Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

PIERCETON – A good number of people turned out Saturday to the birthday bash at the Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County, but it’s the adoptions that took place that made the event special.

Rico is a American Staffordshire Terrier that had lived at the shelter for 518 days. Then on Saturday, he was discovered by Barb and Art Karst and they decided to adopt him.

“He’s beautiful for one thing. And, two, we wanted a dog because we lost ours, and he’s just beautiful. We love him,” Barb said.  “We just want to give him a good home.”

She said rescue dogs are her favorite.

“We just love rescue dogs. They’re just the best. We’d rather rescue than shop always. They need homes. They need good people, and we’ve never ever had problems with them. They’ve just been the best dogs ever,” Barb stated.

Brooke Lyon, adoption specialist at the AWL, 1048 S. CR 325E, Pierceton, said Rico was an owner surrender.

“He came in because he didn’t get along with the other dogs in the home. So we had him listed as ‘No Dogs’ for a really long time. We decided to retest him with dogs here, and he seemed to do OK with them, so we moved him up to ‘Dogs Selective,’ hoping it would just get him a home and he’s just been sitting here, waiting. No one … really gave him that opportunity,” Lyon said.

Part of that may have been because of his breed, but Lyon said Rico is gorgeous and supersweet. He’s good with cats and kids over 5 years old, so the shelter was confused as to why Rico wasn’t getting looked at, she said.

Someone wanted to see Rico get adopted so they sponsored him by paying his adoption fees. “A lot of people wanted him to get adopted, but they couldn’t take him themselves,” Lyon said.

The Karsts took Rico home Saturday on a trial adoption for about seven days to make sure he will fit into the home. They also have some cats. Lyon said the Karsts told her they have a fenced-in yard so Rico should be OK.

The AWL has seven to 10 other long-term dogs waiting to be adopted.

“When they’re long-term, we try to lower their adoption fee. Maybe that’s what’s keeping people from looking at them. Most of them are pit bulls, mostly males. We don’t know if it’s just the breed that’s getting people not to look at them, but a lot of them are just so sweet and we don’t really know why they’re long term,” Lyon said.

Abby Jessie, of Nappanee, and her family previously adopted their Akita, named Kita, from the AWL. They came out to Saturday’s celebration of National Dog Month and the Universal Birthday of Shelter Dogs to find Kita a companion.

“Our daughter has been asking me since we got her (Kita) for a second dog, and I finally decided that, for her birthday this year, I think we’re ready. It’s been a few years,” Jessie said.

After getting Kita – who Jessie described as “the perfect dog” and who they love – at the AWL, she said they wanted to see if they could find her companion at the shelter, too.

“Rescuing is important to us, and they were having this event, so we figured why not try!” Jessie said.

They found a dog named Rex and Jessie said Rex and Kita got along “super well.”

“I think we’re going to adopt Rex,” Jessie stated.

Tonya Blanchard, AWL executive director, said Saturday’s bash was taking place as part of the national birthday celebration for shelter animals all across the United States.

“We are celebrating and pampering our pets. So we have ice cream. We have volunteers here walking the pets. Meijer has volunteers here helping out. It’s amazing,” Blanchard said, adding that the shelter hopes to have the birthday bash annually.

There also was face painting, a bake sale, paw print art, adopt bracelets, games for kids and a raffle.

Fellowship Missions had their food truck on hand. Blanchard said Fellowship Missions and AWL paired up for the birthday bash.

“I feel like this is a mission for me and I couldn’t think of a better organization to pair up with on this,” she stated.

The adoption fees for the shelter’s long-term residents -cats and dogs – were sponsored so there are no fees for them. Fees for dogs were reduced from $150 to $100, while senior pets were reduced to $25.

“Our goal is – and everybody here, you’ll see them, are walking long-term dogs – our goal is to get some of these long-term dogs into a home. They don’t need to be in a shelter. Our goal is to get them in a home,” Blanchard said.

Jill and Eric Wack had an alpaca, llama and two miniature donkeys at Saturday’s event.

“We have a small farm up by the airport. We call it Runway Farm. We have a herd of seven alpacas, one llama and then four miniature donkeys,” Jill said. “We give them rides, and we’ll have field trips and we also spin the alpaca and llama fiber.”

She said she’s known Blanchard for a really long time and she just wanted to be a part of the birthday bash to further Blanchard’s mission of saving the animals.

Ella Collins, Miss Ultimate USA Teen for 2024, was one of the volunteers Saturday at the shelter. She was helping fold pillowcases, blankets and towels for the animals. She said she loves animals and is a very helpful person who loves to do whatever she can whenever she can.

Matt Marshall gave a bite work demonstration Saturday at the shelter with his dog Waylon.

When the animal shelter calls him, Marshall checks out dogs that are brought in and does behaviorial tests on them, as well as training.

Over at the old animal shelter, he does doggy day training for all dogs, daycare, boarding and personal protection.

His phone number is (574) 306-6114. By contacting him, he said an evaluation time can be set up to establish a program that meets the dog owner’s needs. He also has a Facebook page under Marshall Canine.

Blanchard noted that the AWL shelter and grounds also are available for birthday parties, family reunions and other special events.

“We have plenty of space,” she said.

For more information about AWL, visit its website.