Tail end of housing crisis: pets

The Dalmatian came first.

Then a golden retriever arrived at Furrytale Farm, followed by a mule, a horse and a goat named Bob.Only then did Suzannah Sloan notice a common theme in the stories of those who had dropped these animals off: foreclosure.

The housing crisis has reached the doghouse.

"We didn't think of it when it started," said Sloan, 69, a widow and cookbook author who has run the no-kill shelter on Bainbridge Island for a decade. "But it has been continual and accelerating. I've never seen anything like this."

For people losing their homes (King County has had 1,356 foreclosure notices in the first quarter of 2008), beloved pets soon become a living luxury they can no longer afford.

Sloan used to get two calls a week from people wanting to surrender their animals. Now, she gets a dozen — almost all of them tearful and wrenching.

"This is a different group," she said. "Instead of 'I need to get rid of it,' they say, 'I need to find a new home.' They don't want to surrender their pet, but they have to."

(People giving up pets at the Seattle Animal Shelter have blamed finances, too, said spokeswoman Christine Titus, but not in great numbers.)

Of the 30 dogs running around Sloan's 8-acre farm, half are what she has come to call "economy kids."

At the same time that the shelter is getting more calls, it is getting fewer donations because people have less money to spare. The downturn pushed Sloan to put her own place on the market last year; she's looking at another property not far away.

Compounding that reality, a fundraiser expected to raise some $100,000 for the shelter fell through.

Meanwhile, the "economy kids" keep coming.

Owners bring them for a visit first, so Sloan can see whether they are adoptable, or capable of being made so; and whether they get along with the other animals who inhabit a sprawling outdoor area and a section of Sloan's spacious glass-and-wood home.

Sloan is careful in her dealings; she has twice been arrested for animal theft. Both times, the charges were dropped.

She always asks if the pet will be left permanently, or if there is a possibility the owner will reclaim it (she doesn't board animals).

"Generally, the answer is no," Sloan said. "Once they tell me they lost their house, I'm not making them go into details because nowadays, you know what that means."

When it comes to the final goodbye, some owners linger and others leave "as soon as they can," Sloan said.

Last week alone, two pregnant mixed-breeds arrived. Within days, they had given birth to 15 puppies — all slated for adoption once they're 8 weeks old.

But that, too, is wishful thinking, since fewer people are adopting pets.

"That's the other part of all of this," said Sloan.

So puppies ready to be adopted are waiting three times longer than usual.

Meanwhile, the "economy kids" are getting used to their new, greener digs — and unknowingly waiting for greener days in people's wallets.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She would take Coco if she could.