21 hours ago
The AC broke at an animal shelter. People lined up out the door to foster pets.
Katie Boord was scrolling through Facebook on Monday evening, enjoying the aroma of the chicken macaroni and cheese her husband was cooking, when a post appeared on her phone that made her panic.
An animal shelter in Derwood, Maryland, wrote: 'URGENT: Short-Term Fosters Needed for Shelter Animals.' The shelter's air conditioning was broken, the shelter said, putting hundreds of animals at risk of heat exhaustion.
'I have to do something,' Boord recalled telling her husband, Sean Clayton.
'Go ahead,' Boord recalled Clayton replying. 'I'll keep dinner warm.'
Boord rushed to the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center from her Rockville, Maryland, home, joining dozens of others who came on short notice to foster animals after seeing the shelter's message.
Boord left with three cats named Sponge Bob, Sandy Cheeks and Gary. The trio was among the roughly 70 animals who were fostered from the shelter this week as Montgomery County employees worked to fix the air conditioning amid a heat dome — a heat-trapping lid of strong high pressure — that brought extreme humidity and temperatures around 100 degrees to the D.C. area.
Maria Anselmo, the shelter's community relations manager, said employees didn't expect such a large outpouring of help.
'Half of us probably cried at some point over the past couple days [from joy],' Anselmo told The Washington Post.
When employees reported to the shelter Monday morning, Anselmo said, the air conditioning wasn't working. They called the county's Department of General Services, which found a broken air-conditioning motor that could be fixed in about 24 hours.
Shelter employees set up fans and cooling mats throughout their building. They froze Kong dog toys and limited their animals' time outdoors.
Employees emailed former foster volunteers for help. But they realized that wasn't enough people, Anselmo said, so they posted on social media in the late afternoon Monday.
'We're urgently seeking short-term foster homes for dogs and cats,' the shelter wrote, adding: 'Even a weekend foster makes a difference. You'll give a shelter pet a much-needed break from the heat and help us free up space during this critical time.'
As hundreds of Montgomery County residents and Maryland animal lovers shared the post, people began showing up at the shelter within minutes. The shelter's phones wouldn't stop ringing. Soon, a line formed outside the front door.
While the shelter usually asks foster volunteers to complete an application and schedule an appointment to meet employees and animals, the staff simply asked Monday for each volunteer's ID, address, phone number and email.
'We had so many people just show up who were ready to jump in and help that we weren't going to turn those people away,' said Anselmo, 37.
After Boord arrived that evening, she said, she waited about an hour for employees to give her three cats who had come to the shelter from the same home — Sponge Bob and Sandy Cheeks, both of whom are around 2 years old, and Gary, about 10 months old. Boord and Clayton already had an 8-year-old cat, Fillion, at home.
While Boord was at the shelter, Clayton set up their guest room for the foster cats with cat food, a litter box, water bowls, toys and a cat bed. While the cats were initially scared, they began playing with a spring toy the next day, and Gary, who initially wouldn't come out from his light blue blanket, cuddled with Boord, 34, a special-education teacher.
At the shelter, employees worked until around 10 p.m. Monday. One of the many calls they received came from Debbie Lauer, who saw the shelter lost air conditioning while watching the evening news as she ate a chicken skewers dinner. Lauer had wanted to foster a dog since she retired last month from the National Security Agency.
On Tuesday, Lauer's 67th birthday, she drove about 16 miles south from her Mount Airy, Maryland, home to pick up Princess Daisy, a roughly 1-year-old terrier mix with a white and brindle coat.
'It's just feeling like you're doing something good,' Lauer said. 'I'm glad I did it. I will continue to do it.'
The county fixed the shelter's air conditioning Tuesday, and the shelter emailed fosters that afternoon to say they could return the animals. But Ilya Albert, who began fostering Teton, an 11-month-old brown cat, on Monday, didn't want to say goodbye.
Albert and his wife, Jessica DePrest, had considered adopting a cat since their longtime cat, Jones, died last month.
At their Rockville home, Teton cuddled with DePrest, jumped atop their cat trees and purred when they picked him up. When Albert's 6-month-old daughter, June, pulled Teton's whiskers, Teton seemed unbothered.
'He felt like he was already a family member,' said Albert, 37, who works in marketing.
Albert told the shelter Wednesday he and DePrest wanted to adopt Teton. They renamed him Jake — based on the cat from the 1978 movie 'The Cat From Outer Space.'
Boord returned her cats Thursday, and Lauer is seeking an adopter for Princess Daisy.
About 40 dogs, 20 cats and 10 small animals — rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets and a chinchilla — were fostered this week, Anselmo said.
The shelter thanked the volunteers in a statement Wednesday.
'This response has left us speechless,' the shelter wrote. 'How do we even begin to express our gratitude for each and every one of you?'
To Anselmo, that starts by responding to every email and social media message the shelter received this week — a task she expects to take a few days.
'In the meantime: All animals are safe, cared for, and cool… thanks to YOU,' the shelter wrote.
