We covered a lot of ground on this last shelter tour. We found heartache, but we also found hope. Six states, six shelters, two community meetings, one Stronger Together event in just eight days. Two things were abundantly clear:

First, things are hard everywhere. And second, there are amazing heroes doing remarkable work all over the south.

Animal Friends, a nonprofit shelter in Pittsburgh, PA, helped 1361 animals find forever homes in 2024, but here are a few even more amazing numbers: They assisted 39,365 pet owners in the Pittsburgh area giving out 203,487 pounds of food, administering 21,055 vaccines, and spaying/neutering 5478 animals.

Driving into the boarding kennel where Diamonds In The Ruff - South GA keeps most of its dogs, it reminded me of a war zone. A hurricane this past November had destroyed the pine forest covering the expansive property. The job of cleaning it up and replanting could take years.

At Dublin Laurens County Humane Society they take the words ‘no kill’ seriously. There is no talk of 90%. They simply don’t euthanize any animals except for extreme medical cases. The board and staff are committed to saving every animal that comes to them.

In June, we visited Franklin County Animal Shelter in Louisburg, North Carolina. (This is our third ‘Franklin County’ if you’re keeping score.) The shelter is in a period of transition with an interim director. Jerry Jones has lived his whole life in Franklin County. He’d been on the job for nine months. Prior to taking the shelter position, he had retired after serving as a deputy sheriff.

The most powerful way we can impact the shelter crisis in this country is to fund spay/neuter. It’s as simple as that. And yet, for too many shelters, finding that funding is not simple. Chasing grant money takes time and is often not possible for municipal shelters who often need the funding the most.

Craven-Pamlico Animal Services practices managed intake in the way I believe it was originally intended. CPAS is a large shelter, close to the coast of North Carolina, that serves multiple municipalities and handles over four thousand animals a year.

It was like walking through a river of dogs. Every now and again, Heather would scold a dog. Her ability to have ‘eyes in the back of her head’ was truly remarkable. It was even more remarkable that she knew all their names (and that the dogs knew their own names also and seemed to understand what she said to them). Heather called it a perpetual dog park, but it was much better than most of the dog parks I've been to.

On our March tour, when we realized we had a free afternoon and were going right through Nashville, Georgia, we just had to stop to check in on Kayla, the ACO/director/everything else at the City of Nashville GA Animal Shelter. We were last here in 2023 when Kayla had been on the job just a few months.

Every shelter tour is a little bit different. I am always inspired by the people we meet and while we can’t pull dogs, I do carry many of them home in my heart. I’m still thinking about the Rottie mix at Tift County Shelter who leaned into his kennel fence begging for my touch, and the super-smart border collie mix we met at Lucky Dog Rescue Ranch, who is my dream dog (although my current pack does not have any openings).

Lanier County Animal Control & Shelter was started in 2022. Prior to that, there were no real animal services in the county. Jessica took the job at the shelter when it opened and has been the ACO/director/kennel tech and sole employee. I asked, “When do you have a day off?” and she asked, “What’s a day off?” When she had the flu, she still dragged herself to the shelter. “The dogs had to eat.”