southside animal shelter

Southside Animal Shelter has many successful adoptions!  If you would like to share your story to publish in a newsletter or online, please email us your story as well as a photo of your Happy Tail.

We adopted one of your cats (Snow) in Feb. of this year.  You have tried to contact us a few time to ask how he is doing and I keep forgetting to get back to you!  So, while I'm at my computer I thought I'd send you an e-mail and some pictures.  We decided to keep Snow's shelter name, since it goes with our theme (our other two cats are named Storm and Thunder)!  Snow is such a sweet kitty.  He took a little while to warm up to my husband, but now he's totally settled in.  He loves to play with his brother Thunder (they run up and down the stairs and from room to room rolling around on the floor with each other).  Snow is the perfect addition to our kitty clan.  Before we got Snow, Storm and Thunder we constantly at each other's throats because Thunder only wanted to play and Storm only wanted to snuggle.  Now that we have Snow, he plays with Thunder and snuggles with Storm - perfect!  We also have a 1 year old German shorthaired pointer and Snow is actually the most comfortable with the dog of all our cats.  They don't really play yet, but they do sleep on the couch next to each other.  Snow follows my husband and I from room to room and loves to be pet and snuggle with us.  We love him so much and we believe he couldn't be happier.  In the pictures Snow is the white cat and Thunder is the grey tiger.

When my boyfriend and I saw Asha on the Petfinder website labeled as "PLEASE HELP", we knew we had to invite her into our home. It amazed us that people would not adopt black cats. A week later, I went and picked up Asha, and she was patient as I got lost numerous times on the way home (I'm new to Indianapolis). She then spent two days under the bed, but we brought her little bowls of food and water until she finally came out to play.

Also, when we got her, she was very sick with an upper respiratory infection, and we took her to the vet (which she didn't like). Tony and I found out very quickly that cats don't like to take medication! However, she quickly recovered, and is now a very happy, healthy cat who enjoys knocking things off of our counter-tops and bookshelves. She is very loving and enjoys curling up on my lap or atop my shoulders and snoring loudly! Asha is wonderful and has brought us so much joy in the month that she has been in our home. Thank you so much for saving her and for giving us this furry bundle of happiness!!!  -Rachael K.

 My husband & I adopted Dallas on September 22, 2007.  We had just gotten married at and had recently moved into our new home. After getting adjusted, we decide it was time to add to our family.  We made the trip to the Southside Animal Shelter and feel in love with a little black/white blue eyed kitten named “Mickey Blue Eyes”.  He was very playful and a little ornery.  Just want we needed! J  We took Mickey Blue Eyes home that day & officially gave him his new name Dallas (named after my husband’s favorite NFL team—sorry Colts fans!).

Dallas has been an absolute joy and is a loved part of our family.  He is quite the cat or should I say cat-dog.  He loves to play fetch, swim in the bathtub—I’m not kidding, and helps me with everything I do from folding laundry (hiding all of our socks), doing dishes (playing in the water) & sleeping beside me. He is our best friend and we enjoy his company every single day.

Thank you for all you do for the animals in our community!

Best---

Lauren

Please consider adopting a “Lonely Hearts Club” cat. These are cats that have been at our shelter a long time. They can become depressed and sometimes they don’t seem as friendly so they continue to get passed over. But like Lily if they are given a chance at a new life they can be happy and loving pets again. Please read her story.

Thank you to all of our adopters who have rescued a “Lonely Hearts Club” cat and helped restore them to happy, loving pets. You are truly special for rescuing one of our petsJ

A Happy Tail from Petfinder

I had just heard about Petfinder from a friend and I was browsing the web on my lunch hour to check it out.  I saw two cats that caught my eye.  One was a Himalayan with unusual markings and another was a long hair calico.  I wanted to see them both in person.  My main intention in going to the shelter that day was to attempt to adopt the Himalayan.  Someone had just driven from another state and adopted her before I got there so I decided to check out the long hair calico. I ended up taking our sweet Lily home that day.  Lily's story was that she had been in someone's home for two years and had lived there with her sister. She was given up by her owner because his new room mate was allergic. Lily's sister had already been adopted. Lily had been in the shelter for almost a year!  When I got her home, she just sat next to the water bowl with her head hung down.  She looked so pitiful.  She would never stray very far from the water bowl. Our assumption was that she had been in that small cage for so long with the litter box and water bowl that was all she knew. She had forgotten how to play and had lost all curiosity.  We found out over time that she never would cry either.  If she did attempt a cry, it was as though her voice hadn't been used in so long that she couldn't even get out a squeak. Our theory was that she cried so much and it didn't help that she just stopped.  Lily was extremely depressed.  After almost a year, Lily began to come out of her depression. She began to play again and she would occasionally cry (only when she couldn't find us).  She stopped sitting by the water bowl and started sitting in our laps.  Now she is a happy healthy loving little girl.  She never goes where she shouldn't (like on the kitchen counters or table).  It's almost as if she is so grateful for having a good home that she doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize that.  Lily has been a joy.  We are as grateful to have found her as she is for her new home.  Should we find room for another "baby" we would certainly look for the one that has been in the shelter the longest.  If we had room, we would take them all out of the shelters. They give so much in return.