Find yourself in need of a friend? Fort Lupton has just the place to discover your next long-term relationship, provided you don’t mind helping out an orphan or two.
    Cat or canine, chances are Every Creature Counts, 1245 Factory Circle in Fort Lupton, has the companion you seek. And no pet store prices, either, or puppy mill pooches pent up in tiny cages.
    My wife’s orange Tabby, Frank, suffered kidney failure after almost two decades of following us around the country and needed to be put down. After he passed, it took a few months before she would even consider another cat, which was fine by me. I’ve never been partial to cats; I prefer a wagging tail to a ball of claws. Compounding the problem was our two fox terriers, aggressive canines that tend to treat any new visitors as furry chew toys.
    Weighing the options, we decided a Maine Coon Cat might be the best bet due to their unusually large size and doglike personalities. Looking for kittens online, I discovered Maurice, a full-grown orange coon cat, up for adoption at ECC. A real bruiser, he had been in the shelter nearly two years, just waiting for the right family. Turns out, that was us.
    A call to ECC put us in touch with Lisa Booker, director of the shelter. After a phone interview, we set up a time to go meet Maurice, to make sure we all fit well with each other’s dispositions, no easy task in my house. Not being much of a cat person myself, it was a surprise to everyone when Maurice wrapped around my leg and started purring. Cats tend to pick their owners, and Maurice, now Cornelius the Giant Cat, picked me. Despite using the back of my calf as a scratching post and an inclination to walk across the keyboard while I’m working, Cornelius and I seem to have hit it off.  This came as an even bigger surprise to my two fox terriers; fiercely territorial dogs that underwent two or three pretty fair whuppings before they decided Cornelius might look better on the couch than the two of them. Peace and harmony reign in my house again, as long as the dogs pay the proper respect. It’s embarrassing, but they seem to be getting over it. Slowly.
    Ours was just another successful placement for ECC, who, despite working with ever-increasing numbers of animals, does an excellent job of matching pets with patrons. As a no-kill shelter, ECC takes in both abandoned or unwanted pets and those from other, limited-term shelters in order to keep the animals from being euthanized. As you would expect, this results in a high population count at the shelter, fortunately mitigated by their success in placing the animals in foster homes. Last year alone, the shelter placed 2,689 animals, pets that would have otherwise been put down. If you’d like to help by picking up a friend of your own, browse ECC online at http://everycreaturecounts.org, or give the shelter a call at 303-546-2704.