Rescue group has new digs

MAT-SU -- Adopting rescued puppies and adult dogs just got a little easier, as a local rescue group obtained a new lease in a prominent Valley location.

Alaska Dog & Puppy Rescue held a grand opening celebration over the weekend at their new facility located off the Parks Highway frontage road near Sears. The facility, a barn-shaped building with plenty of open area around it, will be the site of weekly adoption efforts for the group.

To get their facility off to a good start, AKDPR volunteers painted faces and applied stick-on tattoos, manned a baked-goods table and helped answer questions about the 26 dogs and puppies brought by foster families to the event. While the face-painting and tattoos were special events for the grand-opening celebration, some of the events at Saturday's celebration will continue through subsequent weekends. Event organizers said they're hoping to raise as much money as they can to help cover the cost of spaying and neutering and medical care needed by some of the dogs who come through AKDPR's system.

Debbie Gallizioli, president of the group, said the weekly Wasilla adoption days will be run in addition to weekly trips made by volunteers to the Anchorage Animal Food Warehouse, where group members take about 20 dogs per weekend. Gallizioli said between six and eight dogs were adopted at Saturday's event, and she hopes more will be in the future -- but Anchorage's bigger market necessitates continuing the adoption program there as well.

"We have been taking in at least 20 dogs a Saturday," Gallizioli said, "and about 15 to 20 dogs are adopted every weekend."

Despite the higher adoption rate, Gallizioli said having a place closer to home will allow more foster families to bring their dogs to the site, and thereby give more dogs a chance at adoption.

Gallizioli said in addition to adopting dogs, the weekend event generated interest in other areas -- including a whole crop of new volunteers who are willing to care for the dogs at the facility, dispensing water and food and taking dogs for walks nearby. Because the group will only have access to the facility until October, she said, they're hoping the adoption days will generate or lead them to another facility where they can house pets or hold adoption days after that date. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, Gallizioli and others with the group said they're hoping for benefactors and donations from individuals to help the program keep running.

The adoption days will continue throughout the summer, Gallizioli said, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. For more information about the group, contact AKDPR at 376-9294.