SPCA of Brazoria County

This heartfelt blog post was written by SPCA of Brazoria County board member Lindsay Scovil. Lindsay shares her personal experience participating in the annual Shelter Slumber Pawty—an overnight fundraising event where volunteers sleep in kennels alongside adoptable animals to raise awareness and support for the shelter.

“You’re gonna sleep WHERE?!?”

That’s how most people reacted when I told them I was going to sleep in a kennel at the SPCA of Brazoria County overnight. Usually, their second question was, “Why?!?”

The “why” is the easy part. I’ve been actively involved in animal rescue for over fifteen years, and I’ll do just about anything to help our area’s homeless pets. Shortly after moving to Lake Jackson almost three years ago, I joined the SPCA-BC board. Fostering had been a big part of my life for many years, but when we moved here, we had 4 pets at home at the time (we’re at 5 now), which made fostering difficult. Joining the board was a great way to give back in a different way. So signing up for last year’s Slumber Party was an easy, albeit still pretty out-there, thing to do. And signing up again for this year was a no-brainer! My “why” is to help the homeless pets in our area.

The “how” part of sleeping in a kennel is a little more difficult. I learned last year that you can make a pretty decent little sleeping pallet on the floor with a layer of pillows covered in blankets. The day before this year’s Slumber Pawty, I gathered as many pillows as I could find at home, shoved them into plastic bags, and loaded them into my car. Once at the shelter, I got the floor of my space set up before the amazing staff at the shelter brought me my kennelmate, Glo (more on her in a minute). I then turned to my next task: decorating the walls of my kennel.

Every year, each participant raises as much money as they can for the shelter. Last year, I asked my friends and family to donate toward specific goals that would allow me to bring certain luxuries into the shelter with me. Total donations over $50 meant I could take a blanket with me; total donations over $500 meant I could take earplugs; etc. It was my first year, and thankfully my friends and family donated enough to keep me comfortable.

This year, I said that for any donation of any size, I would hang up the name of the donor’s beloved furbaby on my kennel walls. While I went for comfort last year, my kennel space itself was still pretty drab. My donors this year helped me take my kennel from “drab to fab” with 26 loved furbabies honored or remembered on the walls. It was beautiful to be surrounded by so much love.

Back to my kennelmate, Glo. My dogs at home are big, a Pittie mix and a Chow/Great Pyrenees mix, so I’m comfortable with the big babies. These ones are also some of the hardest to adopt out. Go into any shelter and ask who their longest-stay dog is. It’s never going to be a chihuahua or a yorkie. 

Last year, I shared my kennel with Heidi, a Great Pyrenees. This year, I got Glo, a beautiful Rottweiler. I may love the big dogs, but it definitely makes the “how” of the sleepover more difficult. While most of the other participants were cuddling with their 30 to 40-pound pups, I woke up to both of my legs asleep from the knees down because my sweet 90-pound Glo had her head (literally, just her head) on my legs. Her snoring meant there was no way I was going to move and disturb her. Luckily, a chorus of barking rang out not too much later that stirred her from her slumber, allowing the blood to return to my feet and Glo’s gigantic head to rest against me instead of on me.

The Slumber Pawty weekend is a ton of fun (we enjoyed a live performance from Cole Degges, great food, fun activities with our pups, and great friendship-building with our fellow volunteers), but it’s hard, too. Heidi, my pup from last year’s Slumber Pawty, already had a home waiting for her. She had been adopted the morning of the sleepover, but her new family wanted her to still be able to be a part of the fun so I was able to have her as my first kennelmate. I didn’t realize until this year how much sadness that helped me avoid. Glo, while a shelter staff favorite who gets to hang out in the director’s office, didn’t have a home to go to when we were done. I was going to leave after 24 hours, and she had to stay.

The staff at the SPCA-BC is amazing, and they love the animals in their care passionately. But it’s still a shelter. It’s loud, it’s hot, it’s cold, and it’s extremely stressful. Some dogs (and cats) can handle it. Others can’t, and it’s a nightmare for them. As the morning passed and my 24 hours in the shelter was coming to a close, I was very aware that my sweet Glo wasn’t going home to a soft bed and a loving family. The other dogs that had shared beds and snuggles with the other participants weren’t going to homes that night. They would be staying in the shelter, in concrete boxes with caged fronts, surrounded by fearful whines, frustrated barks, and whatever elements our Lake Jackson weather throws at them. I struggled to stop the tears that morning.

I mentioned earlier that I’ve done a lot of fostering over the years. People have always told me they could never do that because they would get too attached. It would be too hard to let them go. That was never a problem for me. I was always “Aunt Lindsay” to my fosters, never “mommy.” I was there to do a job, which was to love them, nurture them, get them healthy if necessary, and pass them on to their forever families. And then I would go get the next one. I loved each of my fosters dearly, but if I kept them, then I wouldn’t be able to continue fostering. And that worked for my life at the time.

Well, fast forward to now, and I’ve stepped back from fostering because of a too-busy life (I’m the executive director of the Lake Jackson Historical Association), and a too-full house. So I’m out of practice of loving the animals I’m trying to help while still protecting myself emotionally. It was hard to let Glo go on Sunday when I left. I discovered that taking a step back from being directly involved with the animals has, for me, made it harder to be directly involved with the animals. And you know what? That doesn’t help anyone.

The unexpected result of this year’s Shelter Slumber Pawty is that I’ve realized that I have to get involved again more directly with the animals. I know the work we do on the board is important, but I can’t shy away from the tough stuff. The staff and the animals at the SPCA-BC rely on people like me to step into that space and love these furbabies through our pain. I challenge each of you to foster, volunteer to walk dogs, or take them out on a date night excursion. You will fall in love. And it might hurt. And it will absolutely be worth it. 

And in very happy news, a dear friend of mine saw my posts about Glo and will be driving down from North Texas on Friday to adopt her. She is going to have an amazing life.