The Los Angeles chapter of Best Friends Animal Society (BFAS) ran like a well-oiled machine at Sunday’s much-anticipated Adoption Festival held at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. i Love Dogs had the opportunity to spend the day there talking to potential adoptive pet parents about the best vitamins for their new pups.
Volunteers clad in orange t-shirts swarmed about vendor and rescue vans in the parking lot as everyone arrived. They approached i Love Dogs’ purple van like a well-coordinated dog pack and had the product at the booth in no time. The morning’s set-up went smooth as ice, and then the real business began. Hundreds of dogs were being made comfortable in their crates and play pens. Many were being prettied up with a nice orange or yellow ”Adopt Me” bandana wrapped sweetly about their necks. Other pooches enjoyed some last minute grooming from their rescuers, and all pooches put on their best smiles as Los Angeles animal lovers made their way through the gates.
Potential adopters ran the gamut, from children, doting adults, and first-time owners to long-time pet parent veterans. One couple that stopped by the i Love Dogs booth to pick up some Omega 3, TJ’s Health Bites, and Glucosamine samples laughed and explained that they had SIX dogs. “We started out fostering them and before we knew it we had six!” explained the wife.
Another couple was just “feeling things out” as one of the men explained, ”We just lost our 10-year-old cat this past summer to a
stroke, so we’ll have to see…” The man was noticeably choked up, but cheerful about the event. They had rescued their little chihuahua mix named London and their two cats at the same time several years ago, and were now coping with having lost one of their happy bunch. They weren’t sure if they were ready to commit, but were definitely keeping their eyes open.
Pups strolled about with volunteers who were trying to get the dogs more “face time” and exposure for potential adopters to see. One big guy named Scrappy with Strangest Angels Animal Rescue was in the next booth over from i Love Dogs. A Mastiff mix, there’s no gentler giant than Scrappy. He quietly cuddled with his foster mom as potential adopters fell head over heels in love with his kind and gentle demeanor.
Across the way were friends Karma Rescue. In tow were some of our featured Adopt-A-Dog Month dogs, including Skylar, Katie Fay, Shay, and of course Chocolate Charlie and Sweet Ginger Cookie, snuggled close together in a single crate. The pretty Pits were quite popular and Karma Rescue’s booth was happily swarmed by pit-lovers looking for a new pooch to take home.
Entertainment was first-class as BFAS brought festival-goers “Dancing with the Dogs,” a group of professional trainers and their canines doing Musical Canine Freestyle. From social dance to sports dance, the woofs and wags were abundant as families cheered the dancing doggies on.
This is a dog blog, but let’s not forget our cat friends who were also looking for the purr-fect home. Kittens, rabbits and other animals were also up for adoption at the BFAS festival.
Though the event was an overall success, as the day wound down the sad reality settled in: not all of the pets had been adopted. Many of the booths present were rescue organizations, but scattered about were the city and county animal shelters. Many of the animals there on that day were looking at their last opportunity for a full, happy life. If they were not adopted they’d be returning to the shelters and to death row.
Rescuers and animal lovers scrambled about urging rescues to pull animals from these shelters. The Jason Debus Heigl Foundation (Founded by actress Katherine Heigl and her mother, Nancy Heigl) offered financial support for each dog that a rescue pulled from one of these shelters. Others offered to pay for pulling fees and the rallying cry to save as many animals as possible continued throughout the end of the event.
Always looking to save as many dogs as possible, Karma Rescue left with nine more dogs at the end of the day and are currently looking for donations to help get these pooches into forever homes.
Over 400 animals were adopted out at Sunday’s event. A good deed done by so many fighting to save lives.
Do you have a great adoption story? Leave a comment and share it with us!
