A Gardner family was in tears tonight as they were reunited with their dog, now 15 years of age,
Faith, Siberian Husky Mix, had been stolen by a boyfriend several years ago. Her family, including
a 10 year old boy, never found their family member. Prior to her disappearance, family portraits,
vacations, and sleeping in the bed were her known routine. It's hard to believe that a dog so loved
barely escaped death and survived on her own, at large, malnutritioned, deaf, blind, crippled, and alone.

The family didn't even know it might be possible that their once beloved pet was still alive. Imagine their
surprise when they discovered Medora was currently residing at The Pet Connection's cageless facility in
Mission. It is because of The Pet Connection that the Ray of Hope program faciliated by the Humane
Society of Greater Kansas City, is able to take in so many special needs pets. This service to the community
has perpetuated the KCK animal control to drop their statistics from 73% to .3%. At TPC, the genuine
philosophy is that all pets should live out as natural a life as possible and be allowed to perform as pets until
that dying day. Because of that philosophy to value each life, Medora can start her old life again
tomorrow as the Faith that she once was.

Ray of Hope started almost 2 years ago and has only made improvements. Once a place where stray
animals went to die at a whopping 73%, this is no longer the case, but efforts to keep it that way need to be
reinforced. In the past 2 weeks, TPC has had to turn away dogs in their network because of budget constraints.
Rebounding from program changes that had huge financial repercussions, TPC has now had to scrap it's current
budget and start over. The challenge is developing temporary funding through donations so that lives can
continually be saved. HSGKC and TPC have both been put under the gun while trying to keep this program past
just a launch stage. Only 8 dogs have lost their lives this calendar year because of the efforts, putting our
local systems in line for national attention and funding. It would be tragic if the effort could not continue when
every city should be making strides towards a time when no animals are killed.

Kelso knows that adoption programs like The Pet Connection routinely rescues and rehomes pets that were just
lost but failed by the current systems. Improvements have been made in the past few years, but many
shelters state reuniting pets with owners as their primary mission and pass the matching responsibilty to not for
profits who are underfunded and underinformed. This program gap needs to be approached so that resources for
rehoming aren't unnecessarily used and lost pets aren't unnecessarily killed. TPC has pulled dogs from animal
control facilities, found their microchips, and returned them to their owners. If the pet had not been
pulled, it could not have been reunited.

In 2008, Medora (AKA Faith) could have been another statistics: old, malnutritioned... the assumption would
have been a dumped dog, an uncared for dog and the outcome would have been euthanasia. Because of
The Pet Connection, special needs and rehabilitated pets can easily be rescued. Elderly pets are no longer
considered unadoptable and pit bulls, mixes thereof, black dogs, and feral cats are all considered a
part of the family. The cageless environment attracts a large range of volunteers who enjoy and benefit from
Medora's existence. While in our facility, Medora worked with a wide range of people including elderly,
special needs, and juveniles. Everyone should value life and be taught how to care for aging pets so the
responsibiltiy is known fully. TPC also maintains a group of behavioral volunteers and staff that help rehabilitate and
care for pets who otherwise would NEVER get a second chance. Their agreement to take 4 dogs a week has
routinely been shifted to 15, making TPC one of the largest contributing organizations to the cause. However, in the
past few weeks, this open door policy trend at The Pet Connection has continued to be threatened
by lack of funding and other challenging obstacles. TPC is awaiting on promised funding and has had to stop
taking in pets. Even though this large shelter operates on a small budget, this years responsibilities
have been compromised and requests for more assistance have been made.

Regardless of the outcome, TPC has continued to take in the pets that they committed too, knowing that death was
the likely outcome. Melody Kelso, Founding Director, loses a lot of sleep and meals trying to make sure that this 16
year project to bring no kill agendas to Kansas City doesn't come to an abrupt end. Budgetary shortages are often a
part of the challenges when organizations do not have departments dedicated to fundraising. However, TPC's staff
consists of community members who wanted to see animal shelter reform happen 15 years ago
and have been working towards that goal.

Faith will be going home tomorrow afternoon. In the past 10 years, TPC has serviced 33,000 pets in the Kansas
City area on a very small budget. The help that is given will directly help animals in our community. We are so happy
to have had a little Faith. We are also glad to share Faith with her family and this community. Volunteer time,
membership funding, and supplies are needed to give the program longevity.

If you have lost or found a pet, please contact kcpetconnect.org and your local animal control departments. Flyers
should be displayed in the area where the pet was last seen. Don't give up easily, talk to someone at The Pet
Connection or use the above resources to insure that all leads are exhausted. Please contact Melody Kelso personally
for lost and found help. Reunite is much better than readopt.

This heartwarming story was only compromised by the unfortunate fact that The Pet Connection is low on funding.
For the first time in 2 years, TPC was not able to pull the dogs from KCK timely enough. Three special needs dogs
were euthanized because of this shortage.

 

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