480 free dogs are waiting for you

It is sorta like an after-Christmas sale at the Pima Animal Care Center on north Silverbell. Use the coupon on the PACC website and you can–for a limited time–adopt one of their 480 dogs for free, although you have to pay for the dog license. At the other three animal shelters I checked, the cost for pet adoption ranged from $80 to $250 and none of the others had the big selection that PACC does.

So here is what I saw on a warm Saturday afternoon starting with the Dog of the Day.

The volunteer choose 5 year old Elsa as the Dog of the Day because she is quiet and shy when in her cage unlike many of the other dogs that shouted out a welcome the moment I walked through the kennel doors.

‘Welcome to the kennel’ they barked

These 3 dogs at PACC really demonstrated a range of dog behavior. The black dog on the right sat up and just looked at me. The white one in the middle opened his/her eyes and seemed to say “I’m good. I’m good.” Then closed his/her eyes again. But the brown dog behind window Number 3 began a barking call to me immediately. Maybe he knew that further along this row of dogs there was a tail wagging, happy-to-see-you dog competing against him for new owners.

On the left are two sleeping dogs at PACC. And on the right is a 3 legged dog who appears to be getting along just fine. Small dogs were in short supply on the day I was there, but on the first Saturday of every month, puppies and small dogs are available for adoption at the Park Place Mall.

Here are two of the 45 dogs available at the Humane Society where there are adoption fees. The dog on the right was a tail-wagger and then some. His/her whole wagging body said “Take me. Take me.” Very friendly. The one on the left was more of a barker. Looks a little suspicious of me in that photo. I’m not going to show very many dogs here because they all could be adopted by now.

Cat palaces for playrooms

Moving on to cats — of which there were not many, but both PACC and the Humane Society had adorable cat playrooms. I love the bi-lingual “Chateau Gato” — Cat Castle in English–at PACC. And an interesting thing I learned at PACC: they are willing to take in and treat sick community cats, neuter them, then return them to the community where the cat lives. That is a very kind approach.

A lot of people seemed to be interested in bringing home a new dog friend–the PACC lobby was crowded with people. But if you don’t want to make a permanent commitment, both PACC and the Humane Society welcome foster-pet-parents, too, as well as volunteers who take dogs for walks and do other things around the kennels. Maybe a good resolution for the New Year is to foster a dog or cat for a few weeks or a few months.