2 Groups Bring Dogs And Cats Rescued From Rural Communities To DC, NoVA For Adoption

VIRGINIA — Twenty years ago Sue Bell made a decision that would alter the direction of her life and the lives of thousands of homeless animals across the region.

"Homeward Trails started completely as an accident," said Bell, who founded Homeward Trails Animal Rescue in January 2002. "And then for me, it became kind of a hobby and then turned into an obsession, which then turned into a profession."

During that holiday week 20 years ago, Bell, who had rented a cabin in West Virginia with some friends, was driving to a grocery store to buy food and beer.

"We drove past this shelter and there are all these dogs chained up outside to trees," she said. "We got some biscuits and stopped by to donate them."

The place Bell and her friends stopped at was a temporary animal shelter that had been set up in a doublewide trailer after a flash flood had destroyed the local shelter months earlier.

During the flood, 40 animals trapped in cages had drowned, but the survivors weren't faring much better. Dogs had to be tied up all day and then stored in plastic crates overnight.

"They told me that they were having to euthanize nine out of every 10 animals that came into their shelter, and I'm talking puppies, kittens," she said. "The most perfect of animals that no one in that area adopted and they didn't have space."

On Jan. 1, 2002, Bell returned to the shelter. Her plan was to bring two dogs back with her to the D.C. area and hide them in her house, because her landlord didn't allow pets. She ended up taking three dogs that first day.

Once Bell was home, she spread the word among her friends and advertised in The Washington Post for potential adopters.

"I got flooded with phone calls from people saying, 'Oh, can you help me find a nice dog? I can't find one. All of our shelters have big dogs,' or 'I don't want to go to a shelter. Will you help me?'"

Bell began driving out to the shelter in West Virginia every two weeks to find dogs that matched the requests she had recorded in a notebook. She'd then load the dogs into a van, drive six hours back to D.C., and circle the Beltway, dropping off animals at their new homes.

After a year of juggling a full-time job in downtown D.C. and the rescue on the weekends, Bell realized something had to change.

"I knew nonprofit management and budgeting, so I incorporated what I was doing into an organization and then just quit my real job and started doing it full time," she said.

After a bumpy start in which Bell had to take side jobs to make ends meet, Homeward Trails Animal Rescue eventually grew into one of the largest animal rescues in the Washington, D.C., region. With an annual budget of more than $2 million, the nonprofit has eight full-time staff members, about 35 part-timers and more than 200 fosters, who care for animals waiting to be adopted in their homes.

This year alone, Bell estimated the rescue she founded would place around 2,300 animals. Even with that success, many more animals across Virginia are still waiting to be adopted.

"We're not getting to the animals in time," Bell said. "In previous years the shelters have only had to euthanize for health reasons or because the animals were not adoptable. This year, it's been so hard. They're actually having to euthanize healthy and adoptable animals. So it's been a little depressing."

Homeward Trails is not the only nonprofit in Northern Virginia working to find homes for homeless animals.

In 2011, Dr. Kathleen Werden and veterinary technician Kristin Lassiter began taking in cats at the Harmony Hill Animal Hospital in Sterling. In 2017, they formed the nonprofit rescue The Cats of Longstreet, with the mission of caring for cats other rescues couldn't easily help. Because Longstreet was founded by a veterinarian, it's been able to provide a level of medical care that other rescues or shelters cannot.

"Even pregnant cats, most shelters will spay and abort at the same time," said Beth Wallace, Longstreet's board president. "We will take the pregnant cats, help them — usually they don't need much help — but let them have their kitten, get the kittens adopted out and then get the moms adopted. It is really to help the neediest cases and then get them into homes."

In addition to taking in and treating cats at the hospital, Longstreet also supports colonies of feral cats near the Sterling clinic and in Prince William County. Over the years, volunteers have been able to capture and relocate some feral cats, while picking up many kittens for adoption in the process.

"A lot of cats that appear to be feral, initially, we find that with a little bit of time and with a little bit of love, they are ultimately adoptable," Wallace said. "We don't do a lot of trap, neuter and release. There's a colony behind the clinic that they have been working with to provide medical care and to spay and neuter as they can. But for the most part, we're trying to take them in and find them homes."

Both Longstreet and Homeward Trails have partnered with businesses where potential adopters can interact with adoptable cats. Longstreet has joined with Patriot Pawsabilities Cat Lounge in Fairfax and Homeward Trails with Crumbs and Whiskers: Kitten & Cat Cafe and Lounge in Georgetown.

Since many of the cats Longstreet accepts have medical expenses, adoption fees alone won't cover the cost of their care.

Wallace recalled a dramatic example from last year, when a young, pregnant cat was left on the steps of a West Virginia shelter.

"She had an abdominal hernia," Wallace said. "One of the kittens had actually broken through the hernia hanging out, hanging under her belly."

The cat was on its way to another shelter in the area, where it was scheduled for a spay and abort procedure, when Longstreet intervened. The animal was taken to the Harmony Hill clinic and an emergency C-section was performed.

"She gave birth to five beautiful and amazing kittens," Wallace said. "They probably were not quite a week premature. We were able to provide care for those kittens and they were all adopted to homes. Mom was adopted to a home. Everybody lived happily ever after. Those are the kinds of cases that we do really well with. There are five cats who wouldn't be here otherwise."

Thanks to donations from its supporters, Homeward Trails was able to travel recently to the southwestern corner of the state for a trap-neuter-return project involving 130 cats.

"We took a team of six people and traveled to Galax, Virginia, where we met up with our partner shelter and rescue group down there," Bell said. "They brought another 25 people and we spent four days out in the field, trapping those 130 cats, getting them vaccinated, microchipped and sterilized."

The animals were then returned to their caretakers, who were provided with food and 50 insulated outdoor houses for the cats to live in.

"We did take nine kittens and cats from the community to foster, who turned out to be either too young to spay and neuter, so we didn't want to put them back out, or they turned out to be so friendly, that the caretakers really wanted them to get indoor homes," Bell said.

As 2021 winds down, both Homeward Trails and Longstreet are asking the public for donations to help them continue caring for and finding homes for the animals they rescue.

To make a donation, adopt an animal, volunteer or find out more information, visit Homeward Trails Animal Rescue or The Cats of Longstreet.