RACC/FacebookChristie Chipps Peters is a good woman. Even more so in the eyes of dogs.
Through her shelter, Richmond Animal Care and Control, dogs are in the position of being invited over for various Thanksgiving dinners.
Feeling sad about pets being alone in the shelter during the American holiday, she asked herself, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if people could invite them over for Thanksgiving dinner?’
Speaking to The Dodo Peters said:
People who’ve never considered fostering before reached out to us, so excited to host one of our animals.
More than half of the animals that year were adopted, either by the family themselves or someone who met them through the family.
After putting out an advert to the community, Peters found herself dispatching 35 animals to generous foster families, each of whom received a nice meal and some much needed TLC.
She added:
It’s a fun twist to a traditional fostering situation for people who might’ve never done it before.
The shelter provides the supplies you need, such as food, medication and a crate, and the following Wednesday after Thanksgiving, the pet comes back.
But a lot of the times, the pets never have to come back to the shelter. We try to make it really easy for people to say yes and keep that pet forever.
The Thanksgiving foster program is in its fourth year. The shelter will waive the adoption fee if a family chooses to adopt their host pet.
Peters has a few in mind she believes will find homes, explaining:
Elton is my favourite old little man. He’s a 9-year-old pit bull who would love to find his forever home. [sic]
And then there’s Taco, my favourite of the cats. He came in ear-tipped, which means he was feral, but then he decided he didn’t want to be feral anymore.
He’s a huge fluffy guy and would make a great Thanksgiving friend.
It’s no surprise Peters has already received plenty of interest from dog lovers across Virginia looking to host a hound for Thanksgiving.
Sheldon is coming to my house for Thanksgiving!!! #thanksgivingfoster #sheldon #racc
Posted by Barbara Elledge on Wednesday, 22 November 2017
She went on to reveal:
The emails we get from people are so great. They run from, ‘I’m here in Virginia on work and my family’s far away — I’d love to have a friend to cook with for Thanksgiving’ to messages like, ‘We just lost our Labrador of 13 years and we have an empty house now’ …
‘We’d love nothing more than to have a pet here for the holiday.’ It’s just a feel-good moment at the city shelter that we can open this up for people who love animals.
Keep doing you. Great bloody work.
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