Could you tell me a little bit about what a Dog Day at the Library looks like?
We partnered with Durham County Library a few months ago to get some exposure with us at the library. It’s open to the public, and we bring about anywhere from two to three dogs and we encourage people to hang out with the dogs, interact if they’re comfortable. And then we do some type of story time, whether [with] children, or [if] participants want to read directly to the dogs, or we’ll have a volunteer that will read aloud just to the group. It’s pretty flexible, but it’s been great exposure for us and the wonderful libraries that we have here in Durham.
I read that the Durham APS has had this event in the past. How has it gone before?
Yeah, it’s gone really well. Our first event, we had over 100 people stop by and say hello and see what it was like. We’ll have people stick around or just come pet the dogs and see what’s going on, but it’s been pretty successful. We’re trying to be creative about beating the heat and making it accessible.
How did you all come up with the event?
I believe the library reached out to us and said, “We’d love to implement some type of adoption event.” And so we’re not actually able to do off-site adoptions, but we do what we like to call “meet and greet” or “out and about.” Our contact [at the library] had the idea, and we started brainstorming from there and came up with Dog Days at the Library. It was a pretty simple idea that has turned into something really wonderful.
What can visitors expect to see at the event?
Adoptable dogs. Lots of fun. Quiet exposure to shelter animals. It’s a very different environment than it is here at the shelter. Dogs have been more relaxed and eager to maybe be out and about versus in a kennel environment.
It’s more than just a chance to pet and play with the dogs, but also to learn about adoption awareness and the process. What do you hope visitors will learn at the event?
This goes for all of our events, but we hope that there’s a lot of exposure to our shelter. We are the only animal shelter in Durham County and an open admission shelter. We’re here for all people and their pets. We hope we can spread awareness about what an adoption looks like, what shelter animals look like.
They don’t all just look like your stereotypical dog. You can find all different types of breeds and personalities and sizes, and we’re also doing some education about what we do out in the community. We do community spay and neuter, and we have a pet pantry for our community as well. It’s making sure that we have visibility outside of our shelter, and showing people that we’re it for Durham and that they can come to us if they have any needs that are pet-related.
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