All Crista Hernandez wanted for Christmas was a Labrador retriever — and that’s what they got, free, with a bag of food and toys.
Hernandez met and fell in love with “Todd,” an energetic pup, at Home for the Holidays pet adoption event at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds on December 13. Fort Bend Animal Services, Rosenberg Animal Control and Shelter and Best Friends Animal Society co-hosted the gathering to provide spayed, neutered, vaccinated and microchipped dogs and cats to loving families.
Texas pet adoptions tend to spike in the winter months, said Barbara Vass, assistant director at Fort Bend County Animal Services.
Large-scale adoption events are held throughout the year to ensure that for every stray that comes in, another is adopted. Of 100 cats and dogs available for adoption at Saturday’s event, Vass said she expected only about 40 would go home with families. The rest would be returned to the shelters.
“We’re in a crisis in our community and in the country,” she said. “We spend a lot of time talking to our adoptive families about what it means to bring a pet home and the three-three-three rule: it takes three days for [animals] to kind of figure out where they’re going, three weeks to figure out that this might be a good place, and it’s probably going to take three months before they settle down and become part of the family.”
First-time pet owners are encouraged to foster before taking an animal home for good.
“Sometimes we encourage them to spend a little more time thinking about it and we’ll put their name on a list,” Vass said.
Less than 10 percent of adopting families return animals — mostly puppies — after adopting them, Vass said. The shelter maintains contact with adopting families and can give them advice or refer them to a trainer if needed, she said.
“For whatever reason, cats are easy,” she said. “Cats will rule the house the minute they walk in the door. You serve them. That’s the way it works.”
Avery and Dylan Winner and their daughters Adeline and Paris attended Saturday’s event and couldn’t agree on whether they wanted a cat, two cats or a dog. An hour into the event at the fairgrounds, they were still shopping and deciding who they wanted to bring home.
“We have a cat at home and want her to have some buddies,” Avery Winner said.
According to data on the Best Friends website, from December 2024 to November 2025, Fort Bend County Animal Services had a 93 percent save rate, and Rosenberg Animal Shelter had a 95 percent save rate.
During the same time period, Houston’s BARC Animal Shelter had a 72 percent save rate but has a significantly higher intake number than the Fort Bend centers.
Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal welfare organization, aims to end the euthanization of dogs and cats through a “no-kill” initiative defined as a 90 percent save rate for animals entering a shelter.
Typically, the number of pets who are suffering from irreparable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed is not more than 10 percent of all dogs and cats entering shelters, said Kerry McKeel, marketing and communications manager with Best Friends Animal Society.
“For any community to be no-kill, all stakeholders in that community must work together to achieve and sustain that common goal while prioritizing community safety and good quality of life for pets as guiding no-kill principles,” she said. “This means cooperation among animal shelters, animal rescue groups, government agencies, community members and other stakeholders, all committed to best practices and protocols.”
Fort Bend County Animal Services Director Rene Vasquez said the organization’s save rate has been above 90 percent since 2018. It’s tough to get people to drop by the shelter, so they like to do free adoption events at least twice a year to reduce capacity, Vasquez said.
“We usually stay a little over capacity,” he said. “The stray population never ends, and we know it’s never going to end. Six animal control officers cover 875 square miles in the county. The way we do it is, noses in, noses out. We pick up injured, immobilized and sick animals. If they die one minute into our care, you still have to count those numbers. We try to help people. If people need dog food or a crate, we’ll help them. When someone provides foster care to alleviate space for us, we’ll provide all medical care for that pet, the spay/neuter and shots.”
Thousands of pets are available for adoption in shelters throughout the Greater Houston area. Saturday’s event was like being a kid in a candy store for Hernandez, who had her pup picked out almost from the moment she walked in the door.
“Carry him like a baby,” she advised her mother, America, who got some unexpected licks on the face.
“I can’t wait to take him home,” Hernandez said. “Best Christmas ever.”
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.