The kittens and I went to Belton yesterday for the 4th Annual Pet Adoption Extravaganza, sponsored by Rescue Magazine. This was a marvelous event. Milam Touch of Love’s booth was back-to-back with the Rockdale ACO’s booth, so we worked together. Rockdale brought six dogs, and they were adopted within the first hour. We encouraged her to bring more animals, so she made the trek and returned with five more dogs. One of those got adopted, so she had seven adoptions yesterday. (For anyone not local to me, Rockdale is a city in Milam County, so it’s an area Milam Touch of Love is committed to supporting.)

Milam Touch of Love brought my four foster kittens, a fostered lab mix, a mama lab mix with four of her puppies, and a boxer mix. Everyone but the kittens was neutered or spayed, current on vaccinations and heartworm/flea preventative, and microchipped. The kittens are current on their vaccinations and flea preventative but not spayed or neutered yet (old enough by some standards but not mine). Mama lab mix and her four puppies all got adopted. Our other two dogs got some serious looks but their right people weren’t at the event, I guess. The kittens got a lot of attention in the afternoon but no takers. I was thankful a couple of the lookers didn’t develop — the kittens were tense and concerned throughout most of the event, but they were distinctly uncomfortable for one or two of the people looking at them.

This adoption event was well-run and attendees were generally knowledgeable about what it takes to own a pet and were very receptive to our suggested adoption donation. It helped that all our dogs were fully vetted. We had five volunteers at the event plus the Rockdale ACO. Our volunteers worked in both booths as needed, helping with questions, paperwork, and generally watching over things. We had a wire pen set up for visitation. This allowed people to interact with the dogs before deciding if they wanted to adopt them, and I believe this was helpful. People and pups could spend quality time in a more relaxed situation to have a chance to get to know one another better. We’re looking forward to participating in this event next year.