Kansas City’s at a crisis with too many dogs to adopt. Here’s a creative solution | Opinion

True story: I once adopted an abandoned Vietnamese pot-bellied pig from my old backyard in KCK.

I’ll get back to the story of Luella the pig in a moment, but first I want to take a minute to address the pet overcrowding problem in Kansas City from my own perspective, and offer a potentially radical solution.

I know this is hard to think about. You might already have stopped reading. I know there are people who don’t like to think about the fate of unadopted animals. My sister turns off the ASPCA commercial — you know the one — at the mere strains of Sarah McLachlan’s song “Angel.” (Don’t feel guilty — the singer told Redbook that she can’t bear to watch the commercial either.)

McLachlan in interviews has mentioned the success of that commercial, having resulted in tens of millions of dollars in donations. Still, the overcrowding and euthanasia goes beyond dollars. It’s merely the fact that not enough pets are spayed and neutered, and too many people get animals and, for some reason, decide they can’t keep them.

And by the time the animal ends up at the shelter, it’s too late. There has to be a better way.

KC Pet Project has to euthanize dogs

My colleague, reporter Eric Adler, beautifully wrote about the KC Pet Project, a no-kill shelter that is now having to euthanize dogs because of overcrowding. And earlier this week, Lee’s Summit veterinarian Mohammad Abdullah also took up the cause in a guest commentary.

Lest you think three times in nearly the same month is, ahem, overkill, I would like to disabuse of this notion and tell you how an adopted pet can change your life. This isn’t a guilt trip, because the decision to adopt an animal is an extremely personal one. And, like Abdullah said, “Owning a dog is a long-term commitment.”

I am a confirmed pet owner and I believe it’s important to try to get a shelter pet when you have the chance. I have owned 12 animals since I was 21, and all but one were shelter or plucked off-the-street animals. Every single one of them gave me joy and a sense of purpose in a way a purchased animal couldn’t.

In the 10- to 15-year lifespan of each of my pets, I grew up and became an adult, moved around the country, lost my parents and formed my own family with the four-footed folks playing a major part.

Dogs: There was Norman, the black Lab-Rottweiler found on my KCK back porch covered in ticks. I didn’t know what the large bumps were until one fell off and crawled on the carpet. After several trips to the vet, including expensive treatment for heartworm that a friend so kindly paid for, he lived 12 years and was one of the best dogs I’ve ever had. I wept violently when he died.

There were Oso (a shepherd mix and the only breeder dog I’ve ever owned) and Lemon, another shelter black Lab mix who died only a short three weeks ago. An owner’s pain at the end of a full life of a pet doesn’t outweigh the happiness they bring us.

Cats: There were quite a few, I think because my old KCK house seemed to be a magnet for strays. There were Jacks, Kiki, Ginger, Annie, Susie, Jade and Gato (who is still very much thriving). And there was Rudy, a mangy Maine Coon stray who lived to be 20 years old.

Finally, there was Luella. I told you, it’s a true story.

Taking in Luella, the sweet pig

I was in the kitchen in 1999 looking out the window when I saw a black pig in the garden. The pig was about the size of a big dog, but rounder and sturdy. She came up to us and took food from our hands. When she stuck around, we tried to find her owner.

I took out ads in the paper, and a family member even went on TV. We only got one phone call from a woman who warned us not to just give the pig away to anyone, because “there are people who eat these pigs!”

After around a week with no claims, we decided to keep her, and she lived in our walkout basement. She was partial to her pig chow (yep, there is such a thing), prunes and puffed rice. She was smart, came when called and was housebroken. She was a good girl.

We had Luella for about three years before she got sick and died. I never knew how old she really was, but we loved her.

There is one incredibly important way to cut down on unwanted animals: It’s to spay and neuter. That is a guaranteed method to prevent strays. But sometimes, even spayed and neutered pets end up in shelters, and not enough people want them, or feel like they have the bandwidth to adopt them.

Today, with the recent passing of Lemon the Lab, I’ve been thinking a lot about whether or not I will get another dog. If you knew me well, you’d be shocked, because I love dogs. And if I am questioning, imagine how many other potential dog owners are.

But with Lemon gone, Gato the cat has become a lot more affectionate, and it’s just easier to keep a cat than a dog. Consider this slightly radical solution: a communal pet.

Sharing animals, responsibilities and costs

Sharing a dog with a trusted friend can take care of so many problems of a solo pet-owning household, and might prevent abandonment. Co-owning means I could travel and not have to worry about who will take care of the dog and how much that would cost. If I co-owned my next dog with someone, we could synchronize our schedules and there would always be one household at the ready.

There are plenty of examples out there right now: adult kids and their parents who act as de facto co-owners, and divorced couples who share the family pet.

I propose deliberate acts of communal pet sharing — going into the decision together, with intention, and planning together for the life of the pet.

What could it look like? I know a woman whose mom acts as a doggy day care: the daughter drops off her fur baby in the morning and picks him up at the end of the day. Or maybe, one person has the animal during the workweek and the other has it for the weekend.

Dogs generally love everyone, so I don’t think they would miss the other owner that much, and there wouldn’t be time to get attachment anxiety. It’s a win-win in splitting costs of food and veterinary care, too. Like any pet decision, both owners would need to go into this with eyes wide open, knowing and trusting that they both have the same pet parenting styles.

I don’t see much of a drawback here. Perhaps businesses could emerge as pet-friendly communal work or play spaces, to support these arrangements.

Studies have shown several reasons for the growth in animal abandonment: People adopted during the pandemic, and when they went back to work, they had to give up the pet; housing, and the lack of affordable pet-friendly housing; the death or health change of the owner. A communal arrangement could address all these, even allowing one owner to house the dog full time if the other found themselves in a desperate situation of finding a new pet-friendly home.

The KC Pet Project was on pace to take in 15,000 abandoned animals in 2023. Co-owning could severely cut this growth.

Kansas City, are you ready for this? Who’s with me?