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Paul Geneson
|  Betty Hoover, the diminutive head of the El Paso Humane Society, makes no bones about the fact that her life away from her job is pretty boring. She retires early most evenings and, apart from trips to the grocery store and the pet store, her weekends slip by pretty quickly. But get her started on the subject of animals - dogs in particular - and you'll find you're suddenly head-to-head with what has to be El Paso's most committed dog advocate.
“Any way you look at it, animals are healthy for people,” says Hoover, who's been on this job now for two years. She admits that, since her days as a child in Kansas City and, excepting her years in college, she's always kept at least one dog with her.
“They bring a lot of joy and comfort to people,” she says.
Inside her sunny office at the Fred Wilson location of the Humane Society that spent 50 years in Central El Paso next to the Coliseum, the society's mascot is ensconced under her desk. Hoover presents a calendar devoted to dogs when asked the day's date.
“As seniors, we need clues all around us,” she jokes.
Describing herself as “a very young 59,” she says that she's been in El Paso since 1981 after spending 10 years in Arizona. Before assuming her present job, she worked at Planned Parenthood for 25 years.
While she doesn't claim seniors as the majority block among dog adopters, she is quick to talk of the benefits seniors derive from pet adoption.
“Having an animal in your life, if you're a senior citizen, helps reduce health problems, such as high blood pressure,” she says.
How do pets do that, you wonder?
“You have to take the dog out for a walk,” Hoover says, explaining that these outings serve as aerobic exercise. Besides that, walking your pet can increase your socialization. In “101 Dalmations,” for example, the young man is thrust into an unexpected encounter with a young lady when their dogs “discover” each other.
“It increases socialization and reduces isolation,” Hoover says.
In addition to the numerous dogs waiting to be adopted, the society also lovingly stocks a good quantity of cats. And then there are the volunteer opportunities open for everyone, especially seniors. Betty Hoover points to the ever-present need for foster parents for dogs. In this situation the animal would be a guest in the volunteer's home for one to five weeks. After that stay, the animals go up for adoption.
There are also special needs animals who need bottle feeding and tender loving care, Hoover says. “A senior who is home and who likes animals would be wonderful for that.”
There is also the Paws for Love program that seniors can get involved in.Well-trained dogs are taken into nursing homes or rehab centers to help the patients get better. “Animals provide tremendous therapy for these people,” Hoover says.
It's the sense of joy the animals bring out in people, she says, that creates the benefits for the patients.
“Their faces just light up when they know it's the day when the dogs are coming,” she says.
Betty Hoover, unabashed animal advocate that she is, admits to housing seven and a half dogs currently under her roof (Shelby the Shelter Dog is counted as half an inhabitant since “she wormed her way” into her life but actually belongs to the Humane Society.
“I can't imagine not having an animal in my life,” she says.
And, unlike dog owners who leave dogs with her to be put up for adoption, Hoover lives by a code in which animal adoption is a total commitment, something like bringing up a child.
“That commitment should be to respect the animal and provide it with love and care, for the animal's life,” she says.
Which, for Betty Hoover, means integrating the dog fully into the life of the adoptive family - not tethering the animal and leaving it in the back yard.
While so many people's lives these days can get overwhelmed with the stress and demands of job and family, Betty Hoover likes to make things simple.
“Pets are delightful,” she says, cutting to the chase. “They need to be in everybody's life.”
Comments or questions about this story? E-mail swsenior@elpasoinc.com
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