Liddy and the other 70 cats at the Animal Care League licked ice packs, slept near fans, and did anything else to keep cool after one of the shelter’s air-conditioning and heating units broke the week before last.
The front office, the cat room and the medical facilities were “like a sauna,” without the air-conditioning, according to Tom Van Winkle, the shelter director. “[The cats] were not nearly as active; they were lying around, conserving energy,” he said.
The shelter’s 30 dogs were fine, since their room was air-conditioned by the building’s other, smaller air-conditioner?#34;-although the dogs had to be closer to their whiskered friends than they might have liked. To keep the cats cool, shelter volunteers stacked the cat cages near the dogs’ frosty haven instead of giving them their usual free run of the room.
The unit was beyond repair, and the animals would also be without heat in the winter if it were not replaced, Van Winkle said.
So the shelter dipped into its emergency funds to buy a new $10,000 unit, and is asking for donations to help defray the unexpected cost.
“Every dime that we have to spend on this air-conditioner is one dime less that we have to give to the animals,” Van Winkle said. “I have to find money somewhere else to buy food, to buy litter.”
The Animal Care League houses about 100 abandoned animals and does not euthanize except in extreme cases. For more information, call the Animal Care League at 848-8155 or see their website at www.animalcareleague.org. Donations can be sent to 1013 Garfield St., Oak Park, 60304. Make checks out to the Animal Care League and indicate if they are for the air-conditioning fund.
?#34;Diana Oleszczuk