The Humane Society of Southern Arizona has a new service to offer its “clients.”
On April 14 Max’s MASH Unit officially opened. It’s a room equipped to treat injured animals the organization takes in.
There’s plenty to see and according to Bonnie Leko-Shapiro, communications and marketing director, this room far exceeds the old hospital quarters which was actually just a closet.
A former cat-holding space, the new MASH unit was retrofitted into a “life-saving unit,” Leko-Shapiro said. “The room is filled with treatment tables, medical monitoring equipment, areas where sick and injured pets can heal. It is a place where (animals) can come in and receive acute medical care from the veterinarian and her team.”
There’s even a place where dogs that cannot walk while they recover may stay.
Looking around, visitors (if they get a glimpse) will see a lot of machines and stainless steel counters and examining tables a pet owner might find in their own vet’s office. There is plenty of storage, two stainless steel tables and a wet table, which means a table with a sink at one end, mainly because sometimes street animals come in very dirty.
“Sweet Romeo (a beautiful dog and one of the shelter’s success stories) was hit by a car when he came in, he was covered in debris and blood,” Jennifer Buchanan, director of development, said. “We were able to clean him and do all the medical things that needed to be done.”
An incubator currently houses Natalia, a tiny kitten who has a cat version of parvo. She’s a fighter, Buchanan said, so her outlook is good.
Although this room has the look and feel of a vet’s office, this is not a place for sick and injured pets who already have a family. This unit is specifically for animals the Humane Society takes in. Animals from other shelters that do not have a full-time vet have been brought in for care as well.
The room was made possible by a donation from Denise Cahalan, who named it in honor of Max, an easygoing black lab she adopted from the shelter who now works as a therapy dog.
“I have a huge appreciation for the work they do here,” she said. “It’s been a blessing to help them medically treat dogs, cats and other animals, help them find a home and help them end up with a family where they can heal.”
Dr. Karyn Carlson, the humane society’s full-time veterinarian, has been very happy with the new, onsite facility. It was she who said how the room should be equipped and she remembered what it felt like the first time she saw it completed.
“It was so exciting,” Carlson said. “I felt honored to be part of the recipient of such a generous gift and to work inside such a space, especially having worked in the space that we had previously.”
Carlson said the cost came in at about $50,000 and as far as she is concerned, it is money well spent. She has put the unit to use every single day since it opened. As for Cahalan, the person responsible for funding the space, she sees the work as important.
“I think in today’s world there’s a lot of strife, there’s a lot of anxiety, a lot of bad stuff,” Cahalan said. “The animal-companion bond is a very strong healer.”