Super Dog Adoption Day Returns to Fairground

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
June 1st 2023

RICHMOND – Always Adopt returns to the Washington County fairground this Saturday, June 3, with hundreds of dogs and puppies looking for their forever homes.

This will be the second year that the spring Super Dog Adoption Day will take place in Richmond. A second adoption event is scheduled for November.

Always Adopt founder Louise Nicolosi, of Charlestown, said the fairground is the ideal venue, because there is plenty of space for people to meet the dogs.

 “People can have space to look at a dog, to take a dog to one side and just sit under a tree in the shade and get to know the dog,” she said. “There’s a lot more room and space.”

Nicolosi brought her adoption event to the fairground for the first time last year.

“We used to go up to Balise Toyota in Warwick, but after COVID, I was able to secure the fairground,” she said.

COVID prevented Nicolosi’s group from holding adoption events in 2020 and 2021, but adoptions continued nonetheless, with adopters  contacting rescue groups directly.

People interested in adopting a dog are encouraged to visit the Always Adopt website and  pre-register online. There, they can fill out the paperwork and receive a “golden ticket,” which entitles them to enter the adoption event two hours before the general opening.

“They go straight to that page and they can click on a form for early entry,” Nicolosi said. “The event is 12 till 4, but if they fill out that form, they get in at 10 o’clock, and they get the pick of the pups… Once you’ve filled out the form, you click ‘submit,’ and we email you. It’s a golden ticket which says your name on it, it’s done on a template.”

Saturday’s adoption event will have about 300 dogs and puppies from 13 rescue groups and shelters. All the rescue groups are registered in Rhode Island. An album with photos and descriptions of all the dogs is on the website.

“If they’re going to adopt a dog, they will need to bring their dog, because there’ll be a special area for them to do a meet and greet with their hopeful new dog, but they will need to bring someone else with them because they can’t take that dog into the arena [dog adoption area],” Nicolosi said. “On the early sign-up, it’s got an application that you fill out when you sign up and it tells you what to bring. And the important things to bring are your vet records, your references, your landlord’s permission and your lease. So, all those things are on the website.”

Nicolosi started Super Dog Adoption Day in 2013, after watching a documentary about the fate of unwanted dogs. Since then, more than 6,500 dogs have found homes.

“It never gets old,” she said. “I always say to people, ‘just imagine, when you got your own dog, how much joy you felt and then multiply that by 300.’ It’s absolutely palpable, and that’s what everyone talks about when they come and they see everyone going home with their dog.”