I adopted Thunder back in May of 2010 as a present for myself and renamed him Olley (like “olly olly oxen free” since he liked to hid from me). Living in St. Cloud away from home was hard and even harder since I’ve always had an animal companion around me growing up. I searched for apartments that would be cat friendly and once I found on I began looking for my special friend. I came across Olley on the website and fell in love with him instantly; I went to see him at the humane society and left that day knowing that I had to have him. I picked him up and he was so cuddly and just laid in my lap. When I brought him to my apartment he had a thing for attacking me and my roommate (hiding under the couch and biting our ankles) but I knew he was a kitten and would grow out of it, that fall I moved back home and even my parents fell in love with him. We have two Chihuahuas and my parents were really worried about how they would react to a cat. It took a little time but now Olley likes to act like a dog (meowing at people that walk by the house and loves going for a run outside).

Having Olley has taught me to become more patient with things and slow down and take time out of my day to relax and just play with him. All my friends adore him as well (one had even named herself his godmother and even sent him a birthday gift from her home in Arizona!) my parents joke around saying he is their grandson! He is very spoiled and acts like the king of the house; I ended up having to purchase a new bigger bed since he is such a bed hog too. Couldn’t imagine my life without that little guy though!

His favorite things to do are run around our land with the puppies, play in the water or play with his toy Mr. Piggy. Olley is one strange cat because he has a huge love for water, where if I turn on the shower he would jump on and just lay there and his favorite place to lie is the sink! And whenever we have boxes laying around he always finds a way to find inside of them. He is always bringing a smile to my face.

I want to thank you all at Tri-County Humane Society for all that you do, and all the time and effort you put in to finding these animals a good home. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t ever found Olley and my life just wouldn’t be the same! Keep up the amazing work, it means a lot to the community and most importantly it means a lot to the animals!

-Missy

Tricounty Humane Society,

Hello, my name is Laura and I have enclosed some pictures of Leo, who we adopted on 4/23/11.  He's still a happy little kitten that loves to run, play and climb up anything he can (we think of him as a ninja!)  We already had a female cat named Angel and it's taken some time for her to tolerate and warm up to Leo.  However within this last week they've become more comfortable with each other and play almost constantly when around eachother.  I'm sure Leo is thinking "Finally, she'll play with me!"  We sure are happy to have him!

Thank you,

Laura and Frank

Hey everyone,

So I enjoy reading everyone's happy endings with the pets they'd adopted from here and since I've recently adopted a pet myself, I figured, Hey, now I have a reason to write my own E-Mail!

Most of the crew have probably already heard me talk about him, but I have yet to tire of it:

I saw Rascal the chinchilla at the beginning of this year and highly weighed the pros and cons. I've wanted a chinchilla for years but I haven't been able to keep an indoor pet at my parents' house. I've since moved out, but the dorms don't allow chinchillas any more than my parents would. But there was a ray of hope for me: my boyfriend had just moved into a new apartment. And believe it or not, it allowed pets.

I made sure it was all right with his landlord of course, and made sure it was okay with him if the chinchilla could stay with him for a few months until I move out of the dorms this summer. He said he was fine with it. I told him all he had to do was make sure he got fed and watered every day and maybe allowed a short run outside of the cage every now and then. It was only for a few months, I thought.

So I decided. On January 3rd, 2011, I bought him and then brought him to my boyfriend's and set everything up for him. Told him I'd pay for anything it would need. First thing I notice is that my boyfriend seemed to heed to the chinchilla's personal comfort wants than I had; I had to remind him several times not to give him too many treats. We came up with the new name, "Zippo," although the little guy still is quite the rascal.

Soon enough, I'm getting calls at 3:00 in the morning telling me how he was sorry to wake me "but I just had to call you! He jumped up onto my bed with me and came over and sniffed my nose!" He's now buying him all sorts of chinchilla treats made of Timothy hay so he can feed him treats all day long. He's bought him one of those chewable hideouts and flavored wood blocks and who knows what else? Of course, I offered to pay him for it, but "Oh no! It's nothing!"

Apparently Zippo slipped off his wooden ledge one day when his dad was over and he reported how my boyfriend was freaking out over him.

My boyfriend has even found "the spot," just behind his cheek where, if you scratch it, he'll cock his head to the side, close his eyes, and lift a paw into it. You can never scratch there for too long though, or he'll forget his balance and almost fall off whatever he's sitting on. I can't get over how cute it is.

I asked my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago to get pictures of him for me and when I didn't get any, I asked why: "Because he's like his daddy; he doesn't like his picture being taken."

So now, Zippo is getting kisses from "daddy" every day after he gets home from work and he's training him to only be able to go out of his cage if he's willing to hop up into his hand. Then he gets free range of his entire room and more treats for being good and just for being cute.

So much for being worried about him! Instead, I might have to be worried about taking him away from "his daddy" this summer! I just might have to get him his own chinchilla! So thanks, TCHS, for having chinchillas so adorable that not even a grown man can resist them available for adoption. Not only have I found the perfect pet, but I think I have the perfect man, too! Thanks, Milissa

Dear Tri-County Staff and Friends,

We just wanted to take you a few minutes to update you on the lives of some of the animals you've helped shelter, care for, and love who have now become a part of our family. 

Back in September of 2006 we adopted Rusty, a 2-year old tabby tom cat from TCHS.  Rusty quickly integrated himself into our family and made friends with our young sons (who were 2 and 1 respectively). When we made a move to the West Coast in 2008 and couldn't take Rusty with us, he brought joy and companionship to our mother-in-law until we returned to Minnesota in 2009. 

Halloween night 2009 found us at TCHS again and falling in love with a rescued female bulldog named Sissy.  The volunteers that night wanted to make sure that Sissy, being a bully breed would do well with our boys as it had been recommended she not be placed with kids.  After seeing that Sissy took well to the boys and they were calm around her, we were allowed to adopted her, renaming her CiCi.  CiCi needed eye surgery to correct her left eye, and following her surgery she became an active, dedicated, I-will-follow-you-to-the-ends-of-the-earth companion.  She considers herself the guardian of the family and takes her responsibilities very seriously.  While she loves us all, my husband, Jim, is her favorite. 

We felt after adopting CiCi and stabalizing her into our family life and routine, that an additional dog would be beneficial as a companion for her.  We searched and considered several dogs, even fostering a few for a week or so in our home.  CiCi accepted a rescued, young boxer/AmStaf mix, named Sadie, and as soon as Sadie accepted her position in the home, both dogs became fast friends and companions.

With the cat and dogs and taking in one of our nephews to live with us, our home was full of love and energy. Then, in 2011, during one of our Saturday afternoon visits to TCHS, Jim and I discovered Lola, the 6 yr. old, 13.2 lb., Lop rabbit.  Lola had been adopted from TCHS before and returned.  We visited her several times before on March 1st, Jim surprised our family by bringing Lola home.

After several days of acclimating all the pets to each other, Lola soon solidified her place within the family.  She is an incredibly social animal, and especially enjoys chasing/playing with Rusty, the cat.  The dogs have grown as fond of Lola as dogs can, and treat her as another family member.  Lola loves being petted and will hop up and "head bump" our hands until we pet her.  Evenings are family time in our home and Lola loves roaming freely around exploring and just "being" with her entire human and animal family.  Since her cage at TCHS was even too small for a rabbit her size, we chose a dog kennel for her new home, which gives her room to hop around, do her business in her litter box, and enjoying playing with her toys.  Her cage is kept clean daily and is in the living room where she can look out and feel a part of the family during the morning/day before her evening roaming time. She enjoys the attention of our two boys (now ages 7 & 6) and loves having plenty of room and affection given to her.  We look forward to many years of love, learning, and companionship with all our animals.

Thank-you for all you do to rescue, love, and advocate for abandoned/surrendered animals in our area.  Your willingness to give these animals second or third chances at love and families of their own has brought hapiness to many pets and people as well.  Enjoy the attached photos of everyone!

~ The VanGilder Family ~

(Humans:  Jim, Kim, Keenan, Jonathan, & Justin)
(Pets: CiCi, Sadie, Rusty, and Lola)

Hello There!

You may remember me, I was a guest at your place a few weeks ago and was adopted by a nice old couple from South Haven.  I wanted to let you know that I'm doing just fine.

The nice old couple live on a farm and so I really have a nice time running and playing.  No cars or other things to get in my way.  The old guy goes for a run every day and I like doing that too, although he's not very fast.  I stay with him just to make him feel good - he thinks he's younger than he really is!

I live in the farm house here and it's really nice.  I have a pad by the fireplace.  They pet me all of the time - I think they are trying to spoil me and that's OK with me.  They even have two grandkids who come to play with me.  They are 11 and 9 and we have fun together.

The old folks take me to a dog training place on Thursday nights and we are trying to get the old folks to learn to walk with me (they call it "heal" or something like that), sit, lay down, and stay.  They are learning, but between you and me, they aren't the brightest bulbs in the pack.  I'm trying to be patient!

As you can see from my photo, I've gained a bit of weight and that smile on my face is because I'm pretty darn happy here.

I'd better get going because the old guy doesn't know that I use his computer and he'd have a fit if he knew.  After they go to sleep at night I like to Google photos of famous dogs.  The old guy found paw prints on the keyboard one morning and accused his wife of being messy - ha ha, good one!

Thanks again for taking good care of me while I was there!

Rudy