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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > November > 18 > Entry
Sheba finds a home, and other animal news
Remember her?:
Well, this is her now:
Her name is now Bella. It means beautiful.
Bella, a 2-year-old Doberman pinscher, was Sheba when she was found running loose in August. The Doberman pinscher was neglected and weighed 28.5 pounds, according to Butler County Dog Warden Julie Holmes.
Back then her owner was Reita Huff, who has been charged with two counts of cruelty to a companion animal, failure to confine and failure to obtain a county license. Huff’s pretrial is scheduled for Dec. 1 in Middletown Municipal Court.
But that was back then.
Now, Bella weighs 49 pounds and has a new home in Millville with an owner who showers her with love — and sweaters and sunglasses, according to Meg Stephenson, director of Animal Friends Humane Society, which helped care for the dog.
“Her personality started to shine and she gobbled her food less, as she realized we were going to love and provide for her,” said a volunteer who helped rehabilitate the dog. “We are so happy she is in an amazing forever home.”
In other animal news, progress is now visible on the new animal shelter.
The steel skeleton of Butler County’s new animal shelter rising over a small field on the edge of Hamilton is a welcome sight for animal lovers like Nancy Bender.
Bender, from Fairfield Twp., is a volunteer at the Animal Friends Humane Society. She walks dogs, picks up animal waste and scrubs water bowls. But she calls the current shelter in Trenton “a dilapidated little building that’s falling apart on a daily basis.”
“I’m praying they will rip this up as quickly as they can,” she said. “We can’t get it done fast enough for the animals…and the staff.”
Good news for Bender and her furry friends: The project, funded with a $3.8 in levy funds is on budget. And, after delays dogged the project for more than a year, it’s on its revised schedule.
“It appears that it should be completed by the second week of April,” said County Commission President Charles Furmon. “We spent a long time getting here and we’re very frustrated, but we’re very happy to see it moving.”
Furmon’s frustration was largely with the project’s architect, Robert Treadon, who repeatedly submitted designs that would cost more than the county has to build.
After reducing the building’s scope, it will now house 139 dogs and roughly 70 cats. The Trenton shelter has room for 96 dogs and roughly 30 cats.
At roughly 22,000 square feet, it will also be more than three times larger than the Trenton shelter. The size of the surgical area will double, allowing more animals to be spayed and neutered. There will be new areas for people to get acquainted with the animals and a room for grooming.
Currently, the dogs and cats are in steel cages. The dogs only get outside when a volunteer walks them. Most of the runs at the new shelter will have access to the outside.
“I just think that service is going to amplify and really improve,” said Meg Stephenson, director of Animal Friends Humane Society, which will run the shelter. “These animals have already been through a lot, most of them have been living outside…it’s just going to make the care of these animals so greater and so much better.”
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Dog Warden
Comments
By navy vet
November 19, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this
THANK GOODNESS,meg stephenson your a wonderful person.
By pitbull lover
December 6, 2008 6:19 PM | Link to this
i volunteer there and meg rules! :) we cant wait til the new shelter is built and youd know why if you visit there :)