70-year-old gets her own dog for the first time
Clear the Shelters: Peninsula Humane Society hosts annual pet adoption drive
BURLINGAME >> Joyce Bynum remembers coming home from school one day when she was 6 or 7, and her mother telling her that the family’s little white puppy, Lucky, had died. “No more dogs,” her heartbroken mom said.
Bynum is 70 now and on Saturday, during the “Clear the Shelters” event at the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, adopted her first dog in all those years — a little white Chihuahua named Frannie.
“It’s a big leap,” Bynum said as she beckoned the pooch in the “get acquainted room” at the shelter.
When the Lantos Center for Compassion opened Saturday morning, a line stretched out the door of potential pet owners taking advantage of the “name your own fee” adoptions, which usually run between $50 to $120 for pets that are already spayed, neutered, microchipped and vaccinated.
The event will continue Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Burlingame, where staff and volunteers are hoping the more than 100 dogs, cats, birds, bunnies, rep-
tiles and other strays find new homes. Shelters across the Bay Area had similar drives, although most were on Saturday only.
In Burlingame, Bynum was one of several seniors looking for a pet. Her two children are long since grown and gone, and her husband died three years ago.
The retired receptionist lives in Pacifica across from a park, where she watches a parade of dogs each day and yearned for one of her own. Frannie, who is 2, will ease the loneliness, she said.
Buffy Martin Tarbox, the shelter’s communication manager, said every adoption is a joy to see. Watching seniors bond with pets is extra special, she said, especially since research shows the emotional and physical benefits of doing so, including lowering blood pressure.
“It gives them something to love and to love them back,” she said.
On Saturday, Bynum and Frannie sat together in a room with a chair and concrete floor and slowly warmed up to each other.
At first, though, Frannie sat shaking in the corner. “I’m nervous and she’s nervous,” said Bynum, who then turned to the dog and said: “It’s going to be OK. I hate to see you shaking like that. You OK, babe?”
Frannie wandered over and finally jumped up into Bynum’s lap.
“Isn’t she so cute?” Bynum said. “Isn’t she?”
More than 60 animals were adopted during last year’s event in Burlingame, and the shelter staff hopes to be even more successful this weekend.
The Campos family from South San Francisco, with their two young children, were excited to find Cooper, a blond longhaired Chihuahua.
“He’s very fluffy,” said Kaitlyn, who turns 11 this week.
Shelter staff were also rooting for Cookie, a 10-year-old Chihuahua mix who has been living at the shelter since February 2016. She’s a little black dog with gray circles around his eyes, but hadn’t received much attention Saturday.
“She’s a staff favorite,” said volunteer Kerstyn Crumb. “She goes on hikes with the big dogs at Coyote Point. She’s a fun older girl.”
Older black dogs and pitbulls have the hardest time finding families, she said, even though they can be perfect pets.
The shelter staff says pitbulls go through behavior testing and training.
“We would never adopt out a dangerous dog,” Tarbox said.
The animals who don’t find families this weekend will still be here, waiting, she said.
“Animals don’t run out of time here,” she said. “We don’t euthanize for space, and we don’t euthanize for time.”
The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA is located at 1450 Rollins Road in Burlingame. For more information about pet adoptions, go to www.peninsulahumanesociety.org, or find the SPCA in your area.
“It gives them something to love and to love them back.”
— Buffy Martin Tarbox, Lantos Center for Compassion communication manager