Doesn’t anyone want us? These dogs have spent months, even years at KC area shelters

You can call him Guinness. You can call him Brodie. You can call him Tom.

The Great Plains SPCA animal shelter has changed the dog’s name — a 50-pound pit bull mix with pink bunny ears — three times to get him noticed.

All they really want is for someone to adopt the 3-year-old and call him theirs.

Tom, as he’s currently known, has the unfortunate distinction of currently being the Merriam shelter’s dog in care the longest — over 600 days, ever since he was brought in on Dec. 6, 2021.

The Kansas City area’s shelters, overwhelmed with a glut of dogs since COVID waned, have hundreds of dogs up for adoption. The situation at KC Pet Project in Kansas City has become so critical that the shelter, to make room, has now felt forced to euthanize dogs for reasons that go beyond obvious illness or severe behavioral issues such as unresolvable biting or aggression.

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The shelter, at 7077 Elmwood Ave., with an average stay of 22 days, places dogs on its “at risk” list for euthanasia after 30. The list currently has 100 dogs on it. Up through late July, one of its dogs continuously at risk was Alfred, a 2-year-old pit bull mix, who was brought into KC Pet Project as a stray on March 16, about 150 days ago, the longest time spent in the kennel

Initially friendly and kind, the longer Alfred stayed the more withdrawn and difficult his behavior became. Often he would sit and shake with nerves. He was put on the medication Trazadone, as happens with many shelter dogs, for anxiety.

Then, to the relief of many at KC Pet Project, someone chose to foster him and took him home.

Still, KC Project would like to see him adopted. The same with Tom.

At Great Plains, a smaller shelter, he’s also being fostered. And 600-plus days is a long time.

Kathi Thies, 71, who has fostered dogs for years, took him to her Kansas City home on June 2, 2022, more than a year ago

“Tom, being in the shelter so long, he was getting stressed,” she said. “Tom is definitely the longest foster I’ve ever had.

“He’s a big cuddler, a big cuddle bug. Loves to give kisses. More like a coach potato in the home. He’s very chill.”

And kennel trained, Thies said. And he loves to take car rides and is good with other dogs, although perhaps not small dogs, as he tends to play rough, she said. A video on the Great Plains site, she said, offers a sense of his playful spirit.

“He’s just a very well-behaved dog.”

That raises the the question of why Thies just doesn’t keep Tom herself.

“That’s going to reduce my fostering choices,” Thies said, and for her it’s a mission. Plus, at 71, she not sure such a long-term commitment is a great idea. “Not that I’m a fatalist or a negative person, but what would happen to my animals?”

More, she thinks fostering is vital.

“Because I just see a dog that can be totally different in that environment,” she said. “It may take time. I keep them long enough, they’ve all become wonderful dogs.”

At this point, until Tom is adopted, she is going to keep him. She hopes someone out there will decide he will be as wonderful for them as he has been for her.

“They’ll live happily ever after,” Thies said. “That’s where I have to feel positive.”