Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13
URBANNA – There are many dog lovers in Middlesex County. Something here attracts people who love dogs. Perhaps it is the plentiful creeks, rivers and bay areas that bring dog families here as many dogs love to swim.
I used to own Goldens, even bred several litters, and this popular breed along with Labs love the water so much they would just as soon grow fins. During the early years when I spent weekends in Urbanna, I had the worst time getting the dogs in the car heading back to the city on Sunday nights. If dogs were ever known to sulk in the back seat because they didn’t want to leave, the Goldens were at the head of the line.
Something that upset me in Urbanna in the 1980s was the sight of a chained dog. I had to detour to another street whenever I saw one to be spared the heartbreaking sight. (There are no longer any chained dogs in town.)
Another problem in those early years was the number of unwanted dogs that were dropped off in Urbanna. It seemed every Sunday we would see a few new collarless dogs in town. (This happened with cats too.) It finally hit me that some people were using Urbanna as a dropping off place for unneutered and unwanted pets.
It was heart-wrenching to see these poor animals walking the streets, hungry, tired, thirsty, wondering where they could find a warm place to spend the night. (This no longer happens thanks to Middlesex Pet Friends for Life; however Urbanna still has a problem with its feral cat population.)
One day I decided to start a group I called “Dog Friends.” Before I knew it, I had dozens of zealous members. We charged $5 to join, our goal was to improve the lot of homeless dogs and we met for meetings at lunch at the Virginia Street Café. Everyone wanted to join because … you weren’t anyone unless you were a Dog Friend!
I wrote about the new group in the Sentinel and the donations we received went straight to the existing animal shelter at Cooks Corner. The money poured in. One child turned over his piggy bank to us, another asked for money instead of gifts for his birthday party to give to homeless dogs and another chased me down the street while I was biking through Urbanna just to make a donation to save the dogs.
My lawyer soon advised me that I needed to form a formal organization with a board of directors and apply to the federal government for 501c3 status so people could make donations and receive tax deduction benefits.
By this time I had made contact with Middlesex County’s longtime animal rescue leader, Cate Ogden, and it wasn’t long before she talked me into including cats in our new program. (My first thought to her suggestion of cats was rats!) But I finally realized we needed to include care for homeless cats too and our new name morphed into Middlesex Pet Friends for Life and we named a formal board of directors.
Yet our group was all women. We even had a woman attorney from a large Richmond law firm that was living in Topping who volunteered to do the application to the IRS for us. But we needed a man to make our board more diverse. It was our good fortune that The Rev. Paul Andersen from Christ Church volunteered to serve on our board. We soon had our application accepted.
About the same time the Middlesex County Board of Supervisors that had taken notice of our project to improve our county program for stray animals granted us permission to build a dog park near the shelter. It was exciting to see our fundraising meet expenses to build the fencing and even a shelter inside the exercise area for those bringing their dogs in to play and the volunteers that walked the shelter dogs each day.
It seemed there was nothing we could not achieve at that happy moment when everything came together. I asked Cate Ogden to take over leadership and I resigned my position. I knew the very capable Cate would continue the good work for animals.
Cate still heads the group and she and her great board and team of volunteers take good care of our shelter dogs and cats. If you are interested in helping in any way please contact Cate in care of the shelter.
Other happy memories from this period was when Christ Church, a church filled with animal lovers that even holds an annual “blessing of the animals” service each fall, came to the shelter for a special blessing of our homeless dogs. Father Paul and Verger, Grace Parker, dressed in their churchly garbs, came to lead our special service.
It was raining that day. We sturdy group of dog lovers stood in a large circle at the shelter holding an umbrella in one hand and a leashed dog from the shelter in the other. As our priest blessed our homeless dogs that stood proudly to receive the blessings from God, there wasn’t a dry eye in the group.
One last memory. After 10 years at Christ Church the gifted Rev. Paul Andersen moved on to another church assignment but before he left he turned over to the shelter all the farewell gifts he had been given by his congregation to show their appreciation to him of almost $1,000. I have never forgotten his kindhearted farewell gesture to our beloved dogs.
In the name of every homeless dog (and cat) at the shelter in Middlesex County awaiting a permanent home I want to say thank you to all who show their love for homeless animals.
And make one last comment for the dogs: “Arf Arf!” (Which translates to … “We agree!”) (Continued next week.)
© 2024
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