'Bark In The Park' Pet-Friendly Festival This Saturday In Bethel

BETHEL, CT — The COVID-19 pandemic may have kept people home, but not before many visited their local shelter to adopt a dog to keep them company during their newfound free time.

Jaclyn Gartner, who runs Happily Furever After Rescue in Bethel, describes it as a Golden Age.

"During COVID times, everything was great. The shelters were emptying out, people were adopting."

That all changed once the virus got under control. Now is a rough time to be in the animal shelter business.

"In a lot of rescues, they're finding more animals being returned. And with people going back to work, they're just not given the time and commitment to what they signed up for," Gartner said. "I'm getting surrender calls multiple times a week from people that no longer want their animals."

Worse still, adoptions are down, and it's become much more challenging to even find temporary, foster homes for the dogs.

The desperate times called for some extra effort, and creative thinking. Gartner has organized the first-ever "Bark in the Park," scheduled for Sept. 24 in Bennett Memorial Park at 14 Shelter Rock Road in Bethel.

More than just an "adoption event," Bark in the Park is being billed as a "pet-friendly festival." Live music, crafts, lawn games, a raffle, dog agility course, over 20 vendors, and, this being Bethel, plenty of food trucks will fill the park from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The event is free, but donations will be appreciated.

Hopes are that families will come for the festivities, and leave with a dog.

Gartner has been running the Happily Furever After Rescue for two-and-a-half years, and has run adoption events for other businesses. None of those have been close to the size and ambition of Bark in the Park, the first such event her rescue has done on its own.

The event is dedicated to the memory of Gartner's own rescue dog, who died in December. Tyler was in a New York City shelter for the first three years of his life. Although he had been adopted out numerous times, he was returned just as frequently. The pup proved to be more than most of his would be "forever families" could handle.

"Everyone wants the 'easy dogs,' the dogs they could just pick up, take home, and they'll be fine." Gartner said. "But taking a chance on a challenging dog was the best decision I ever made."

Her experience with Tyler convinced Gartner to start volunteering at a local shelter, in 2017.

"He's just completely inspired me to really change the world. His birthday is on September 24. So I really wanted to do something special in his honor."