Four-legged friends get a taste of home for the holidays, shelter emphasizes adoption

CAMBRIDGE, Md. – It’s a holiday sleepover that’s gone to the dogs and cats. Baywater Animal rescue has invited community members to come and take a four-legged friend home for the holidays. “It’s a cool program that they’re doing and we really wanted in on it,” says current dog owner, and sleepover participant, Caitlin Mills.

This sleepover event allows community members to take a dog home for the Christmas weekend, and bring them back on Sunday. “It gives you the idea of being able to see how the dog will act in your own home, kind of like a trial run,” says Mills.

Mills tells 47 ABC, she’s a current owner of four dogs and she thinks of the animals as kids who need to adopt. She says her love for animals lead her and her partner to Baywater where they were able to give the dog Fendi a bed to sleep in for the weekend.

However, she says if you’re looking for a new furry friend, these types of events are a great way of finding the perfect pup or cat that’s right for your home. “If it doesn’t work out, just bring them back, try a different dog, you don’t have to shop, you can go adopt,” says Mills.

Brandon Greathouse, a kennel technician at the shelter tells us, some dogs have been there for almost a year and he hopes events like this can find them their forever homes. “A year is still a long time to be locked up in a cell for 23 hours a day and we try to give them outside time to help make up for it, but we just want to give them a home.”

Greathouse says shelter dogs aren’t always perfect. He says some come in scared and wary of meeting new people, but he and his coworkers are dedicated to showing them, love until they can find a home. “If you’re going to take this job, you need to know that you’re taking it for them, not for yourself and it can’t be for any money, it has to be for the animals,” says Greathouse.

However, he says even beyond this event, the season of adoption never ends. “Every animal is not right for every house so just come and find them, I mean that’s it, just come and find them,” says Greathouse.

Greathouse also tells 47 ABC, they hope to host more events like this in the future to help get their animals adopted.

For more information on Baywater’s events and adoptable pets, click here.