EUGENE, Ore. — A formerly homeless woman used a pooper-scooper to break ground on what is planned to be a full-time, full-service medical clinic to treat the pets of people who are either homeless or living in poverty.
Kate Joost said during the groundbreaking Sunday that the companionship of her 17-year-old dog, Maggie, helped her during the five years that she was homeless. Maggie has been a client of the part-time clinic upon which the new facility in Eugene is based.
“This was really the only place I could come where I felt welcome and safe,” Joost said of the Pro-Bone-O clinic. “The women that work here are extraordinary.”
Pro-Bone-O, a nonprofit that has provided free care to pets with homeless owners for more than a decade, now operates a twice-monthly free veterinary clinic. The new clinic will be housed in an old modular classroom donated by the Creswell School District.
The building will be moved to the site in January, with hopes of raising enough money to connect utilities, complete renovations and furnish with equipment in time for a summer opening, said Diana Huntington, vice president of the board of Community Veterinary Center, a group that’s been raising money for the project for several years.
“It’s just one of those services that’s not adequately covered,” said Huntington, a retired school librarian and longtime Pro-Bone-O volunteer. “We all see this as kind of the missing link, the hole in the net of social services that keep families intact.”
Evidence of the need was apparent Sunday, when crowds of pets and people converged in the service center lobby, waiting for their number to be called. Clients take a lottery number, but often there’s not enough time to see everyone in the five allotted hours.
The center’s laundry room doubles as the exam room, and veterinarians can’t perform surgeries, take X-rays or do stitches.
The planned clinic will initially operate on a limited schedule and offer services only to homeless pet owners. The center wants to eventually expand the hours and include pet owners living below the poverty line, Huntington said.
At the groundbreaking, Mayor Kitty Piercy spoke of the bond between people and their pets. Her parents never allowed pets, she said, but she has not been without one since being on her own.
“I, like everyone else, know how much pets mean in the lives of many of us,” she said. “They add immeasurable joy and love in our lives.”
Information from: The Register-Guard, www.registerguard.com
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