Miami-Dade County Animal Services has roughly 800 dogs and cats in its care, hoping to find them permanent homes with a 12-hour adoption festival.
The annual Mega Match-A-Thon festival is being held at Tropical Park in Miami all day Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Fees are waived for cats, kittens and dogs 4 months and older. You just have to pay for the $30 dog tag. Puppies are $85.
Croilen Lorenzo and Chantel Rodriguez were among the first in line and adopted Graham.
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"Graham's beautiful. I haven't had a dog like this, a terrier, but I don't know, her face just spoke to me. It's a beautiful little face," Lorenzo said.
After the community showed up earlier this week to foster dogs ahead of Hurricane Milton, many of those fosters are now looking for a permanent home.
"It's going to change your life, like it'll change their life. So you're saving a life if you come to the shelter, please open your heart," said Miami-Dade County Animal Services Director Annette Jose.
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The Cardona family adopted one of those foster dogs, Sara. She was the first foster adoption of the day.
"The moment she came over like this, all this emotion like came over me, I just started crying because it was just like, when you know, you know," Mrs. Cardona said.
County officials said last week there were 160 dogs in the Medley shelter, which is not equipped with air conditioning.
So if they get 160 adoptions, they won’t have to use it.
"It’s not only a strain on the pets that are living there, but our community really feels the pain of those pets. And our staff, we don't want to see our dogs in shelters. Dogs do not belong in a shelter," Jose said.
