During the Capital Campaign for Lawrence Humane’s new shelter building, we made a promise to the Lawrence and Douglas County communities: Help us fund the building’s construction and our kennels will always be filled. While the visual of an empty shelter offers hope and inspiration, a kennel that stays empty is not our preferred measure of success. We know that there are homeless and vulnerable animals that need a safe place to go both within our community and in our neighboring communities. And an empty kennel in our shelter means that somewhere out there is an animal not receiving the help that it needs. This is why Lawrence Humane not only takes in animals as strays and owner-surrenders, but also as transfers. And one of the animals that we transferred in this year is a kitten named Samara…
Samara came to Lawrence Humane as a 4 month old kitten from a rural shelter where she was in danger of euthanasia due to her complex medical situation. Samara’s left front leg was broken beyond repair and needed to be amputated. And while she could eat and drink just fine, she needed major dental and facial surgery to reconstruct the damage done to her face. Based on her injuries, we believed that Samara was likely hit by a car and amazingly survived!
Not only did Samara need vaccines, deworming, and a spay surgery, but she also needed two specialty surgeries that totaled up to be about $2,000. But our incredible community rallied around her and thanks to donations from Lawrence Humane supporters far and wide, we raised enough money for Samara to get all the medical care that she needed in order to live a long and healthy life!
In 2025, Lawrence Humane transferred 974 animals to our shelter. These were animals who were living in rural places, in lower capacity shelters, and in communities that are not necessarily as supportive of their local animal shelters as Lawrence. By transferring animals to Lawrence Humane, we are able to provide our community with more diverse options for adoption and ensure that people continue to adopt from their local animal shelter when looking for a pet. It also allows us to provide relief to shelters and communities who aren’t as fortunate as Lawrence in terms of resources and support. And most of all, it means a second chance at life for animals who otherwise would be facing euthanasia.
Samara is one of the lucky ones who got a second chance at life after coming to Lawrence Humane – and that’s because of our incredible, supportive community! Where else would so many people rally around a broken kitten and raise thousands of dollars so that she could have numerous specialty surgeries?! Now, Samara is a healthy, happy, 8-month old kitten who has the rest of her life to bask in her mom’s love. And that is thanks to YOU! We are so grateful to every single person who supports Lawrence Humane. We could not care for and save the thousands of animals who come through our doors without you, so on behalf of every Lawrence Humane staff member and every animal we’ve cared for this year – THANK YOU for all you do for the animals of Douglas County!
