Animal Rescue Coalition of Mecosta County celebrates 9th anniversary

Arroe said community supply and monetary donations have helped the organization and its volunteers and staff continue providing the quality care that the animals deserve.

“Our veterinarian bills can be over $30,000 a year, and people support us monetarily and we never have to make a decision about a pet and whether or not we can fix whatever their medical problem is,” Arroe said. “We have always been able to make every dog and cat as comfortable as possible with the help of the community. Before we opened I had no plans to have an animal shelter so it kind of just fell into my lap, and I’ve learned a lot these past nine years having not worked at a shelter before that.”

“The biggest thing when we look back at all the of and cats that have come in and our of our doors we have a lot of feeling of nostalgia because we’ve cared for and loved every single one,” she added.

ARC will accept animals regardless of age or breed and will evaluate reportedly aggressive animals, but will not accept feral cats. The organization functions as a no-kill shelter where no animal is euthanized due to lack of space.

Throughout the nine years, ARC has been open the organization has received a lot of positive feedback on adoptions and re-homing of their resident cats and dogs.

Christian Harr, a resident of Big Rapids, said that him and his wife’s decision to adopt a cat from the organization two years ago ended up being an eye-opening experience.

“My wife and I adopted our cat Tomahawk from the ARC of Mecosta on Sept. 21, 2019,” Harr said. “I never was a cat person growing up, but my wife was. She convinced me to adopt a cat and when we went to the ARC, all the cats were walking everywhere but Tomahawk was hiding in a box. We bent down to look inside and there he was, and he came out and followed us everywhere.”

“We knew then that he had chosen us,” he added. “He has changed my mind on cats and couldn’t ask for a better companion. Tomahawk loves everyone who comes over and is now the star of his own Facebook page.”

Another ARC adopter, Nicole SanCartier, said the adoption of her dog Mohalo seven years ago changed her life for the better.

“One summer day in 2013, I happened to stop in to see who was sheltering at ARC and was informed there was a litter of puppies that arrived not too long ago,” SanCartier said. “They opened the kennel door, and a litter ran free climbing all over me, licking and playing. One pup stayed back in the cage. Whoever opened the door, scooted the rest of the litter back into the kennel and one little one came out and laid on my lap, and I was chosen. His name is Mohalo and I am so thankful I happened to stop by the ARC that day, it was meant to be.”

The organization currently has nine cats available for adoption and 10 dogs available for adoption. The shelter will often have a wide variety of dog and cat breeds at any given time, and according to Arroe, the pandemic has actually helped many of their animals find forever homes quickly.

“The ones that are the most memorable to us are the ones that come out of sadder situations and are able to recover and find homes,” Arroe said. “The dogs and cats either are abused, neglected or scared of people and because of all the love that our volunteers give these animals, we’re able to make them adoptable. We’re a successful shelter and have been able to run as a no-kill shelter, and before we opened other shelters often wouldn’t take cats, so we’ve been able to do that.”

Arroe said COVID-19 impacted their volunteer numbers, but increased their adoption rates.

“Really we’re doing great and typically before COVID-19 we would have about 100 volunteers at a time which has decreased because of the pandemic but we’re hoping to get back to where we were,” she added. “The only good thing I can say about COVID-19 is everyone was lonely, so our dogs and cats flew out of the shelter. I think they made everyone’s lives more bearable during the pandemic while people were alone, and people have been asking if we’ve gotten any of those animals back and we have not.”

“People are not just keeping them temporarily, and at one point we got down to two dogs in the shelter because of how great we were doing with adoptions,” she added. “That’s one positive thing we’ve seen through the pandemic. As for donations, we can always use monetary donations and supplies for our animals, as well as foster homes for kittens and volunteers at the shelter which we can always use more of and appreciate.”

The ARC of Mecosta is open from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesdays through Fridays; 5-7 p.m., 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays.

The organization is consistently in need of supplies for animals including puppy pads, cat litter especially recycled paper pellets, Purina cat chow, nylabones, soft dog treats, Purina dog and puppy chow, Purina kitten chow and cat treats. The only dog toys the organization uses are nylabones and tennis balls.