Tuesday, July 26, 2016

PetSmart Adoption Weekend


I found out that the shelter I volunteer for was having an 'adoption weekend' via Facebook.

PetSmart in Biddeford is hosting AWS for a very special adoption event this weekend. We’ll have dogs, cats, puppies and kittens ready to go home with you! 

July 23rd: 9 am - 3 pm
July 24th: 10 am - 3 pm

All adoptions are on first come, first served basis so plan to arrive early at PetSmart. Kittens and puppies are especially popular and will go home very quickly. We will hand out numbers to those waiting in line at PetSmart starting at 5am on Saturday and 6am on Sunday.

Visit our adoption pages to see which animals will be available on which days: http://animalwelfaresociety.org/adopt/

Even if you’re not ready to adopt a new pet, stop by for some fun. There will be food trucks, games and activities for kids throughout the event. We hope you can make it and help us celebrate a fun weekend of pets going home!

For more information, please contact Stephanie Delage at 207-985-3244 ext. 114.

Please note:

-All dogs and cats are spayed or neutered and up to date on all age appropriate vaccines.

-Adoptions run on a first come, first served basis.

-PetSmart Charities donates $35.00 to AWS for each adoption at the store throughout the weekend.

Food trucks? sign me up.  I wasn't sure if I would have enough time or energy to commit to volunteering, but I thought I could stop by and take some photos.. Everything is blog fodder ;)

My husband and I happened to be in the area around 2:00 PM on Saturday and I saw nothing. No food trucks, no big event, I was confused if I had my times right.  We purchased a few things when out of the corner of my eye I saw that they were in the front training area out of sight (and there were no signs pointing us in that direction) I sent my husband out to the truck while I ran over to take a peek at what was going on.  There was a bank of cages on one side of the room, and the kittens were free running on the floor amongst the people, and there appeared to be a lot of people.  I stepped into the room to get a feeling of what was going on and saw only one volunteer there. I patted a kitten and ended up leaving fairly quickly since I knew my husband was waiting for me.

The next morning I found myself heading back over to PetSmart and showed up at 10 AM. There were one and a half dogs left for adoption.  I say half because one was in the arms of someone who was about to say yes (she did) and then no more than ten minutes later someone else showed up and took the black lab that was left.  Even with adoption fees that were just shy of $400 they all went home.  Good for them, but part of me was sad that the cats aren't able to command that kind of demand. They are still considered 'free' animals. That is changing and kittens at least have $199 adoption fees. Considering just a decade ago we had such an overpopulation of cats that we were having to kill over half of them that came into the shelter, I'd say change is happening.. and that is an awesome thing.


Without any dogs to adopt out they took down the tents and moved things inside. There still weren't any food trucks, and no real signage to point out where we were or that there were kittens up for adoption. They made announcements on the speaker from time to time. At one point I went over to the adoption area and saw people looking at the cats so I mentioned that there were kittens in the front of the store and they did not know. I mentioned to the shelter that they should put a sign on the cat area to direct people to the kittens which they did. I also trimmed a few claws of kittens who had sharp pointies and weren't afraid to use them.

While I was there, several kittens were adopted. According to the shelter, 57 animals went home this weekend.  That makes me very happy.


17 comments:

  1. I remember my local Petsmart had advertised a large adoption event with food trucks a while back... the food trucks didn't show beause they apparently went to a different event (at least, that's how I remember it). In my opinion, Petsmart and Petco don't do a lot to advertise their adoptathon weekends.

    Love those action shots of that black and white kitty... I bet my Music will look a lot like that one in a few months.

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  2. It sounds like it went well, although I do wish they'd had a better focus on the kittens.

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  3. Advertising and signage make all the difference.

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  4. Too bad they don't do a better job for the kittens. I agree that proper signage and some basic marketing concepts would help the cause greatly.

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  5. all for the love of a sign :) glad you pointed it out and they got something up. too bad about the rest of it, but those are great adoption numbers. and we love the idea of turning their enclosed training area into a kitten play area

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  6. That is unfortunate that they didn't advertise it better, but 57 animals getting a new home is notable. And the kittens getting playtime/socialization is great too.

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  7. Glad so many were adopted, in spite of the lack of signs and arrows.

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  8. I am glad so many found forever homes.

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  9. Goodness! If they had advertised there might have been fist fights over the adoptions!!

    Thanks for popping by the blog today! I don't say in the post that I did get Corn silk capsules, but haven't used yet as he seems so much better! Caro x

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  10. Purrs for all the pets getting a new home.

    Emma and Buster

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  11. We're glad so many animals found forever homes. The kittens are so cute...we hope more get adopted. Too bad there were no food trucks.

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  12. I'm glad 57 were adopted. There's the same attitude about cats around here--they're "just cats." Makes me sad that they are seen as disposable.

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  13. Such cute kitties! I'm glad that so many animals were adopted. It is too bad that cats are looked at as being less valuable than dogs. That has never made sense to me - they are a more economical pet in general, toys last longer, they live longer, and they can be just as loving as a dog.

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  14. That's so wonderful that over 50 were taken to their forever homes! Thank you for stopping by and leaving some purrs for Moses. We appreciate your kindness!

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  15. 57 animals finding their furever homes is wonderful! We wish they all find their furever homes soon! A friend just said today that she's wanting to adopt a kitty but there aren't any at her local SPCA (outside of NYC) so she's patiently waiting. I was surprised a shelter doesn't have any kitties this time of year but that's a good thing!

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  16. 57, that is great! That picture with the face against the purple bars, so precious.

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  17. We're happy 57 were adopted, and that several were cats, but we do hope someday the "free" mindset is overcome. And - WHAT?!? No Food Trucks??

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