1,000 animals found a fur-ever home with the help of this Kennewick store

Rubi Cox wanted two things for Christmas — a sled and a puppy.

Santa made a late visit to the Kennewick PetSmart on Saturday afternoon to deliver the 6-year-old’s gift, and mark a high in the number of adoptions arranged through the store.

It took Rubi’s parents, Michael and Samantha Cox, some time to decide how to they wanted to help Santa deliver the present. The pair already had two dogs that came from a breeder, and adding a third was going to be a big step.

So they reached out to the West Richland-based Mikey’s Last Chance Rescue for help. And along with PetSmart, the adoption was the 1,000th the Kennewick store helped facilitate in the past year.

Since February of last year, the 17 adoption organizations the store works with helped set up the adoption of 404 cats, 566 dogs and 30 small animals.

While the Humane Society of the United States reports that it’s hard to tell how many animals are adopted from rescues on a national level, Tammy Falkner, the branch’s operations manager, said Saturday’s adoption marks a milestone for the store.

Most other PetSmart stores average about 300 to 400 adoptions a year, but Falkner has seen an increase of adoptions by Tri-City residents at her store during the past six years.

“In 2012, we had roughly 400 adoptions,” she said. “Now we’re at 1,000.”

Falkner said the numbers at the store steadily increased during recent years.

All of these pets are spayed and neutered, decreasing the chance for more strays and rescues.

Mikey’s Last Chance Rescue brings a selection of their dogs to the store once a month, said Andrea Moreno, the rescue’s executive director.

The rescue paired the family with a Pomeranian named Ginger that was part of a larger group of rescued dogs.

It appeared to take Rubi a few minutes to understand that she was going to get a puppy, but the girl didn’t let go of the animal.

And when she was asked if she was excited about the puppy, all she could do was nod.

This story was originally published January 6, 2018 at 7:14 PM with the headline "1,000 animals found a fur-ever home with the help of this Kennewick store."