Pets for Seniors volunteer Terri Boon feeds cats at the organization’s shelter in Edwards. The shelter usually has about 20 cats and four to six dogs, which allows volunteers to get to know the animals on a one-to-one basis. (Photo courtesy of Pets for Seniors)

Arlene Laughary first heard about Pets for Seniors when her then-octogenarian mother adopted a dog from them more than 10 years ago.

“He was 8 years old when she got him, and he lived to be 16 ½,” said Laughary. “I saw what having a dog did for my mom. It gave her a reason to keep going.”

Laughary ended up volunteering with Pets for Seniors and now manages the program’s new Forever Home Resale Shop in Peoria, established about a year ago to help raise funds to match older pets with senior clients.

While Peoria-based, Pets for Seniors facilitates adoptions within a 200-mile radius that includes Chicago and its suburbs, rural and small town northern Illinois and central and much of southern Illinois.

Pets for Seniors has found homes for about 3,600 animals over the years, said Barb Cathey, who founded the program in 1999.

There’s a waiting list for seniors wanting to adopt dogs, however, because most want a small, white, fluffy, female dog, Cathey said. The waiting list is shorter for seniors more open to adopting other older dogs or cats.

When Cathey first started, the group just took in older animals from animal control facilities and matched them with senior citizens and then provided after-adoption care. In 2003, the nonprofit group built a small shelter next to Cathey’s home in Edwards, Ill.

“Having the shelter allows us to bring in animals that are a good candidate for the program even if we don’t have somebody right at that moment to adopt them,” Cathey said. “We generally only have about 20 cats and four to six dogs, not only because of our size limitations but this way we can really get to know them on a one-to-one basis.”

PFS was born out of Cathey’s lifelong love for animals and her plan to get into animal rescue after retiring as a regional manager for an art materials company. She started out working at shelters and veterinarian offices.

“The reason I started the Pets for Seniors program is I had fallen in love with a dog that was up for adoption that was 7 years old, and I met a senior couple who went to consider it and chose a puppy instead. Within two weeks they had returned the puppy because it was too much for them and wanted to see that other dog again, which had since been euthanized,” Cathey said.

“So, I thought if we can make it easier for seniors, maybe they’d be more receptive to the older, calmer dogs,” she added.

Not only does PFS offer discounted adoption rates for seniors 60 and older, the pets come spayed or neutered and with all the initial vaccinations and even some start-up supplies, such as kitty litter, if needed.

Teri Walsh Schruricht (left) and Rosemarie Gardner, both volunteers with Pets for Seniors, snuggle dogs at the non-profit group’s animal shelter in Edwards. PFS has been matching older cats and dogs with senior citizens since 1999 and now also adopts animals out to the general public, as well. (Photo courtesy of Pets for Seniors)

After-adoption care includes providing transportation to the vet if the senior doesn’t drive.

PFS will even take care of the animal for free if the adopter has to spend time in the hospital or short-term nursing home, which Cathey said is the most used after-adoption care service they offer. The shelter will also take animals back if the adopter dies, but Cathey said that doesn’t happen often because they strive to make age-compatible adoptions.

PFS came in eighth place out of 200 entries in a national 2007 Maddie’s Fund Marketing Competition sponsored by Petfinder.com, winning a $10,000 grant that helped the group update the shelter’s dog runs and pay veterinarian bills, among other things.

Cathey said adoptions are good for both the seniors and the animals.

“Numerous studies have found that seniors who live alone who have a pet are less likely to be depressed. It lowers blood pressure. It gets people who have had surgery up and going sooner because they have to take care of that pet,” Cathey said.

She recalls a lonely widow with no family who always kept the drapes closed until she decided to share her home with a 9-year-old cat in PFS’s early years.

“Within two weeks when I called to check on them, she was talking about how they were getting along and she’d started to open the drapes so he could see out the window. He gave her a reason to get up in the morning,” Cathey said.

“What really got me, though, is a few weeks after 9/11 happened I got a letter from her about about how while everybody was reaching out to their families, she stayed glued to the TV and just held Oscar all day long, and they got through it together. There are lots of stories like that that really make me feel good about what we do.”

The Forever Home Resale Shop in Peoria’s Sterling Plaza offers fine collectibles, kitchenwares, craft items, books, jewelry, framed art and gently used pet items. The shop benefits the non-profit Pets for Seniors organization. (Photo courtesy of Pets for Seniors)

PFS operates primarily on donations with occasional grants and fundraisers, so the Forever Home Resale Shop has been a big help, Cathey said. The shop is projected to bring in about $300 a month this year after expenses.

“People have been really excited about it,” said PFS board president Liz Pollack. “We were fortunate that we just got carload after carload of donations when we first set up. We still have no trouble getting donations.”

The shop carries fine collectibles, kitchenwares, craft items, books, jewelry, framed art and gently used pet items.  The shop carries fine collectibles, kitchenwares, craft items, books, jewelry, framed art and gently used pet items. The shop can’t accept donations of cloth furniture, clothing, electronics or children’s toys.

Laughary and other volunteers sometimes bring their dogs to the pet-friendly resale shop, located at 3809 Sterling Ave. in the Sterling Plaza. A few customers also bring in their pets, including a woman who carries her cat in a sling.

“I have a black Pomeranian (Zoey) and a Jack Russell terrier (Sadie), and they like to greet the customers,” Laughary said with a chuckle.

HOW TO HELP

Both the shelter and the resale shop can always use more volunteers. Monetary donations are also appreciated and can be made on the PFS shelter’s Facebook page or on its website at http://petsforseniors.org.

Donations can also be mailed to the PFS Shelter at P.O. Box 64, Edwards, IL 61528. The Forever Home Resale Shop also has a Facebook page with information about items for sale.

For more information about volunteering, call Liz Pollack at 309-370-4492 or the Forever Home Resale Shop at 309-868-7543.

Donations can be brought to the shop during regular shop hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.