Single? Try a sleep over at an animal shelter

Cathy Free

For anyone without Valentine’s Day plans this year, Julie Castle has a suggestion: Dinner and a movie with a floppy-eared pup. Or perhaps a long nap on the sofa with a purring feline.

“This is an opportunity to have your very own sleepover with a pet, and if it doesn’t work out, you can kick them out in the morning,” said Castle, CEO of the nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society.

But she hopes you’ll be smitten.

Her organization’s no-kill animal shelters across the United States will provide pet food, beds, litter boxes, toys and heart-shaped treats during their first Valentine’s Day pet sleepover for homeless pets.

“Pets provide the purest form of love without any judgments,” she said. “Hopefully, temporary will turn into permanent, and you’ll find your own true love on Valentine’s Day.”

MaKena Yarbrough, senior director of Best Friends’ lifesaving centers, helped come up with the idea last year.

“We’ll send you home with a furry companion and all the supplies you’ll need,” Yarbrough said, noting that Best Friends centers are open seven days a week.

People in search of a perfect match can choose from about 465 cats and dogs at Best Friends shelters in Los Angeles, Houston, New York City, Bentonville, Arkansas, and Salt Lake City, and from hundreds more pets in Kanab, Utah, at the largest animal sanctuary in the United States.

“You can then bring the pet back or not bring them back,” Yarbrough said. “It’s an easy way for people to give fostering a try for a few days without a commitment.”

Adoption fees will be waived for anyone who decides to keep their sleepover companion, she said.

Michelle Logan, lifesaving programs senior director at Best Friends, said she’s hopeful that the sleepover idea will be as successful as the Meet Your Soul Mutt speed-dating events the Bentonville center has sponsored.

This month, Arkansans can speed-date with adoptable dogs on Feb. 13, then extend the love with a Valentine’s Day sleepover, she said.

“We also have a ‘doggy day out’ program, where people who can’t have pets can take a dog hiking or to the park, or just go sit outside a coffee shop,” Logan said, explaining that people can be with the animal for a few hours, a couple of nights or forever.

Although the number of homeless pets is on the decline for the first time since 2020, about 6.3 million cats and dogs still enter shelters every year, according to the ASPCA.

Castle said that when she first started working at Best Friends 28 years ago, more than 17 million animals were euthanized every year in U.S. shelters. Now that number is down to about 415,000, she said.

But it could be down to zero.

“Something powerful to think about is that roughly 7 million people are going to be acquiring a pet this year,” Castle said. “If just 6 percent of that number shifted to rescuing a homeless pet, we would solve the issue of 415,000 animals dying.”

A Valentine’s Day sleepover with a dog or a cat won’t entirely solve the problem, but it’s a start, she said.

“If someone takes an animal home and then decides to foster that pet or go for adoption, that helps free up space in the shelter to save more lives,” Castle said. “You’ll also be providing a home environment that is incredibly important to that animal.”

Chocolates and flowers are nice on Valentine’s Day, she added, “but we’re encouraging people to bring love home this year and see how much joy they’ll get out of it.” - The Washington Post