Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS): Orvis Dog Enrichment Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

Over the holidays we offered the Holiday of Hope adoption specials. All dog adopters were able to pull a snowflake out of our large bowl and they received either a waived adoption fee, $10 adoption fee, $10-off adoption fee or a name-your-own adoption fee (cats had a different special). Many of the “winners” made a donation back to BARCS and we wrote their name (or their pet’s) on a holiday ornament that we hung on our large Christmas tree.

Everyone wins ... our adopters and our dogs! The public loves our monthly specials, especially when they win a chance for a reduced fee or name-their-own adoption fee. We used the Orvis grant to underwrite the costs of the $10-off adoption fees and we were able to get 100 dogs adopted!

How many pets did this grant help?

100

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Frankie, a beautiful 10-year-old German Shepherd, came to BARCS because his owner died and no one in the family wanted him. Such a majestic dog, he was so forlorn in his kennel and was being overlooked by potential adopters. We put Frankie in an employee’s office (as we often do with frightened animals) and he perked right up being out of the kennel environment! We work with so many breed rescues that pull animals from our shelter to make room for our Pit Bulls that make up over 85% of our dog population, so it’s rare that we have a breed for any length of time. Always looking ahead to our next holiday special, we dressed Frankie up for our Valentine’s special photo shoot and one of the spectators said he would love to adopt Frankie and give him a forever home! He drew a $10-off-the-adoption-fee snowflake and ended up not only paying for the adoption, but donated an additional $100!