Animal Humane Society of Ouray County Inc

Though Second Chance was founded in 1994, our story begins in 2002 during the height of an economic recession. As our programs continued to expand each year, we recognized quickly that we needed a way to shift animals to other organizations via transport and to increase our adoptions by getting out into the community more. So we purchased a used RV (1986), wrapped it with some cool decals, and set off to places like Montrose, Ouray and Telluride to begin mobile adoptions. In fact, it was early spring in Telluride in 2006 where both a successful adoption story and a rude awakening occurred.

It was Telluride Gay Ski Week and Second Chance had just rolled into Mountain Village with its Mobile Mutts & Meows RV, set up its tent and display, and begun showing off a wonderful group of adoptable pets to passersby. After an hour or so, a nice couple from San Francisco approached and fell in love with a sweet and gentle Blue Heeler puppy named Bubbles whose shy personality drew a crowd as she just wanted to nestle in the puffy arms of the ski jackets surrounding her. After cuddling with a potential adopter for at least 30 minutes she was whisked away to begin a life on the Pacific coast.

Literally within 10 minutes, a second couple seeing the RV came up and had virtually the same experience with Telly, a young aussie mix who was also working it with her big eyes and pouty face – vying for sympathy and affection from those who thought they were just on a simple ski vacation. Well instead of going to San Francisco, however, Telly’s new home was Boston! Thanks to our participation in Telluride and our ability to facilitate mobile adoptions, Second Chance had gone ‘coast to coast’ in placing homeless pets in a matter of minutes!

Though we had a tremendous results that day and continued to interact with animal lovers from all over the map (it still ranks as our highest total donation jar collection for one event), we had a bit of an ordeal with our RV. In addition to it being somewhat old and showing its age, it was challenging to drive in the winter and difficult to maneuver in and around Mountain Village and Telluride. It also broke down on the way back to Ridgway.

Over the years, Second Chance has patched up its RV on a regular basis and continued to aggressively promote animal transport and mobile adoptions, the latter of which accounts for nearly 15% of our total annual adoptions. Our current RV is also not accepted at the Telluride Farmers Market due to its bulky size and thus we are having to compact our animals and mobile adoption items into a smaller vehicle not equipped for mobile adoptions each week.

Additionally through our mobile adoptions we are afforded regular opportunities to promote the other aspect of our mission – of promoting responsible pet parenting and the human-animal bond. We are able to interact with hundreds of people, who we would otherwise not have access to, and promote our spay/neuter program, offer some humane training tools and techniques, and promote our organization overall.

As we move into 2012, Second Chance is planning to secure a more efficient and reliable (and becoming) vehicle to continue its success in getting pets into new, loving homes. We are seeking $1,000 toward the purchase of this new vehicle in order that we can expand our geographic target area as well as increase our mobile adoption events.