The end of summer is usually same for the Alachua County Animal Services.
The center gets overbooked with cats and dogs, and staff puts on their annual daylong Summer Lovin’ free adoption event in late August.
But this year was the worst.
Crates out in the hallways. Cats and dogs housed in rooms not normally used for animals.
“We were just so overcrowded,” said Janet Braden, a senior office assistant with the center.
To handle the overbooking, Braden said the center lifted adoption fees in the beginning of August, two weeks ahead of this year’s Summer Lovin’ event, which they held Saturday.
The adoption event usually is enough to handle the seasonal overbooking at the center, but this year’s 214 animals were too much to handle, and the center was forced to lift fees early.
“We’ve lifted fees before whenever we get booked, but not usually before the event,” Braden said. “This year was different.”
When Ocala resident Megan Scott walked into the Animal Services building Saturday, she said it was clear right from the start that the shelter was booked.
Scott, 35, drove up to the adoption event Saturday with her two kids — 5-year-old Liam and 9-year-old Emma — after seeing the event on Facebook the night before.
What started as a 9 a.m. drive to Gainesville from Ocala ended with a new member to the Scott family, a 2-month-old beagle mix they later named Loki, after the Marvel comic book supervillain.
Scott said they actually saw Loki the night before while scrolling through pictures the shelter had posted in advance of the event.
Emma fell in love with Loki immediately, and Scott wanted another dog as a playmate and companion for Elly, their current 5-year-old husky-shepherd mix.
“It was meant to be,” she said.
