New dog shelter up and running

Going to Oberlin's dog shelter OASIS is like going on vacation, according to sophomore Sarah Brown. "It was nice to be outside in the fresh air taking dogs for walks and gave me an escape from Oberlin during the afternoon," she said.

Founded in March 1991 by Shari Kalina, OC '93, OASIS (Oberlin Aid to Strays In Distress) is one of two programs run by the Oberlin Aid to Strays (OAS) student organization. OAS is now co-run by sophomore Vania Stankiewicz and junior Susie Telsey, who are in charge of the dog and cat programs, respectively.

Stankiewicz offers an Experimental College (ExCo) course, "Oberlin Aid to Strays Practicum," which was originally formed to get students to volunteer at OASIS. Now students in the ExCo may volunteer at OASIS twice a week, take four cat shifts or take one dog and two cat shifts. This semester about 20 students are enrolled in the ExCo, a larger turnout than Stankiewicz expected.

Although students on the whole have a positive reaction to the dogs, one of the biggest problems, according to Stankiewicz, is when students do not know how to handle them. She tries to emphasize, "Don't let them get away with stuff."

"Last year some of us became hardnoses and tried to teach the dogs some manners. Several made a lot of progress," sophomore Jim Sheckard said.

Volunteering at OASIS involves walking the dogs or playing with them in the fenced-in area outside. The dogs are let out to play and eat at 8:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.every day, which is when volunteers go to the shelter to walk them.

Students in the cat program feed stray cats who linger by Daub House and the Conservatory every night at seven and work on taming them so they may be put into foster homes.

"It is very easy to get attached," said sophomore Heather Van Aelst, treasurer of OAS and a cat program volunteer.

"Having a lot of people feed them at any one time scares the cats. Since they are feral they are very timid around people and it takes a lot of work to just pet them," Telsey said.

According to Telsey, the cats are so afraid of people that when brought inside they literally climb walls to escape, which means they may be left outside during the harsh winter months. The dogs have an indoor facility which was recently relocated to a cleaner and more spacious shelter on Route 511.

The new building houses up to 17 dogs in spacious kennels and has heat, ventilation and individual runs. The shelter is run by volunteer town resident Vera Opel.

Opel, who has been volunteering at the shelter since it opened, took over after Kalina graduated in 1993. She has since seen the shelter through both ups and downs, such as the time a dog was put to sleep because of his tendency to bite people.

"Moony sometimes got very aggressive with males, which made him hard to adopt because of children's safety," said senior Michelle Holko, an OASIS volunteer.

Opel said she cried the whole time she was at the veterinarian's office during the procedure.

On a more positive note, Opel said this was the only case in the shelter's six-year history in which a dog was put to sleep for this reason; most dogs are safe and suitable for adoption.

Opel recalled one particular instance when two dogs, Teddy and German, were tied to the shelter's door with a note asking her to take them. The woman who adopted Teddy called Opel awhile later to thank her profusely for her wonderful new companion.

"It makes everything worthwhile when someone calls to thank me for letting them adopt one of our dogs," Opel said.

Holko's favorit\e dog was "a three month old puppy that was the cutest thing in the world," but she was unsuccessful in her attempts to adopt it. OASIS policy states that an adopted dog must live with a student's parents, according to Stankiewicz, so even off-campus students may not be able to adopt.

Since OASIS opened, over 550 dogs have been adopted. Although puppies generally come and go rapidly at the shelter, not all dogs are so lucky. Tigger, a large white and black mutt, has been there for eight years now.

Due to OAS's limited budget there is currently no facility for the cats, but there is talk of converting a garage into a shelter if enough money can be raised. This will probably not happen anytime soon, though, because of budget cuts recently made by the Student Finance Committee (SFC).

"I am paying for food and vet bills out of my own pocket," Telsey said. "We are going to appeal the budget this weekend but I am not very optimistic."

When the cat program first started there were 20 to 30 strays, but now the number is down to three. The cats have been spayed or neutered so there are no new kittens. "We try to set up a network of foster homes while they're recuperating from the operation,"Van Aelst said.

While about 15 to 20 of those cats were adopted, five to 10 had feline leukemia and had to be put to sleep since they were a risk to public health.

"It was really sad, especially since we were just starting to make progress with them," said Telsey.

There is not enough money from donations to OAS right now to take in the cats at OASIS. In addition, incorporating the cats into the dog shelter would be difficult because according to sophomore Jim Sheckard, "Cats are scared out of their wits within a mile radius of the place because of all the wonderful barking that goes on."

Senior Michelle Holko said would like to see OASIS completely run by students because it was started by one, but realizes not many of them would have the time.