The animals at the Humane Society of St. Thomas are a little more lonesome this week, after Delsa Thomas left the shelter where she has worked for more than five years.
"I love them all — though you aren't supposed to have favorites," says the 24-year-old Thomas, who leaves next week to join the U. S. Air Force.
"It seems like I've always been around the shelter," says Thomas, with a ready smile. "I first used to come out and volunteer when I was in school, and it just seemed natural to start working here when I graduated," she says. But now she is looking forward to a change.
She has enrolled in the Air Force for four years, but "I'm planning to make a career of it if I like it," she says. Her sister, Kahila, signed up in 2000 and inspired Thomas' decision. She will go through basic training and then work as a medical receptionist. She doesn't know how her experience working with animals is going to come in, but "I hope to use that somewhere," she says.
Thomas says she loves even those cases that are hard to crack. "I'll just go in there and say 'you're going to like me'," she says, and it works. "You have to be patient, though," she adds.
Shelter volunteer Lisa Walker says Thomas adds something a little special. "She'll always do something extra," says Walker, "like promoting adoptions by putting little signs on the animal's cages telling something about them."
In December, Walker says, a couple adopting a dog mentioned their anniversary would fall on the day of the Humane Society's Valentines Ball. Sure enough, the couple heard their anniversary announced at the event.
Thomas has a pet of her own, but not your typical garden variety. She has a ferret named Frankie, whom she occasionally brings to work and lets run around in the small enclosure in the reception area. But mostly Frankie is at home with Thomas' three girls, Valiqua, three years old, Valisha, four years old, and Valina, six. "I just like V names," Thomas notes. The three girls are staying with their grandmother on St. Thomas until Thomas gets settled in Virginia.
Hubert Brumant, Society manager, says of Delsa: "She was so good with kids. You have to treat kids in a special way to take care of animals, and Delsa had a passion for that," Brumant says. "She knew all the animals here by name, and she knew their personalities, so she could make sure they were adopted into the right home."
Though it's been only a few days, Brumant says, "I already miss her."
