I am writing one of my favorite Happy Tales. I am an Animal Care Tech in adoptions at HSHV. I have been working here for over 7 years and have had many, many happy stories and many, many happy tears. The story of Tang/Ollie is at the very top for me. I did get permission from his adoptive family and they would love for me to share his story. It started when I saw a crowd of staff around cage 19 in Uptown Cats. Everyone was fawning over a “new guy.” It was an orange and white older-looking fella named
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I got a notice that there were 2 parrotletts on Pet Finder. I was so excited because I had been fascinated, researching, and looking to adopt parrotletts and finally found not one, but 2! On our anniversary we headed to HSHV for a meeting. They were perfect! My husband got them for me as an anniversary present. I was told that Cera (the white/blue one) had had seizures. Since then they have both been to my avian vet, and Cera hasn’t as of yet had any seizures even with the vet poking and examining! We put them on a healthy
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My husband had been bugging me for months about getting a dog. I didn’t want another responsibility to add to my busy schedule. My husband is disabled and unable to work, so he really wanted a companion. I heard about the Love Train at HSHV, so I told him to go check it out in March 2020 (seriously right before everything shut down). He found went and say a lot of amazing dogs, but there was something about Snoop and he just had to bring him home. Now Snoop has won a place in all of our hearts. He is
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Barley came home with me on January 27th, 2020. He’d been at the shelter for a long time, and I couldn’t imagine why no one wanted this sweet cat. He got home and he was all snuggles and sweetness–at least, during the daytime. At night he yowled, whined, cried, and meowed. I couldn’t get ANY sleep for a month! I worked closely with the vet to make sure the issue wasn’t medical, and when it was determined to indeed be a behavioral issue, we worked to get him on the right combination of medications that worked for him. Did you
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We adopted Elbow Macaroni Berghuis, known as Buddy back in the shelter, in March of 2018. He was a hyper fella with boundless energy then. Now he’s a model of a dog, great with everyone he meets, polite, friendly, and ready to ride the hand carts at Home Depot like a personal float. He’s my best friend and near constant companion. I can’t even imagine our lives before him. There’s no dog quite like Elbow Macaroni. Just like his name, there’s only one like him. We are beyond grateful to HSHV for rescuing him and letting us give him his
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About one year ago, on July 15, 2020, I went to HSHV with my brother to simply look at what kinds of cats were up for adoption. I was not looking to adopt one that day, but to simply look at my options. I knew I wanted a girl cat and that I wanted an adult cat, because adults have a harder time getting adopted compared to kittens. After taking a look around and meeting lots of cats and kittens, I walked into room and saw a skinny, black cat playing by herself in the back corner of the room.
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At the beginning of the pandemic, I found myself on the private adoption page of HSHV’s website. There was a little 18 year old ragdoll kitty posted, and I knew the moment I saw her picture I had to have her. Her mom had gone into hospice and she needed a home to live out her final years. The story was heartwarming, and the family I adopted her from was wonderful. Bibi quickly became my best friend and #1 companion during the pandemic. She loved cuddling, sleeping next to me in bed, basking in the sun, sitting on her porch,
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So in my head, having a dog meant going on hikes, walks, snuggles, head tilts and kisses. But reality in the first few days was far from it. Rory would walk away if we pet her for more than 5 seconds. She would bark so loud at anything that moved that I thought my eardrums would disintegrate. She scared us so very much when she displayed frustrated aggression, she would nip even as much as if we walked in a different direction than she wanted. It took us a while to understand she was as scared as we were. One
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Our cat passed away and our other cat was lonely. We went to HSHV – it was the old shelter. We walked into the common room and were looking at the sign on the wall. It said Calico. Female. My husband looked down and said, “is she a calico?” She was all white with a calico tail, and a few calico spots. She walked up to him, head butted his leg and we got Chey. She is 14 now. Sleeps on our heads at night. Casey-Cheyanne now Cheyanne
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Our beloved former HSHV cat, Dante, passed away at the age of 16. Our home and our hearts felt empty without him. We decided to get two kittens this time out, and signed up to go to the Tiny Lions Lounge and Adoption Center to find them. There we got to socialize with all the kittens, and found Annabella (Clover) and Malcolm (Gritty) and they stole our hearts. We still miss Dante, but our home and our hearts are no longer empty. These two have helped us begin to heal and they are a joy to have around. Clover &
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