Looking to help old friends

By all accounts, Ginger the golden retriever died a happy dog.

Inside the Buffalo Grove home where she lived out her final months, she would thump her tail when getting attention, loved to snack on Goldfish crackers and never missed a night's sleep curled up beside her owners' bed.

Almost six months before she died she was a stray, depressed, filled with sores and living in a Fox Valley pound for a month. Her home there was confined to concrete runs with chain link fencing.

That's when Palatine-based Young at Heart pet rescue stepped in, one of the few organizations that focuses on saving older animals.

The group has been around since 2005 and focuses on "re-homing" senior dogs and cats, since they're usually the last picked for adoption.

Young at Heart was what brought Ginger into the lives and home of Keith and Jeanette Kratz of Buffalo Grove. The dog's exact age wasn't known, but she was at least 10.

Like most animals in the program, Ginger was sick. She had kidney disease requiring daily treatment and frequent trips to the vet.

Ginger nonetheless spent her final days in a warm, caring environment at the Kratzes', finally being put to sleep after the kidney disease progressed too far to keep her alive.

In hopes of giving that same dignity and peace to other older, abandoned pets, the group has an ambitious plan to raise enough money to open the Chicago area's first senior pet sanctuary.

Focus on 'seniors'

Six to 8 million dogs and cats enter shelters yearly, according to the Humane Society. And 3 to 4 million of them end up euthanized by shelters each year.

Young at Heart was founded in hopes of lowering the euthanasia rate for older animals in the state -- even though it's a costly effort.

Along with finding homes for older pets, the group pays all their medical bills.

"I think we should give the poor, older dogs a few great years," Keith Kratz said. "It's a reminder to all of us that we should cherish every day of health for ourselves and our pets."

Older animals often are passed up at shelters for younger dogs and cats.

"People want kittens and puppies," said Young at Heart Executive Director Dawn Kemper.

Older pets have many of the same ailments as people: hearing problems, liver disease and diabetes.

"They are challenging," said veterinarian and Arlington Heights Animal Hospital owner Stephen Camp. "And these things are going to add up to medical expenses to people."

Camp had high praise for Young at Heart.

"They work and work and work until they find these animals a home," he said. "There's no one else out there focusing as much on senior pets."

Plans for shelter

Because of its grass-roots nature, the Palatine group only handles about eight to 10 dogs and five to six cats in the program at once. Its animals have been found adoptive homes across Lake, Cook and DuPage counties.

But the number of older, homeless animals far outpaces the number of people who want them.

"Every week, we turn down dozens of people who have older pets to give away," said Kemper. "The demand is huge."

Right now, some of the pets awaiting homes are temporarily boarded at a kennel in Prairie View, since there's nowhere else for them to go.

But Young at Heart wants to change that. Organizers want to build the region's first senior pet sanctuary.

It would take in older animals at area shelters who are close to being put to sleep and be a place for pets deemed "unadoptable" to live out their days.

The group has found 10 acres in Woodstock, complete with trees, a pond and room to roam.

But Young at Heart doesn't have the $275,000 to buy the property. This month, it's launched a yearlong fundraising effort called the Big Heart Campaign.

Though more people are beginning to see the benefits of adopting older pets, it takes a lot of time and effort to find homes for them, said Kemper.

"The only way we'll ever be able to make a dent is to have an actual adoption center and sanctuary," she said.

Dogs like Ginger are the reason Kemper and the other leaders of the organization keep working to find homes for older, unwanted animals.

"We will love, cherish and miss Ginger forever," said Kemper. "She was a good dog -- the epitome of the gentleness and beautiful soul of a senior dog."

A look at Young at Heart Pet Rescue

• Since its start in April 2005, the group has rescued 170 dogs and cats whose average age is 6.9 years.

• The group has 9 licensed foster homes in Chicago and the Northwest suburbs.

• Best Friends Pet Care houses four to five adoptable cats at any given time by donating a small cageless adoption area to Young At Heart.

• Right now, 100 percent of its animals are rescued from open-admission shelters. They include DuPage County Animal Control, Humane Society of Fulton County and Fox Valley Animal Welfare League. The group also works with smaller animal controls departments, such as Arlington Heights Animal Control.

• In an average week, Young at Heart receives 100 e-mails from animal shelters throughout the Midwest asking for help in placing older animals.

• Young at Heart gets 30 calls a week from individuals who need to "re-home" their pets due to death in the family, admission into a nursing home, or change in life situations.

For more information on the group or to donate to the Big Heart Campaign, go to yahpetrescue.com.