The is doing their part to help the Gaylord Community by rescuing and reuniting animals, but also spaying, neutering and then rehoming the strays.
They are also taking those animals that have been surrendered for owners that have nowhere to go.
Tiffany Runge is one of several people displaced after a deadly tornado ripped through Nottingham Neighborhood. She’s no longer able to stay in her home.
“It happened so quick,” said Runge. “It was a matter of I got the alert on my phone and then looked out my window and it was already too late.”
But to make matters worse, she’s surrendering her cats so they can have a home rather than provide her comfort at a difficult time.
“That’s the hard part. Most of these people have had these animals for years. They’re their support animals,” said Melissa Fitzgerald, Otsego County Animal Control and Shelter Director.
It’s one of many cases Otsego Counter Animal Control and Shelter has seen in the past few days. They’ve also been working to reunite pets and owners helping six families so far.
“With the amount of licenses that we had for dogs out in Nottingham Estates. That I figured we’d be inundated with dogs and we weren’t,” said Fitzgerald.
They have also been working with volunteers on capturing strays in hopes to give them a new life elsewhere. One of those volunteers is the Pet Well Mobile Vet Owner, Dr. Amanda Zoerner.
“The reunion with the missing pet and the owner who’s distraught looking for their babies,” Dr. Zoerner said.
But the hardest part, so far, is finding an owner but not being able to let the pet say goodbye.
“I went into the emergency command center and said, you know, has anybody heard this name? And they said, ‘Yep, we have’, and she was one of the ones that died,” said Dr. Zoerner.
Anyone in Gaylord who is in need of supplies for their pet, litter, food and toys, can contact or visit the Otsego County Animal Control and Shelter.
If you think your pet might be there, you are able to go in and identify them.
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