Petmobile puts paws within reach

OGDEN — Animal shelters can be downright depressing — all those dogs and cats looking forlornly through the bars, waiting for some kind soul to rescue them from the euthanizer's needle.

Well, now you can get a new pet without going through the trauma of tramping through the shelter. Instead, your pet will come to you. Ogden has a new "mobile adoption and pet licensing center" — a recreational vehicle with the sink and beds and bathroom ripped out and 21 kennels installed in their place.

"It gets people in there looking at the animals," Ogden animal services adoption coordinator Kim Busby said. "It gets us out there (in the community) and gets people thinking about adopting."

Busby, a dedicated adoption coordinator if there ever was one, has been in the habit of throwing a bunch of cages in the back of her pickup on the weekends and driving to supermarket parking lots to find good homes for her canine and feline clients.

Now she can do all that and stay warm.

"We've had a great response," she said Friday from her post at the Riverdale Petco parking lot as passing shoppers peered into the adopt-o-mobile.

Last weekend at a similar "adopt-a-thon" at Salt Lake City's Gateway, 20 animals were adopted from Busby's mobile shelter.

The Ogden animal shelter usually houses 185 to 225 animals, Busby said, with an average of 20 to 30 animals coming in every day and something less than that going out. (Healthy animals are all adopted or given to animal rescue groups.

Those with behavioral or physical problems are euthanized.)

Last summer Ogden animal services manager Ray Sim approached Neil Citte, general manager of Ray Citte RV and Automobile Sales in Roy, asking if he had a spare RV he might donate to the cause. Citte found a 1982 30-foot Winnebago Brave Class A that "looked awfully nice on the outside but awfully shabby on the inside" that he thought might fit the bill.

"I'm kind of an animal nut myself, so it all worked out on a positive note," Citte said.

Several months and some $2,500 in improvements later, the adopt-o-mobile was up and running. Last weekend was the first time it was put on the road.

Future schedules for the orphan animal RV will be posted on www.ogdencity.com.

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com