Lucky Dog volunteers stand ready to answer questions and help potential adoptive families fill out questionnaires. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
Ten dogs of several varieties sit, wag their tails or excitedly race around the sidewalk as they inspect potential adopters at the Lucky Dog Animal Rescue event on Saturday, July 26 at Loyal Companion pet store. This is one of many regular weekend events held around the area by Lucky Dog to help rescue hundreds of cats and dogs and help find them a safe and loving environment.
Volunteers stand at a table to answer questions and assist with filling out the adoption questionnaire. The event has just begun but they already have a couple of applications by interested families.
The staff will have a brief conversation to find out about the family's needs and preferences, daily schedule and previous experience with pets. Some families may have allergies or already have animals with specific personalities or young children inexperienced with pets. They have a full screening to see if it the adoption fits both the family and the animal.
For renters they check with the landlord to assure that dogs are permitted and if there are size or breed restrictions. And finally they visit the home to see where the dog will live and answer any questions. Generally this process takes less than a week.
Ella and Vivian Schellhas are patting Adeline, a year old retriever mix. Their mother, Caroline, pauses and says, "Well, we're looking at dogs," but Ella volunteers, "Dad's the problem."
But Caroline says, "We're working on him. We have a three-year-old Nova-Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever at home, but if it was up to me, we'd have several more dogs."
Three year old Jonah Yerkhimovich takes his turn with Adeline, but his mom says, "Not yet. They are still too young for a dog."
Meanwhile a passer-by headed to lunch comments, "Oh, so many cute ones today." A volunteer says, "they always head for the fluffy Collies."
Colleen Bernhard, senior program manager for operations, says Lucky Dog works with partners. The majority of dogs come from South Carolina although they also come from North Carolina, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and rural Virginia. Lucky Dog has no permanent facility but instead they rely on foster homes and boarding partners to care for the animals until they find an adoptive family.
Since Lucky Dog is a volunteer-powered non-profit organization, they rely on a network of volunteers to help at events, donate supplies, visit foster homes, give a dog a ride to the vet or perform administrative tasks. They are dedicated to "rescuing homeless, neglected, and abandoned animals from situations where they have no home and no future." For more information: info@luckydoganimalrescue.org.