The amount of pets that find homes outside of animal
shelters varies throughout the year, but there seems to
be a spike in adoptions closer to the gift giving season.
Shannon Roche Wheeler, one of the directors at Pixie
Project, says that the adoptions occurring at Pixie around
the holidays run on a strange schedule. The weeks prior to
Thanksgiving tend to be the busiest, with the weeks after
then and prior to Christmas being the slowest in terms
of actual adoptions. The “window shoppers,” though, are
frequent throughout this time.
This is likely due to Pixie Project’s more extensive
application process. The actual application is filled out
first, and then times are scheduled to meet the many dogs
fitting an potential adopter’s pet criteria. “It’s very much
like a match making service and it takes at least 24 hours,”
says Shannon. “People can’t just walk in and walk right
back out with an animal because we have a lengthier
process than that. So that’s good during the holiday season,
because we don’t get a lot of those on a whim ‘let’s get the
kids a puppy’ without a lot of thought.” Families looking to
gift animals for the holidays tend to live up to that promise
after the holidays are over, making the first two weeks on
January the busiest time of year for the Pixie Project.
With actual material presents received but not liked,
returning them to the store is no problem. The same isn’t
said for the fuzzy fur balls curled up at the foot of your bed.
In the wake of post Christmas pet promises, returning an
animal happens, but thankfully not as often as those ugly
sweaters your aunt gives to you every year. At Pixie, the
adoption process is what prevents this from happening.
If you want to take a pooch home permanently, you’ll
go through a two week trial run with the pup before it’s
considered your newest addition. According to Shannon,
about 90% of dogs adopted from Pixie stay with their
families after the two week trial, with only 10% not being a
good fit. It’s hardly ever that a dog makes it through the full
adoption process (passed the trial period) and is returned.
It’s not only up to the animal to be a good fit for it’s new
owner, the owner needs to be a good fit for the animal. “We
look at prior pet history, that’s a big one. We also look at the
living situation, how many people are in the home, is this a
home with children or without, are there other animals or
not, what’s the schedule like, which is super important for
dogs,” Shannon elaborates. Conditions need to be perfect
for permanence occur.
Not everyone is able to adopt a pet for the holidays or
during any time, really. There are other ways to help
your local animal shelter. Most animal shelters are run
by volunteers who donate their time caring for the little
creatures. Time isn’t on everyone’s side, so shelters can
also use new (or used) pet supplies. Dog and cat beds,
food, leashes, food and water bowls and carriers are all
considered useful items. Non possession of these things,
or money to donate, is not an issue. If you have a friend or
relative in search of an animal, suggest one of your local
shelters as opposed to a pet store. Help yourself an an
animal by heading to a shelter today!
35