" volunteers who donate a few hours a month. It needs more to not just exercise the dogs, but clean cats, help with mailers, scrub down kennels and be handlers involved in outreach programs designed to put the pets in front of prospective owners. About 20 dog handlers are wanted for an adoption promotion from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Super 1 Foods in Hayden.

"It would be fantastic if we could have more volunteers out here," Renaldo said.

Volunteer coordinator Lori Nelson led a mandatory orientation class Wednesday. Newcomers learned about the shelter, its operations and how to handle dogs, too.

She said she would love to see the canines walked several times a day.

"The dogs are not going to complain if they get out more than once a day," Nelson said.

Cats - currently there are about 70 at the shelter at the end of Ramsey Road - could use some attention, too, she said.

KHS thrift stores in Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls also need volunteers to sort donations and work behind the counters, because the cutback in staff reached there, too.

KHS employs 22 at its adoption center and thrift stores.

Renaldo said the nonprofit, no-kill shelter is facing multiple challenges.

Economic woes have led to fewer donations. More people have surrendered pets because they can't afford to feed them. And people are hesitating to adopt pets for fear it might be too costly to feed and care for them.

One dog that's been at the shelter for months, an energetic, Great Dane/Shar Pei mix named Dozer, was finally adopted, but then returned when the new owner lost his job.

"He's a great dog," Nelson said.

Renaldo said the center itself operates $230,000 in the red each year. That's made up through donations, grants and thrift store sales. But all those sources of revenue are falling short of past financial figures.

While the KHS thrift store in Coeur d'Alene is doing well, its Post Falls store isn't, and may be closed.

"We're struggling," she said. "All nonprofits are struggling and we're no different."

To volunteer, call Lori Nelson, 918-1633.

Halloween, so no black cats

The Kootenai Humane Society will not adopt out black cats through Oct. 31. The shelter traditionally refuses to adopt out black cats before Halloween, as people sometimes do strange things with them to mark the day of ghoulish getups and fiendish fun.

"Unfortunately we just got two huge litters," said KHS executive director, Rondi Renaldo.