This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
10/19/2016 08:30 AMSnape and Mad Eye Moody may sound like characters you’d meet at a Howl-O-Ween Bash, but these two are actually sibling kittens who now live together in a forever home, thanks to some very special foster care by Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter part-time Animal Control Officer (ACO) Eve Vandewarker.
But costumed versions of Harry Potter characters may well make the scene among the guests arriving at the upcoming Howl-O-Ween Bash, coming Saturday, Oct. 29 to Branford Elks Club from 7 to 11 p.m. Eve is co-organizing the fundraising event to benefit no-kill Cosgrove Animal Shelter in its mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home all animals taken in, including those in desperate need of medical care. The municipal shelter serves the towns of Branford and North Branford.
Howl-O-Ween tickets, $30 per adults aged 21 and up only, offer a howling good time with Halloween-themed music, dancing, a costume-capturing photo booth, and prize-winning costume contests as well as great food, a silent auction, photo booth, and cash bar.
Eve is co-organizing the bash with Cosgrove commissioner Marilyn Vailette, and it’s not the first time she’s pitched in to brew up great ideas for fundraisers to support the shelter.
“All of the staff gets involved,” says Eve. “I’m only here part-time, but when I’m not here, I’m still working on things to help. Not many shelters do what we do, and these events really help us. This Howl-O-Ween event will help us toward our medical bills for the animals, whether they need vaccinations, spay and neutering, microchipping, heartworm tests or medicine, or help with a medical condition. All of that is above and beyond the [municipal] budget.”
Cosgrove Shelter Director Laura Burban said Eve goes above and beyond for the shelter in many other ways, from redesigning and launching the shelter’s new Facebook page to taking in special needs animals and fostering them back to health. That’s where two kittens, named for Harry Potter characters Snape and Mad Eye Moody, come in.
“They were two brothers, and Snape had a [condition called] mega-esophagus—he couldn’t eat,” says Eve, who brought the kitten home to foster it to health. “It was kind of tricky—you have to hold the cat up in an upright position and use a baby spoon to feed it and keep him upright for a good 15 to 20 minutes after he eats, so it was an experience I’d never had before.”
Eve has been fostering cats, kittens, dogs, and puppies through the years as both an employee and volunteer with Cosgrove Animal Shelter. She started out as a volunteer, but after about two years of helping out, Eve was offered a part-time ACO position when the job opened up. She’s been on the staff for 11 years.
“I’ve always loved animals, and I always enjoyed working with animals, so when they asked me to take the position, it was wonderful,” she says. “I think there are definitely hard parts of the job, like when you see animals that are abandoned and abused, but we get lots of chances to show affection and do the fun things that we do for the animals that are coming in. We get attached very quickly!”
Eve got particularly attached to two shelter rescues who are now part of her family: a 16 year-old Yorkie Schnauzer mix named Beau and a soon-to-be five-year old bulldog/boxer named Cooper. Beau was in particularly rough shape when he arrived at the shelter, Eve recalls.
“When he was here, he had no hair, so we didn’t know what he was,” she says.
Eve also fostered Louisa, one-year old Pekingese blinded by a bad eye infection who has since found a forever home.
“Getting through it, you think, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to get this animal adopted,’” says Eve. “That’s the job you have—rehabilitating that animal and getting it ready so it can go into a forever home. And then when that time comes, it’s so amazing.”
Eve is a big fan of another blind dog that’s currently at the shelter, a sweet black and white pit bull named Tessa.
“Tessa was rescued from West Haven with her house-mate, a 100 pound English bulldog, about a month ago. We were the only shelter they could get a hold of that would take them,” said Eve.
Eve helps get the word out on animals coming in to the shelter and those ready for adoption by helping Burban post on the Cosgrove Shelter’s Facebook page as well as PetFinder.com. She also puts together adoption information boards with photos to bring to events in the community.
“If we get their pictures out there and it brings people in and they see whether that dog was right for them or not, well maybe there’s another dog or animal here they might find instead,” says Eve. “We have so many animals here, and not only dogs and cats, like right now we have a lot of guinea pigs. And those animals can all come in needing care, which events like Howl-O-Ween help to pay for.”
To donate food, prizes or other contributions to the fundraising event, contact Eve Vandewarker at evandewarker@branford-ct.gov. Howl-O-Ween tickets are available at Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter, 749 East Main Street, Branford, or at www.branfordanimalshelter.org click on “DONATE.”