Animals find new homes during holiday open house at Dartmouth, N.S., shelter

An animal shelter in Dartmouth, N.S., decked the halls Sunday for its holiday open house.

Bide Awhile animal shelter is a not-for-profit, no-kill shelter. Twice a year, it holds an open house to celebrate the community support it receives.

“We've had an incredible year, another record-breaking year for us. So we're just celebrating the great success with everyone who's made this possible,” said Sam Cole, Bide Awhile’s communications and marketing coordinator. She said it was a busy year for the shelter.

“Currently, we have 583 adoptions,” said Cole. “We still have a couple of weeks in December to go. Last year we had our record-breaking year of 598, so we're hoping to hit that 600 mark this year just to push it a little further.”

Bide Awhile is currently caring for about 60 cats and four dogs. Cole said some are up for adoption but new arrivals are going through the intake process.

“Everyone is spayed or neutered, they're microchipped, vaccinated, flea and tick treated and dewormed before they find their forever home.”

Cathryn Tracy is hoping to bring home one of those cats. Tracy said she’s been a “cat mom” for more than forty years and fell in love with Happy who has been staying at Bide Awhile for almost nine months.

“She has a little bit of an issue that she needs help with and that she needs a lot of love,” said Tracy. “I'm not sure why she's been overlooked for 269 days, but I think it's time that she probably came home with a new mom, and I would just love to be her new mom.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Tracy adopted a cat from the shelter.

“Merlot was 15 years old and I adopted her here at Bide Awhile in February 2010, and I recently lost her, and my thought is to adopt and rescue another cat in her memory,” said Tracy, whose soft spot for orphan felines earned her the nickname “Cat” from her friends.

“I turned to adoption when I first found a stray in my backyard and I adopted her, and from that day forward I said, ‘I'll never, I'll never not adopt a cat in need’,” said Tracy.

For more images of the residents of the Bide Awhile animal shelter click here.

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