PORT ANGELES – Animal shelters across the U.S. report placing record numbers of dogs and cats as people suddenly find themselves stuck at home amid the pandemic.

Here in Clallam County, the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society has also seen an uptick in requests for adoptions and fostering, but because they are not listed as an essential business, they were closed for two weeks. Executive Director Luanne Hinkle says they are now beginning to process those requests, and folks can visit the shelter by appointment only.

One dog in particular, who goes by the name of Athena, has just found her forever home after being a resident of the shelter for over 6 years.

“Athena came to us over six years ago. She actually became part of our OPHS family. And, in Athena’s case, she didn’t get along with any other animals. She needed to be a solo apparently. And I have to tell you, in these days of where we’re…we have some challenges that were dealing with, it was so wonderful to see her go to her forever home. There were many tears at OPHS and we were just so thrilled and over the moon that she was adopted into a new forever home.”

Hinkle says that despite the temporary closure and the fact that they had to postpone their biggest fundraiser of the year, she’s very proud of the fact that they have been able to keep 100% of their staff employed.

“I really want to do a shout out to our staff.  They’ve, you know, been showing up and doing double duty, because we have some staff that had to stay home. Either they were suffering from a cold or some kind of symptoms, or one of their family members were. So the staff that’s been their on-site caring for all the animals have really, really done a stellar job, and I want to thank them, and I wanted the community to know what a great job that they do.”

The fundraiser that was scheduled for the end of April has been tentatively rescheduled for a weekend in October. More on that later.

“We’re hopeful we’ll be able to have it obviously again. And we don’t know exactly how the economy will recover and how many people can donate like they’ve done in the past, but we’re pretty hopeful that this too shall pass.”

Athena and her new family.