STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Animal Shelter of the Wood River launched a new chapter with a new name at its Dog Days of Summer benefit dinner and auction Wednesday night.
“I’m super excited that we will be able to hold this event at our new facility in a much bigger way this time next year,” the shelter’s executive director Jo-Anne Dixon told supporters. “And I’m pleased to announce we have a new name.”
That would be: Mountain Humane.
“For years,” Dixon said, the organization has been called ‘The Animal Shelter.’ But this no longer adequately represents us. We’ve outgrown our facility but we’ve also outgrown our name. The term ‘shelter’ is limiting in what we are. Yes, we shelter animals in need but we do so much more. And Mountain is a grounding place because that’s who we are and where we’re from.”
The capital campaign for the new animal welfare campus being built in Croy Canyon is less than $1.8 million dollars away from its fundraising goal of $16 million, said Brooke Bonner, the associate director of Mountain Humane.
It’s been aided by Cindy and Peter Urbanowicz who offered a $30,000 adopter matching challenge and anonymous donors who helped the organization raise another $1.2 million with their matching challenge.
Still available is the chance to purchase pavers engraved with messages or names for $250 and up.
The crowd was boisterous and the auction paddles went up often as the auctioneer paraded 10 auction lots past them. Lyman and Debra Drake’s lavender-covered estate in Provence went for $10,500 twice after the auctioneer announced it would be the last year for the lot.
A vacation on a private Santa Cruz Island got $22,000 and a photo safari nabbed $21,000.
The auction lots raised $135,000 as the bidding shifted to paddle up pledges.
And there was plenty more to come in from silent auction lots.
Juliette Gutierrez, a master hair designer in the 511 Building, created two of the birdhouses for a section of the silent auction coveted by many of the town’s gardeners.
Juliette’s Hobbit House featured roof shingles made out of pinecone flakes—each with their own nails. The other aviary sported a Western theme with a mule shoe, sheriff’s badge, an American flag with dog bones replacing the stars and even a painting of a bucking horse beneath the leather fringe.
Tattoo artist Tracy Lang, who was introduced to Mountain Humane by Robin Leavitt, painted a 44-by-66-inch watercolor of dogs at play that ended up going for $9,000.
“I looked at last year’s art and it was so serious. “I think dogs are hilarious so I presented all these scenarios of dogs at play,” she said.
Tawni Baker held court telling supporters that the shelter performed 720 spays and neuters this past year in a converted janitor closet. It taught 993 children how to have compassion for all living beings through its shelter dogs, and it will be able to triple that number with the new barn that will serve as education center.
“The new name reflects our drive to help Idaho become a no-kill state by 2025,” she said. “But, while we have an outreach beyond, Blaine County will still be our focus.”
Hillary Hayward described how she's taught more than a thousand dog classes a year, teaching both shelter dogs and privately owned dogs.
“Before I started, dog training involved a lot of dominance. People would pin their dogs on the ground if they didn’t do what they wanted,” she said. “Now we use science-based positive training, teaching and rewarding dogs for what we want them to do. We give the dogs choices and, if they do what we want them to do, we reward them. If we teach them that everything good happens with four feet on the ground, for instance, they’re never going to want to jump up on someone.”