“With the pandemic and Scott and I not having to commute to the city, now is the time to get a dog,” said Sur. 

However, Sur’s search for a dog wasn’t easy, as most of the animal shelters and rescues near her in Westchester were emptied. 

“Nobody had any dogs because people had been adopting them so much since the beginning of the pandemic that there were literally no dogs, no puppies,” said Sur of her search that began in early November.  

The ASPCA reported a spike in the number of interested adopters by more than 177% in March 2020 through October 2020 compared to that of the previous year. And on a national scale, the same trend followed with data from PetPoint showing a jump in pet adoptions from 58% to 85% by the end of March 2020. 

Experts attribute the spike in adoption rates to people’s desire for companionship during isolation. 

After a couple of weeks of long waitlists that led to dead ends, Sur connected with a high school friend who fostered for SNARR Northeast Adoption Center. 

SNARR had just rescued a litter of puppies from Texas and after receiving photos and videos of the puppies, Sur knew immediately that Roxy was their dog.

“It was love at first sight for all of us,” said Sur. “All she has done has add happy things to our lives. She’s a responsibility, but it’s always lots of love and kisses and tail-wagging.”

Another pet rescue, Best Friends, which has locations across the country, saw exponential growth in fostering requests, especially in their Northeastern states. 

Amy Gravel at Best Friends’ animal sanctuary in Utah. Photo Courtesy of Amy Gravel, February 1, 2021.

“A lot of the reasons that people don’t adopt, especially in New York is travel or having a lot of busy work hours,” said Amy Gravel, the Communications and Outreach Specialist at Best Friends.

 But with many people working from home and little opportunity to travel, many are left with extra time to devote to an animal. 

“People want to have somebody to quarantine with if they live alone. And I think on top of that it was also a mental health booster,” said Gravel. 

Over the years studies have found a positive correlation between animals leading to mental health improvements. According to Mental Health America, owning a pet can alleviate stress, anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness and social isolation.”

“With the stress of the pandemic and my recent move I was just very stressed and feeling down. And having an animal in my space was very strong in terms of emotional support,” said Courtney Miller, who lives in Brooklyn.

Yua relaxing in the sun. Photo courtesy of Courtney Miller, January 28, 2021.

Miller had a lot of experience fostering cats prior to adopting her kitten Yua and had thought about it for a while, and with the circumstances of the pandemic, it became an opportune time. 

Studying and working from home allowed Miller to devote extra attention to socializing Yua while Yua offered Miller companionship

After hard losses due to the pandemic, increased animal adoption and fostering have added a silver lining to an otherwise dreary year.

Over 600,000 pets on average are euthanized annually, but Gravel says that if the community stepped up and everyone brought those pets into their homes even for temporary fostering, there would be no need to kill anyone of them. 

“I do understand that the adoption process can be difficult sometimes, but it’s definitely worth it to find the right rescue that works for you,” said Gravel. “And there are a ton of them out there, and they just want to get their pets out there.”

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On a typical morning, Erica Jones wakes up, eats a hearty breakfast, puts on her running gear and heads for the door.

Along the way she will pick up running partners, but not the typical type. Her cohorts aren’t people, they’re dogs.

Jones, 32, of Harlem, N.Y., is a professional dog runner for Happy Pants NYC one of the numerous dog walking services that don’t just walk dogs, they run them.

“You come in and they’re just knocking stuff over they’re so happy to see you” Jones said of the dogs she runs.

With over 1.5 million dogs living in the city, many being large breeds in small living spaces, many dogs are left with little room to release pent up energy.

But companies like Happy Pants NYC, provide a rigorous work out. Athletes are hired to take dogs on a vigorous 30-45 minute run during the day, a time when they might otherwise sit idle while their owners are at work.

Jones recently moved to the city from California after quitting a desk job in finance, because she really wanted a change of pace, she said.

“This is my full-time job now,” she said with a smile.

Jones said for her, it’s the best of both worlds. She has run in seven marathons, and combining her love of dogs and passion for running seems to suit her well.

“It’s totally perfect, I love running, I love the dogs,” Jones said. “I love being outside, running is easy and fun for me.”

She heard about dog running while still in California, and even tried putting up ads to seek out people who might be interested in having their dogs exercised, but she said it was difficult to find clientele in an area where open spaces were readily available and many people had their own yards for pups to run in.

So immediately after picking up her two dogs and moving across country, she went online and applied for a running position with David Haber’s company, Happy Pants NYC.

“I think the ad said something like, ‘Do you love to run? Do you want to get paid to run? Do you love dogs?” she said.

Checking yes to all those things, she met with Haber and was approved to proceed to the running test.

“He wanted to see if I could run basically,” she said laughing. Not a problem for Jones, who held her own during the 45-minute trial run around Central Park with Haber and one of the dogs.

Haber, 39, from the West Village, worked in marketing for years before starting Happy Pants NYC.
He wanted to try and do something on his own, less structured than his previous corporate jobs, and when he saw dog walkers around the city he’d wonder if it was something he could make a living out of doing.

Then, about four years ago, he began working as a runner for a company that specialized in dog running and did odd jobs on the side to make ends meet.

“After my commitment to them was finished, I basically went off on my own and tried to do something similar,” he said.

Haber combined his long-time love of dogs and his desire to run a business into Happy Pants NYC (“pants” as in the panting a dog makes when it’s happy after a long run).

At first Haber was the only runner, and with clients emerging in areas scattered around Manhattan, he was literally running all over the city.

Now he’s got multiple runners and clients all over the city. His business is doing well, he said. Prices start at $32 for a 30-minute run and clients choose how many visits per week they’d like, ranging up to five 30-minute visits for $115 per week.

“In the beginning it was just me and I was running sometimes up to six or seven times a day,” he said. “I think I was logging like 15 or so miles.”

Haber’s legs were so sore at night, he could barely sleep, he said.

Soon after he began to build a larger clientele, he started hiring runners to help take the load off, he said.

“The key criteria is definitely someone who loves dogs and has a great temperament to them” he said.

It is important that his runners are able to withstand running long distances, which is why he typically hires experienced athletes, but more important to Haber than athletic ability being able to trust them with the dogs.

“We develop such a close bond and relationship with the owners, and their dogs,” he said. “They’re affording us a lot of opportunities and sort of trust to be in their home and take care of their dogs that people value sort of at the same level as their kids,” he said.

One such client who entrusts her pooch about three times a week in the care Haber’s company is Dr. Nina Mohr, a veterinarian at City Veterinary Care in the Upper West Side.

Mohr, 41, from the Flatiron District, owns a yellow mix-breed named Banana. She said he had some behavioral issues before exercise was introduced into his routine. Mohr started running him years ago, but doesn’t have the time to do it as often as she’d like, so about three times a week, one of Haber’s runners at Happy Pants take’s Banana out to run.

She said dog running is a great alternative to dog parks and dog walking, which don’t offer the energy release that running does, especially for working breeds like retrievers and schnauzers, whose natural instincts are to be moving and working.

“They’re in an apartment, they sleep when we’re gone, they don’t do anything,” she said.

As a result, dogs do sometimes develop behavioral and even medical issues like arthritis and weight problems, but those who can get enough exercise, usually see improvement in these areas, she said.

“I think there are tremendous benefits, cardiac benefits, orthopedic, all kind of things,” she said.

Mohr believes strongly in exercise for dogs. Not only does she recommend running and other forms of exercise to patients, she also swears by it with her own pooch.

At 11 years old, Banana is still in great health and has the spirit of a young pup, Mohr said.

“Before I started running with him, he was sort of more destructive, “ she said. “He had separation anxiety.”

But the running has mellowed him out, she said.

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On the first day of spring New Yorkers flocked to parks to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. But it wasn’t just city residents out in the sunshine. New York dogs were out in force in Tompkins Square Park Tuesday and their owners say the weather is cheering up their pups.

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Closer than best friends, Carmen Greico and her golden retriever, Bud, spend every waking moment together, and when she’s not awake, he’s lying nearby to ensure her safety. But this relationship is much more than one of companionship: Greico is blind and Bud is her guide dog.

“He is a pet and he is a worker,” she said. “There’s a very strong emotional attachment, very strong; there has to be, because you put your life, you put your safety, in this animal’s care.”

Greico, 64, of Levittown, Long Island, has been blind since she was 4-years-old and was diagnosed with retina blastoma, a cancer of the retina.

For years she used a white cane to help her get around. While attending college in the city, she said she didn’t feel the need for a guide dog because of the all people around to help her across busy streets.

But when she moved to Long Island, things were different. The streets were quieter and there were less people around to help, she said.

Years later, Greico is with her fourth guide dog and she said they have completely changed her life. The dogs have provided Greico with a chance to go where she needs to without fear, she said.

“I enjoy having the independence of being able to move around in my environment without having to necessarily ask for sighted assistance,” Greico said.

Most foundations that train the blind with guide dogs won’t do so until the person is 16 years old, but it wasn’t until her late twenties that Greico began to explore the idea of using a guide dog, she said.

“I wasn’t ready for a guide dog at that age,” she said. “In some ways I didn’t want to have the responsibility of traveling with a guide dog while I was going to college and graduate school.”

Greico first became interested in the idea when she was invited to an event for the Guide Dog Foundation. It was there that met a golden retriever.

“[He] was so calm and so, you know, not what I thought a guide dog was,” she said. “It kind of turned me around.”

And so began her longstanding relationship with The Guide Dog Foundation of Smithtown, Long Island.

The foundation, which is completely run on donations, not government funding, offers an in-house program to train the dogs and their new owners, she said.

“They know who you are, the environment you live in, the kind of work you do, and you’re interviewed personally, as well as having references,” she said.

Bill Krol, communications manager at The Guide Dog Foundation, said the entire process, from room and board, training, to the dog itself, is free of charge to the blind or visually impaired.

The foundation trains their clients for four weeks at their campus and also takes them to shopping malls and real world situations, to acquaint them with using the dog in public, Krol said.

“I love hearing them say that they have the freedom now to go wherever they want,” Krol said.

It worked wonders for Greico, she said.

“The guide dog right away enabled me to move faster, with less stress on myself, [not] considering everything what might be in my way,” she said.

Greico enjoyed the experience so much that she and long time friend Debbie Nicolay, 58, of Levittown, Long Island, began raising and eventually breeding their own puppies to be donated to Guide Dog Foundation.

Nicolay began raising puppies, with Greico’s help, in the late 1990s. Nicolay had a background in dog training and wanted to put it to use, she said.

“It was a way to combine those skills and help others,” she said.

Volunteer puppy raises will have the dog for the first year of their life, and then give it back to the foundation for formal training as a guide or service dog, Krol said.

Giving them back is the hardest part, Nicolay said.

“And then the tears start, the water works begin, because you’ve had this dog for a whole year, you love her,” she said. “So we always say, you’re going away to college, that’s the way we can cope with it.”

That may be why she and Greico own six dogs of their own, including Bud. All of their dogs have either been guide dogs and retired, or were trained to be but didn’t make the cut for reasons like size and ability to guide on harness, Nicolay said.

After raising them for years, Nicolay got her black Labrador, Jo.

They began breeding Jo so they could donate puppies to the foundation to be trained as guides.

“She’s a great mom, she’s just such a good mom,” Nicolay said, smiling. “And we love working with the foundation.”

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