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Community Corner

New Canaan's Animal Shelter is Homeless Itself

Strays and Others struggles to manage without a permanent home of its own.

 

For every pet in New Canaan that has a loving family, there are plenty more that are homeless. And, while it continues to seek homes for the  unfortunate animals, New Canaan's Strays and Others is also looking for a permanent home for itself.

"We desperately need to find, at the very least, a location to store our supplies and set up a small office," said Claudia Weber, the organization's founder. "Right now we don't have that."

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As one of the oldest rescue groups in Fairfield County, Strays and Others, a no-kill shelter, has a long history. The organization is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

"Our organization was created as an indirect result of a fire in New Canaan in 1983 where two elderly people perished along with 20 of their 40 cats," said Weber, who relies solely on volunteers to run the group.

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"We receive no financial support from the town, nor does the town offer us any physical space to operate from," Weber said. "This has become increasingly difficult because the demand for our services has grown so much that our resources have been stretched sometimes beyond what we can handle."

Weber said cats and dogs aren't the only animals Strays and Others help. They also have aided species from birds to horses.  One of the biggest challenges for her organization is housing the stray animals until they find permanent homes.

"There are so many ways people can help," said Weber. "Become a foster home, adopt a pet, make a financial donation, volunteer time, organize a fundraiser [or] encourage your veterinarian to donate some of their services and time."

Despite Strays and Others' proactive steps toward helping animals without a home, the organization continues to be stymied by their own homelessness.  

"Right now our greatest need is for serious fundraising and finding a permanent home of our own," said Weber.

On Sunday, August 29, Strays and Others will host a "fun-raiser" at New Canaan's Dog Days of Summer, to raise funds for the shelter as well as provide information about how to help or adopt stray animals.

Despite the challenges she's facing, Weber is encouraged by one trend: increasingly, residents are registering rescue dogs as well as purebred pets.

"The Labrador Retriever is top dog in New Canaan, with it being almost evenly split between black and yellow Labradors," Weber said. "Happily, we are seeing more and more rescue dogs being licensed by new adoptive owners.  It's really great."

 

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