When time is of the essence

SAVING LIVES AT BEST FRIENDS LIFESAVING CENTERS

As the first wave of the COVID-19 virus spread across the country, affecting every city where Best Friends has brick-andmortar centers, we knew we’d need to close the centers to the public, while continuing to look after the pets in our care. With time being of the essence, we needed a miracle. And that’s exactly what we got. a phenomenal response,” says Lisa Barrett, the Best Friends senior manager for the Southeast region. “People just want to do something helpful.” It turns out that in a crisis, it doesn’t matter where you live. People responded immediately to our requests for foster volunteers in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, too. In just one week, the team in L.A. placed 30 dogs, 55 cats and 31 kittens in foster homes.

In Salt Lake City, the community stepped up on the same day that an earthquake hit, which added insult to injury during an already stressful time. The earthquake on the morning of March 18 took out power and scared everyone. All the people and animals at the Best Friends Lifesaving Center were OK, though, and the earthquake didn’t change the need to move 30 cats into foster homes. So, at 4:35 p.m., staff went on Facebook to ask for foster families. By 5:08 p.m., all 30 cats were placed in foster homes.

It wouldn’t be good to have folks flocking to the centers or waiting around indoors to pick up their foster pets, so the teams got creative again, organizing curbside pickup. Staff scheduled appointments for foster families to pick up their pets, and when they arrived, the pets and all the supplies they’d need were loaded right into the car.

Michelle Flitcraft, Best Friends foster manager in L.A., says that it was an “all

hands on deck” situation. “It was true teamwork,” she says. “Everyone worked together to get all the supplies set up, handle the volume of requests, do matchmaking, space out foster appointment pickups and help with curbside pickups.”

They also worked around the challenges that could potentially come with in-person adoptions and vet checkups. The goal was to minimize people having to leave their homes and to limit the contact that people have with each other. Anything that can be done using technology or phone calls (think virtual vet appointments and online adoption processing) is now being done that way.

McGraw

With puppy and kitten season approaching just as the COVID-19 pandemic began, puppies like McGraw started flooding into busy shelters, and they need places to crash until they’re ready to be adopted. Cheryl wanted to do something to help support her community and the shelter, so she decided to foster McGraw. “I’m practicing self-isolation because I’m a caregiver for elderly parents,” she says. “Having this little bundle of energy keeps my days from being sad and mundane, and he shares that joy with my parents, too.”