The dogs and cats at the Vance County Animal Shelter are so stinkin’ cute, according to Director William Coker, that even he couldn’t resist the temptation.
Coker said he’d never been a cat owner – until he fell in love with a kitten at the shelter.
“I ended up adopting that kitten myself,” he told WIZS’s Scout Hughes on Tuesday’s TownTalk. “When I get up in the morning, that kitten is at the coffee pot with me,” he said.
The shelter is full – literally – of dogs and cats waiting to be adopted. There are 44 kennels for grown dogs – all occupied at the moment – as well as a puppy room and two cat rooms, one for adoptable felines and one for cats in quarantine for one reason or another.
The puppy room has eight beautiful puppies right now, Coker said. “I would love to have them adopted before Christmas,” he said.
Coker didn’t begin his job as director until January 2024, so he doesn’t know how Christmas-time adoptions went last year. But he said he hopes to see some folks come in and “adopt, don’t shop” at the shelter.
The application process is pretty simple, he explained. There’s a short form to fill out and the adoption fees are reasonable – $155 for dogs and $105 for cats. The cost includes the spay and neuter fee, as well as first shots and a one-year rabies shot.
And while Coker said the shelter staff is always hopeful to get animals adopted to good homes, they’re shifting their focus to educating the community about the need to spay and neuter pets. “I want to push spay and neuter in the community, to keep the animals from coming into the shelter” in the first place, he said.
Anyone interested in seeing the adoptable dogs and cats can visit the shelter during business hours. The shelter is located at 1243 Brodie Rd. and is open on Mondays from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesdays – Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., all day every other Friday and half days every other Saturday.
Coker hasn’t turned down many adoption applications. “If the dog seems to be a good fit for the family, I adopt him out,” he said.
It’s a win-win-win for the animal, the community and the adopter, he explained: You’re saving an animal, taking a stray out of the neighborhood, and gaining a member of the family.
“You just carry him home and start loving him,” Coker said.
To learn more, visit the shelter at https://www.vancecounty.org/departments/animal-control/or call 252.492.3136.
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