BARL's first adoption event of the year, which was held on Saturday, January 17th, was an unqualified success! The Westbrook Cinema lobby and parking lot were filled with many of our adoptable dogs and BARL volunteers to help celebrate the showing of "Hotel for Dogs" at the theater complex.

Nine lucky dogs found new homes, and we also received some generous donations, sold t-shirts and recruited two new BARL members and several new volunteers. Much of the success must be credited to Westbrook Cinema Manager Randall Smith and his helpful staff. They all joined in the spirit of the event and made it even that much more fun.

Mathilda Smith and Patrick Porter from Brookhaven Broadcasting were also on hand. Patrick provided live coverage of the event from noon until 2:00, signed his family up as members, and is looking forward to volunteering at the Adoption Center.

But one of the best parts of the day was how well our dogs behaved. Each of them were petted and shown gobs of attention by many different people, including lots of kids. Brookhaven Police Department Canine Officer Clint Earls and more than fifteen volunteer dog handlers helped turn the event into a training session for the dogs. The public seemed genuinely impressed that all our dogs were so well behaved and not jumping up on folks, sitting on command, etc. They were the BEST ambassadors for BARL, thanks to Clint and the volunteers. Not a single scratch. Not a single growl. They could not have behaved better if they were representing BARL at the Presidential Inauguration!