KENTUCKY TEEN SPENDS BIRTHDAYS CARING FOR HOMELESS ANIMALS

A Lyon County teenager celebrates her birthday a little differently than most, and she’s been doing it for half her life. Gracelyn Knoth Taylor recently turned 14, and when she was 7, she told her family and friends she didn’t want gifts from them on her birthday.

In lieu of gifts, she asked her family to donate items such as dog and cat food, cat litter and other supplies needed for the animals at Crittenden County Animal Shelter.

“Instead of asking for presents for my birthday, I asked for things the animals at the shelter needed,” she said, noting she also accepts monetary donations to help the homeless critters. “Then we go out and buy more dog food and cat food for them.”

Gracelyn, her friends and family then go to the shelter, take the supplies and spend time with the animals. “Sometimes we spend the day; we give the animals baths and then we give them treats,” she said, adding that she was inspired to celebrate her birthday this way because she “just really enjoys going to see” so many animals.

“I like being around all the animals and helping them.” She also entertains the animals at the shelter by walking them and giving them treats. “We go and buy stuff at the store before we go there, and then we feed it to them,” she said.

Crittenden County Animal Control Officer Troy McNeely praised the teenager for her thoughtfulness and concern for the animals.

“I’ve been here since September and I’ve met her twice,” he said. “… We appreciate what she does because we’re county funded but it takes a lot — we don’t really show a profit here.”

He added that Gracelyn’s unusual birthday party inspires others to help at the shelter. “We have a few people who come in once or twice a year and donate,” McNeely said. “Sometimes we’ll get on Facebook and tell (readers) we are running a little short of cat litter or something like that and people respond pretty well.”

The shelter serves Crittenden, Livingston and Lyon counties. Donations may be mailed to: Crittenden County Animal Shelter, 1901 U.S. 60 East, Marion KY 42064.

Not only does Gracelyn visit the animal shelter, she and her mother, Crissy Knoth, also foster animals, especially dogs and cats. And they also raise chickens.

“We foster dogs most of the time,” Gracelyn said, noting that she and her family bring the dogs to their home until another good home can be found for them. “We normally just take home one” at a time, she said.

She also has a pet dog of her own, a Doberman named Gotti, which her family acquired from a breeder in Hopkinsville. She has already trained Gotti in basic good behavior.

“He’s a good dog,” Gracelyn said, adding that she has loved animals all her life. She also has five cats, a female named Mama Cat, and her five kittens.

“We live in the country, so cats just randomly show up,” said Crissy Knoth. “We always get the cats fixed (spayed or neutered) that show up here. This Mama Cat was around for about a year and she never had kittens — these are outside cats. Then all of a sudden she had a litter of kittens a few months ago, so we keep them inside until they are old enough to get fixed. My mom, Paula (Knoth), has a pretty big collection of cats. She lives behind us, and she has about nine; they are all fixed. Every time a cat shows up we try to get it fixed.

“We have chickens too; we have eight chicks and a turkey,” Crissy said. The chickens will provide fresh eggs for the family once they are grown. The chicks “are too young to produce eggs right now” she said.

“Our first experience with chickens — we got them about five years ago — was when Akridge had a chick day. So we went and got eight. We had one rooster and seven hens. The rooster was pretty famous in Lyon County. He just passed away this year; he was 5, that’s a good age for a rooster. They went on spring break with us one year when they were little. Capone was the rooster’s name, and I would dress him up at Christmas every year. A friend built us this really nice chicken house and a swing and the chickens have a natural water filtration system there.”

For now, the family must keep their chicks inside because of a predator in their neighborhood. “We have a fox around here, and that fox got three hens from our original brood.” Crissy said. “So we are starting over with new chicks but they are not in that pen yet until we figure out how to keep that fox out.”