{"id":292170,"date":"2026-06-01T20:10:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292170\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:10:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:10:41","slug":"hundreds-find-fur-ever-homes-in-tampa-bay-mega-adoption-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292170\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds find \u2018fur-ever\u2019 homes in Tampa Bay Mega Adoption weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">PLANT CITY, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Hundreds of four-legged friends found their fur-ever homes over the weekend in a multi-agency adoption event at the Florida Strawberry Festival Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThey look at everybody like they\u2019re just looking for a friend, and that\u2019s the best thing I can say,\u201d Mackenzie McCoy, who was hoping to adopt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Adoption fees were waived along with vaccinations and microchips for the weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/us\/articles\/st-pete-garbage-truck-driver-153934151.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:St. Pete garbage truck driver ignored warning before running over woman in alley: affidavit;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;St. Pete garbage truck driver ignored warning before running over woman in alley&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> St. Pete garbage truck driver ignored warning before running over woman in alley: affidavit <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cRight now across the region all of the shelters are seeing an overcapacity of dogs,\u201d said Chelsea Waldeck, director of Hillsborough County\u2019s Pet Resource Center. \u201cFor us to have this event, bring together all the dogs to one location to make it easy for adopters to find what they\u2019re looking for is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Waldeck says the resource center was at nearly 150% capacity before the event. She says eight different counties put their kennels together for the 3-day event to give families plenty of options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cHonestly, she\u2019s better than any person I\u2019ve ever met,\u201d McCoy said about her handheld pooch, Lottie.\u00a0\u201cDogs, they have compassion for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/us\/articles\/hillsborough-deputy-leave-being-accused-141310849.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Hillsborough deputy on leave after being accused of DUI, sheriff\u2019s office says;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Hillsborough deputy on leave after being accused of DUI, sheriff\u2019s office says&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Hillsborough deputy on leave after being accused of DUI, sheriff\u2019s office says <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">McCoy was looking to add to her pack, and others said they were making the big leap for the first time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But some, like Oscar Cruz and his family, were hoping to open their hearts again after feeling the loss of a good dog.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cHe was fun just, you come home, and you see his ears come up because I\u2019m home,\u201d said Cruz. \u201cI had my dog for so long. It\u2019s hard to explain. We\u2019re emotional, you know\u2026 It\u2019s kind of hard to move forward, but I think it\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After coming to all three adoption days over the weekend, Cruz says his family is thrilled to take home a new member of their family, \u2018Rose\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For those who missed out over the weekend, there are still plenty of adoptable dogs at their nearest animal shelter. Waldeck says they will continue to waive adoption fees at the Pet Resource Center for a few more dogs who weren\u2019t able to find their match over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PLANT CITY, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 Hundreds of four-legged friends found their fur-ever homes over the weekend in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[123409,30425,123410,123412,123411,113092,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-292170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-chelsea-waldeck","tag-florida-strawberry-festival","tag-looking-for-a-friend","tag-mackenzie-mccoy","tag-oscar-cruz","tag-pet-resource-center","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}