A pair of Hightstown residents have teamed up to find stray and abandoned animals a proper home.
By: Scott Morgan
HIGHTSTOWN Anyone in the pet owners’ set can tell you animals are a lot like people. They sleep, they get cranky, they talk, they play. They hunger for food and love and shelter.
Like people, not every animal’s life ends like a fairy tale. In the streets, where conditions are often harsh on the best of days, stray dogs and cats brave elements long-since conquered by feats of engineering.
For borough residents Debbie Sperber and Lisa Thibault, the lives of stray animals mean more than wishing the situation would go away. So about three months ago, Ms. Sperber and Ms. Thibault started doing something to rescue feral animals and place them in loving, responsible homes.
No Bones About It Animal Rescue is a new, not-for-profit animal rescue organization run by these two women in an effort to save animals’ lives and this Sunday they will sponsor a pet adoption day at East Windsor’s Towne Center Plaza from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Ms. Thibault said part of the group’s mission is to speak up for the animals "because animals don’t have a voice, they don’t have an advocate."
The organization is an off-shoot of Ms. Sperber’s pet-sitting business, No Bones About It, which she operates throughout the county.
Ms. Thibault said the group is a response to growing stray and feral cat populations throughout Hightstown and East Windsor. Feral animals those which either live in an untamed state or return to a wild state after domestication reproduce quickly and can spread animal-borne diseases.
But stray animals easily reintegrate to domestic life, where food, safety and, of course, love are plentiful, Ms. Thibault said. In fact, she said, part of what No Bones does is find and provide foster homes for strays, in which devoted "animal people" reacclimate the animals to domestic living.
"We call them cat hotels," she said.
Another integral part of the group’s mission is to obtain medical care for lost, stray and abandoned animals. Ms. Sperber said when the group rescues an animal it is taken immediately to a veterinarian. Though she said she is not at liberty to name those who help often gratis she said the group uses "three or four vets" in the area.
Both Ms. Sperber and Ms. Thibault said the animals up for adoption are all medically checked and reacclimated to living among people.
Of course, not all rescued animals are wild-born or feral. Often, they are remnants; former gifts people found they didn’t want or couldn’t care for.
One such case is a 12-year-old poodle the group plans to put up for adoption Sunday. Ms. Sperber said she found the dog wandering around an apartment complex while sitting someone’s pets. Fliers asking the owner to claim the poodle brought no one. Ms. Sperber said it is an unfortunately common practice.
"They’re dump-offs," she said. "People dump them off (in an apartment complex) because they know someone will take them."
And, in this case, someone has. After a little coaxing, which in layman’s terms involves stooping to the dog’s level and luring it with food, she rescued the poodle, but still needs to find it a good home.
This dog was easy to rescue, she said. He was so hungry he was willing to trust anyone with food.
As word of mouth and the occasional flier gets around, Ms. Thibault said, strays (mostly cats, but some dogs) are finding permanent homes. So far, she said, the group has rescued and placed nine cats since its November beginnings.
Part of the reason for the group’s successes, according to both women, is the very place they will use to host their pet adoption day.
"I can’t say enough about (PetValu)," Ms. Sperber said. She said the store has provided the group with food, donations, supplies and a sympathetic ear.
"They are true animal lovers," Ms. Sperber said. An employee at PetValu said the store is glad to help No Bones in its quest to turn strays into pets.
"It helps them, it helps us, it helps everyone," said the employee, who wished to remain anonymous. "It helps pets who don’t have a home."
But, of course, the organization needs a little help from those who can provide homes for animals. After all, without homes to place pets, they still are homeless, and, like any organization, it does take money to operate it.
Ms. Sperber said the group has a relatively small budget (roughly $300-$400 a month), but still needs some donations to help it survive. And, by extension, help the animals survive.
Despite its early successes, both Ms. Sperber and Ms. Thibault said they are somewhat handicapped in their quest by an old borough ordinance that limits the number of cats and dogs residents can have. It is not legal for residents to keep more than two cats and two dogs at one time.
Mayor Amy Aughenbaugh, a self-described "pet person," said the ordinance allows for four cats and dogs, but states there can be no more than two of either.
"We want to change that," Ms. Thibault said.
Mayor Aughenbaugh said she would be interested in repealing that ordinance, but said she must first research its origins. She said she doesn’t know the reason it was enacted and speculated it could have been a health issue. Either way, though she said she couldn’t promise anything, the mayor said she would check into the law.
"I’d be happy to pursue changing that," she said.