Kennels empty for Adventure Buddies Day in Los Angeles
This past Saturday, September 19, something wonderful happened in shelters across the country and, in particular, Los Angeles: Kennels were empty. For one glorious day, hundreds of dogs weren’t in shelters at all.
They were at the beach. On hiking trails. Riding shotgun with the windows down. Curled up on someone’s couch for an afternoon nap. Sprinting in backyard zoomies like nothing could catch them. From coast to coast, for our nationwide Adventure Buddies Day, people showed up and gave shelter dogs something priceless: a day out in the world to just be dogs.
And nowhere did they show up bigger than in Los Angeles.
Together with Los Angeles Animal Services and their six city shelters, we got 395 dogs out on adventures on Saturday. The kennels were empty and the halls quiet as hundreds of dogs spent the day not in the shelter but out exploring in the city. Eighteen of those dogs got taken out more than once. Fourteen went into foster homes instead of back to a kennel. And 23 of them got adopted. Listen — a dog day out is a good day no matter what, but nearly 40 of those dogs didn’t have to go back at all. That’s the best adventure ever.
A single day away from the shelter environment lowers a dog’s stress, gives them exposure to new people and new situations, and often reveals the parts of their personality that never get to come out from behind kennel doors. Sometimes that’s exactly the spark an adopter needs to see, or sometimes it’s just the spark of a good day. Either way, both of those things matter for a dog waiting for a home of their own.
Los Angeles has six city shelters and tens of thousands of dogs moving through them every year. Hundreds of people spent their Saturday driving to one of those shelters, being paired up with a dog they’d never met, and taking that dog somewhere. A beach, or a trail, or around the block. 395 dogs who got to feel a leash and open air and a person who wanted to spend that time with them, all on the same day, together in one city. For a dog who’s been sitting in a kennel not knowing what happens next, that’s something to wiggle your butt about.
And it’s much more than exercise and enrichment. These outings get photographed, posted, talked about at work on Monday. Staff and volunteers get to see dogs they know only in their kennels come back that afternoon looser, happier, and with newly discovered personality traits. And it all happened because of one simple decision like driving to a shelter on a Saturday morning to spend some time with a dog.
Los Angeles wasn’t alone out there either. Partners around the country, from Salt Lake City to Northwest Arkansas and beyond, said count us in, and adventure buddies turned up in shelters all over the United States. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of shelter dogs got their own version of the best day ever, and it happened because people all over the country decided that no-kill isn’t just a number on a spreadsheet. It’s a Saturday afternoon spent proving to a dog that the world outside the kennel is one worth waiting for.
That’s the thing about this Adventure Buddies Day that I don’t want to get lost in the celebration: On any given day, roughly 250,000 dogs are waiting for homes in shelters and rescue groups across this country. Every single one of them deserves a home, but days like this lift their spirits and reassure them that they are not forgotten.
So here’s my ask: Don’t wait for the next Adventure Buddies Day to make this happen. Find a shelter or rescue group near you, ask about their foster program or if they offer a dogs-day-out program, and take a dog on an adventure of your own. A hike, a drive, a nap on the couch, anything. It costs you an afternoon, and it gives a dog their best day ever. And who knows, it might be the day they find their family, too.
-Julie
