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Jackson County Animal Shelter volunteers were heartened to see a 10-year-old female coonhound mix named Cedar taken home by a doting college student this week. Talent resident Sarah Jane Jessee visited the shelter after seeing Cedar’s photo online, because she was looking for a senior dog to adopt. Jessee said she was eager for canine companionship, but committing to a puppy and facing a commitment of 12 to 15 years was too much for her while she finishes college. She did have space for a senior dog, however. “My roommates and I read about her online, and I basically said, ‘If her profile is how she is when we meet her, this is the perfect dog,’” Jessee said. “When we first saw her, she was acting kind of crazy because she was in a kennel, but as soon as we took her out, she was super sweet. She explored the little outside area and then she came over to me. “I said, ‘Can you shake?’ And she shook my hand. I was immediately sure that, yes, she was my dog.” While Cedar’s happy ending was what shelter officials hope for with older dogs, senior pooches often have to wait longer than younger dogs to be adopted and are more at risk for kennel stress and depression if the wait drags on for too long. Some senior dogs end up living out their days in foster care. With more than 10 senior dogs in need of homes, Jackson County Animal Services will offer a reduced adoption fee for older dogs until the “long timers” have all gone home with loving families, said shelter Manager Barbara Talbert. “We were really happy to see Cedar get to go home. It can sometimes be a long road for those guys. The upside to a senior dog is, by this time in their life, they’ve got some basic obedience, they’re pretty easy to handle and they’re house broken,” she said. “These are dogs that already know the ropes, they just need a place to spend their remaining years.” Talbert said senior dogs, especially senior pit bulls, are the longest-tenured shelter guests. After Cedar’s adoption this week, available older dogs included a 9-year-old border collie/Lab mix named Lila, an 8-year-old brown Lab named Taz, and an 8-year-old red and brindle pit bull named Miley. Taking the title for longest wait is a 9-year-old cocker/poodle mix named Zippy, who has been passed over repeatedly since his arrival in February due to his need for daily insulin injections. “Even though Zippy has some medical issues, he’s a really nice little dog, so we felt like someone might come along and take him home. We’re starting to think he might be here for the long haul. He got here around the end of February, and we had to put him in foster care a month ago. It’s hard for them to be in the kennel for a long time,” Talbert said. “I think they kind of lose hope.” Talent residents Don and Karen Steyskal have made a practice of adopting older dogs. Don said older dogs have a list of attributes too often overlooked by puppy-seekers. He and his wife adopted 11-year-old Lainey, a dog of indeterminate ancestry, last month, joining Kemo, an 11-year-old Chihuahua. “We started doing serial senior adoptions after we’d had a dog since she was six weeks old. We had her for 15 years. When she finally got old and decrepit and went away, we wanted another dog, but we thought, ‘Puppies are a lot of work,’” he said. “We’re both in our 60s, so depending on the breed, a puppy could be a 15-year commitment. We didn’t want to be 80 years old and dealing with a senior dog when we’d be seniors ourselves.” Steyskal said senior dogs have few downsides. “The one thing we had to really get our mind wrapped around, if you adopt older dogs, you can expect a little bit of heartbreak every couple of years,” he said. “But if you counter that with, ‘Hey, I may only have this great dog for three years, but it’s going to be a good three years for the dog and a good three years for me,’ you aren’t so much focused on the goodbyes.” While shelter officials say Cedar was lucky to get adopted, Jessee said she’s the lucky one. “Cedar is an amazing dog. She already knows a lot of tricks, and she’s comfortable being home sometimes by herself. She still has lots of energy and gets excited about walks,” she said. Talbert said shelter officials would reduce fees for senior dogs until the current roster of dogs 7 and older have been adopted. The usual $105 fee will be reduced to $60, with the discounted amount being made up by the Friends of the Animal Shelter. Available dogs can be viewed at www.fotas.org. To donate to FOTAS to help offset senior dog adoption fees, go to https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/FOTAS. Reach Medford freelance writer Buffy Pollock at [email protected].