ENCINITAS — Rancho Coastal Humane Society community outreach manager Niki Plasse was flanked by Picnic, 9, and Ghost, 11, along with several other dogs as she addressed more than a dozen audience members assembled by Village Encinitas.
Plasse discussed Rancho Coastal’s personalized adoption process and other ways seniors can coexist with furry companions.
“Our main focus with all of our community programs — with our mission, with any of our services — is basically to keep humans and their pets together and safe,” Plasse said. “We just want to make sure that everybody sticks and has their perfect match.”
The Companions and Connections event, hosted at San Dieguito United Methodist Church on May 12, is one of many regular events organized by Village Encinitas, a nonprofit serving older adults in the community.
Village Encinitas President Jesse Hanwit told The Coast News that one of the organization’s primary goals is ensuring residents can safely age in place while maintaining a high quality of life. She described it as a “caring community where people help each other with small tasks that are sometimes annoyingly difficult to complete.”
“They can be things like a ride to the doctor, walking a dog if you have to be away for too long, or setting up a TV, which just happened yesterday — that can be pretty challenging,” Hanwit said. “And then besides that connection, we also have the social events.”
Some events are educational and informational, like the May 26 Brain Balance program, while others are more social, such as Stories Over Lunch on June 9.
“The whole idea behind it is that we’re all wonderful and we all have had amazing experiences, and we don’t know anything about what other people have done,” Hanwit said. “Most of us aren’t working anymore, and we don’t have that kind of a connection.”
She said Stories Over Lunch features a catered meal at tables of five or six people and prompts encouraging attendees “to talk to the people at the table, just about yourself, and about the fun things that you’ve had the opportunity to do.”
Village Encinitas was established in 2023 and has since grown to 80 members, according to Hanwit.
At the event, Plasse informed attendees about Rancho Coastal’s Seniors-for-Seniors adoption program, which connects dogs and cats older than 7 with people 60 and older. Adoption fees are waived through the program.
Shirley Tweedell of Frosted Faces Foundation discussed the organization’s efforts to support older pets – like Ghost and Picnic that were rescued by the organization – and the families who adopt them.
“Don’t be afraid of adopting an older pet,” Tweedell said.
Attendees at Village Encinitas’ Companions and Connections event pet older dogs. Photo by Cameron Adams
Tweedell said that with proper diets and routines, pets like Picnic and Ghost can live well into their teenage years.
“He is such a lover,” Tweedell said. “Ghost was in our laps all the way down on the drive down from Ramona. He sat in her lap and was just sleeping.”
One audience member asked how she could get to the Ramona veterinary hospital if her pet needed treatment. Another attendee immediately offered to drive her.
“Isn’t it wonderful, we all work together,” Tweedell said.
Village Encinitas Director Pam Clarke said those gestures reflect what the organization is all about.
“I like helping others,” Clarke said. “It’s neighbors helping neighbors and keeping seniors in their homes. That’s the most important thing: aging in place.”
