Halley and Birdy: Two Tales of Love and Resilience

Halley and San Francisco City Administrator Carmen Chu at SFACC. photo: Vivian Po

It’s hard to put into words all that our animals share with us.  My feline companion is a constant loving presence, offering limitless warm cuddles, empathetic face rubs, and gentle licks. Because of him, our home never feels empty, even with the isolation of Covid.  I’m grateful to the local shelter that gave us the chance to meet him. 

And I’m not alone in experiencing the gifts of rescue animals.  Our SF City Administrator Carmen Chu recently shared a tale of two dogs, Halley and Birdy, both of whom offer living proof of rescue animals’ resilience and remarkable capacity to love.

Halley, a Shepherd mix, was surrendered to Animal Care & Control last spring, underweight and suffering from an infected head wound.  Shelter staff nursed her back to health, and Chu got to meet her soon after during a tour of the city’s newly completed state-of-the-art facility.  When Chu entered Halley’s room, Halley approached her affectionately, leaving Chu struck by “how loving she was, despite all the trauma that had happened to her.”

The encounter with Halley reminded Chu of her first meeting with Birdy, a German Shepherd mix who won her heart one fateful day at the SF SPCA many years ago.  Chu was visiting the shelter with her now-husband, looking for a pet but not knowing what to expect.  When they entered Birdy’s room, “she walked over and laid down next to us and was so affectionate, immediately.  When we finished our visit, we saw her lay down in her bed and it broke our hearts. We thought ‘we can’t leave her here. We’ve got to take her home with us.’ So we did,” Chu recalls.  

Birdy’s presence in Chu’s life was akin to having another human family member.  “She was this other person to us.  We loved her so much. And she was part of our family.  We would go on trips with her and figure out what to do on weekends to hang out with her and what would make her happy, just like you would with your family,” Chu says. 

Not long after Chu’s visit to Animal Care & Control last spring, Halley also found her forever home with Animal Commissioner Jane Tobin.  Her new family fell for her at their first meeting, where her playful and flirtatious nature won them over immediately.  But after her adoption paperwork was complete, Halley seemed terrified to leave the shelter and appeared overwhelmed in her new home at first.  “She needed to be invited into rooms and slept away from us,” Tobin remembers of those early days. 

But Halley soon demonstrated her resilience.  “Fast forward a year and Halley leaps into the back of the car, eager to go wherever we are going. She sleeps in her bed in our bedroom and follows us from room to room with her tail wagging.” 

Today, Tobin shares a sentiment that seems widespread among rescue animal guardians. “We feel so fortunate to have found her. Whatever rough start she had, she is happily where she needs to be now. Lucky dog, lucky us.”

Halley and Birdy’s stories are testaments to a city that cares. Like those of so many other animals, their journeys to their forever homes were made possible by staff and volunteers at Animal Care & Control and the SF SPCA. If you are interested in helping more animals like Halley and Birdy, there are many ways to get involved:

• Adopt.  Help end the practice of buying pets and give a home to one of the many animals transitioning through our local shelters and their rescue partners.

• Volunteer.  Pitch in to help shelters and rescues run smoothly, whether by working in the facilities or as a foster providing transitioning animals with temporary care.

• Donate. If you have funds or other resources to give, Chu suggests considering a donation to Animal Care & Control.  “They have many needs,” Chu says, noting that they “do a ton of work to help all sorts of animals and are oftentimes the first responders to animals in need.”

• Join.  Workers with veterinary skills are encouraged to consider joining the staff of Animal Care & Control.  “All of the people who work there really, really love animals.  When you walk in, you can’t help but see that love come through,” Chu says.

• Visit.  The public can be proud of San Francisco’s new city shelter, opened in the spring of 2021, and the services provided there.  “It’s open, friendly, welcoming, and thoughtful in terms of how it’s laid out, with more space for people to get acquainted with potentially new family members,” Chu says.  Learn more at sfanimalcare.org.

• Speak Up.  If you see an animal who is being abused or neglected, report it.  It’s a crime.  “We need to be taking care of the animals around us,” says Chu.  

Finally, we all need to ensure that animals are considered in our city’s annual budget. Providing sufficient funding for the shelter and treatment of abandoned, injured, or homeless animals is another important way that humans who care can raise our voices for the creatures who give back so much to us.  

The San Francisco Commission of Animal Control and Welfare (Animal Commission) meets on the second Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. As of April 2022, meetings are still being held virtually over WebEx. Details at https://sfgov.org/animals