The
INSIDE Natural History
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Grants for nonprofits
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Preschool fundraiser
Contributed photo
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VOLUME 37, NUMBER 22 • JUNE 3, 2014
Help to foster animals in need By Colleen Smith Armstrong Editor/Publisher
Do you love animals but don’t have the time or funds for a full-time pet? If so, fostering may be for you. Crowded shelters on the mainland are always in need of foster parents, and the islands’ facilities are no different. “If folks feel like they can’t adopt a dog or cat because they travel frequently or are only part-time residents, then fostering can be a great solution,” said Orcas Animal Shelter Director Marsha Waunch. “They can enjoy a pet for the time they have available.” Shelters can be high stress environments for animals – strangers coming to visit and
being in a kennel can cause anxiety. One solution is placing the cat or dog in a temporary home until a permanent adopter comes forward. “We have a foster mother who is really into helping out the old dogs,” said Friday Harbor Animal Shelter Director Leslie Byron. “She keeps them all the way until the end if she can.” The local shelters provide food and medical care for pets placed in foster families. If a potential adopter is interested in seeing the animal, they can either visit the home or make an arrangement to meet at the shelter. “Some foster families end up keeping the dog or cat,” Byron said. “They become part of the family.” In Friday Harbor, there is
a particular need for people willing to care for new born kittens, which means bottle feeding them until they are ready to live full-time at the shelter. The Lopez Animal Protection Society, which doesn’t have a facility, relies entirely on foster volunteers. The non-profit seldom receives dogs but has a high number of cat surrenders. “We have a need – not as great as the other islands – but we do need foster homes,” said Director Joyce Myhr. Edith Edwards purchased a farm on Lopez Island after her retirement and has taken in a host of unwanted animals including a horse, a pony, three sheep, a rooster, hens, cats and dogs. “Fostering is wonderful
if one has the space – the animals have a safe place, even if it’s temporarily,” Edwards said. “It is so needed because on Lopez we don’t have a facility. I hope more people both foster and adopt – there are so many animals in need.” She said the most rewarding part of her rescue farm is watching the transformation of her critters. “Many of them were afraid of people but over time they become so loving,” Edwards said. “It’s a healing and beautiful thing. It’s very special.” The Orcas shelter has three cats in foster situations. One is permanent but the other two will be returning soon. “We have several cats right now that would really
benefit from a foster family,” Waunch said. The Orcas shelter also has a senior mastiff mix named Bubba who hasn’t had any interest from potential adopters. Waunch says he is an ideal candidate for a foster family. He doesn’t require much exercise and is happy to just lay in the sun but can’t be in a home with cats or very small children. There are two additional senior dogs who need foster homes but haven’t yet been surrendered to the shelter. According to www.petfinder.com, to be a successful foster parent, you need a compassionate nature, the cooperation of your family or roommates, flexibility and some knowledge of animal behavior. The length of
time a foster pet may stay in your home varies with the animal’s situation. “It can also be very difficult to let go once you have become emotionally attached to an animal,” according to the website. “Be prepared for tears and heartache when the day comes that you must bring your first foster pet back to the shelter. But remember, he or she is now much more likely to find a loving, permanent home because of the care you gave them.” Contact the shelters: Orcas Animal Protection: www.orcaspets.org, 376-6777 Friday Harbor Animal Shelter: www.apsfh.com, 378-2158 Lopez Animal Protection: lopezanimals.org, 468-2258
Goodbye to the Sheriff’s Log? Lopez Island Fire & EMS Want to Thank Our Graduating 2014 Student Volunteers
Connor Christie Autumn Gruenwald Samuel Heller Madeline Jordan Fletcher Moore Sarah Reeve Chase Schober For Their Time and Dedication To Serve the Lopez Island Community!
4 1 0 & 2 s k Par ils Tra de! Gui
AVAILABLE YEAR ROUND
Publishes the week of July 1st in the Journal, Sounder & Weekly
Sales Deadline: Tuesday, June 17, 2014
For more information call Cali at the Weekly 376-4500
By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor
Periodic trips to the Sheriff’s office had been one of my many tasks for the better part of the past 14 years. There, I would pull up a chair and hunker down in the back room and sift through the stack of incident reports. I would jot down relevant information of those that I determined to be “newsworthy” and head back to the Journal to piece together the next installment of the San Juan County Sheriff’s Log. I got to chit-chat with many of our dispatchers and deputies, and gain a better under-
standing, to a degree, of the department’s inner-workings along the way. Readers may recall a log entry would go something like this: July 27: A San Juan Island man claims the driver of a Dodge Durango threatened him with a knife during a confrontation over an exit-only sign at a Friday Harbor home remodel center. The 33-yearold, working security outside the center’s parking lot at the time, claims the driver entered the parking lot via its exit, pulled out a knife when confronted, exited through the entrance, and then sped away. From fender-benders to
THANK YOU
The Jones Family would like to thank all those near and far who have supported us in the past weeks as we recover from our fire. We are so appreciative for all of the donations, offers of help and thoughts & prayers. Thanks to you all, we are now on our way to recovery. ~ Nick & Sara
felony assault, that stack of reports worked as a window into some of the less attractive, more unsettling and sometimes bizarre occurrences that take place in this paradise. It chronicled everything from dog bites, DUIs, shoplifting, runaways, welfare checks, trespassing, suspicious activity, discovery of human remains and a whole lot more. It’s no surprise that the sheriff’s log, long before I inherited it, had been one of the newspaper’s most popular features. It proved to be so on the Journal, Sounder and Weekly websites as well. But there’s no real payoff in such trips to the sheriff’s office any longer. The department is well on its way to going “paperless” with its incident reports. That electronic format does not convert into something decipherable for the purpose of publication, even if a report is printed out. Much of the detail I relied on has been lost in translation. To its credit, the department does send out the
occasional press release, the sheriff and undersheriff do field reporters’ questions and provide answers within the boundaries they believe apply to any given case, and Undersheriff Bruce Distler has recently floated several suggestions in an attempt to make available the kind of information that had previously been right at one’s fingertips. The sheriff’s log offered a unique, ground floor look at what our local law enforcement and public safety officials encounter day-in and day-out. It provided a sense of commonality as well as it cataloged incidents from all across the county. And, perhaps most importantly, it was a reminder that trouble can arise even in paradise, and that things can go amiss. It would seem that the sheriff’s log is now a relic of a bygone era, like the Pony Express, a casualty of progress, rendered obsolete, or, in this case, dislodged and displaced by the sought-after efficiencies of the digital age. That’s a shame.