Animal shelter seeks adopters, fosters and donations for puppies

EVENSVILLE — Officials with the Rhea County Animal Shelter announced on Thursday that with an explosion in the puppy population at the shelter, the shelter is waiving adoption fees of puppies 1-year-old and younger during the month of August.

“As of now, we have 10 adoptable puppies that are 1-year-old or younger,” said Rhea County Animal Shelter Alliance Shelter Operations Manager Cathy Wright. “So, we’re offering free adoptoin for those puppies through the month of August.”

Animal shelter officials also said there is an additional litter of Chihuahua/Corgi mix puppies at the shelter, but since those are only 3-weeks-old, they won’t be able to be adopted until the end of August.

Rhea County Sheriff’s Department Animal Shelter Manager Amy Johnson said that the shelter usually sees an increase in the puppy population during March, or “puppy season,” but he said that for whatever reason, puppy season came later this year.

“Usually, puppy season does hit us in March, but it’s just hit really late this year,” she said.

Right now, animal shelter workers and volunteers are having to bottle- or syringe-feed the 3-week-old puppies at the shelter, so, Johnson said, what the shelter really needs is volunteer fosters in the community.

“We desperately need fosters,” she said. “Unfortunately, our fosters did have to bring some puppies back.”

The county animal shelter will work with fosters, Johnson said, and the shelter will cover the cost of any veterinary needs and will help educate fosters on a puppy’s needs.

“We would be able to explain to each foster exactly what being a foster would entail and what is best for the puppy,” she said.

In addition to fosters, Johnson said that right now, another big need is donations of puppy milk, puppy canned food and puppy pee pads.

While there is currently a high population of puppies and dogs available for adoption, there are cats and kittens available for adoption as well.

“We’ve done slightly okay with our cat population lately,” Johnson said.

If you are interested in becoming a foster or donating supplies, contact the Rhea County Animal Shelter at (423) 775-2029. The Rhea County Animal Shelter is located at 9118 Back Valley Road in Evensville.