Our Shelter Pajama Party

A couple weeks ago, one of the directors at the animal shelter where I volunteer came up with the CRAZY idea of having a free adoption weekend with a pajama party theme. The shelter is not usually open on Sundays and never open before noon, so this would be a first on many counts.

I normally do all the graphic design for the shelter, so I was asked to make a poster to publicize the event. Because I was so busy at the time, I asked my daughter (a graphic design major) to do the honors. She ingeniously came up with this colorful, eye-catching poster seen here.

The day before the pajama party, I was at Joann Fabrics and happened to notice a pattern for dog pajamas sitting on a counter. I hadn't really even known there was such a thing! I bought it, along with a few remnants of polar fleece fabric that were super-duper cheap, around $2/yard.

That night, I went to work and made about 10 pairs of dog pajamas in different sizes. They were extremely easy to make--I got it down to 15 minutes per pajama. After all, how can you have a pajama party at an animal shelter and NOT have the dogs in pajamas?? Cats, well, it's understandable for them to not be in pajamas, because who wants to risk getting clawed up? What a blood bath. It's bad enough trying to dress up dogs!

Here's little catahoula mix puppy, Leah, rocking her teal pjs. Unfortunately, the pattern only came in 3 sizes, and not having the dogs nearby when I was sewing, I couldn't really customize them to the correct size. You can see Leah's pjs were a little tight so she busted a seam in the front. However, she was ADOPTED, and that's all that matters!

This Little Brown Pup also wore teal and was also ADOPTED!

Sweet Virginia in purple plaid. ADOPTED!

Here's the same purple plaid, but this time on Sasha (I wished I had bought a wider variety of fabrics!). Sasha also got adopted, but unfortunately, she was returned a couple days later. Apparently, one family member was not on board with having a new dog in the family (that family member had not accompanied the rest of them to the pj party, and no one had mentioned that there even was another family member). Oh well, it happens. Sasha is bound to get a new home soon--she's super sweet.

Little Boog in the grooviest pjs of all, but he has yet to get adopted. Go figure! Maybe it was his feminine pajamas that confused would-be adopters? Sorry, Boog, I'll take full responsibility for your gender confusion.

And here's our former temporary foster, 9.5-year old Sioux. I wasn't going to try to stick her poor arthritic limbs into pajamas, so I just made her a dignified suede-like coat with sherpa lining. And guess what, Sioux was also ADOPTED! WOO HOO!

The pajama party was a tremendous success with 25 adoptions in all (split between cats and dogs) In fact, after all the adoptions on Saturday, there were so few dogs left that they had to get some more from a nearby shelter! All the staff and volunteers felt a bit silly in our pajamas all day, but hey, if that's what it takes to get animals into good homes, why not!