Finding a family: Pets Come First hopes to secure home for each ...

POTTER TOWNSHIP ? ?Little Bear? is an 18-week-old purebred Rottweiler. He weighs about 40 pounds, and since last week, he?s been living at the Pets Come First adoption center in Potter Township and a foster home in Philipsburg.

But, Little Bear, or just Bear as his caretaker, Fred Grauch, calls him, has some special needs that call for an owner who can give him extra care: The dog is blind and partially deaf.

The staff and volunteers at the Pets Come First adoption center hope to find Little Bear a permanent home, and on Sunday, the center hosted a grand opening to introduce itself to the public and show off the 51 animals that are up for adoption.

The event drew dozens of guests, and volunteers had taken two applications for pet adoptions. The process, said volunteer Cheryl Sharer, of Milesburg, also requires two references and a vet check on any previous pets.

The adoption center doesn?t euthanize any animal that?s dropped off, but it does charge a surrender fee. There?s already a waiting list for drop offs, though, several pages long for cats and dogs.

In January, Pets Come First took over the site of the old Pennsylvania SPCA adoption center. The organization is now working with PSPCA, and if successful over the next two years, the parent company will transfer ownership of the facilities to Pets Come First.

Deb Warner, the president and a co-founder of Pets Come First, said the center hopes to raise $250,000 in each of those two years.

Warner said the center has had 60 adoptions since the soft opening at the start of the year. She said there?s been ?a steady flow of volunteers? who?ve helped everything come together.

?The response from everyone has just been fantastic,? Warner said.

Among the center?s services include spaying and neutering the animals that are dropped off and finding them homes. The center also has an arrangement with Straley Veterinary Associates to offer low-cost spaying and neutering.

In the short term, Warner hopes to have a rabies clinic and organize a variety of events and fundraisers.

The next fundraiser will be an owner and pet run/walk called the Dog Jog at the Centre County Grange Fairgrounds on April 28.

Longer-term goals include hiring paid staff and a cruelty enforcement officer.

While it?s a Centre County facility, Warner said most of the animals come from Mifflin and Juniata counties.

The people adopting the pets are primarily from there, too, she said, because there are no shelters in those counties.

Donations in the form of cash, food and cat litter are appreciated, Warner said. Monetary donations are spent on needs at the local shelter and not sent elsewhere, she said.

William Harrison and Angela Rogers, two Penn State students, were among the grand opening guests on Sunday. They took some time to play with cats, and they said they?d like to volunteer with the organization.

?I grew up with a dog, but cats are growing on me,? said Rogers, of Lancaster.

As for Little Bear, the Rottweiler, he ended up at the adoption center after his owner last week took him to a vet in Centre Hall to see if the blindness and deafness could be treated.

Cortlyn Johnson, another Pets Come First volunteer, happened to be at the vet, too, getting a checkup for nine kittens she?d adopted.

?While I was waiting for them, he showed up,? Johnson said of Little Bear.

Johnson overheard Little Bear?s plight and offered him a temporary home. She arranged for Grauch, the husband of one of her cousins, to take care of the dog.

Pets Come First is open Thursdays through Sundays at 2451 General Potter Highway (U.S. Route 322) in Potter Township.

For more information, call the center at 364-1725 or visit petscomefirst.org.

Mike Dawson can be reached at 231-4616.

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Source: http://www.centredaily.com/2012/02/13/3088367/family.html

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