Adoptable Dogs and Cats are Stealing Hearts and Covers this Valentine’s Day

Skip the cliches and vow to spend this Valentine’s Day eve snuggling at home with an adoptable dog or cat from Best Friends Animal Society, a leading national animal welfare organization working to end the killing of cats and dogs in America’s shelters and take the country no-kill*, which means saving every healthy and treatable pet.  

Instead of roses and a prix fixe menu, imagine a night consisting of snuggles on the couch, wet puppy kisses, and the unconditional love and affection only a cat or dog can give.  

“There’s no love like the love of a pet,” said Julie Castle, CEO, Best Friends Animal Society. “By choosing to spend Valentine’s Day opening your heart and home to foster a dog or cat, you might just meet the new love of your life.” 

Sound good? Here’s how it works in three simple steps: 

1. Those interested can stop by Best Friends Animal Society locations in Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Northwest Arkansas, Salt Lake City, or the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, on Friday, February 13.  
2. Best Friends staff will work their cupid magic to help create a love connection by matching fosters with adoptable pets. The team will send fosters home with everything needed to care for the pet including food, treats, toys, and any other necessities they need for their cozy evening. 
3. Let the Valentine’s date begin! Whether enjoying a nice meal together, going on a long sunset walk, or just chilling on the couch watching rom-coms, the foster sleepover will provide an unforgettable experience for pets looking loving homes. 

For those who get the love bug and want to continue the relationship after their sleepover, or even take their relationship to the next level, they can continue fostering the pet or even adopt them. 

Data collected by Best Friends Animal Society, from nearly 650 of our shelter and rescue partners, shows that organizations without foster programs adopt out just under half of the animals in their care (48%), on average, those with some level of foster involvement have an average adoption rate of 68%. 

Fostering is an essential part of the pet lifesaving process and fosters provide dogs and cats an opportunity to decompress in a home. This important step in the lifesaving process also provides crucial information on a pet’s habits and personality, which can help shelters and rescue groups make better adoption matches for the adoptable dogs and cats in their care. 

To learn more visit bestfriends.org. 

* No-kill is defined by a 90% save rate for animals entering a shelter and is a meaningful and common-sense benchmark for measuring lifesaving progress. Typically, the number of pets who are suffering from irreparable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed is not more than 10% of all dogs and cats entering shelters. For any community to be no-kill, all stakeholders in that community must work together to achieve and sustain that common goal while prioritizing community safety and good quality of life for pets as guiding no-kill principles. This means cooperation among animal shelters, animal rescue groups, government agencies, community members and other stakeholders, all committed to best practices and protocols.