It was a terrier-ific day at the BC SPCA’s pop-up puppy café in downtown Vancouver.
Hundreds of dog-lovers lined up along Richards Street – and into the adjacent ally – to get a little cuddle time with some of the very adoptable dogs the SPCA brought out to the first ever Cups & Pups event.
The crowds were so thick organizers had to turn people away by 1 p.m., only 90 minutes into the three-and-a-half-hour event.
It was all in hopes of finding a few dogs fur-ever homes, in the style of Vancouver’s popular cat café, which singer Adele recently visited while in town.
And by the looks of the interest expressed on Friday, the dogs are likely to be adopted.
“We were actually really pleased with the amount of interest that was shown. I think it really shows that combining recreation, things like coffee shops, and our animals is a great fit,” said Lorie Chortyk, community relations at BC SPCA.
Tess Repenning, a fundraising officer at BC SPCA, said they are expecting a lot of adoption applications over the next few days.
“People were able to leave with a card with the animal’s name, ID, and their branch so that they can go put in an application. I think a lot of people definitely came with the idea of meeting a new family member today.”
But it was TAXI, a local marketing agency, that had the idea to open up their private coffee shop to the public and fill it with puppies.
“We’re really grateful to TAXI Canada. This was their concept and they put in so much of the work in planning for it and gave us the space,” added Repenning.
“We’re really grateful for all the people who came in, and sorry to the people who lined up and didn’t get to come in because we had so much interest. We have dogs available, and people are welcome to come by our branches to meet them.”