HOUSTON — If a puppy is on your Christmas list this year, you still have time to adopt from Houston-area shelters with many of them at, or near, capacity.
"I've been begging him for a while. She's been working on me for a while," Damon Collins said while he and Anari Donaldson walked through Houston's BARC Adoption Center on Thursday night.
BARC is one of many Houston-area shelters hoping to see more people come out to adopt this holiday season because, even with an increase in interest this time of the year, shelters like BARC are packed.
"We have more than 300 on property right now," Deputy Shelter Director Cory Stottlemyer said.
The influx of animals isn't slowing.
"One day last week we had almost 100 animals, 99 exactly, in one day come in," Stottlemyer said.
The sudden influx forced Stottlemyer and his team to resort to alternative measures to meet the demand -- including short-term fostering.
"We had to have additional kennels propped up in the halls, in our evaluation area, even our south adoption building because there was no more space for animals coming in," Stottlemyer said.
With a push to clear the shelters this holiday season, Stottlemyer said they do serious vetting of potential adopters knowing, sadly, many dogs will end up back in shelters across the country after Christmas.
"We understand it's a concern people have and we try to make sure we do our due diligence with adopters. Really make sure and vet them that this is something that you're not going spur of the moment, you've really thought this through, your household can accommodate it," Stottlemyer said.
The goal of fostering is to provide future opportunities for those who might not be ready to give in to puppy love quite yet.
"With the new year, people with new year resolutions, hoping to get involved we're going to be doing a heavy push for our volunteer program and our foster program," Stottlemyer said.
BARC will be closed on Friday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but they will open for a special adoption event on Saturday, Dec. 23 with all adoption fees waived.
To check out the available dogs right now, click here.