Have you ever wanted to get a pet, but just never had the time for it? Well, now that everyone is in quarantine there’s no excuse not to get one. Since March everyone has had to quarantine, and for some people they had to do it alone. Nobody wants to be alone everyday for several months. That’s why even during the pandemic, animal shelters were still offering their services for people to adopt animals. One animal shelter that we interviewed specifically, was the Dakin Humane Society in Springfield.

We spoke to Lee Chambers of Dakin about the adoption rates since the start of the pandemic in early March. She said that,“From March 1st to today they have adopted out 1,087 animals.” Chambers also listed a couple of reasons people may have for wanting to adopt a pet. She said that it’s not just about a person getting lonely, they also might want to adopt a pet for their children, for them to have a companion as well. 

Some people might say that adopting a pet during this time is a little crazy, given all of the safety regulations throughout the state. Even with their adoption center closed because of the pandemic, they still offer curbside adoptions. Since the adoption center is closed, potential adopters that are looking for animals can look on the Dakin website. Chambers said that “once people pick out the animal they want to adopt, they will email one of our employees and the paperwork needed will be filled out all online.” Chambers also said that “A date and time is given out to customers who have picked out which animal they want to adopt, before making a final decision.” Keeping in mind of social distancing, once all the steps are done to adopt the animal, when the new owner goes to pick up a pet, they are required to stay in the car and the animal is brought out to them. 

Chambers also explained that once everything is back to normal and more people are back to work, that is when the owners will have to start training their pets to be alone without them. We had also asked Chambers if she thought that some pets were going to be surrendered once their owners are back to work, she replied “We don’t tend to think that pets are surrendered for that reason.” 

We had also interviewed Naomi Darling, who went through the process of adopting a puppy during quarantine. Naomi has two children, so she got a puppy to keep them entertained. Since the start of the school year is online, the kids are home more often.  Due to the pandemic Naomi also had to go through the adoption process online. In her own words “The pandemic was a perfect time to adopt a dog, and it was right before school started. Also, if quarantine hadn’t happened we might have not ended up getting a pet, because we like to travel a lot.” She also said that “Getting the puppy has made it better since we can’t go back to work or school.” Naomi and her family named the dog Goldilocks. She also explained that when she was adopting Goldilocks he had come from a high kill shelter in Mississippi. During the time that they were trying to adopt Goldilocks, Naomi had first been put on a waiting list. The other puppies at the shelter were being adopted very quickly. All in all though Naomi and her family are really happy that they made the decision to adopt Goldilocks. 

Even during the pandemic, there are still ways that people can find happiness. One of the biggest ways to find happiness is to go and adopt an animal. So, after reading this article if you are interested in adopting an animal go take a look at the Dakin website. @dakinhumane.org/adopt-a-pet1.html