Pandemic pets still wanted at home

In the summer of 2020, Sarah Logar went to the Humane Society to find a canine friend. That was during the height of the pandemic, when pets — especially puppies, were in great demand.

She was thinking black Lab, but there was this long-limbed puppy with a caramel coat and big brown eyes that was very happy to see her. Logar was smitten.

A year later and the dog she named Nike Blue is the darling of her Facebook page, where she shares pictures of her pup diving in a pool, rolling blissfully on his back, looking doe-eyed at the camera.

Nike Blue isn't perfect, of course. Currently, Logar is trying to teach him to curb his enthusiasm, which he expresses through jumping.

"He loves to cuddle, which is awesome because that's what I wanted," said Logar, 24. "He's kind of a goofball. He's my little sunshine."

Turns out what some feared might follow the intense interest in adopting shelter pets in the pandemic largely has not happened: Pets are not being returned in droves as life inches back toward some sort of normal.

"I think people just re-evaluated their lives during the COVID episode and realized that pets do a lot to the quality of their lives," said Doug Brightwell, director of Pinellas County (Fla.) Animal Services.

While some rescue organizations have reported higher numbers of returns, national animal advocates say they've seen no pattern of people surrendering the ones they adopted during those very isolated months.

"We're not seeing the trend of animals brought back," said Maria Matlack, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. "It's just the typical return rate we usually have, which is small."

"We did worry a little bit," Matlack said. "We've never been through this before so we didn't know what the trend was going to be,"

Brightwell said animals are usually returned in one or two weeks. "Once they've been there a month, that dog or cat's part of the family," he said.

The trend appears to hold nationally.

"The data is pretty clear that there has not been any widespread return of pets who were adopted or even dogs purchased from breeders," said Lindsay Hamrick, director of shelter outreach and engagement for the Humane Society of the United States. "There's not the widespread surrendering or abandoning of those animals."

The bond between human and pet has given people "something of significant value in this very, very hard time," said Michael San Filippo, spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Association. "I think we're seeing that this was not something that was just a temporary thing, that it wasn't just an impulse buy."

But Hamrick said there is worry about a repeat of the 2008 recession, when shelters saw owners surrender animals because they lost jobs or homes.

In fact, housing remains one of the top reasons people give up their animals.

"So we remain concerned that as evictions rise, that's going to lead to displacement of pets," she said.

These days, the pet adoption frenzy has abated. A year ago, the West Tampa Bay Humane Society had want-to-be puppy parents camping overnight in the parking lot. Now, lines form only now and then, when the website features puppies or purebred, especially cute or small dogs.

"People love their tiny dogs," Matlack said.

Area shelters have had an unusually busy kitten season, with plenty of felines in need of fostering and adopting.

"We still have tons and tons of cats coming in," Matlack said. One shelter operator called it "a constant kitty carousel."