Football is just around the corner and next week the Terrapins and the Titans will be back in training. Anyone wishing to learn more of sign up can come to the DVSS Field Monday after school.

The only good thing about the shorter days as summer winds down, is the coming of Friday night lights.
    Drumheller Community Football is ready to go, and next week training starts for the Titans and Terrapins.  Come Monday they will be on the field, and head coach of the senior Titans likes what he sees.
    “We don’t look too bad, we have a bunch of young guys. A lot of key roles will have to be filled by other guys stepping up in our roster where rookies are going in,” said senior head coach Ken Fournier.
    “It looks like the first two weeks of the season will be a lot of hard work for them, but we have a good group coming forward, we can make it work.”
This year they have added a few more coaches including Guy Latour, who is a former University of Calgary Dino. Spencer Seright is also joining the coaching team.
    “They will be helping us, which is great, the more coaches the merrier, and experience coming in is awesome,” said coach Fournier.
    It won’t take long for the action to begin. The Titians will be taking on the Bonnyville Voyageurs.
    In league play, they are back in the hunt in the Rangeland Conference.  Coach Fournier says there should not be as much travelling for the established team.
    “If we seed high in playoffs, we could potentially host nine games this year,” said Fournier. “Last year we travelled a lot, we had our third provincial win and nobody got to see us. We really look forward to playing at home this year, and most of our games will be on Friday night, so that is an added bonus.”
    After three provincial wins, you would think the team would be picking up players from all over, but Fournier said the roster they had in the spring was somewhat smaller than in previous years.
    “I would like to see bodies out,” said Fournier.
 He says anyone wishing to play can come out next week. There will be Drumheller Football representatives there with registration packages who will be able to answer any questions.
    On Saturday evening, August 16, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. there is a registration and equipment hand out, and on Monday, the Titans will be back on the field for practice.
 

Drumheller’s Humane Society has eight surrendered kittens in their care. On top, Olive sits guarding her three kittens, (l-r) Daisy, Ryanne, and Eva.  
 

Drumheller has experienced a problem with stray animals in the past, and the trend still continues.
    Animal support systems, like the Valley Vet, Humane Society, and By-Law Services in Drumheller, have been given a large responsibility as they strive to protect a desperate situation.
    Kelcy Travis has worked with the Drumheller Humane Society for two years and, over the summer months, has seen increasing numbers of stray animals and surrenders to the shelter.
    “We get constant calls of strays and found cats. When we get strays in, that’s what makes it difficult for us, because it’s so much more costly. They have to be tested for S.I.V., which is the feline version of H.I.V., and it’s pretty rampant in stray cats, especially if they’re more feral. When we get a cat in and it’s a stray, we have to go above and beyond our normal procedure,” says Travis.
    The Humane Society had six kittens surrendered to the shelter recently. When the group was dropped off, staff learnt that the mother was feral, and from there, the kittens were placed in quarantine and treated as strays.
    “We always try to help. If we can treat them and get them a home, we don’t want to say no because we don’t know what people could do with them, they could just be dumped off somewhere. So it definitely is a problem, and people often when they turn it over to us, they think it’s our responsibility,” Travis explains.
    The Humane Society, on average, takes in 3-5 dogs and 11 cats a month.
    Along with Drumheller’s Humane Society, By-Law enforcement also takes care of stray animal alerts. Greg Peters handles most cases, and in many situations, ends up fostering the animals found without a home.
    “Generally, we know that with the warmer weather, we have cat traps out in a number of places for a variety of reasons, and on top of that, we usually come across a few dogs a month,” Peters says. “I just want everyone to be responsible and recognize that owning a pet is a commitment. You owe it to the animal to give it the best treatment you can,” Peters says. 
    The numbers of stray animals in Drumheller aren’t expected to decrease any time soon.
    If a stray is found, contact Drumheller Humane Society at 403-823-8999, or Greg Peters with By-Law Services 403-823-1363.