Big black dogs. FIV+ cats. Senior pets. Special needs pets. To help these and other often-overlooked pets find homes,
Petfinder has named August 12 Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet Day.

Visit our special section to download search widgets for senior and special-needs pets that you can post on your own Web site to help these pets find homes.

In preparation for Adopt-A-Less- Adoptable-Pet Day, we surveyed our shelter and rescue group members to find out which pets were the hardest to place. The results:

30% said senior/older pets
15% – pets with medical problems
13% – victims of breed prejudice
10% – shy pets
10% – those who need to be the only pet

But plenty of less-adoptable pets DO get adopted — just check out our Happy Tails database for hundreds of examples (such
as Cow, the blind, deaf, hypothyroid and
incontinent Dalmatian; Daisy Lou, the senior dog who is her adoptive mom’s “baby girl”; and Cooper, the FIV+ cat).

Have you adopted a “less adoptable” pet? Tell us here!