Opal, a mixed-breed dog, found a home a year ago through the Oktibbeha County Humane Society (OCHS). Owner Rebecca Hall, a Mississippi State University graduate, recalled the adoption process.
“We just signed in and went to the back,” Hall said. “We were on our own.”
OCHS encourages potential adopters to take the animals outside to a fenced area. Hall took Opal outside to the pen and tried to play with the dog. At first, the dog was nervous.
“They told me that she was beat and all this bad stuff,” Hall said. “But I really wanted her to love me. I didn’t want to adopt her if she was going to be afraid.”
Hall was worried Opal would not be able to attach or form a relationship with her. Afterward, when an animal control officer familiar with Opal played with the dog, Hall said she saw a new side of her.
“The dog got so excited over this lady,” Hall said. “Just seeing Opal react that way made me ready to adopt her.”
After being welcomed into a new family, Opal was a happy, healthy canine.
Although OCHS is the only animal shelter in Starkville, Opal’s adoption story is just one of many ways to adopt a pet locally. In addition to traditional adoption from a local shelter, Starkville has a senior dog sanctuary and an animal transport service. Each adoption route faces similar challenges like overcrowding.
Christy Wells, manager of OCHS, talked about the difficulty of intake at a shelter that never turns animals away.
“We do not always have space for every dog that comes in,” Wells said. “We never know what we’re going to get in and when we’re going to get it.”
Oktoc Animal Shelter, a senior dog sanctuary housing nine dogs, is run out of Wendy Gullet’s backyard and has similar overcrowding issues.
“Sometimes people call me, and they have dogs that I can’t take in at that time,” Gullet said.
Although Gullet cannot give every dog sanctuary, she finds owners or adoptees through word of mouth. All the dogs she houses are between 6 and 7 years old and have various impairments.
“What we basically do is take in the animals nobody else wants,” Gullet said. “No one wants to adopt older dogs.”
Gullet provides for these dogs out-of-pocket and through some donations.
“Every day has just really been a passion from my heart,” Gullet said.
One reason overcrowding remains an issue is because Starkville pet owners do not get their animals spayed or neutered.
“We’re from California,” Gullet said. “When we moved here, we were so shocked at how many dogs are just abandoned and unfixed.”
Wells said in northern states, unfixed animals are not a problem.
“They have really strict spay-neuter laws,” Wells said. “I think they’re a little bit more educated on how to best care for an animal and getting everybody spayed and neutered.”
Gullet also pushes for pet owners to spay and neuter their animals.
“Everybody I talk to, I educate,” Gullet said. “I say that the most important thing is to spay and neuter.”
Terri Snead, director of operations for the Homeward Bound Project of Mississippi, also encouraged pet owners in Starkville to fix their animals.
“People need to take responsibility and spay and neuter their own animals,” Snead said.
HBP, a nonprofit animal rescue, sends pets North to be adopted. The transport service fights overcrowding by partnering with animal shelters in Starkville and New York to get animals adopted.
“We have had mostly the same shelter partners down here for 10 years. Since 2007, we’ve transported about 4,650 dogs,” Snead said.
Another reason for overcrowding in Starkville is because college students often underestimate the responsibilities of being a pet owner.
“It’s a big commitment,” Hall said. “It’s like a child. Opal takes a lot out of me. I have to sacrifice what I’m doing to take care of her. A lot of college students don’t recognize that.”
Gullet recently had a young couple return a dog they had adopted just days before. She said, “If you live in an apartment, you can’t just let it all go out in the yard and go. You have to take them out every single time.”
This year, OCHS will combat unfixed animals by giving free spays and neuters out of a van. The van, called Fido Fixer, will drive through low-income neighborhoods and provide spay and neuter services.
“A lot of people, unfortunately, don’t have transport to get to you,” Wells said. “It will be a hundred surgeries that we’d be able to do.”
For all the challenges, adopting in Starkville looks different today than it did 20 years ago. OCHS has a 90 percent adoption rate, as opposed to the 80 percent euthanasia rate from then.
Gullet talked about the progress Starkville has seen from animal shelters and rescues like hers.
“They’ve flip-flopped their numbers and are on the right course of no-kill, unless a dog is sick,” Gullet said.
Wells said OCHS has stepped up their foster program, housing almost as many animals in foster care as in their shelter. 
HBP primarily runs on foster care. Snead said this is a limiting factor to their project.
“The ones I depend on most are members of local community,” Snead said. “If people would volunteer to foster kittens or puppies or adults, shelters and rescues could save so many more animals.”
In addition, Gullet said pets under foster care have a high chance of being adopted. She said it brings her joy to see an animal go from scared and whimpering, to excited and playful.
“I just love dogs,” Gullet said. “I love to see them get healthy and come back into the way they’re supposed to act, from being all quivering and scared and malnourished, to being healthy, happy. I love it when we can find happy homes for them.”