The Veterinary Technology Program hosted their first pet adoption since the beginning of the pandemic, with two dogs remaining.

This year seven dogs and eight cats were up for adoption. So far, all eight cats have found homes but two dogs, Archie and Vaquita, are still up for adoption.

The animals are microchipped, vaccinated, and spayed and neutered.

Lab technician, Cheryl Buch said, “They’re perfectly good animals. There’s nothing wrong with them, and we try to make them adoptable pets, because we want them to find homes and we don’t want them to be returned to the shelter.”

Referring to prospective adoptees, Buch said “They’re getting a healthy animal that we can tell them what they’re health is like, because we’ve had them for so long.”

Buch said those interested in adopting the dogs should schedule an appointment with her to meet the dogs. The adoption fee is $150 with Buch saying “it’s really not a bad deal at all” compared with fees typically associated with shetlers.

Buch said the dogs could go home that very day with their new family or could stay in the kennel on campus for a couple days, if needed.

Twenty-five year old Khadejah Rehman, a veterinary technician major, adopted one of the dogs she worked with this semester.

“I adopted a small chihuahua terrier mix. I am more of a fan of larger breeds of dogs, once we got him in the program he was so sweet and so loving and calm,” Rehman said. “When I started to work with him one-on-one he just stole my heart. I knew he had a lot of potential with time and patience- potential to be a good pet.”

When COVID-19 broke out two years ago, the program had a colony of animals and quickly needed to find homes for them. Buch said many of the families that fostered the pets ended up adopting them.

The vet tech program takes in non-spayed or neutered animals from shelters so that students enrolled in the program can gain real-world experience.

“As students we work really hard on getting these animals spayed, neutered and most importantly trained and we work really hard to make sure they are trained because these dogs in shelters are misunderstood due to their unknown background,” Rehman said.

Buch said the program director, who is a licensed veterinarian, performs the actual surgeries. She noted that the students in the program are training to become nurses and not doctors.

“And so the students learn how to prep the animals for the surgical procedure, how to monitor anesthesia during the procedure and do the post op after surgery,” Buch said.

Those interested in adopting Archie or Vaquita can contact the vet tech program.