Edmonds coffee shop to host rescued dogs adoption event Sept. 4

Haus of Dogs owner Aishah Hammock with her dog Castle, who is a rescue.

If you’re looking for a canine addition to your family, the Haus of Dogs is hosting a pop-up adoption/foster event at Walnut Street Coffee in Edmonds Saturday, Sept. 4.

The event will run from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. It will feature rescue dogs — located in the coffee shop’s front patio area —  who are in need of adoption and/or foster homes. In addition, the dogs will also be generally available for people to play and interact with onsite regardless of whether people intend to adopt or foster them.

“We’re going to have the dogs be on-leash and then each dog is going to have a handler,” said Aishah Hammock, who owns and operates the Haus of Dogs, located in Edmonds’ Firdale Village. “We’re just planning on walking around, talking to people there and kind of showing off the dogs,” she said.

The Haus of Dogs opened in December 2019 as a “dog adoption lounge,” where people can interact with and even adopt or provide a foster home for dogs. Hammock wanted to give the dogs a supervised, kennel-free social setting and alternative to a traditional shelter environment. But three months later, Haus of Dogs had to shut down in-person operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lounge itself is still temporarily closed, but the organization resumed adoptions late last year, featuring dogs who are rescued from various shelter locations throughout the U.S.

Many of the dogs it rescues come from areas with shelters that are considered to be high-kill facilities such as in Texas and New Mexico; some dogs occasionally arrive from international locations as far away as China and South Korea. In those types of shelters, on average they (dogs) get about 10-14 days to get adopted and if they’re not adopted by then they typically get euthanized” Hammock said.

In many of the areas the dogs come from, “there’s a huge, huge problem with strays and backyard breeders and a lack of resources in shelters,” she added. “If people help adopt a shelter dog they really help to reduce the number of dogs that get euthanized on a weekly basis – it’s very, very real.”

The organization currently has eight dogs available to be adopted or fostered, and four of those — all rescued from shelters in Eastern Washington– will be onsite at Saturday’s event. The available dogs — along with their pictures, biographies, size and background information — can be viewed here.

The Haus of Dogs does not offer same-day adoptions, to avoid people possibly making impulsive decisions they may regret later. Background checks and a meet-and-greet with the dog are a part of the typical adoption screening process. The Haus of Dogs’ staff at this weekend’s event will gather contact information and then send applications to people interested in possibly adopting or fostering a rescue dog. “Obviously it’s a plus because we get to see them interact with the dogs, so that portion of the adoption process is already down,” Hammock said. “But we still verify references and then we’ll meet them on another day to come pick up the dog if they get approved.”

Adoption fees, which are available upon request, vary depending on how much money the organization has had to spend on the medical care and transport provided for each dog. All of the dogs are medically vetted before they can be adopted, which includes spaying/neutering, vaccinating, microchipping, and undergoing behavioral assessments with the help of shelter staff, veterinarians, adoption coordinators and foster parents. The Haus of Dogs website notes that the dogs it rescues “have to be human- and canine-friendly to be a suitable fit for our cage-free environment.”

As of September, police, firefighters, veterans and active-duty military can get $50 off of the adoption fees by presenting an appropriate identification.

“I think a lot of people have this perception that shelter dogs are damaged, they’ve been abused, or it’s like a wild card,” she added, “but we’ve noticed that shelter dogs are super grateful and appreciative when they get rescued — they just somehow know that the tough life is over and they’ve found their home and their family and just still have this unconditional love and trust in humans. You’re not buying damaged goods, they have plenty of love to give and you are helping to save a life and giving them a second chance at a good life.”

Saturday will mark the organization’s first pop-up event. “We’re very, very excited and Pam (Stuller), the owner of Walnut Street Coffee, is just amazing,” Hammock said. “She reached out to us and she is so supportive of what we do and she is the one who suggested the idea — so we’re just very grateful and appreciative that she wants to host this event.”

“We pull these dogs from shelters, sometimes with minutes left before they’re put to sleep and we can’t do that to the extent that we want to if we don’t have fosters or people adopting instead of buying from a pet shop, for instance,” Hammock said. “We would love to welcome people even if they’re not looking to adopt, to just kind of hang out with us and have fun with the dogs,” she added.

More information about the Haus of Dogs, including its process for adopting or fostering a dog, can be viewed here. The application for adoption can be found here.

Walnut Street Coffee, where this weekend’s adoption/foster event is being held, is located at 410 Walnut St. in downtown Edmonds.

— By Nathan Blackwell

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