Photo by Jim Covington Artist Blue Sky's entry sign at Columbia Animal Shelter as seen from Shop Road. The Columbia Animal Shelter is on Humane Lane, as indicated by artist Blue Sky's oversized cat and dog profiles facing Shop Road. The shelter takes in 13,000 stray cats and dogs annually, and it euthanizes 10,000 by lethal injection.

About 2,000 of the strays get lucky. They get adopted. Also lucky are the ones returned to their owners.

The director of the shelter, Marli Clary Drum, says her facility cannot turn any stray away. Big help comes from the Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (HSPCA) and Jim Sonefeld's Columbia Animal Mission, both real strong in their spay/neuter programs. The HSPCA is located next door to the Columbia Animal Shelter.

In the United States, for every person there are seven cats and dogs. So, with a little more than 300 million people, the U.S. can claim well over 2 billion cats and dogs.

The stray cats and dogs come into the Columbia Animal Shelter at random and go through something of a triage selection system. Each category carries its own delays and holding pens in hopes of rescue before euthanasia.

If the pet's owner surrenders the pet to the shelter, the pet is held for three days, which allows for a form of buyer's remorse. The pet owner can still reverse course over the three- day delay and reclaim the pet. Otherwise, the pet gets adopted or euthanized, more likely the latter.

If the stray has no identification, no indication of an owner, the stray is held for no more than five days under the assumption a concerned owner will come calling within the five- day time frame.

If the stray is wearing traceable identification, a 14- day delay is automatically observed while the owner is allowed ample time to claim the pet.

The price for a pet pickup at the shelter is $5, but if the pet is not spayed or neutered, the charge is $25.

The cadavers are cremated.

The shelter has a staff of 23.5, the 0.5 being the part- time vet who works with the full- time vet, one of the 23. The city's budget this year for the shelter is about $1 million.

Most of the stray dogs are mixed breeds, but about 25% are pure breeds, suitable for show.

The Columbia Animal Shelter holds maybe 375 strays, and a new wing is under way to hold another 300. The other notable news is the populations of stray cats and dogs don't appear to be outpacing the people population gains. In other words, the spay/ neuter campaigns are effective.

That's the public story. The private story can be encapsulated by looking at one organization, Maddie's Fund.

With a $270 million endowment, according to Project Pet's Tracy Johnson, Maddie's

Fund can afford to be humane. Maddie, a miniature schnauzer, was owned by Dave and Cheryl Duffield, the PeopleSoft people in California. Maddie passed away in 1997, and the Duffields made good on a promise to Maddie.

The foundation awards millions of dollars through multi- year grants to animal welfare coalitions to end the killing of healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats community- wide, according to the foundation's Web site, maddiesfund. org. The foundation has spent $54 million so far.

Putting its money where its mouth is, the foundation's Web site advertises the 10 reasons to consider operating a no- kill pet shelter, something like Project Pet: (1) boosts adoptions, (2) attracts and retains more volunteers, (3) improves staff morale, (4) generates greater community support, (5) creates better alignment with charitable mission, (6) enhances image, (7) sharpens and increases management skills, (8) generates more funding, (9) more income = more organizational options, and (10) establishes eligibility for a Maddie's Fund grant.