Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
A Senior's Best Friend: Gus, an affectionate 8-year-old golden retriever, gives a smooch to Gloria Letterman while Elsa Lee looks on. Gus was visiting the Willow Glen Senior Center as an ambassador for the "Senior Pets for Senior People" program sponsored by the Humane Society of Santa Clara County, which brings pets to people 65 and older.
Program offers mutual benefit
Humane Society gives free pets to seniors
By Kate Carter
Experience and maturity do bring rewards--at least for some lucky animals and senior citizens looking for someone to love. The Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley visited the Willows Senior Center on Nov. 8, to show how easy it is for seniors to welcome an older pet into their lives.
The organization sponsors a program called Senior Pets for Senior People that matches persons 65 years and older with cats and dogs 3 years and older, which might otherwise have trouble finding a home.
The society waives the $70 or $80 adoption fee, provides vaccination, registration and spaying or neutering for free and gives the adopting senior a $35 gift certificate to their pet shop to help give the new friends a good start.
"It's a great way to honor adults as well as animals," says the shelter's community program Manager Kate Reynolds. "There's just this magical bond that happens with a second owner."
Reynolds brought along Gus, an 8-year-old golden retriever, to demonstrate how much seniors have to offer pets and how much pets can offer seniors.
"We encourage people to recognize that life begins when you retire," Reynolds says about both people and pets, while Gus wandered around and befriended everyone, getting petted and cuddled and shaking hands.
Reynolds says that the shelter struggles to find homes for older animals like Gus. "Everybody wants a kitten or a puppy," she says.
Reynolds points out that there are many advantages to older pets. They are often already trained and housebroken and can be a lot calmer and easier for older people to deal with. Plus, the personality of the animal is already established. "You know what you're going to get," she says.
Gus came to the shelter in poor health and without most of his front teeth, Reynolds says. The shelter's executive director, Christine Benninger, took him home and took care of him until he was as healthy as he was last week, wagging his tail and looking for treats from the happy participants.
Reynolds told the gathering that seniors can get a lot out of having a pet, too. Pets often provide much-needed companionship for older people and can even encourage more social interaction between pet owners.
"You meet a lot of people walking a dog," she says.
Pets can also be a reason for seniors to take better care of themselves and get exercise. "As adults, we stop playing," she says. "Animals make you play again. And it's stimulating to know that somebody depends on you."
Studies also show that having a pet can lower a person's blood pressure, and that in convalescent homes, medication use goes down when there's an animal present, Reynolds says. Program counselors help to match the right pet to a potential owner and also help out if there are problems at the beginning of the new friendship, she says.
Seniors are asked to make plans in the event that they won't be able to care for their new animal, just as any other responsible pet owner should.
"One of the most important things is, when adopting, making sure the needs are met for the pet," she says.
Virginia Schroder was on hand to learn about the program, but she seemed to have more fun playing with Gus.
"Yes, I like you, too," she told him as he came over for a snuggle.
Added Schroder: "He's a womanizer."
Schroder says she's had between 10 to 15 dogs during her life, and now she has pets all over the country.
"My kids have them," she says. "I have great-grandpuppies: My daughter raises St. Bernards."
But Schroder wasn't looking for a pet of her own.
"I've always had animals, but where I live now I can't care for them, so I just enjoy the neighbors' dogs," she says.
Gloria Letterman was thinking about getting an animal, sometime before the end of the year, she says.
"I'd like a small dog," she says. "I live in a mobile home and I really can't handle a big animal. Besides, I'm little."
Letterman says she's currently a foster mom to three cats, two mice and two snakes that belong to her children. When she has to give them up, she wants to replace them with a pet of her own. "I love animals," she says.
Onlookers poked their heads into the room throughout the presentation to catch a glimpse of Gus, and some stayed to pick up materials about getting a pet, too.
"If I find one or two homes from just this presentation, I'll be happy," says Reynolds.
The pets for seniors program is not new at the Humane Society, but it and other programs at the shelter are being newly invigorated in order to address the long-term problems of unclaimed pets.
"We're not just dealing with problems on a day-by-day basis, but looking for solutions," Reynolds says.
She says the shelter will become an adoption-only facility when it ends its contract with several South Bay cities next year. The cities will deal with the needs of stray animals, but the Humane Society, a nonprofit that receives no public funding, will focus on providing homes for animals that need them. She says that the organizations will work together to prevent adoptable animals from being euthanized.
Reynolds has been with the society for four years and has adopted pets from the shelter herself. She was enthusiastic about the program that she took over directing in July.
"It's really fascinating how [pets] become so bonded and ingrained in our lives," she says. "That's why I love my job, because I meet people who love them as much as I do."
For more information about the Senior Pets for Senior People program, or to sponsor a senior adoption, contact Reynolds at 408.727.3383, ext. 849.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
