WEST MILFORD In front of the West Milford Animal Shelter building, there are large enclosed exercise runs that give the dogs at the shelter waiting for new homes the opportunitytorun around outside, get some fresh air or sleep in an igloo. There is one exercise run that is much larger than the others and it is built on a grassy area. Theothers are built on concrete. The volunteers call this larger area "the play pen."
After the dogs are walked in the morning, they are put into the exerciseruns. One lucky dog gets the play pen area. But not for the entire day. The dogs are rotatedso they all have an opportunity to run on grass and have more room to run around. The dogs are walked again in the afternoon and evening.
One evening, Terri and Gail, two of the shelter's volunteers, came in to walk the dogs at night. They walked a very large dog and put him in the play pen and thenwent to walk another dog. As they were walking the dog past the play pen area, they saw the large dog was running around with something in his mouth - it was a cat.The did not know how she got into the play area but knew she was not one of the shelter's cats. They kept yelling for the dog to drop the cat but the dog was having toomuch fun. Needless to say, Terri and Gail were very upset and went into the play area and were finally able to get the dog to drop the cat.
They thought the cat had used up her nine lives. They brought her into the shelter and sawthere was no blood on the cat or any visible injuries. And she was not crying.She just seemed to be dazed. It was very late in the evening so the cat was put into a cage, made comfortable and warm and given food and water..
The cat was brought to a vet first thing in the morning. She had no broken bones or injuries; she was just in shock. With rest and lots of TLC, the catsoon recovered.
The volunteers named her Lucky. Not only was she lucky to survive the shaking by the dog but she was adopted not long after her arrival at the shelter.Her new owner named her Lucy. She was very happy and very much loved in her new home but unfortunately, Lucy recently came back to the shelterwhen her owner had to go into a nursing home.
She is now called Lucky Lucy and, needless to say, she is not fond of dogs. Lucky Lucy is allowed to roam freely at the shelter and likes to spend her daysgreeting people who come in.
The volunteers are hoping Lucy has some more luck coming her way and will be adopted into a new home. Lucy is spayed and up-to-date with inoculations.
The fee to adopt Lucky Lucy is $35. For more information call 973-728-2859 or visit www.westmilfordanimalshelter.org. The shelter is located on
Lycosky Drive behind the recycling center.