We want you to know that we’re here.
Despite the pandemic, we’ve dug in on our little corner of the world and we’re ready to help. As one PRCKC staff member said: “we have to be here to fight for the people in our community.”
Whether that means pet food distributions to families, rescues, churches and shelters, a mobile vaccination clinic that visits people who can’t get out, vaccines, or spay/neuter, we’re doing all we did before the pandemic.
And more.
We’ve managed to secure some supplies and can even handle some minor medical care at our clinic. That’s new. We’re also working with local pet celeb Scott Poore for a new program where he helps get pet supplies and then we act as the distribution center for those. That’s how we’ve been handling the pet food pantry and so far this year we’ve distributed over 50 tons of food all over the midwest.
“We have to be here to fight for the people in our community.”
Certainly the pandemic did a number on us and, very likely, most of the people we serve. When we came back, we had to re-imagine our business from the ground up. It meant creating lanes in our parking lot for waiting clients, devising a plan to check them in from their cars (which meant adding more phones up front), and figuring out how to keep staff safe inside the building and out.
Sometimes it also meant having a handful of us standing in the parking lot calling the front desk pretending to be clients. And doing everything we could think of to mess up the system and cause chaos.
Before we began again, it had to be right.
The new normal
We changed from having pet owners come inside to waiting outside in their cars and using runners to bring animals in and out. It’s more time-consuming, of course, but it’s also safer, while still allowing us to serve people and their pets.
For the foreseeable future, that’s how we’ll be doing it. We know that sometimes we get backed up and appointment times get a bit stacked. Like the other day, for instance, when a rather large American Akita, who was here for surgery, just sat down outside the door and refused to move.
We never force an animal to do anything they don’t want. And when a large dog doesn’t want to move, that can back everything else up. It did, in fact, for about 10 minutes as we waited for the dog’s owners to return and help get him inside.
Mostly, though, it has gone very smoothly. Not only has the PRC staff been incredibly resourceful and dedicated, our clients – our community – has been, too.
We’re not sure what the future holds now. If the city decides that businesses have to shut down again, we’ll see where we stand at that point. One thing is for sure, though. We’ll do all we can to be here and to help. We’ll do it in the safest way possible. And we’ll do it with compassion.
