Delivering The Donations

This is Michael and Morgan delivering all the donations along with $78.00 in cash and checks.

They delivered rice, chicken broth, dog toys, dog treats, cat toys, cat food, cat treats, cat litter.

After the picture taking and delivering the donations, they were able to go on a tour of the facility and learn more about the history of the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center.

In the late 1800's this shelter was located on Brockton in downtown Riverside.  It was originally the humane society for dogs, cats and children and farm animals.  It grew too large for the area, and moved to another unknown location.  Eventually it became just the Humane Society for dogs and cats.

Later in the 1990's,  Mary S. Roberts, the mother of the owner of the Mission Inn, took over the shelter and renamed it the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center.  They changed the name to differentiate themselves from the Animal Shelter.

Their focus is the re-homing of cats and dogs and like to be known as an Adoption Guarantee shelter rather than a "No Kill" shelter.  The Mary S. Roberts has a transfer employee that works at the County Animal Shelter for the animals that are relinquished to the county but are viable for adoption and has them transferred to the Adoption Center if there is room.  We met an Australian Cattle Dog by the name of Zip who is a 6 year old female whose owners were moving out of state to an apartment and couldn't take her with them.  She is great with children and was slated to be put down right away if she hadn't been transferred.  She has only been at the Adoption Center for a couple of days.

Here is a picture of Zip with Michael and Morgan:

Our tour guide Carrie Ridgeway explained that last year the Riverside County Animal Shelter put down approximately 20,000 dogs and cats.   She urged Michael and Morgan to get the word out about spaying and neutering dogs and cats.  On the average, it takes about 30 to 45 days to adopt out a dog or cat.  Sometimes cats and dogs can be housed at the shelter for years.

We got some great news though.  Bud the cat we had to relinquish to the Pet Adoption Center in February had just been adopted on Sunday by a lady who has two other cats from the Adoption Center.  It was heartwarming to know that he has found a good home.  Apparently he had been a favorite there with Carrie.

Here is Carrie answering questions during the interview.  The interview took place in the lobby, and you can see the cattery windows behind them.

This is the outside meet and greet area where potential new owners can meet with the dog outside along with their current dog(s) to make sure that everyone gets along.

The brick path is a way to contribute toward the development of the new building.  People can buy the bricks and have their names engraved on the bricks.   Isn't it a pretty view from there?

Since this is a private Adoption Center, they operate on grants, private donations and volunteers and fund raising drives.  It is considered a not for profit organization.  It costs approximately 25.00 a day to house a dog or cat.  The bricks go toward paying off the loan of over $1 million dollars that is left on the mortgage of the facility.  The total cost to build the new facility that was finished in 2007 was about $3 million dollars

We are behind the building following a couple of volunteers walking toward the outdoor doggie play area.

Outdoor doggie play area.  There is the covered area along with 4-5 outside fenced areas that have little wading pools for the dogs to play in.

This is the covered dog play area that had been privately donated.  It is complete with dog agility training tools and astro turf so they don't have to mow or water it.

This is one of the original kennels that is left for emergency situations like quarantine or if an owner that had been hoarding needs a place to house the dogs until they can be sorted out.

This is an outside dog run for the big dogs.  It is complete with chairs for the volunteers and a bin of toys for the dogs.  This is located behind the building and is a long dirt pathway that parallels the Santa Ana River bed.

Michael and Morgan holding two very adorable and adoptable kittens.  The Adoption Center has a pediatric veterinarian that spay and neuter the kittens when they are at least 2 pounds and 2 months old.  This prevents them from being able to reproduce.

Carrie said that if one pair of cats reproduces over 6  generations, and their kittens reproduce, they will have produced over 100,000 kittens.

We saw first hand the importance of spaying and neutering.