After weeks of attempts by animal shelter staff to reunite dogs rescued from Hurricane with their owners, the first wave of dog adoptions got underway at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley on Monday.
A playful 5-month-old German shepherd- malamute mix named Brewster was the first of the shelter’s 41 canine evacuees to be adopted, this one by the same foster parent who cared for it since it arrived in Colorado five weeks ago.
“He’s made such a difference in my life,” said the dog’s proud new owner, Bill Bragg, as his pooch wriggled around in his lap. A 41-year-old Lafayette resident, Bragg said he had been looking for a new companion since his last dog passed away several months ago.
“I knew the instant I saw him, he was the one,” Bragg said of Brewster.
The Humane Society of Boulder Valley is one of two area animal shelters that took in 129 dogs evacuated last month from Hurricane Katrina-ravaged areas. A volunteer at the Boulder animal shelter spent recent weeks scouring a national pet-finding database attempting to reunite the lost pooches with their original owners. Six dogs were successfully reunited.
“We aggressively sought out every avenue possible to locate pet owners,” said Jan McHugh-Smith, chief operating officer of the Humane Society of Boulder Valley.
Officials in New Orleans set Saturday as the deadline for shelters to reunite pets with their owners, after which the dogs could legally be adopted, she said.
The remaining dogs will be made available for adoption on a first come, first served basis over the coming weeks. Twenty of the dogs are pit bulls, she said.
Before arriving in Colorado, the rescued hounds were living in a temporary animal shelter outside New Orleans.
“I do feel bad for the people who lost their pets,” Bragg said. “But I’m a single guy, and having a companion like Brewster has made my life a whole lot better.”
The Denver Dumb Friends League, which took in 82 dogs, will not be releasing any animals for at least several weeks until all attempts to reunite the animals with their owners have been exhausted.
Pictures of adoptable Katrina dogs will be published on the Humane Society of Boulder Valley’s website, updated daily, at www.boulderhumane.org.
