Directors and volunteers at Kern County Animal Services rely on county residents to adopt almost 6,000 animals a year.
They’re thanking one local woman who gave not one, but two dogs, a forever home.
Darlene Wheelock’s home is a little more full this week after her visit to KCAS.
She went to the shelter after losing two of her three dogs to old age last year.
“I was like, I need a little something besides the one,” Darlene said.
It wasn’t long before Darlene and her daughter Shannon visited KCAS on Fruitvale Avenue.
They instantly fell in love with a Yorkie, named Lucy.
“They told me she has one eye and I said that doesn’t matter. She can still see.”
So they went back to the shelter on adoption day, and waited hours to make sure they could take Lucy home.
But Lucy didn’t come into the shelter alone.
Lucy’s own puppy, fittingly named Ricky, didn’t leave Lucy’s side.
“He was real scared and shaky,” Darlene said.
And she didn’t want to separate them.
“Both the dogs and cats a lot of times they do better in pairs it helps them adjust when they’re coming out of a shelter to life in a home,” Nick Cullen, the Director of KCAS, said.
“If they weren’t here to adopt them there would be another alternative,” Nick said.
“I was praised and told there need to be more people like that. All I did was save two little dogs that need to be together,” Darlene said.
Ricky and Lucy have done more than just lift their spirits, Darlene says they help ease her Parkinson’s symptoms.
“Sometimes I get tremors, and they come lay on my legs and I guess they sense that. It makes me feel good.”
If you or someone you know has done something kind for others, let us know by visiting https://www.turnto23.com/hello-humankindness.