One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter

By Diane Lee and Marilee Geyer

Description from Authors’ website: Over half the households in America include an animal companion. Yet behind this immense love of animals lies an equally immense tragedy: each year, community animal shelters take in eight to twelve million lost and unwanted dogs and cats who all face an uncertain fate.

One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter brings this issue vividly to life via a true account of seven days in a typical U.S. animal shelter. With compelling photos and moving vignettes, it chronicles the stories of 75 animals who passed through a northern California shelter during one week. Their gripping stories include excerpts from actual shelter records; the words of shelter workers, volunteers, and visitors; and the final conclusion of each animal’s journey through the shelter system.

Look into the eyes of these animals and let their stories give you a riveting and unforgettable glimpse into this nation’s homeless animal tragedy. Whether it is the lost dog quickly reunited with his family because he was wearing an ID tag, the frightened cat given up by guardians who didn’t understand the commitment of caring for her, the cat facing euthanasia or the dog joyfully adopted into a new home, each animal in One at a Time has an urgent lesson to teach and a powerful message to share.

One at a Time will help you to see the real faces behind the numbers, and to experience the miracles and heartbreak that play out every day in our nation’s shelters… one animal at a time. Even more importantly, One at a Time will give you hope, because this tragedy can be ended and each one of us can be part of the solution … offering us the chance to become better people, to reawaken our connection with other living beings, and to reaffirm the sanctity of life itself. The animals of One at a Time will show you how.

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One of our favorite fables is the story about a group of friends having a picnic on a riverbank. They hear the sound of crying and look up, shocked to see a baby floating helplessly in the river. They immediately dive in to rescue the baby, and to their horror, see another baby floating toward them.

They rush to save that baby, but no sooner is that one pulled to safety than they see another. And still more appear; the river is full of them. Again and again the people dive into the river, trying to save the seemingly endless flow of drowning babies.

One of the people gets out of the river and begins running upstream. “Where are you going?” his friends shout. “I’m going to find out who’s throwing babies in the river and make them stop!” he yells back, as he heads upstream.

The homeless animal problem is a lot like that. Animal shelters and rescue groups try hard to save the homeless animals in the river. But that will never solve the problem. Real, lasting solutions to the homeless animal problem involve stopping them from being thrown in the river in the first place.

DIANE LEIGH AND MARILEE GEYER