Group helps pets of the homeless
FORT COLLINS» It’s 11 a.m. on a frigid Colorado morning. Several inches of snow fell overnight and the slushy sidewalks at the Sister Mary Alice Murphy Center for Hope are getting a healthy dose of salt.
Inside, Tera and her 50pound American bullmastiff, Odin, wait, bundled in layers for the weather.
Odin is one of two patients expecting to see veterinarian Dr. Jon Geller. It’s the 11-monthold puppy’s first checkup in several months. Odin greets Geller and vet assistant Heidi Cortum with sniffs and kisses.
A large back room at the Murphy Center serves as Geller’s office for an hour today. There are no stainless steel exam tables, counters filled with swabs or models of a dog’s intestinal tract. Just a cafeteria table, small Igloo-type cooler filled with medicine, syringes and paperwork.
Geller is at the Murphy Center every Tuesday as part of the Street Dog Coalition, a 3-year-old nonprofit that provides free veterinary care to dogs and cats — yes, cats — living on the streets with their humans.
He checks Odin’s ears, listens to his heart, curls back his lips to get a look at his teeth and examines his belly. Odin receives shots for rabies, parvovirus and distemper, and a deworming pill.
Odin gets a clean bill of health. Geller gives Tera a voucher for a free neutering clinic, Odin’s rabies tag and information about future clinics.
Tera is a homeless woman who went to the Murphy Center seeking its services. She, her husband, two kids and Odin moved to Fort Collins from Texas and have stayed in a homeless shelter since they arrived a week ago. But the shelter recently kicked out Odin, saying he was aggressive.
Tera disputes the allegation and Geller sees no sign of aggression.
Odin is family to Tera, a companion and protector. She suffers from severe back pain and Odin helps her walk. He wakes her up at night when she sometimes forgets to breathe.
“Without him, I’d be too paranoid to live,” she said. “I’d close myself up and never leave the house.”
Geller estimates about 10 percent of the city’s roughly 330-plus homeless individuals have fourlegged companions.
Although people have mixed feelings about helping the homeless, “almost everyone wants to help their pets, who have had little choice in their life on the streets,” Geller said. Helping homeless pets can help save their owners’ lives.
“Pets give them a reason to live; they become their priorities,” Geller said.