Tag: dog adoption

Adopt a Senior Dog for Free, Thanks to Stella & Chewy’s

Thinking about adopting a senior dog? Yay for you (and boo to anyone who dumps their older dog at a shelter)!

There are many benefits to adopting an older dog. Unlike their younger brethren, seniors are usually calmer and better behaved. Despite these qualities, they have a harder time finding forever homes. In fact, the vast majority of dogs adopted from shelters are younger than a year old, according to the ASPCA.

To help raise awareness of older dogs (and cats) needing forever homes, National Adopt a Senior Pet Month is observed every November. And to help more of these pets get adopted this month, the pet food company Stella & Chewy’s has pledged $25,000 to pay the fees for dogs and cats over four years old adopted from shelters and rescues across the United States. The company is also providing adopters with a free bag of pet food.

The Wisconsin-based company is named after founder Marie Moody’s dogs Stella and Chewy, who she adopted as seniors. So far this month, Stella & Chewy’s has paid for at least 35 senior pet adoptions, its website reports. If you’re rescuing a senior dog or cat (again, yay for you!), you can fill out an adoption reimbursement form online.

These are some of the benefits of adopting a senior dog, according to the ASPCA:

  • Older dogs are easier to train. It’s likely that they’ve already been potty-trained and know some basic commands.
  • You’ll instantly know the dog’s full-grown size and activity level, so it’s easy to determine if they’ll be a good fit for your lifestyle.
  • Senior dogs don’t have teething issues and probably won’t destroy your belongings.
  • Even if a dog spent years with their previous owner, they will quickly bond with you. “In fact, owners often easily form bonds with older pets due to the animals’ typically calmer dispositions, their familiarity with home environments, their experience dealing with other animals, and previous training,” notes the ASPCA.

Many thanks to Stella & Chewys for helping to get older pets adopted. Hopefully they’ll inspire other pet-related companies to do the same, so even more of these dogs can find the loving homes they deserve.

Photo: Schwoaze

Thanks to Social Media Rumor, Every Pet Adopted from San Bernardino Animal Shelter

After the City of San Bernardino animal shelter in Southern California announced last month that it would be closing, a rumor went viral on social media claiming that all 60 dogs and 40 cats would be euthanized.

But this wasn’t the case according to San Bernardino city officials, who planned to transfer the animals to another shelter in Riverside County. Earlier this week, the San Bernardino County board of supervisors decided to hold off on the relocation and allow time for local rescue groups to come up with plans to take over the shelter.

Apparently unaware of this development, hundreds of people showed up at the shelter during a free adoption event May 9. By mid-afternoon, every available dog and cat had found a new home.

It was love at first sight for one of the adopters, Elliott, whose previous pet died four years ago. A dog named Aubrey who caught his eye at the shelter “is such a loving dog. Rescue dogs are the best,” he told the San Bernardino Sun. “I took her into the play area and she ran up and tackled me and wouldn’t stop kissing me. That’s when I knew that was my girl.”

The San Bernardino shelter has been the target of animal welfare advocates due to poor management and decrepit living conditions. The city is closing the shelter because it can’t afford to make necessary major upgrades, such as installing air conditioning. 

Although free adoption events that give pets away with no vetting of their new owners do strike a lot of fear in my heart, here’s hoping every one of those dogs and cats is now in a loving forever home, thanks to what may have truly been fake news.

NFL’s Ronnie Stanley Asks for ‘Not-So-Adoptable Dog’ from Shelter

With so many cases of NFL players abusing dogs, Ronnie Stanley of the Baltimore Ravens is truly a breath of fresh air.

Stanley went to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) Saturday with his girlfriend and teammate, Alex Lewis, in search of a new four-legged friend.

He had just one request. “We are looking for a dog that’s been here a long time and maybe not-so-adoptable,” he told the staff, according to the BARCS Facebook page.

When Stanley was introduced to some of the dogs having difficulty finding forever homes, one in particular caught his eye: Winter, a 6-year-old Pit Bull/Retriever mix who’d been used multiple times for breeding, and then was left to die in a vacant house with no food or water. She had chewed through the drywall in an effort to escape. A good Samaritan noticed her last month and contacted BARCS.

Because she’s had several litters of puppies, Winter has a drooping belly that isn’t likely to tighten up. Dogs with distended bellies like hers are particularly hard to adopt out, Bailey Deacon of BARCS told the Baltimore Sun.

That didn’t matter to Stanley. “Well, that’s just what happens when you’ve had babies,” he told the BARCS staff, who said he showed much more interest in getting kisses from the pooch than any concerns about her physical appearance.

“It’s not a very good-looking dog per se for your happy couple or family going into a shelter looking to adopt a pet. So I knew this pet would probably have a pretty hard time getting adopted,” Stanley told the Baltimore Sun today. “It was pretty old as well, so I felt like it was a great pet for me. It’s very loving and very protective, and it’s a great addition to the family.”

He adopted Winter, and has renamed her Lola.

“We are so proud to have amazing guys like Ronnie to be role models to the kids in our city,” BARCS said on its Facebook page. “Not only does his single act of kindness make adoption cool, but it makes giving love to an imperfectly perfect dog a ‘manly’ thing to do.”

Photo via Facebook

Once Again, Uber Delivers Adoptable Puppies for 15 Minutes of Pure Joy

For the second year in a row, to celebrate the big game this Sunday — yep, Puppy Bowl XII — Uber is teaming up with Animal Planet to deliver adoptable puppies Wednesday in seven U.S. cities.

For $30, Uber drivers and rescue representatives will deliver puppies for 15 minutes of play time during the #UberPuppyBowl event. And that’s not all — the entire $30 is donated to the rescue that supplied the puppies.

Just make sure your boss or building is okay with hosting a quarter-hour of puppy goodness. And be sure to have an enclosed space or a room available in which to play with the puppies.

In the very likely event that you fall in love with one of the puppies, the rescue representative will be happy to get you started on the adoption process. During the debut of #UberPuppyBowl last year, more than 70 of puppies found forever homes (including Pepper Jack, the itty bitty Pittie in the photo above).

Playdates are available Feb. 3 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. The participating cities this year are Chicago; Denver; Los Angeles/Orange County; New York; Phoenix; San Francisco/San Jose; and Washington, D.C.

To request a puppy delivery — and do realize the demand will be high, so be very patient — open the Uber app and select the “Puppies” option.

For more information, visit the Uber website.

Photo via Twitter

Over 17,600 Pets Find Forever Homes on Clear the Shelters Day

AUG. 22, 2015 UPDATE: The total number of pets adopted on Clear the Shelters Day has risen to 19,132!

As of Saturday evening, 17,648 homeless pets have been adopted on the first-ever Clear the Shelters Day.

More than 300 shelters in about a dozen states participated in the event, which was organized in partnership with NBC-owned television stations and the Telemundo station group.

The goal, as the name implies, was to get as many pets adopted as possible. Some shelters, including those in the Chicago area, completely waived adoption fees, while others reduced the fees and/or reduced or waived spay and neuter fees.

Throughout Clear the Shelters Day on Saturday, shelters, reporters and new pet parents posted pictures of adopted pets on social media using the #ClearTheShelters hashtag.

Here are just a few of the many heartwarming posts on Twitter. (Tissue alert!)

 

 

 

The special, “Clear the Shelters,” hosted by Natalie Morales and featuring celebrities Cecily Strong, Sherri Shepard, Bellamy Young and Denise Richard, will air on NBC stations beginning Aug. 22. It will feature shelter pets meeting their new families and take a look at how social media is changing animal adoption.

Photo via Twitter

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