National Adopt A Shelter Pet Day is April 30th, a day where we raise awareness for the thousands of animals looking for their forever homes. Majority of abandoned pets are older and often have health problems associated with age such as arthritis, glaucoma or dementia.
Why Adopt A Senior Pet?
Senior animals are often voluntarily surrendered due to their family not being able to pay their medical bills, but there are an abundance of reasons on why adopting a senior pet will change your life for the better.
- Less Training: When adopting a younger pet, lots of attention and care is required to properly care for and train them, but with senior animals, they are often already house trained and calmer.
- No surprises: Since a seniors personality and behaviors are already developed, your initial meeting with them is typically how they’ll be once home with you. Once you understand a pet’s personality, you’ll know if they’re a good fit for your family. Additionally, they won’t grow any bigger, so you already know their full grown size.
- Gratefulness: Senior pets who have been living in a shelter are very appreciative and loving towards their adopters–who welcome them into their family and shower them with attention. While all pets have unending love for their owners, senior shelter pets have a true devotion to their adopters.
- Wider variety to choose from: When you are open to adopting a senior pet, there is often a wider number of pets available for you to choose from.
- Come with tricks: Senior pets will often already know basic commands such as sit and stay, saving you a lot of time. Additionally, who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Especially, if they already have a foundation to start with!
So when you go to a shelter, keep an open heart to older souls. Puppies and kitties are cute and need our help too but senior shelter animals have much more than you can imagine to offer. Explore your options and save a life. Happy National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day!
