Kim Hessel was taken aback to find out that Heaven Can Wait was voted Favourite Charity in the 2023 Western Wheel Readers’ Choice Awards.
“Wow, I'm not sure what to say about that. I feel like we don't deserve it,” she said. “I mean, animals are important, but there's a lot of good people doing good work. That's lovely that people value and appreciate the work that we do.”
Hessel founded the animal rescue back in the spring of 1999 to provide shelter, care and nourishment to abandoned, abused and homeless domestic animals in High River and surrounding area.
She’s quick to credit the dedicated staff and volunteers for keeping the operation, which is located in Foothills County just outside High River, going for almost 25 years.
“If I had known what I was getting into back then, I probably would have said this is a bad idea, you know, to be broke all the time and always smell a little bit like cat pee,” Hessel joked. “But it's been a really interesting ride and we wouldn't have been able to do it without some of the amazing, amazing people that have stuck with me. Some of our volunteers go back to those very early days.”
Hessel said there are ongoing challenges in terms of space and finances, but the shelter does whatever it can to support homeless animals. Currently bursting with 60 dogs and 170 cats, the non-profit is looking forward to fall when adoptions typically pick up, which will free up room to take in more animals.
“There's always space limitations, there's always money limitations, there's human resource limitations, but you know, animals need help, so if we have the space and we have the resources, then we'll try our best to do that and help them.”
She said Heaven Can Wait does its best to source good homes, ensuring it matches a dog or cat with the needs of a family, so the animal doesn’t end up returning to the shelter. Hessel said they take their time with the adoption process to make sure they’re doing right by the animal and by the adopting pet parent.
Some animals get adopted quickly but others might have a prolonged stay, a situation often dictated by breed or behavioural issues.
“There has to be some responsible rehoming on our part so that we're not sending an animal out into a bad situation or giving an animal to somebody that doesn't have the experience to manage them, so it's being careful and doing right by everybody involved and sometimes that takes more time.
“I don't just blow them out the door because they're here; we need to find that right place for them, and I need to sleep at night and know that we did the right thing.”
