Senior News March, 2004 Vol. 25. No. 3

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Miranda's Rescue - It's a Family Affair

Fortuna Senior Workshops Scheduled March 27

"No Excuse for Abuse - Preventing Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse"

Taming the Claw - How to get your cat to stop ruining the furniture.

California Commission on Aging calls for end of Rx price "extortion"

New senior housing in McKinleyville and Fortuna

Sequoia Springs Invites Public to Seak Peek of Addition

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   When I first met Shannon Miranda, he and wife Kim were living in a mobile home park in Ferndale. Son Blake was still a toddler, Shannon strongly favored one side when he walked, and they raised Dalmatians.

   A group of us from For Pet's Sake had heard about Shannon Miranda, and we went down to see for ourselves this very young man (early 20s) who rescued all types of animals and sheltered them in the backyard of his trailer lot. In addition to the many cats and dogs that had come from dire straits, there were rabbits, possum, a family of raccoons, even guinea pigs.

     Now Shannon and Kim Miranda are well known around Ferndale. They were high school sweethearts. Though Shannon was born into a family of hunters, he grew up saving whatever critter he could. He gained respect and experience while training mustangs (wild horses) in high school. After he and Kim married in 1992, they bred and raised Dalmatians.

 The young family's life changed in 1994 when Shannon took a 30-foot fall while working at a local lumber mill. Son Blake was just five days old. Shannon was seriously injured and unable to return to a structured job, but he was not one to lie around feeling sorry for himself. Working with animals was his true calling, and so rescue work became his form of physical and emotional therapy.

   With his ever-growing menagerie and their new full-time commitment to it, the Mirandas and the trailer park became incompatible. It was time to move on, so to the house on the Coppini Dairy they went. It was there that they incorporated in 1997 as the nonprofit Miranda's Rescue.

 As a large and small animal rescue operation, Miranda's Rescue has been a "no-kill" facility from the beginning. All cats and dogs were altered before placement. Miranda's Rescue was such a success that they outgrew their spot on Coppini Lane within four years.

   The Tanferani family of Fortuna had been long-time friends of the family, and their property was a perfect fit for the facility. But how would the Mirandas ever be able to purchase such a place with acreage, a barn, the river and a nice house? Up stepped a supporter who purchased the property so that the Mirandas could rent-to-own from her, enabling them to begin building the rescue of their dreams.

      Today, it is a family affair with Shannon's mom working in the thrift store and Kim handling the business and paperwork. Shannon, of course, deals full time with the animals - with their extended family of volunteers, including kids performing community service. Blake helps Shannon with the horses and even little Mikayla bottle-feeds orphaned kittens and has been known to board little critters under the covers in her own bed.

   Alice Millington is one of the many volunteers and supporters of Miranda's Rescue. This article was reprinted from Miranda's Message, the group's newsletter.

   On the third Saturday of the month, volunteers collect dog and cat food and non-clumping cat litter on Short Street in front of Costco from 11-3. Miranda's Rescue has senior cats who need homes with senior families. Call 707-725-4449 to make appointments to meet animals.