BY DANIEL GAITAN | daniel@lifemattersmedia.org

A senior citizen’s move to a nursing facility or death too often equates to abandonment for his or her dog or cat. Even the most carefully made estate, legal and medical plans frequently forget any mention of what should be done with longtime animal companions.

Gloria Lissner, executive director of Famous Fido Rescue in Chicago, has been rescuing animals for more than 40 years. Almost every day, people leave the pets of aged and ill loved ones in her care.

“It’s a definite issue,” she told Life Matters Media. “It’s really important that people have a life plan for their animals. Sometimes their relatives don’t want them and bring them to bad places, where animals go into shock and get sick. Others let them loose.”

Among the dozens of animals brought to Famous Fido this week: four cats of someone no longer able to care for them.

“This happens all the time,” she said. “We get a minimum 25 calls a day. Senior citizens that no longer can keep their animals because they’re going into a nursing home or their relatives are not working with them to care for them.”

But shelters are not the best place for animals, Lissner said, because they are strange and unfamiliar territory.

“These are family members that live in people’s lives for years, and they are very attached to their people,” she said. “Suddenly, they are gone. There is nowhere for them to go, because there wasn’t a life plan worked out.”

Lissner provides “interventions” with senior pet owners to help them figure out alternatives. However, many are reluctant to broach the topic.

“There is no regulation,” she said. “You shouldn’t be able to just go to a shelter and drop off a dog. There should be counseling involved. We should be thinking in another way.”

Part of the problem: Lissner suspects people often “lie” to grandparents or sick relatives when asked to care for their dog, cat or bird after death. They are afraid to say “no.”

“It’s hard,” she said. “People just think a family member will take care of it. You really need to think about the person you want to take care of the animal.”

Across the state border at Safe Harbor Humane Society in Kenosha, Wis., executive director Megan Gonterman echoed Lissner’s concerns.

“Just like you have a will for your family, you need to have plans for your animal,” Gonterman said. “I have plans so that if I die or something happens to me, this is who my animals go to.”

Legally, pets are considered property. When a loved one dies, it can be difficult to prove or transfer ownership to a friend or relative without guidance. The Humane Society recommends that pet owners stay in touch with designated caregivers and alternates.

“Having plans in place will ensure that your animal has a place to go,” she said. “I got a call from someone whose grandmother passed away a year ago. They have been caring for her cats ever since and can’t do it anymore. At this point, because they’ve been caring for them so long, they are now legally theirs and can surrender them.”

Re-Adoption Can Help

Although shelters attempt to adopt-out animals, they are sometimes forced to euthanize if they cannot be socialized or adopted quickly. Seniors tend to have older animals, often far less appealing options among young families.

“We run specials on our senior animals because we know that you are going to be medically caring for these animals more than you would a young, healthy puppy,” she said. “They have lived their whole lives with another person, and now we try to find them their ‘Golden Home’ for their final years.”

Gonterman suggests seniors seek out these older pets, partly because they require less physical activity and training. Many potential pet owners are those widowed in their 80s and 90s, looking to ease the new isolation at home.

“It’s part of our job to educate them and suggest they don’t go for the 1-year-old cat. Why don’t you adopt our 11, 12, 13-year-old cats that may not outlive you?”

– Image: Vet Alissa Kielpikowski of Safe Harbor with Samantha, a senior dog. Photo by Daniel Gaitan