More than a roof, roof over their heads

The infection raging through the dog’s body was so severe she was barely able to raise her head, much less care for her 11 two-week old puppies.

Mother and litter were brought to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Closing time came and went as executive director Susanne Kogut and several members of her staff worked feverishly to save the dog and her offspring.

Before Kogut and the others finally left for home, they divided the puppies and took them along. Through the night the director watched over her three pups, feeding them periodically from a bottle.

Dawn found the trio still alive, but during the course of the day each of them succumbed, one after the other. Despite everyone’s best efforts, none of the puppies survived.

The one bright ray of joy in the heart-wrenching event is that the mother was saved, and now she enjoys life in a loving home. Such triumphs among the emotionally bruising trials assure Kogut that her choice for a second career was the right one.

“The emotional challenges can be the greatest, because there’s so many highs and lows,” said Kogut, who worked as a successful corporate attorney and businessperson for many years before taking on her present position in 2005.

“When that animal you worked so hard for gets adopted, that’s such a high. Then you can turn around and there’ll be an injured animal coming in the door, and you try your best and maybe you can’t help it. That’s a real low.

“Some of the things we see around here can be really difficult to deal with emotionally. You just never know what’s going to happen day to day.”

The most consistent clientele brought to CASPCA are dogs and cats. On average, 60 to 80 dogs are brought there each month, and during summer months as many as 400 cats and kittens can arrive during a 30-day cycle.

An alligator found wandering about a trailer park also has been taken in, as well as a monitor lizard and a black widow spider. Rabbits and guinea pigs are also frequent visitors.

What each guest is assured of, if at all possible, is life and the opportunity to be adopted by a caring person. When Kogut took the job of director, she quickly instituted a no-kill policy.

Recently a trapped fox was brought to the local SPCA, which also serves as the city and county pound. On orders from the health department, it was humanely euthanized so it could be tested for rabies.

The facility was inundated with calls from upset people who didn’t understand how that could happen in a no-kill facility.

It was quickly made clear through media outlets such as The Daily Progress that Kogut had no choice in the matter, as she couldn’t override a decision by animal control and the health department.

The fox was ultimately proven not to have rabies. The sad incident also illustrated how many people don’t understand exactly what a no-kill policy is.

“When I took this job, I instigated the no-kill policy, because I couldn’t personally work here if all we did was euthanize animals,” Kogut said. “But I think a lot of people are confused with what no-kill is, and it’s a hard concept to explain.

“We look at it as being a no-kill community, and we save 90 percent of the animals in our community. The other 10 percent are the animals that have to be euthanized because of medical reasons.

“There are also public safety reasons to euthanize an aggressive animal. Anything we do, we come at it with a standard of reasonableness. Are we putting the community in danger? If we believe that’s the case, we would euthanize that animal.

“Regardless of why an animal is put down, it’s always a painful experience. Everyone who works here does so because they want to help animals, and they do everything possible to do so.

“We give our all for the animals, it is what we are dedicated to. It is hurtful to hear people insinuate otherwise.”

The major reason why 3 to 5 million animals are euthanized at shelters and pounds each year throughout the nation is lack of space. That doesn’t happen here.

“We handle what animals we get, and we’re pretty resourceful,” Kogut said. “On average in the summer we could take in 20 animals a day, but there are times when we’ve had 100 animals brought in at once.

“Because we’re the pound, when there are large confiscations, we take them in. One time we had 30-plus dogs come in when we were already full.

“We contacted people who foster, and they took some of the dogs that had already been here to make space. What we don’t do is sit here, look around and say, ‘Oh well, sorry, not enough space, let’s go kill some animals.’

“That’s not an option. We took that off the table a long time ago.”

Under Kogut’s leadership, CASPCA has greatly increased its foster care program. In the year prior to her taking the helm, about 300 animals were taken into foster care. During the past few years between 1,600 and 1,800 animals went into foster care.

More than 200 local families volunteer each year to take animals into their homes temporarily. Violet and Peter Crawford of Madison County are among them.

“We’ve been volunteering here for five or six years, and we get everything from doing this,” Violet Crawford said. “We get the satisfaction, we get the joy.

“We both love animals, so we couldn’t be doing something that’s more beneficial to us. We’re retired and this is now our lives.

“I was a scratch-and-dent lady last year, so I took the amputees, the ones that had lost an eye or had been sick and needed some recovery time. The personal rewards I get are indescribable.”

The Crawfords have brought more than 300 foster cats into their home. Nine of the cats have become part of the Crawfords’ permanent family.

“The response from the animals is one of the reasons we do this continuously,” Peter Crawford said. “It’s great to be able to see an animal that’s scared and then in a short period of time turn it around so that it becomes a wonderful animal.

“The time we keep them varies from about 10 days to a month. We just returned a cat today that’s an amputee.

“He had stayed at the back of his cage because he was frightened. We brought him home and got him to where he’s back to normal, and now he is going to go up for adoption.”

Since starting the no-kill policy in 2005, the lives of more than 16,000 local animals have been saved. Last year, in recognition of this, CASPCA received the Maddie’s Fund Lifesaving Award and a check for $412,000.

The fund was established by Workday and PeopleSoft founder Dave Duffield and his wife, Cheryl. Its mission is to help ensure that “all healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats are guaranteed a loving home.”

CASPCA does that and much more. Last year alone, it spayed and neutered about 6,000 animals and provided lifesaving medical care to thousands more.

Kogut said a lot of people might think the $2.5 million annual budget is excessive until they realize what the CASPCA does.

“Just the outside veterinarian cost for the spay and neuter surgeries we did last year would exceed our budget,” said Kogut, who has a full-time veterinarian on staff, as well as rotating veterinary students from Virginia Tech who live on premises while experiencing how shelter medicine is practiced.

“We’re also vaccinating all the animals that come in and medicating a large portion of the cats and kittens that come in during summer months. We’re heartworm testing dogs.

“We’re testing cats for feline leukemia and feline AIDS so people know when they adopt animals that they’re healthy. Because we also operate as the pound, we help find owners so they can reclaim their animals.”

CASPCA depends on donations for between 30 to 45 percent of its budget. Because of factors like a decrease in its investment portfolio and unexpected repairs to the facility, Kogut is anticipating an “incredibly difficult” year ahead. But the director is confident that the people of the community will step up to help, as they always have before.

“One of the things I don’t think many people realize is truly, truly how different this community is from the rest of the country,” Kogut said. “We are truly different in the second chances we are providing for the animals.

“This is one of the safest places in the country for providing a good outcome for companion animals. I’m very proud that, because of what we’ve done here, we have people from all over the country visit us to see what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

“We’ve become a model, and now the real challenge is teaching other people how to do it. It all starts with saying you’re going to do it. Then it’s about being determined, working hard and making it happen.”

Those interested in learning more about CASPCA or making donations can do so at http://www.caspca.org.