Adam Lechowicz and his dog Adelaide. (Photo provided)
New Best Friend
Dear Editor: Thank you to the Friends of Sitka Animal Shelter.
A part of the human condition is defined by love. A need to give it and a need to receive it. Some go a lifetime in search of a true unconditional love without ever finding it. I’m happy, however, to inform you that such a love can be found right here in town for the low adoption fee of $60.
I met my best friend nearly two years ago when I visited the Sitka Animal Shelter for the first time in search of a dog I could call my own. Thanks to the help of Friends of Sitka Animal Shelter, I met Adelaide (then Ali), a senior lab who had a rough time at the shelter. Anxiety- and arthritis-riddled and just a bit stinky, Ali had been in and out of the shelter a few times, unable to find her forever home. Until I met her. After a few visits and a small amount of pleading with my then-landlord, Ali found her forever home and started her new life as Adelaide. Known to those who love her as Adi, she has been the perfect first dog. She came house-broken, and packed with tricks that took months to discover. A habit to always keep a toy in her mouth has made her famous with both locals and visitors alike. And just like a senior lab, she’s a stomach on legs who gets to sleep away her later days with a family who wouldn’t trade her for any other mutt.
But complications arise; that’s just life. While practicing one of her favorite hobbies, chewing any and every toy she can wrap her maw around, Adi broke a tooth. A molar on the right side of her jaw that would require veterinary attention. After visiting Sitka Animal Hospital, Dr. Toccoa Wolf and her team recommended removal of the tooth, a necessary procedure that would come with a hefty price tag, that I wouldn’t be able to cover on my own. So I reached out for help. And I was helped.
Again to the rescue comes the Friends of Sitka Animal Shelter, eager to help out this denarian canine and her naive owner. A brief and all-too-easy discussion informed me that my vet bills would be covered in full. Adi would get her tooth removed at no cost to me. Que tears of joy.
As I write this, Adi is in surgery prep but I have no doubt that the excellent team at Sitka Animal Hospital will give her the best care possible. I am beyond thankful for their help in keeping my pet as happy and healthy as she can be. Further, I want to express my eternal gratitude to the Friends of Sitka Animal Shelter, animal lovers to the last, for their support and commitment to the unloved and sometimes unwashed masses of pets that also call Sitka home. I would also like to thank the pet owners and animal lovers of Sitka, whose generosity allows FOSAS to support pet owners throughout our community. Nowhere else in the world would such support be given and I am thankful to live in a place where it is.
So if you are in the mood for unconditional love, consider adopting a pet from the Sitka Animal Shelter. Your new best friend is there waiting for you.
Adam and Adelaide Lechowicz, Sitka
Good Citizens
Dear Editor: I would like to nominate Larry Edwards and Cindy Litman for next year’s “Sitka Citizen of the Year” award for their wonderful courage, integrity and perseverance in performing their civic activism.
Florian Sever, Sitka
