BY JACQUELYN LEWIS
JACQUELYN LEWIS
Pro-Bone-O client Dave Jones
waited more than three hours
to receive care for Gizmo.
“It was well worth it,” he said.
Companions
“We don’t seem to see starving animals,”
she says. “Their basic needs are being
met.”
The volunteers also say they see just as
many or more neglected pets who live in sta-
ble homes. Boyden points out that the ani-
mals of homeless people are often better so-
cialized than regular pets as well. “Their fam-
ilies spend a lot of time with them,” she says.
Peterson agrees. “They are typically not
put on a chain and left,” she says. “It’s harder
for [the homeless] to take care of their pets,
but I think it’s just like anyone if they make it
their priority.”
However, Peterson says she still encoun-
ters individuals who say homeless people
should not have pets at all. “But all they have
to do is volunteer here once, and they will
change their minds,” she says. “[The clients]
provide a home for a lot of animals that
wouldn’t have homes or would be killed in
the shelters.”
Board member Vicki Bockes says many
of Pro-Bone-O’s clients rescued their pets.
One man found a litter of puppies in a dump-
ster, another saved the Boston terrier he saw
being tossed from a moving car, and another
found a dog abandoned behind a local gro-
cery store.
Bockes says homelessness — for people
and animals — is a result of society’s throw-
away attitude. “We live in a cast-off society,”
she says. “We cast off our pets and our people
as well. It’s disgusting. By taking in these an-
imals, homeless people are stopping a pretty
ugly circle in their own way.”
Peterson adds that pets provide rare com-
fort and companionship for the homeless
community. “It’s their sanity and their life-
line,” she says.
Bockes agrees. “Simply because they
don’t have a home doesn’t mean they should
be denied the unconditional love that pets
give.”
Lay, a regular client who lives at a camp
site, says her dog has been the difference be-
tween life and death. “I decided I needed
somebody, because I’m by myself.” She adds
that most of her family members have died in
the past couple of years. “He’s my life,” she
says, holding Butthead on a red leash, “He’s
the only family I’ve got. If I didn’t have him,
I probably would have committed suicide al-
ready.”
Wagner says she feels a similar connec-
tion to Maggie and Gizmo. “Pets are a com-
fort to people,” she says, looking around.
“They love you no matter what.”
Bockes says Pro-Bone-O is imperative to
the lives of not only the animals, but also the
people the organization touches.
“With the clients that we serve, we are ‘it,’
and this makes it even more incumbent on us
to do more,” she says. “These people have
very few resources, and without us, even for a
moment in time, they might fall further into
the cracks.”
ew
All of this is brought together by 15 local
veterinarians and their staffs who volunteer
for the organization, 15 volunteers from the
Homeless people with pets find help.
community, donations from local veterinary
made
Christmas
T-shirts.
The
room
is
a
flurry
clinics and individuals, as well as fund-rais-
illian Wagner and Dave Jones are
of activity as volunteers hustle to care for
ers. Several clinics provide free used, re-
doting pet owners. The pair beams
more than 31 pets within the clinic’s desig-
turned or out-of-date supplies. Pro-Bone-O
when the sleek, gentle doberman pin-
nated four-hour time period.
mostly cares for dogs and cats, but they ac-
cer they call Maggie May Jones thrusts out a
Homeless people hoping to find care for
cept many types of animals, from rabbits to
paw to “shake,” while Gizmo Dozer Jones, a
their pets arrive at these clinics in droves —
rats, and even a chicken.
tiny black ball of energy and fur, shimmies
by car, bus, bike, foot and just about any
The clinic’s volunteers and clients alike
between their feet. “They are always doing
other mode of transportation available — and
sing the praises of Pro-Bone-O. “I volunteer
something new,” Wagner says with a loving
they often wait more than three hours to see
because I see the need and I have the skills to
glance toward Maggie. “It’s like watching
the veterinarian. “There are usually at least
help,” veterinarian Roberta Boyden says.
kids grow up.”
20
people
on
the
list
each
clinic,
and
we
usu-
“It’s very rewarding. The improvement in an-
One look at the dogs reveals that the two
ally have to turn people away,” board of di-
imal health is paramount and wonderful.”
are indeed as pampered and well looked after
rectors member Jeannie Peterson says.
“Ryha owes her life to the kindness of this
as the most beloved children. Maggie’s light
clinic,” one client
brown fur shimmers on top of well-defined
says, pointing to a
muscles, and chubby Gizmo almost appears to
huge, tan-colored
be smiling. What is not immediately evident is
mastiff.
that Jones, Wagner and both pets are home-
“I’m glad they
less. This small family drifts from one tempo-
have this, because I
rary shelter to another — a situation Jones de-
really don’t have the
scribes as “the middle of nowhere.”
money to take him
But today, Wagner, Jones, and especially
to a vet,” client Dee
Maggie and Gizmo, have found a small
Lay echoes, patting
pocket of warmth in the heart of Eugene.
a fluffy black dog
Along with more than 20 other homeless pet
she laughingly calls
owners, they gather at Pro-Bone-O, a non-
Butthead.
profit animal clinic which provides free vet-
There are some
erinary services for the pets of homeless peo-
pets here who aren’t
ple in the Lane County area.
as healthy as Ryha,
Pro-Bone-O secretary and treasurer Lyn
Butthead,
or
Gilman-Garrick says the clinic began back in
Pro-Bone-O volunteers clip the nails of T.J., a miniature pincer.
Maggie and Gizmo.
1997 when she and local veterinarian Doreen
Their
ailments
Hock became inspired by the devotion of pet
range
from
uncontrollable
diarrhea
to a fox
owners like Jones and Wagner.
In order to qualify for assistance, Peterson
trap wound. But, Boyden says, the clinic
“What Doreen saw was how much pets
says clients must match a “federal definition
rarely encounters neglected pets.
meant to people and how they would do just
of homelessness,” meaning they lack perma-
about anything for them,” Gilman-Garrick
nent shelter. Many of the clinic’s visitors are
says. She adds that the organization modeled
pet owners living in their cars or at camp sites.
its services after similar clinics that were in
For these people, Pro-Bone-O offers a full
Pro-Bone-O operates on the second and fourth Sunday of every month, from 9 am to 1
operation in Seattle and Davis, Calif.
spectrum of basic veterinary services, includ-
pm at the St. Vincent De Paul Lindholm Service Station, located on Highway 99 North.
The organization operates out of a space
ing vaccines, de-worming, flea medication,
(The office will, however, be closed Dec. 28.) The clinic’s goals are to improve the health
donated from St. Vincent de Paul at their
skin, ear and wound care, along with occa-
and well-being of pets and people who are homeless and cannot afford veterinary care, to
Lindholm Service Center on Highway 99
sional emergency assistance. Clients can also
prevent unwanted litters through education and, when possible, offer financial assistance
North. This rainy Sunday, the small, warm
pick up free bags of dog food and other pet ac-
for spaying and neutering, and to stop the spread of infectious diseases and parasites in the
waiting area is stacked with donated dog and
cessories. In addition, the clinic gives out four
community.
cat food, vitamins, toys, and even tiny hand-
spay and neuter vouchers each month.
JACQUELYN LEWIS
L
More About Pro-Bone-O
DECEMBER 24, 2003 9