In San Francisco, four of the city’s major pet rescue organizations are now conveniently located on a single block. San Francisco Animal Care and Control, the SF SPCA, Northern California Family Dog Rescue, and one of our particular favorites, Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, all make their home on Alabama Street between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets, in the Mission District.
A week from Saturday, that small community of dog rescue organizations will get its official recognition from the city when that stretch of Alabama will be designated “Rescue Row.” Anyone in the area is invited to come down to the ribbon cutting ceremony at 10:30 AM on Saturday, May 31, and bring your favorite fur friend along with you.
If you happen to be dogless at the moment, this might be a good time to find one to bring home. Not only will the event be celebrating the honorary name change of the street, but it doubles as the kickoff for Maddie’s Pet Adoption Days.
Between May 31 and June 1, over 100 Bay Area shelters are going to be participating in Maddie’s Pet Adoption Days, with the goal of adopting out 10,000 animals.
Does it even need to be said that that’s a lot of animals? The truth is, that there are a lot of animals that need homes, even just here in San Francisco, and not just dogs and cats, even though they might be our specialty.
In addition to the four Rescue Row organizations, there will be booths from Save a Bunny, MickaCoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue, California Chins (Chinchillas, not a plastic surgery org, as I first thought), Wonder Dog Rescue, Bay Area Rats, and my personal favorite-named organization, Loup Garou Rescue. (I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed to find that Loup Garou is merely an organization dedicated to adopting out black and dark-coated animals, rather than providing the opportunity to adopt your own werewolf.)
Whatever your choice of fur (or, in the case of MickaCoo, feathered) friend, there’s going to be a lot of opportunities next weekend. And the official naming of Rescue Row is a great step forward for acknowledging the efforts of not only those four organizations, but the fact that there’s a whole community of animal lovers in the city. Our congratulations to the groups on Rescue Row and everyone else in San Francisco who works to get dogs into permanent homes. As Rebecca Katz, Director of the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control says, “The adoptable animals on Rescue Row aren’t secondhand pets, they just need a second chance. We hope all San Francisco residents will think adoption when considering adding to their families.”
Read more about the bond between humans and dogs on Dogster:
