Best Shot Monday: Meet Lola

I made it back into the shelter Sunday morning, and this girl was the first dog I took out. Oh, what a doll sweet Lola is!  She was in the very first kennel closest to the backyard door in A run, so every time I brought another dog out and back in, she looked at me with the saddest eyes, like she was saying, "You really are coming back for me when you're done, right?"  If I didn't already have five animals (two dogs and three cats, all rescues, including two foster failures...), I'd most certainly have taken her home with me. She's incredibly loving and well-mannered, a medium-sized girl with the most beautiful, hug-worthy coat.

Once I finished for the morning, I couldn't resist sitting down in her kennel with her and sharing some hugs and kisses.  We sat like this for a good 15 minutes, below, and my neck and face were completely covered with slobbery dog kisses.  (I didn't share this part of the process in my Anatomy of a Shelter Shoot post, but it's a very important part of my process!)  My thanks to Angie B for catching this picture of us when she came back in and saw us there.  Lola is available for adoption at Animal Care and Protective Services, 2020 Forest Street, Jacksonville. Her ID number is A891995.

We will be moving to Tallahassee next summer (more on that later this week), and I will miss this shelter terribly, so much so that I will make it a point to get back over here once a month or so. The people here are wonderful, and the work they do here is amazing.  Jacksonville's Animal Care and Protective Services truly is one of the best shelters in the state of Florida, if not the whole country, as evidenced by our recent spotlight at the national Best Friends conference.  The way this city-run shelter works together with area non-profit shelters and rescue groups is truly amazing and has helped us work towards our no-kill status.  I've been checking out the shelters in Tallahassee online, and I was so saddened to see the stats for the Leon County shelter; stats show a year to date average live release rate of about 50%, with some months being better than others.  That's incredibly depressing.  It's not their photos as they have a nice website with good photos (and I plan to add to those).  My guess is that they just haven't developed the partnerships that our shelter has developed here.  That will be my goal when I start volunteering over there.  Maybe a "Friends of Leon County Animals" is in our future!