PetSmart Charities National Adoption Week: 98 PCH! Adoptions!

For the first time ever, Pet Central Helps decided to try something a little different for National Adoption Week. Instead of limiting our adoption events to the weekend, we added five straight evenings of adoptions at PetSmart Bloomington, followed by our big weekend celebration. Seven days of adoption events was a huge undertaking, but our volunteers and staff were up for the challenge!

From October 19–25, we partnered with PetSmart Charities to bring our adoptable animals out into the community every single day. Our new weeknight events gave people the opportunity to stop by after work or school, and when Saturday and Sunday rolled around, we brought nearly ALL of our available pets to PetSmart for one of our biggest adoption weekends of the year.

Throughout the week, our volunteers spent time talking with adopters, answering questions, and sharing everything they knew about the animals in our care. Many of our volunteers know these pets so well, and having them there to help families find the right match made such a difference.

By Sunday afternoon, an incredible 98 rescue pets had found loving homes! Behind that number are so many individual stories, including Rosie and Lucy, a mother-daughter duo who found a home together, and Sadie, a Cocker Spaniel puppy whose journey to adoption included lifesaving heart surgery. We also got to celebrate a very special adoption for Summer, our longest-stay shelter cat, who is FeLV-positive! After all that time, Summer found a family of her own too.

Trying weeknight adoptions for the first time meant asking even more of our already dedicated team. We had volunteers who showed up all seven days. People who transported animals, set up and tore down events, filled water bowls, walked dogs, cleaned cages, and jumped in wherever they were needed. Every evening meant another round of preparation, transportation, and cleanup, and then everyone came back ready to do it again the next day!

We couldn't be more grateful for the people who made it possible. Our staff, fosters, and volunteers gave so much of their own time to make this week a success, and we hope they know just how much their hard work means to us.

We also want to thank PetSmart Charities for making National Adoption Week possible and the team at PetSmart Bloomington for welcoming us throughout the entire week. These events allow us to introduce our adoptable animals to so many people in our community, and we're grateful for their continued partnership.

Most importantly, thank you to every family who chose to adopt, and to everyone who shared our posts, supported our events, or helped spread the word. We took on something new this October, and our community helped make it an incredible success. Because of all of you, 98 rescue pets have loving homes, and we have more room to continue helping animals who need us.