By Pat Lawrence
Carol Orr with a friend. |
She’s a CPA, but there’s no accounting for Carol Orr’s
commitment to the lost and lonely animals that pass through the Parkersburg
Humane Society. Although her official title is Volunteer Foster
Coordinator, Carol does as much fostering as she does coordinating. She
spends hours on the phone finding temporary homes for animals that
would otherwise be killed or turned away when the shelter is full. If
she can’t find a safe place for them, she often takes them home. She
and her husband, Dwight, have had as many as 18 animals in their care. “The
garage is dedicated to puppies in playpens and the bedroom generally
has a litter of kittens.”
Transplanted from West Virginia to Ohio and back, Carol’s been
in Parkersburg for the past ten years. She returned to college after
raising three children and says, “I finally gathered enough
credits from five different colleges over the years to get my degree!” She
passed the CPA exam, too and opened her own practice in Mineral Wells
over a year ago. When she’s not in the office, she’s
at home, either on the phone with a foster parent or on the floor
with a foster pet. “I sleep 6 hours a night. The rest of
the hours are split between working and fostering.”
Carol says she’s always been an animal lover. “Strays
used to magically appear in my front yard. We had cat and dogs
all of our lives. I’d drag animals home, and so did my
dad. My brother has three dogs and my parents just got their
third, too.” Her involvement with the Humane Society in Parkersburg
started when she lost a cat. “I went down to see if I could
get a kitten. It took me several trips to choose one- I kept leaving
in tears because I felt like I was abandoning all the others.” The
staff at the Humane Society recognized her as a kindred spirit and
asked if she might consider a pet transport trip. “It just
happened to coincide with a trip we were taking. After that, I started
fostering and now I’m the one they call when five puppies come
in and there’s no place for them to go.”
Carol says many of the people who foster animals discover they have
room for one or two more in their own household. “Especially
someone new to the foster program. They tend to keep the first
animals that come into their home. When they have as many as
they feel comfortable taking in permanently, they become real foster
homes.”
Saving animals has become an integral part of her husband’s
life as well. Dwight makes the drive to and from Hagerstown two
or three times each week, while Carol stays home with the pets. Carol
worries that the 1989 Ram van they donated has too many miles –250,000
- to be dependable much longer. “We need a new van and
more transport drivers. Cities with strong spay and neuter laws
don’t have our pet problem, so if we can get the animals to
a central location like Hagerstown, rescue groups can guarantee homes
for them. We average 20 animals each run.”
She says, “I would do more for the program if I could spend
less time taking care of the animals myself, as much as I enjoy them.”
She would like to spend more time recruiting foster caregivers, making
home visits, helping with training and support and finding sponsors
to promote fostering. “Until we get better at keeping animals
spayed and neutered, we can’t have a no-kill shelter, but we
want to save the lives of as many animals as possible. For many animals
it is quite simply a matter of life and death to find a foster home.”
For fun, Carol plays with puppies and kittens, takes her 85 lb. wolfhound
for walks in the woods and works in the garden – with an audience. With
grown children living in other states, she and Dwight are hoping to
take a trip together soon. “We just have to find someone
to stay with the animals.”
Carol is still filled with overwhelming sadness when she sees the
abandoned dogs, cats, puppies and kittens in cages at the Humane Society. Saving
animals, as many as she possibly can, isn’t really a choice
anymore, she says. “I can’t quit. I can’t not
do this.”
Contact Carol Orr at 304-489-4210 for more information about
becoming active in the Wood county foster program.
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