Speed Dating For A New Pet
San Andreas, CA – You’ve heard of speed dating for humans; now Calaveras County Animal Services (CCAS) is taking it to a new level in hopes of finding animals forever homes.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, CCAS is bringing together their animals and potential owners in a unique way, using speed dating. Animal Services Officer Rebecca Glover explains, “We are going to have our animals all set up in kind of like individual potential adopters and visitors will come through. They can spend time meeting each animal and move through. At the end, they can adopt right away. They could potentially foster the animal and we consider that more of long-term dating.”
The Valentine’s “Speed Dating” event is the first real big adoption event that shelter officials have hosted at the shelter in years. Currently, the shelter is full, making the need great. CCSA Animal Care Specialist Shawna Morales stated, “Right now, the shelter itself and just the dogs are well over max capacity. We’re just getting a lot of reports of abandoned pets. Potentially people are just bringing in left and right, dogs and cats, that they’re picking up off the street. So, just to try to bring awareness that you know if you are missing a pet.”
Morales added that if a pet is missing, the first thing you should do is call animal services. It is the same for those finding pets, as they can check to see if the animal has a chip, getting the pet back to its owner faster. To hopefully get some of the dogs and cats adopted quicker, some will be sponsored, which means the adopter will not pay a fee. Additionally, all the animals will have been vaccinated for rabies and spayed and neutered.
The non-profit Friends of Calaveras Animal Services, or FOCUS, will have a booth full of information, including how to help the animals by volunteering. The speed dating event will take place on Saturday, February 15th, the day after Valentine’s Day, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Regarding how many critters they hope to make forever pets, a smiling Glover shared, “I think all of us would really be happy with just one adoption, but the more we have, the happier we will be!”
