A Home for the Holidays: Yours?

The Pasadena Humane Society has begun a new program that encourages senior citizens to adopt senior pets. Through the Seniors for Seniors program, people 65 and older may adopt a dog or cat 5 years or older free through Dec. 31. A free health exam, vaccinations and spaying or neutering are included. Nutro Pet Products will donate one month of free pet food with each adoption. You do not have to be a Pasadena resident to participate.

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SAMANTHA BONAR spoke with Steve McNall, executive director of the Pasadena Humane Society, who came up with the idea for the program.

Our goal is to put more pets in people’s homes. We’re trying to stop the euthanasia of unwanted animals. One of the ways we thought we could do this is by offering a companion animal to a senior who may not have the funds available to purchase a dog or cat because of being on a fixed income.

We see time and time again how pets can help seniors by being excellent companions. Seniors often don’t have the means to get out and about in the community and so consequently they stay at home. They have a lot of time to build a relationship with a companion animal.

It is harder to place older animals, which is unfortunate. Most people want to adopt a puppy or kitten. The younger animals definitely have the advantage. The families come in and they want the puppies and the kittens, and these poor older animals are sitting there wondering, “Hey, what about me?” Older animals need homes too.

I can’t tell you how often older animals are turned into shelters because of various reasons, such as family issues like divorce, terminal illness in the family, sometimes they just don’t want their pets any longer. The No. 1 reason seems to be moving.

There are many benefits to adopting an older pet. You don’t have to go through the puppy or kitten stages. An older animal has generally already been housebroken too. When an animal comes in who is older, we generally can get a little bit more history on it. So we can pretty much tailor-match an older animal with an individual.

We have had some first-time senior pet owners, people who have never had a dog or cat. Their families have moved away and such and so they’re looking to find a companion animal. Our shelter provides seniors with background on how to care, feed and maintain their new pet. We can take an awful lot of the worry out of the decision. Our adoption counselors are professional animal behaviorists and they can custom-fit the animal for you. If you are living in an apartment, we would have a pet that is made for the apartment environment. If the animal doesn’t work out for some reason, we require that the animal come back to the Pasadena Humane Society so that we can “re-home” that animal again. We don’t like to see animals returned, so we do our best to make a good match. Our goal is to put the animal into an environment that is going to be suitable and also make sure that the people understand what that specific breed or variety of animal is going to do once it gets into a new home. Everything is free in this program. We lose money on the adoptions, but through private contributions we hope to keep the program going past Dec. 31. The more people who come in, the better.

The Pasadena Humane Society’s adoption office may be reached by calling (626) 792-7151, ext. 137.