My comfort place is my best friend. When I’m stressed or upset, she’s always there. She knows how to make me laugh in the goofiest of ways.

My best friend is my rescue hound named Daisy. She has brought so much unconditional love to my family in the two and a half years we’ve had her, and her love for us is the purest love on earth.

There are many dogs like Daisy in our community. They have so much unconditional love to give, and they bring so much happiness to most everybody.

The only difference is they haven’t found their forever families yet.

So I sat down with the director of the Clark County Animal Shelter, Adreanna Wills, to see how the community can help them this Christmas season.   

As many know, COVID-19 has affected almost everything in today’s world, especially the Clark County Animal Shelter.

Governor Beshear has placed restrictions in place to make sure that everyone is safe while adopting animals, and this changes things for the shelters a bit. 

Andreanna Wills vocalized the struggle they have been facing.

“With the restrictions in place it didn’t really make it hard for people to drop animals off, but it made it harder for people who wanted to come in and adopt because everything was by appointment,” she explained. “There were a couple months where there was a hold on medical procedures. Our vet stopped doing spay and neuter, which is detrimental in a shelter environment.”

As you can imagine, the flow of animals coming into the shelter was in a decline. But that didn’t stop the shelter from helping out animals and people in our community.

“Even though we didn’t have as many animals in house as we normally would, we saw a lot of need in the community,” Wills said. “So people who were suffering from job loss or struggling for different reasons, and people who were ill — they needed help with their animals. And so we started offering food, litter and other pet care supplies, and if people needed it they could just contact us.” 

And that is only one example of what the Clark County Animal Shelter is doing for our community. But they cannot do it on their own.

They need our help. Because they can’t go out into the community and do events like usual, their fundraising is hurting. 

So what can we do? 

Donations are always needed. “Donations, monetary and supplies, are always needed even not during COVID,” Wills said. “Our donations are significantly down with giving out the food for people who need help with their pets.”

Despite the 2020 challenges, Wills affirms that she and her team are “just trying to stay positive,” adding, “Even without Covid this profession is just taking one day at a time because you never know what’s gonna be thrown at you.”

This holiday season, consider making a difference in an animal’s life. 

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If you’re interesting in adopting an animal this Christmas, you can make an appointment by emailing [email protected] or by visiting the shelter WEBSITE.