AURORA | Laura Gittings recently adopted a dog that she didn’t come by through any pet store or animal shelter.
“This farmer was in his yard and a pickup (truck) came by really fast and slowed down,” Gittings, a resident of Lamar, said. “He saw the pickup truck throw something. As they were driving, they chucked it out the window.”
That “something” was 14-year-old Tucker, a Pomeranian Gittings describes as housebroken and sweet but needing soft food and lots of attention because of his age.
Now Tucker stays at Gittings’ home because she has no room for him at the Lamar Animal Sanctuary, which she runs and maintains.
Tucker’s story is not unique, Gittings says. The sanctuary is the only non-profit, no-kill animal shelter on the far eastern Colorado plains and is always at capacity.
Even with Gittings finding a way to house more than 20 animals in a space that only has 10 kennels, she says there is a waiting list.
“People are moving in and out, they don’t have the money to keep them,” she explains. “People will just discard them. They will take them into the country and dump them off. There have been people that have told us if we don’t take their dog, they’re going to shoot them.”
Lamar is a small, rural town in southeastern Colorado about 20 miles west of the Kansas border. A quarter of the city’s nearly 8,000 residents live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census.
When Gittings learned she could receive donations from a pet store 200 miles away, she was thrilled.
Through Dec. 20, Samantha’s Katz n Dogz in Centennial is sponsoring a holiday pet food drive to benefit the Lamar Animal
Sanctuary.
Centennial resident Barbara Preskorn organized the dog and cat food drive after visiting the sanctuary and seeing the shortage firsthand.
Preskorn lived in Lamar for about 10 years before moving to Centennial and says region’s years of extreme drought has increased the need for food and other services for abandoned pets.
Preskorn will be delivering food to the sanctuary to make sure it gets to the animals before Christmas.
Todd Dreiling, store manager for Samantha’s Katz n Dogs, says food will not only be donated by customers, but by the store’s high-quality distributors.
“We don’t carry products you’re going to find in bigger box stores,” he says. He adds that he’s working with companies like Stella and Chewy’s out of Wisconsin on donating healthy treats to the animals. “They do freeze-dried products and raw-based food,” he says.
Food donations can be dropped off at Samantha’s Katz n Dogz through Dec. 20. at 18525 E. Smoky Hill Road, Unit L, Centennial. Samantha’s will be accepting donation during store hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 303-627-7387 for more information.
Direct donations can also be made to Lamar Animal Sanctuary Team, Laura Gittings, 704 South 9th Street, Lamar, CO 81052. Call 719-336-5318 for more information.