The San Francisco Bay Area is pet-friendly and their economy is doing well. People have disposable income. It is one of the few areas where pet adoptions are thriving. In fact, rescue groups outside the area are sending animals to the Bay Area to be adopted.
The massive Maddie’s Matchmaker Adoptathon will be held this weekend in the Bay Area. Over eighty locations will have healthy dogs and cats for adoption. Â 2,313 pets were placed during last year’s event. This year’s goal is 3,000. All adoption fees are waived. The sponsoring organization, Maddie’s Fund, will donate between $500-2,000 to rescue agencies for each animal placed this weekend. This is a primary source of income for the rescue groups.
Maddie’s Fund is a non-profit and is dedicated the “creation of a no-kill nation here all healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats are guaranteed a loving home.” They award several million dollars every year in grants all over the country.
PeopleSoft and Workday Founder, Dave Duffield, and his wife, Cheryl, created Maddie’s Fund in 1999. The foundation makes good on a promise the Duffields made to their beloved Miniature Schnauzer, Maddie, to give back in dollars that which Maddie gave to them in companionship and love.
Our sagging economy has the unfortunate consequence that in many areas, rescue organizations are overwhelmed. They have far too many animals and people are reluctant to adopt due to economic worries. In rural areas this can be compounded by less emphasis on spaying and neutering, which means evermore strays and castaways. (Another big problem out in the country is that it’s not just cats and dogs that get abandoned when a home is foreclosed, it can also be horses, cows, sheep, and goats.)
My wife and I do cat foster. We currently have two sisters who were dumped by the side of a road when they were six weeks old. They’re a year old now, doing fine, and hopefully will be adopted at the Adoptathon this weekend! We also shuttle cats around. Cats are rescued, sometimes at the last moment, from county shelters that are about to kill them, and then can be shuttled hundreds of miles to the Bay Area by volunteers.
We work with the wonderful Maine Coon Adoption in Oakland. There are many other such dedicated groups, including the amazing The Cat House on the Kings on the Kings River in Parlier CA. They are “California’s largest no-cage, no-kill, lifetime cat sanctuary and adoption center,” generally have about 700 cats living peacefully outside at any given time, and place 1,000 or so each year.
If you live in the S.F. Bay Area, be grateful the economy is doing well, then maybe you could adopt a little buddy this weekend to be part of your life.