Christmas for the Animals brings donations, TLC to shelter animals

“She chose me,” Coleen Nelson said of the kitten pawing at her through the bars in the cat holding room, during the West Jordan Animal Shelter’s annual Christmas for the Animals held on Dec. 10.

Nelson came with her husband and son to pick out a companion for their Rottweiler who they had previously adopted.

“She’s just alone so much,” Nelson said.

Nelson estimates they are at least the third or fourth home the dog has been through, but says the dog is sweet, even though she looks scary.

“I think we got lucky when we found her. She wasn’t available for adoption yet,” Nelson said.

In the canine room across the way, a man finds the cage where he adopted his Australian Shepherd.

“We got her from the shelter, so we named her Shelly,” John Baughman said.

It was love at first sight with Shelly. He’d had collies for 37 years from breeders, but for the first time he bought a non-collie; the first adopted from a shelter.

Baughman’s collie was 11 years old and getting older so, not wanting a pup, he went to the shelter to see if he could find a collie.

“I saw that Australian Shepherd, and her ears were bent like a collie’s ears, and she had a white stripe up her nose like my collie had, and that kind of reminded me of my collie,” Baughman said. “I kind of fell in love with her, brought her home and then my collie died a couple months after that and she helped with the loss of that.”

Baughman brought in a couple bags of food to help the shelter, and brought in a couple bags the previous week as well.

The event helps support the shelter, to cover both necessities and extras for the furry critters year round.

“We are a government facility, so the basics are taken care of,” said Dan Eatchel, Animal Shelter supervisor. “But we aren’t able to provide the extras for animals, such as blankets, treats, beds, others things to increase the comfort level of the animals during their stay, and that’s where we really appreciate the help from the community to provide those things.”

Even food is helpful, however.

“In all honesty, we don’t have a budget to cover enough for all the needs and purposes, so the donations do cover all of that, so we always appreciate that,” Eatchel said.

Eatchel was also appreciative to see that side of the community.

“Our common dealings are with irresponsible owners, and we see the negative side of people often times, but its an amazing day to see people just in the goodness of their hearts coming and bringing things for the animals. It’s always something to brighten the month,” Eatchel said.

Without the community, they wouldn’t be able to make the animals as comfortable as they are, he said. “It’s not ideal to be in a shelter, but at least if you have to stay here, we try to make it not too bad, anyway.”