More than 200 homeless dogs looking for shelter during the holidays

Santa Barbara County Animal Services are looking for foster families willing to take in dogs for three days during Christmas weekend.

“Last year, we just did this at our Santa Barbara shelter and we were able to place 100% of our adoptable dogs in foster homes over the holidays so this year we’re doing it all three of our shelters,” said Jeanne Saadi, the shelter’s community outreach director.

The program is called “Santa’s Slumber Party.” There are more than 200 adoptable dogs that are available to be matched with people interested in picking them up on December 24 and take them back on December 27.

“This program not only allows a shelter dog some time away from an often chaotic kennel environment, but we found that it also gives us a lot of great information on how a dog behaves in a home environment as opposed to a noisy, stressful shelter,” said Jan Glick, animal services director.

Volunteers are taking the weekend off to spend time with their families. Dogs without a foster home will have to stay at the shelter alone.

Foster families don’t have to worry about purchasing any supplies to take care of the dogs. Necessary supplies will be distributed to make the temporary guests comfortable.

If you would like to help foster a shelter dog during Christmas weekend, contact Jeanne Saadi at the Santa Barbara shelter at 805-681-4332. Click here for a list of the shelter locations.