Wayside Waifs holding a draft of its own to get deserving KC shelter dogs adopted

By Alan Shope

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KMBC) — It is NFL Draft week, but area animal shelters are having a draft of their own.

They’re hoping to get a lot of dogs selected in the first round.

In football terms, he’s kind of a linebacker. Three-year-old pit bull mix Curlin loves to play ball. The pup is ready for a pro day, and hopefully, he gets picked after more than four months in the shelter.

“He’s made a lot of friends here,” Casey Waugh with Wayside Waifs said.

Curlin is the Wayside Waifs pooch pick for Shelter Draft 2023, a program running this week metro-wide to get at least one extra dog from every shelter selected for adoption.

“Focusing on how you can save the life of a pet,” Waugh said.

It’s a program that’s also offering a signing bonus. If you adopt Curlin or one of the other draft special dogs, you get a free three-month supply of pet food.

Wayside says Curlin is no doubt a first-round pick. They say that sometimes dogs like him have a harder time getting adopted out of the shelter because of their breed. They say when you meet them, you understand why he’s ready for a team of his own.

“There are some stigmas and things that go against animals like Curlin, but we see the great in him,” Waugh said.

The event is also about helping raise money for area shelters. Hills Pet Food is matching donations of up to $25,000 this week for area shelters so more dogs like Curlin can find a forever place to run.

“He does like to run around. I think he would definitely be picked to be on the team,” Waugh said.

If you’d like to know more about Curlin or any of the other Shelter Draft dogs, you can go to the shelter’s website.

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