PetSmart funds Valley facility for homeless pets

PALMER — A national pet supply chain is lending a hand to a local organization that serves homeless families.

In 2013, national pet supply chain PetSmart teamed up with Family Promise, a nationwide charity serving homeless families, to form something they call PetSmart Promise.

Under the program, five Family Promise facilities each year will get a facility to take in pets belonging to families they serve.

In only the program’s second year, Mat-Su Family Promise in Wasilla was picked to receive $35,000 to build a pet facility this year. Other Family Promise locations selected this year were Akron, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Montgomery, Alabama; and Morristown, New Jersey.

“A lot of families refuse to come into shelters because they can’t bring their pets,” Mat-Su Family Promise director Laurie Kari said.

In a press release announcing the latest round of pet facility construction, PetSmart Chief Executive Officer David Lenhardt said that the company recognizes family homelessness as a large problem nationwide.

“We’re honored to be entering into the second year of our partnership with Family Promise so we can keep even more families and their pets together while they get back on their feet,” Lenhardt said in the press release.

Karen Olson, president of the nationwide Family Promise organization, also expressed satisfaction in the partnership.

“By working together, we can help temporarily homeless families stay together and get back on their feet. We’ve seen time and time again how important it is to these families — especially the children — to be able to stay with their pets during their time of homelessness,” Olson said in the press release.

Like other Family Promise organizations, Mat-Su Family Promise partners with churches in the community to open up their facilities to temporarily house homeless families. Mat-Su Family Promise also has a small facility in its headquarters that can house families.

Kari said that the pet facility will be open to families housed in churches and at the organization’s headquarters. The family will be responsible for stopping by to care for the pet, to put the dog in the dog run or feed the cat.

She said it will have a room for cats and a room for dogs. There will be three dog kennels and two cat cages and a space for families to hang out with their pets.

“The program moves folks through into housing after 30 days so it’s not a real long time that the animal has to live like that,” Kari said.

Kari said that Mat-Su Family Promise had two office cats for a time — Ella Fitz and Gerald — but eventually staff started to get allergic to them. Having cats also meant that families with members who had bad allergies couldn’t be housed in the organization’s headquarters.

“We had to re-home the cats and we found a good home for them to stay together but it was pretty indicative just of the problem that we had trying to find them a home,” Kari said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.