Four Paws Rescue helps pet owners find homes

In the last six months, Four Paws Rescue animal shelter has created a feature on its website to help prevent pet owners from having to part with their animals when searching for a home in Cache Valley. It is a webpage dedicated to help pet owners find animal friendly housing.

  

“I’ve generated a web page of pet friendly properties managed in Logan,” said Shannon Syrstad, the volunteer in charge of the website.

Syrstad said that it does not include all pet friendly housing in Logan, many private properties aren’t included. However, she said it’s a great start to helping pet owners find appropriate housing.

“A lot of requests for us to take in pets are due to life changes,” Syrstad said. “Almost always the person is moving, or they just had a baby, or someone has an allergy, or job loss or home loss – but moving is the number one reason they surrender their pets to us.”

Syrstad hopes to help pet owners keep their pets, even when these life changes happen. She said that if the shelter can help prevent a pet from being given up or surrendered, then they’re successful.

“Whenever someone comes to the shelter to give up their animal because they’re moving, I always say, ‘can I help you find pet friendly housing?’ ” Syrstad said.  

Nathan Frantz, a pet owner from Florida, often visits Cache Valley for long periods of time and said he has used Four Paws Rescues services to help find temporary housing for him and his dog.

“Last summer I needed to find pet friendly housing for seven weeks in Logan,” Frantz said. “Seven weeks is an awkward period of time for any renter, especially as the dates did not correspond to the beginning or end of the month.  It was comforting to be able to contact Shannon through Four Paws and feel confident that she would come through -- and she did!”