(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
Because It’s Hard | Cashiers Highlands Humane Society
Written By: David Stroud - Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society | Issue: 2021/12 – December
Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society’s extraordinary run of adoptions means plenty of contented cats and dogs, and a Plateau laced with happy households.
In my first week on the job, a member of the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society board of directors took me to lunch.
Over a sandwich and chips we reviewed the adoption numbers from the previous two years. For 18 consecutive months we had not had a month with at least 20 adoptions, and in the winter, adoptions plummeted to single digits.
“You might want to think about closing the shelter to the public in the winter months,” he said.
I didn’t think for one moment that he was serious.
What I did believe, however, is that he was issuinag me a challenge. A challenge that I eagerly accepted.
We embarked upon a 10-point plan to increase adoptions, which included a heightened focus on customer service, cleanliness and staff training, better signage and direct access to Highway 64, greater visibility on national adoption websites and a new website of our own, growing our Facebook presence from less than 600 friends to more than 23,000, building our volunteer and foster programs, and last but certainly not least, increasing our capacity to take in the animals the community brought to our doors.
So not only has CHHS found at least 20 forever homes in a single month, we now have achieved 20 or more adoptions for 93 consecutive months.
And yes, that includes every single winter month for nearly eight years. Sure, it has been a challenge to stay open in the winter. There are fewer folks on the Plateau, and weather conditions sometimes mean there are no customers, and less staff, on some of the coldest days.
But we will stay open to the public this winter, and every winter.
To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, “not because it is easy, but because it is hard.”
And I will add…because it’s right. But it is also expensive. Please consider a generous year-end tax-deductible contribution to help ensure that CHHS will always be a safe and warm place for the abandoned, the abused, and the neglected. No matter the month, no matter the season.
Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal welfare organization located at 200 Gable Drive in Sapphire, one-and-a-half miles east of the Cashiers Ingles in between Cedar Creek Club and Lonesome Valley on Highway 64 East. Our no-kill shelter is open Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. Visit us online at chhumanesociety.org or call (828)743-5752. Donations can be mailed to CHHS, P.O. Box 638, Cashiers, NC 28717.
