Blue Ridge Humane Society: Kia Pet Adoption Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

This grant helped 20 animals find loving homes, fee-waived, as part of our Seniors for Seniors and Veteran Discount programs.

How many pets did this grant help?

20

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

In our line of work, we connect with many people and their pets, whether it is through adoptions, community support, or even our thrift store. When it comes to animals whom we help through our Community Support Services, we sometimes develop even longer relationships with those families because of how often we see them. Those connections sometimes come full-circle, and we end up helping these animals again if they are in need of a new home.

Smokey is a dog whom our Community Support Team helped for several years to get a fence built for him as well as getting him neutered and making sure his vaccines stayed up-to-date. Every interaction with Smokey was a positive one, and he was the best medical patient during our vaccine clinics.

These ongoing interactions turned into a great love and fondness for Smokey and his wellbeing. When our staff discovered that his owner had passed away, they wanted to make sure Smokey was still being cared for. Unfortunately, his owner’s family tried their best to care for Smokey, but they could not commit to giving him a new home.

As Smokey was now a large senior dog with a few hearing issues, we knew that his options might be limited, and a rehoming process would take a while. Since we already knew Smokey’s personality, medical background, and where he came from, we agreed to take Smokey into our care and give him another shot at a happy life! It can be so confusing when an animal loses their owner unexpectedly, and we wanted to try to give Smokey some sense of familiarity and comfort.

When he arrived at our Adoption Center, he quickly stole all of the staff’s hearts and they couldn’t get enough of his easygoing and sweet demeanor. Despite Smokey being the definition of a gentle giant, we knew he might hang out with us a bit longer than other dogs.

Smokey was around 7 years old, with some hearing loss, and he needed to lose around 10 lbs. He was on joint supplements and would also be going through heartworm treatment once adopted. Luckily for this pup, he landed in foster care with one of our adoption counselors and acclimated to living inside a house with other animals!

Only a few short weeks later, Smokey was adopted as part of our Seniors for Seniors program. I am happy to report that in his new home, Smokey loves affection, eating “people” food, living with other dogs, and is even getting the hang of living with a cat. Most days, if his family is in the kitchen cooking, Smokey is sprawled out with his eyes glued to the oven. He enjoys leisurely walks but will occasionally get zoomies in the yard with his new brother if he’s feeling extra frisky.

Thanks to the Kia Adoption Grant, we were able to find Smokey a loving home!