Forever homes
Orland Square’s Pop Up Pup Cafe helps find homes for dogs at first event since 2019
Orland Square mall brought back its popular Pop Up Pup Cafe Saturday for the first time since 2019. The adoption event and fundraiser benefited the South Suburban Humane Society and helped find forever homes for many of the Homewood shelter’s residents.
“This is our third time doing the event and the first time we’ve done it with South Suburban,” said Cathy Mein, Orland Square’s director of marketing. “We unfortunately couldn’t do it in 2020 or 2021 because of the pandemic, but we’re very happy to be able to bring it back this year.”
The four-hour event featured dogs of varying sizes and ages that were noted to be good with kids and other dogs, all looking for good homes. Visitors were asked for a $2 donation per person, or $5 per family, for a visit with the dogs and refreshments donated by Starbucks. All the dogs were available to adopt and take home with their adoption fees waived.
“Usually, the adoption fee is between $60 and $250 depending on the dog,” explained humane society volunteer Dina Raymond, who coordinated the event. “All the fees are being waived today for the event, though we do appreciate donations.”
All the entry fees for the event, as well as proceeds from the sale of raffle tickets, benefited the shelter. Thirteen raffle baskets and three gift cards were donated by Orland Square retailers including BuildA-Bear Workshop, Lush, William Sonoma and Pandora, and 12 potted plants decorating the “cafe” donated by the mall’s landscaping company were also raffled. Mein said more than $700 was raised for the South Suburban Humane Society.
While this was the first time society partnered with Simon Malls for the pup cafe event, the organization has worked
with the mall before. During the holiday season, Mein said volunteers from the shelter ran the mall’s charity gift wrapping center. Shoppers were able to bring their gifts to the volunteer table and have them wrapped for a donation to support the shelter.
Mein said the mall and its partner shelters have always had great success with the Pup Café event, with 75% to 100% of the dogs being adopted each year. Within the first hour of the Saturday event, four of the eight dogs originally brought over had already been adopted, and more canine friends were brought finish the event.
“I did not come here planning to adopt today,” said Karen Blackwell, after she finished signing the paperwork to adopt the first dog just 35 minutes into the event. “I saw the event on Facebook a couple weeks ago and told my son I was just going to look. Then I saw her sitting there so sweet and calm in her crate and it was love at first sight.”
Blackwell was referring to the newly christened “Missy,” an 8-year-old, blackand-white Shih Tzu mix.
“I’m going to have to call my son and tell him what I did,” laughed Blackwell, who was taking Missy home to meet her other dog, a rescue she has had for 13 years.
Other families came out looking specifically to adopt.
Only four dogs were not adopted, though two of the remaining pups had families interested in spending more time with them, and Mein said several other families said they would visit the shelter to see other dogs available.
The South Suburban Humane Society has shelters in Homewood and Chicago Heights which offer basic veterinary services for adopters, including spaying and neutering. A new facility will open in Matteson in June and will eventually replace the Chicago Heights location.
“It was a great event, and I’m glad we were able to bring it back and have it so well received after our two-year hiatus,” Mein said.