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Reflection on our Summer of 1,000 Lives



Wow what a summer.  We are truly sad and happy at the same time that this summer is over.  It brought so many great people together to help the pets in our community who don’t have owners.

I was one of those people that grew up amazed at times when people liked me and so when the summer kicked off and the whole city and other areas joined in to help us and show us that so many people cared about our cause and organization it was heartwarming.  Yes, you really do like us. 

743 dogs and cats found homes this summer and 248 animals were pulled from local pounds during the challenge.  We worked closely with Campbell, Appomattox and Bedford shelters and we even pulled a few dogs from Buckingham and a few kittens from the Amherst Pound.  

We had a lot of adoption specials.  From Free up to $25 to even a Name Your Own Price.  I got a number of phone calls and saw things on Facebook from other groups about their concern about giving specials or giving them away from free.  The concern was about our screening process and having returned adoptions.  

We screened adopters just like we do when the adoptions are full price.  We make sure the needs of the pet are going to be met and it is a good match for the adopter.   The price of the adoption fee didn’t change that.  Sure we had people come in that couldn’t afford the regular adoption fee and were enticed by the reduction but talking with people and explaining upcoming costs helped in that process.  We did decline people and not every person got the pet they wanted. 
  
One of the other groups was very upset about returns and how many animals are going to come back to us after so many were adopted out and how important taking time to let people really “think” about the adoption rather than being an impulse. 

I understand the fear but let me tell you about one impulse adoption.  A woman came in the day after her dog was put down to donate food and his bed, fell in love with a dog and took it home the same day.  She knew it wasn’t the right time or thing to do and if she had thought about it she wouldn’t have done the adoption.  It was an impulse adoption but you know what, it is still in her home 5 years later. We can tell far more stories about impulse adoptions working than those that didn’t work.
 
 Yes, adoptions fail but it isn’t because they didn’t think about it and give it the proper consideration.  Sometimes the animal behaves differently in the home than it does here, or it isn’t a good fit, or life changes for the adopter or there are a million other logical reasons
.  
We are ok with returns because we get that no matter how much you screen and talk and share, the adopter may have different expectations than reality and the animal might behave differently than how it does in a shelter.  Because animals don’t belong in shelters. 

With all that said our return rate has been lower this year compared to last year.
 In 2013 January 1 – September 10th we had 786 adoptions and 70 returns which is a 9% return rate.  This year,  January 1 – September 10th we had 1,184 adoptions and 91 returns, which is only 7%. 
In speaking with other shelters we are well below the average nationally. In some shelters the return rate is as high as 15%.  

I think this challenge showed us a number of things.  Such as, people like to have their photos taken when they adopt and people love seeing them so we are going to continue this.  We need to have other types of adoption events and goals throughout the year so we can continue to save more lives and get people excited.   

And the biggest thing that this challenge showed us is that we have a great community who really supports our efforts.  I often say that an organization is as good as their supporters and I think we are the best non-profit in the city.  But I am biased.

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