by Conner Sura
The Tri-County Humane Society has been the bedrock for promoting and providing animal support for 47 years. After 40 years, the shelter is turning a new page with the retirement of its executive director Vicki Davis.
Davis, a St. Cloud resident, is also turning a new page. She will retire in February after being at the helm of the shelter since 1976. Long ago, there wasn’t a shelter at all in this area – just concerned people who took stray animals into their homes. That fact helped inspire the idea for an animal shelter.
On Lincoln Avenue in east St. Cloud, there was once an empty Holiday gas station. At that time, Davis and a few veterinary friends had been trying to get an animal shelter started. They asked the building’s owner, Fred Philips, what he had been using his empty building for and if they could perhaps use it for an animal shelter.
Philips liked the idea so an agreement was struck to rent the former gas station.
“He paid the taxes (on that building), and he was the best landlord,” Davis said.
A bunch of volunteers showed up to turn the building into a shelter. It wasn’t a complete renovation, but the backroom spaces were turned into kennels. There were only 10 kennels, five on each side of the room. In addition, there was also a puppy room and a cat room. There was also a front desk. However, the building was a small, confined space that flooded every spring. They knew they would eventually need a new building.
But Davis and volunteers had to make do year after year in that far-from perfect shelter. It wasn’t until 1989 that a custom-built shelter was finally constructed at Eighth Street NE in east St. Cloud.
Under Davis’s long-time leadership, the shelter’s budget grew from $40,000 annually to its current amount, $1.7 million. Last year, the shelter had its largest adoption-placement rate (95 percent) of the animals that had been brought to the shelter. Unfortunately, the other 5 percent of animals were deemed too dangerous or had such serious medical conditions that they had to be euthanized.
Davis told a remarkable story about the shelter’s first mascot dog named Dover, who was a Doberman. On a cold January night, Davis got a call from a woman saying she had a dog in her backyard that had been seriously injured. She said she thought the dog might have been shot. Reluctantly, Davis had to tell the woman to call the sheriff’s department because the dog was found far out in Stearns County, an area that had no contract with the animal shelter.
The woman laughed and told Davis she thought that was funny because the sheriff’s department had just told her to call Davis. Davis then told the woman she’d drive out to check on the dog.
Assuming the worst – the dog might have to be euthanized after she got it to the shelter – Davis began the drive to the home. There, she saw the dog lying on a snowbank. It could not move. Davis put a leash and a muzzle on the dog so it couldn’t bite. Then she picked the Doberman up and put him in her car. Back home, she consulted with the veterinarian.
“Can we fix this?” she asked, referring to the dog’s gunshot wound.
“I think we can work with that,” he said.
The dog, whom they dubbed “Dover,” made a miraculous recovery. Davis said he was “their biggest baby.” Once someone broke into the shelter, and Dover hid underneath the cupboard. He obviously did not make a very good guard dog, Davis recalled. But she quickly added Dover did make a wonderful teaching dog. He was great with kids, and some of the kids would come in and ask why Dover had a big scar on his shoulder. She would tell the kids it was because he had been shot.
After all, Dover had probably never had an ID tag around his neck. That fact was used to encourage a lot of kids in teaching sessions the importance of ID collars on their dogs. In the country, if some people see a wild dog without a collar roaming on their property, they might shoot them. That was very likely what had happened to poor Dover.
Davis is grateful for her 40 years as the executive director of the Tri-County Humane Society.
“I think I’ve put the humane society on a good track for helping lots of animals and the people who love them,” she said. “I hope it stays on that track. The community needs an organization like this. We really help a lot of people and animals.”
Emily Pradinsky of St. Cloud said Davis helped to shape her beliefs about sheltering animals. She had been an excellent mentor for Pradinsky throughout her time working at the humane society. Davis, she said, also had a strong passion for non-profit work.
Another shelter worker, Bree Westby of Sauk Rapids, also had high praise for Davis.
“She (Davis) is just so kind,” Westby said. “She’s got such a big heart. She’s always open to giving advice when I need it in the workplace, and she’s always offering encouragement. She’s a world-class great lady and she’ll be missed.”
Alas, Davis’s retirement brings an end to an era at the Tri-County Humane Society. During her 40 years as the shelter’s director, she has brought so much change and goodwill for helping animals. The feelings at the shelter are now bittersweet. Staff members and volunteers are sad to see their long-time friend and mentor retire. However, all of them wish the one-and-only Vicki Davis a happy retirement and many more good years.
The shelter’s next director, Marit Ortega, is expected to take Davis’s position in February.
Vicki Davis, the executive director of the Tri-County Humane Society, holds Baldur, a sweet, affectionate cat at the animal shelter. After 40 years of leading the humane society, Davis will retire in about two months.
