PUHI — Anyone looking to adopt a pet can take advantage of a special free day this Sunday, courtesy of Subaru’s Share the Love.
Adoption fees will be paid for by Subaru, and through Dec. 31, Subaru Hawaii will donate $250 shared among six nonprofit organizations for every new Subaru vehicle sold.
“It’s the third year we’ve partnered with them and they’ve done this and it’s a great chance to come and see what animals we have here,” said Laura Lee, KHS development director.
KHS has not been open Sundays for about five years but is returning to opening on Sundays.
Lee said many in the community never quite latched onto the idea that KHS was closed on Sundays and it’s not unusual to have a few people knocking on the doors.
Starting this weekend, KHS will be open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will be closed Wednesdays.
“We felt we needed to be more open for the community,” Lee said. “People are off on Saturdays and Sundays and Wednesdays are our slow days.”
The shelter is at a record high, with about 200 cats and about 100 dogs, so the new hours of operation will give people more opportunities to adopt.
When the doors opened Tuesday, visitors and residents arrived to pick up dogs for field trips.
Doug Short and Sally Laird, both from Vancouver, Canada, said they’ve been planning on taking one of the KHS dogs to Waimea. They bonded with a couple of dogs while staff member Charissa Pruec and Lee coaxed six-month-old Melani from her kennel and out into the sunshine.
The little pit-mix puppy was found by the Kekaha post office, skinny, starving and trying to cross the road.
“She’s so sweet,” Lee said. “And she’s starting to gain some weight which is good.”
The puppy was calm and quiet in the midst of the barking and howling erupting from the rest of the KHS canines and warmed up to Donna and Dennis Sweeney, visiting from Chicago.
“We’re failed fosters back home,” Donna Sweeney said. “We try and foster and end up adopting. We do a lot of work with Make a Difference Rescue in Channahon.”
And on the other side of the shelter, KHS kennel staff member Shayna Borja-Buesil checked on Propeller, a feral cat.
The three-month-old white and tan tabby is sweet, inquisitive and active.
“He’s really friendly, now,” she said. “There’s a few in here like that.”
The Subaru Share the Love program is in its eighth year and beneficiaries are Alzheimer’s Association, Aloha Chapter; Hawaii Island Humane Society; Hawaiian Humane Society; Kauai Humane Society; Maui Humane Society; and Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii.
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or at jelse@thegardenisland.com
