Save Old Souls forced to close
After 17 years of serving the community, Save Old Souls Senior K-9 Rescue is closing its doors today.
SOS has taken in and found foster homes for elderly animals since its 2001 inception.
Trudy McKinnon, who’s been involved with SOS for nine years and president for six, said the charity is forced to close down due to a volunteer shortage.
“There’s four of us leaving and combined we have about 30 years experience. All of us have said for the last couple of years, ‘OK, I’ll do one more year.’ We’ve just decided we can’t do one more year,” said McKinnon.
The executives were unable to find volunteers to replace them, she added.
McKinnon said SOS sill has three dogs in its care, two of which are adoptable and the other is a “lifer,” meaning it’s either terminally ill or too old for adoption.
“When we advise Revenue Canada that we are closing, we have one year to wrap up,” she said.
The goal is to find a foster home for their two 10-year-old adoptable dogs — a husky cross who used to be a sled dog in the North West Territories, and a golden lab — in that time frame, said McKinnon.
“Most dogs that we have are quite adoptable, very charming and so on, so we don’t anticipate that would be a problem,” she said. “But if it was, they’d still be cared for.”
SOS closing down simply means it won’t be accepting any new animals, said McKinnon, adding that the support received from the community over the years has been “fantastic.”
“We rescue dogs but we help people,” McKinnon said. “The people who give up their dogs, probably 99 per cent of them love their dogs with all their heart.
“Just to see the relief on their face when their dog will be taken in (and) taken care of and they know that we find good homes, that’s the best part, right up their with the dogs themselves, knowing that we’ve given this dog a second chance at a new life.”