Walking into the Kingdom County Animal Shelter in St. Johnsbury, bright orange walls frame the scene of kittens pawing at various toys, cats taking catnaps, and volunteers cleaning and cuddling.
“What kind of operating system does it use?” Michael Dente, Lyndon State College’s Assistant Chief Technology Officer, asks into his cell phone while surrounded by the cats of all colors and sizes meowing and playing.
Dente not only helps the LSC community with their technology problems, but also runs the website and Facebook page for the shelter. However, his services to the shelter are not limited to technology.
“I started doing adoptions and cleanings. After a couple of months, I got more involved and eventually they asked me to become a board member,” explained Dente.
Currently there are four board members who make all the decisions about strategic planning for the shelter and deal with any burning issues or problems. A large topic of discussion has been the question of allowing dogs at the shelter, which currently only accepts cats.
“It’s really hard to do dogs because of ordinances and barking, so we are trying to decide if we want to,” Dente explained. Another problem with accepting dogs could be space. “We are a non-euthanatizing shelter, it’s not something where we move them through, put them down, and get new ones. We think that’s ridiculous. We only take the ones we can take.”
The shelter tries to work with the community by promoting spaying and neutering in the hope that it will help control the cat population. “We’ve been pretty successful.”
To adopt a regular cat, spayed or neutered and with shots, will cost the adopter $95. Kitten’s, with a voucher to local veterinarians for spaying or neutering, cost $145. Though the price may seem high, Dente points out “It’s not like you’re paying 95 bucks, you’re donating 95 dollars to the shelter.”
Money from adoptions and fundraising is the shelters only income, which means the shelter is always looking for volunteers. Volunteer opportunities range from helping with fundraising and events, to cleaning, to adoptions.
“It’s really rewarding, it’s a lot of fun because the kittens are hilarious and playing with the big cats and the big cats sometimes don’t want to deal with them,” Dente said. “You can have your fill of every type of cat and age of cat without actually having them at your house.”
Dente does have cats at home however.
“I just love cats,” Dente says with a smile. “Lucy is my first cat, she’s the oldest and then I have two younger cats that I just adopted, they are kittens, Hicks and Ripley, which came from the movie Aliens.”
Working at the shelter is fulfilling for Dente, “It helps me feel better about the cat population and the cats outside in the cold, trying to save them. One of my cats is a rescue cat who was found frozen in a snow bank.”
To become a volunteer or to donate to the shelter, visit the website at www.kingdomanimalshelter.com