There's a story making the rounds in the national news about a lot of the puppies and kittens that got adopted in the early days of the pandemic that are now making their way back to the animal shelters because the people that adopted them are going back to work and don't have the time to take care of them any more.

Fortunately that does not seem to be the case in Wichita Falls.

When the lockdowns began, people started missing interactions with other people and decided it was a good time to adopt a new pet. In fact the pet adoption rate rose 12% across the country. It rose in the Wichita Falls area, too. Cheryl Heineken with the Humane Society of Wichita County told Texoma's Homepage that they were a little concerned at the start but that we've not had any kind of increase in returns in our area.

That slow time in the spring of 2020 when nobody knew how long we'd have to stay home gave people a lot of time to bond with their new pets and it looks like most of those local relationships are now good for the long haul.

While the addition of a new, four-legged family member is a great thing for the households in our area it also helped the local animal shelters out by freeing up more space to work and more spaces for new animals coming in.

Speaking of creating more space, the Humane Society of Wichita County has an ongoing Raise the Woof fundraising campaign for a new facility that's been a long time coming. They've been in their current facility for more than 30 years and it's time for some upgrades.

Officials at the City of Wichita Falls Animal Services and the Clay County Animal Shelter are also reporting no increase in adoption returns. When it comes to Pandemic Puppies and Kittens, it looks like they're in good company in the Wichita Falls area.

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