Open your heart to Hawaii’s homeless animals

September 6th, 2007

Filed Under Hawaii Activities, Hawaii Charities | 1 Comment

humane1.jpgWhen my husband and I went on our honeymoon in 1996, one of the stops we made on Kauai was to the Kauai Humane Society.  It was in an old rickety building by Salt Pond Park but it had character and sadly was full of sweet furry faces.  We have a dog, Aisha, that we were missing terribly and needed our “fur fix” while we were away from her.   We took pictures of many of the dogs in there from excited adult dogs to pooped sleeping pups and they’re some of the best memories from our honeymoon.  Of course we always remember the reluctant ones.  The ones who were obviously abused and afraid of people…afraid to trust.  We made a modest contribution of $25 on our way out since we couldn’t afford much being newlyweds but for our donation we got a keychain and magnet…both of which are in use to this day.  We decided then that we would always visit a humane society no matter what island we ended up on.

Since then, we have visited every humane society on every islandhumane2.jpg and have taken pictures and video of a lot of animals.  People sometimes ask me why I take pictures of the animals in there because some look so sad and it seems depressing.  For me, it’s a way to remember them and remember the hope I had for all of them as I walked from cage to cage.  Each dog had a reaction whether it was an excited wag of the tail and feverishly licking your fingers to cowering in the corner and not sure if they wanted to approach you or not.  Many would look at the picture of this sweetie and think of how sad she looks.  I remember it was right after I said “whose a good girl?  Are you a good baby?” and she thumped her tail on the ground and put her ears back for me to scratch behind them as if saying “yes lady…I AM a good girl…and I just want a home.”   It breaks my heart because I can’t scoop them all up in my arms and take them to some big farm where they can all run free without the threat of their time running out.  A place where they know they are loved even if they don’t have all of the attention.  I’d give anything to be able to do that.

There are a lot of Pit bulls, Rotties and oddly enough Airedaleshumane3.jpg in the islands.  What always cracks me up is how you’ll get a little dog in and they’ll guess and say it’s a “chihuahua mix.”  Many of these dogs look NOTHING like chihuahuas no matter how cross bred they were!  *laughing*  Hawaii’s pit bulls have some of the most aloha spirit of any dogs I’ve seen there.  Take for instance this sweetie, her name is Darlin’.  Darlin’ wanted nothing more than attention, to give kisses and scratches behind the ear.  Any time I’d try to walk away she’d howl in protest until I came back to give her the love she so desperately wanted.  I’d like to think Darlin’ is now getting regular belly rubs and smooches from the owner smart enough to adopt this bundle of fur.  We now set aside a few hundred dollars specifically to donate to the humane societies each year to give back for all of the joy their temporary residents have given us over the years. 

If you think you need to live in Hawaii to adopt one of these beautiful babies, you don’t.  All you need is a love for animals, an adoption fee and a carrier to get them home in and you’ve got the perfect Hawaii souvenir that keeps giving aloha everyday.  People do it all the time.  Even celebs such as Mike Myers and Lisa Marie Presley have adopted animals from the Humane Societies on vacation.  (Lisa Marie actually has Myspace pages for her 2 cats, Splotch and Finious!)

If you’d like to check out the local humane societies, see the links below:

Maui Humane Society

Hawaii Island Humane Society

Kauai Humane Society

Oahu Humane Society

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Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. callie on September 6, 2007 2:02 pm

    I love Dogs..Animals in general but love dogs. Would love to have another one, but waiting to move in order to do that…

    callie

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