Oh. My. Dog.

So...

Yesterday was a huge event as far as local rescue goes. It was the 10th Annual Akron Pet Expo & Marc's Cutest Pet Contest at Hardesty Park. I guess that last year our rescue did about 40 adoptions by itself (?) so some of our volunteers were expecting the same great numbers this year... Did not happen. We did 7.

Now, I am not at ALL disappointed by this. In fact, I am very pleased that we did 7 adoptions. 7 dogs adopted means 7 more dogs being pulled off of death row! How could you not be pleased? In addition to that, we brought in a ton of extra hands to help with adoptions for Summit County Animal Control and Wayne County Humane Society who also had successful days. Both of them have been bursting at the seams since the beginning of spring so having a dog adopted straight from them creates so much more room for the recent influx of dogs that have been coming in, thus decreasing their need for euthanizing adoptable animals for space reasons.

So far I have had two volunteers come up to me complaining about doing only 7 adoptions. Well, I was not working with our rescue yesterday but with the Summit Animal Coalition at an informational booth on pit bulls. This allowed me the liberty to take a walk now and again to check out the other booths. What I saw were two other organizations that had stock-piled their booths with adorable little puppies, a couple of breed specific rescues (because we know how hard it is to adopt out a pure-bred Doberman or Pyrenees), and then the few other organizations that actually make a difference that take the dogs in need.

Please don't take this as me "shelter bashing" some of the other organizations, as that is not my aim. What I mean to say is when you look at our dogs compared to some little fluff ball puppies, how do you compare? Our dogs are the unwanted dogs, the cast away dogs, the forgotten and neglected dogs, the dogs needing their second chance at a regular, stable life. These are the ones that no other rescue wanted. It is extremely unfortunate that the general public will still not give these dogs a chance when the choice is between them and an adorable new puppy, but that is just the reality of the situation.

As far as I am concerned, the numbers don't matter for yesterday. I know that we are the better rescue, I know that we have the better volunteers, and I know that because of our wonderful fosters and the rehabilitation they put our dogs through, we have the much better dogs. Being disappointed for not doing "enough" adoptions is only going to bring morale down, wear down the people in our organization and ultimately tear us all apart. And how many dogs will be saved then? There is a picture here so much bigger than one event.

Know that I am not upset with anyone for being upset with the "bust" of yesterday's event. I just wish that everyone would see the accomplishments rather than the failures. The event all together generated over 60 adoptions. Our rescue adopted out dogs from Laddie, a seven year old black dog, to Bonzo, a 9 week old fox terrier puppy (the only puppy we had there) and everything in between.

Yesterday was a GREAT day. :)

Laddie's picture from the Pound. Found his forever home 6.11.11! :)