Shelter on the Hill: A Humane Society

Shelter on the Hill is thrilled to share some wonderful news and express our heartfelt gratitude to SNIP Mobile Spay & Neuter for spaying and neutering 57 pets on Friday, October 30th!

A very special thank you to Kern County Animal Services for generously sponsoring this important event for our Mountain Communities. Your support is making a real difference in the lives of animals and the families who love them! ❤️

The impact of SNIP Mobile Spay & Neuter is truly remarkable. During 2025 alone, this dedicated organization spayed and neutered an incredible 16,000 pets in Kern County! What an extraordinary accomplishment!

We believe spaying and neutering is the key to ending pet overpopulation, reducing the number of homeless animals, and giving every pet a better chance at a happy, healthy life.

The 2026 Shelter on the Hill Wine and Cheese event was held on September 19 at the Tejon Ranch Equestrian Center and was a wonderful success! More than 225 guests joined us for an afternoon of community, great food, and entertainment. Sue Alberti once again did a fabulous job organizing the event, with the support of SOTH board members, family, and friends. Cary Park entertained a full house beneath the extra-large tent, while the live and silent auctions featured a wonderful selection of popular items. Our very own “cheese queens,” Brenda Gordon and Clarice Smith, created another beautiful spread of cheeses, fresh fruit, salami, and more. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all our sponsors, as well as the generous food and beverage donors, whose contributions helped make this event possible. Thank you to everyone who attended and supported Shelter on the Hill. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Rabies Clinic

Shelter on the Hill was pleased to host a successful Kern County Animal Services vaccine clinic on June 27, 2026. A huge shoutout & thank you to Southwest Healthcare District for their grant which sponsored this event for our mountain community. KCAS shared the numbers as follows:

• Rabies 62
• DHPP 48
• FVRCP 20
• Bordetella 8
• Microchips 20
• Licences 40

Silver Paw

We are grateful for our Silver Paw donors and recognized them with this Shelter on the Hill T-shirt this December. We now have 21 Silver Paw donors who contribute each month by signing up on our homepage. We thank you for making a difference, supporting the dogs and cats in our care and we appreciate you.

2025 Volunteer Christmas Party

Shelter on the Hill volunteer staff holiday party was held at La Sierra Mexican restaurant in Frazier Park on Saturday, December 13th. We were so happy that nearly 40 volunteers were able to attend.

Tami of Mountain Top K-9 Training has been working with SOTH pup Freddie recently. Freddie is seen here at Outlets at Tejon, learning socialization and other important lessons.

The 2025 Wine and Cheese event was held on September 20th at the Tejon Ranch Equestrian Center. It was very well attended by the community. Sue Alberti did a fabulous job of putting this together once again with the help of SOTH board members, family & friends. Cary Park entertained a full house under the tent. Attendance exceeded 225 people. The live and silent auction offered beautiful and popular items for bidding. Brenda Gordon and Clarice Smith were our cheese queens and had a beautiful arrangement of cheese, fresh fruit and more. We thank all of our sponsors who made this possible as well as the food and beverage donors. We're looking forward to seeing you again next year!

Our last special Simi Valley Non Profit Spay & Neuter Winnespago event of the year was held on September 23rd. 32 dogs and cats of all sizes and varieties were spayed and neutered. Many of them got microchips and vaccines as well. We are grateful to Simi Valley Non Profit for providing this opportunity for our community.

Frazier Park's 57th Annual Fiesta Days celebration was held August 1-3, 2025, hosted by Mountain Memories Association. Locals and visitors alike enjoyed the parade, vendor booths, pet show, log sawing contest, live bands, rides and amusements for kids and more! Shelter on the Hill was well represented by honorary Mayor Candace Huskey and many of our volunteers who worked in our Shelter on the Hill booth at the Frazier Park Community park. Candace, with her favorite driver Larry, was in the parade with SOTH alumni Eddie. Our dog trainer, Tami Kearney of Mountain Top K-9 Training had SOTH pup Krypto at the booth in the park. Thank you to Mountain Memories for another successful event.

Last week SOTH learned about a homeless couple that got the opportunity to be housed in a regular home. The only problem was, they had 17 dogs, and were only allowed to keep 3 in the new home. SOTH was told all the dogs were pretty friendly, and there were even 2 mama dogs with young puppies. SOTH’s dog trainer and whisperer Tami reached out to management at the shelter & asked if we could help. She said she would be willing to go out there, check everything out, see if they were healthy enough, and friendly enough to be adopted, etc. While out there, she learned this couple once lived locally in PMC and were evicted from their rental during Covid (owners wanted to sell) and had no where to go. They have been homeless for 3 years ☹️. And unfortunately, the husband has some health issues as well. For some reason this hit Tami hard because there was a possibility their paths crossed over the years.

The 17 dogs were not their own, Over the years dogs were dumped and this couple tried to take care of them best they could, but they had no money, and the dumped dogs weren’t spayed/neutered. Next thing you know, you’ve got 17 dog!

Tami decided on taking one of the older pups (5½ months) because he was soo cute, friendly, and just all around seemed like a good dog. Then she also decided on a few of the little pups because everyone loves puppies, right!!!

But they were too young to take away from mom, so she took her too – that way mom can still take care of them. Even mama dog (we named her Reeba) is pretty young herself.

So we are pleased to introduce .... Reeba (mama dog) black lab mix, w/possible husky in there as well, white chest. She has one blue eye and one brown eye, is approximately 13-15 months old. Reeba is a good mama even though young. She’s a sweet girl w/people, but will still need to be tested with other dogs. Reeba is available to place a hold for adoption.

Marshall, a 5½ month old, who is sweet all around. He is black/brown/tan w/blue eyes, has been tested with a few dogs, but he’s still settling in, so we won’t over do it. Marshall is on hold already.

We named the puppies after the Peanuts characters. Chuck and Schroeder are on hold and Peppermint Patty is available to place a hold for adoption. Patty is about 6 weeks old now. She is mostly black with a white stripe or blaze on her face.

SOTH is praying everything works out for this previously local couple and their own three dogs in their new home. In the meantime there are more dogs out there in more encampments that need homes as well ....

Shelter on the Hill organized and hosted another low cost community spay/neuter event on April 29th. Simi Valley Non-Profit Spay & Neuter “WinneSpaygo” arrived in the SOTH’s parking lot as dozens of mountain residents were arriving with their pets. Shelter manager April Hemingway filled all the available appointments for cats and dogs. The numbers for community pets are as follows: 35 surgeries (cats 20 , dogs 15), 16 free 24Petwatch microchips which were sponsored by Mountain Memories Association. We thank Simi Valley Non Profit & Kerri Anderson DVM for coming to Lebec with their mobile clinic and partnering with SOTH to provide this important service to our community.