Three KC area shelter groups team up to place hundreds of pets with new owners

Maybe it was the way the 7-month-old retriever mix darted around the room, happy as heck and wanting only to play.

Or perhaps it was the timing of this weekend’s Mega Match-a-thon Pet Adoption, coming as it did with the Royals clinching another World Series berth.

“I could name her Zoby,” said the frisky mutt’s new owner, Leesa Sands of Ottawa, Kan. This would be Sands’ way of honoring Ben Zobrist, the Royals’ switch-hitting, all-around talent.

“Or just Royal?” Sands pondered. “No, I kinda like Zoby.”

The name can wait, but Sands and her husband couldn’t on Saturday. The offer was too good: Three area animal-shelter groups — Great Plains SPCA, KC Pet Project and Wayside Waifs — teamed up to provide hundreds of vaccinated pets to responsible owners for only $25 each.

Microchip identification included. The adoption push continues through Sunday at six locations.

“We’ve been waiting to get a puppy for a couple years” ever since the passing of “ol’ Aussie,” Sands said.

Blind all his life, Aussie was special — a tough one to lose. But the household is now ready for a playful pup with a winning disposition.

One like … Zoby?

At the Great Plains SPCA shelter in Merriam, a recent batch of kittens went fast with names such as Erica Hosmer, Alexa Gordon, Meowstakus — you get the idea.

More than one visitor this weekend said they were fixing to name their next dog Moose.

Said shelter spokeswoman Rachel Hodgson: “It’s funny. Whenever we name (the animals) after Royals players, they go faster.”

The first takers in the door Saturday, Chris Chancy and his three children, arrived more than an hour before the shelter opened. They came to snare one of the sweet-faced yellow Labrador pups, named Eddie by the staff.

Nobody needed to mention the nickname of Royals starting pitcher Edinson Volquez. The tiny Lab’s adorability was its own selling point.

“His name? That’s negotiable,” said Chancy, who for now was more interested in seeing that the puppy become friends with the family’s other Lab, Samwise.

Hodgson said the goal of the weekend was to adopt out at least 500 pets before cold weather sets in. By the end of Friday, the participating shelters were already halfway there, matching 300 animals with owners.

“For lots of people who’ve been thinking a while about adoption, getting that discounted price is the tipping point,” Hodgson said.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Subaru have provided funding for shelters nationwide to host large-scale adoptions throughout October.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 3:16 PM.