Update on Home for the Holidays

I posted on Friday about the Home for the Holidays program at the shelter where I work.  You can read it HERE

I have some updates on the doggies.  I was at the shelter Friday and Saturday.  Kira, Cutty and Mo (mama dog) are all back at the shelter.  They came in one by one, we had about an hour to spend with each alone before another returned.

Mona was the first.  She did great in her holiday home.  She was playful and well behaved.  I had been worried about her because she would be away from her puppies and she had trouble with that in the previous weeks.  It sounds like she enjoyed the peace and quiet.  When she got back to the shelter she was playful.  When she went back to her kennel she was much calmer than she had been before the holidays.  She wasn't so stressed, she quietly played with her toys.

Cutty came back next.  His home for the holidays person said he did great.  He also said he couldn't believe how excited Cutty was to come back to the shelter.  This guy has been with us for a year and so he probably feels like we are his family and so he was glad to get back to us.  I sat on the floor in the office with him for a while.  He was happy to see us all and snuggled right up against me.

Then Kira came back.  She had slept on a bed for two nights and laid against her person.  The woman who took Kira had her two dogs sleep in a different room and let Kira be the dog on the bed.  What a gift.  I took Kira out into the yard and we played fetch for about 30 minutes.  We had a blast.

I know there was concern that the dogs would be depressed when they came back, I wasn't seeing that.  They were all doing just fine and that made me feel good.  Kira's home said they could take her again in December if we needed.  Great news!

Over the weekend, I got a few more updates.  Chelsey's home messaged me to say what a good girl she was and how she was settling in.  The message finished with "we can't bring her back, what do we need to do to adopt her".  This is fabulous news.

Today, I saw my friend who has Toby and she said "I can't bring him back".  At first I thought she meant she had to work or be somewhere else and so couldn't physically bring him back. Then she said "I would like to keep him as a foster until he finds a forever home, let me know how I do that".  Even better.

Then I got a text that says "Alfred has decided he would like to stay with us until he finds his forever home".  I love it!!

That just leaves DeeDee. She was scheduled to come back today. I will be at the shelter tomorrow and can't wait to hear all about her weekend.

We had 5 puppies go home for the holidays, they are all going to forever homes this week after they are spayed or neutered.  I would say our program was a success. One dog got adopted by her home for the holidays, two others now have foster homes when they didn't before and at least four other doggies got to enjoy some time away.

In addition to all this, my previous post on Friday has been viewed more than 2200 times. Its been shared on facebook over and over again.  I started this blog for my family and friends and usually my posts get 30-40 views.  The most has been around 100, so this is quite a few more than usual!  That can only mean good things for our shelter and for animals everywhere.  So please, share, tell our story, create your own.  But DO something.  The animals are depending on us.