Our first guest is an animal care officer
named Zack who works at a local shelter in Texas doing
as much as he can to help their rescue dogs and cats get
adopted.
And when the shelter posted this photo,
they received an overwhelming amount of interest in Zack.
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah.
I'm talking 30,000 comments.
Oh, and the dog got adopted too.
[LAUGHTER]
From Wichita Falls, Texas, please
welcome Zack and his boss Nikki.
[APPLAUSE]
Hey, guys how are you?
Hi guys.
Hi there.
Hi.
So this photo has gotten a lot of attention.
How did this all happen?
Well, it was animal appreciation week here in Wichita Falls.
So we got all of our ACOs together.
We got a bunch of dogs together.
Got a bunch of pictures and posters taken.
And, basically the post blew up.
My boss pulled me into her office.
It was like, at 500 comments.
And I was keeping up with it throughout the day.
And I think right now it's at 30,000 comments
and the attention's just been crazy.
That's amazing.
Well, I want to read some of these comments
because there are some wild ones, OK?
Laurie.
This is from Laurie.
"Hello animal control?
There's a cougar in my backyard.
Please send Zack.
It's me.
I'm the cougar."
[LAUGHTER]
These are all real, by the way.
Jenny.
"Is Zack looking for his forever home?"
[LAUGHTER]
Megan.
"Wichita Falls is only 13 hours and 45 minutes away.
[LAUGHTER]
I wonder if I can be back before my husband and kids notice
I'm gone."
[LAUGHTER]
That dark, that's dark.
This is from Blanch.
She says, "I'd leave my Harold for this young man.
Just tell me when, Zack.
Blanch is ready for you."
[LAUGHTER]
Zack, what is it like to hear all of that?
It's pretty crazy.
If you ask anybody around the office, I'm the quiet one.
I mostly keep to myself.
Yeah, no.
My sister and my mom are keeping me up with it
throughout the day.
And like I sad, I was trying to read through all the comments.
But it's good.
It's got the shelter a lot of attention
and we're getting a lot more calls and dogs adopted out.
OK so you guys work for a municipal shelter.
Explain what that is for those of us who don't know.
OK so a municipal shelter is a shelter
that works for the city.
So we do animal control.
We pick up strays off the streets.
We do a lot of cruelty cases and stuff like that.
Normally, people, when they think of animal shelters
or city animal shelters, they think of the dog pound
or the dog catchers.
And we're the bad guys.
But we're absolutely not.
This has brought a lot of attention
to our adoptions program.
And we're hoping that in the next few years,
with this post hopefully, that we get to a 90% live outcome
rate.
Because the fact that these dogs are here in our shelter
and people really didn't know that we did adoptions before,
and now they do know that we do adoptions,
hopefully, we'll get more out the door in our live outcome
rate will just skyrocket.
Oh I hope so.
I love that.
I love that so much.
Well, Zack clearly, a photo of you with an adorable animal
is the quickest way to get it adopted.
But, I'm sure you don't have all this time to pose
with every single animal.
So, we got you something to help with that.
Andy?
[LAUGHTER]
I mean--
[APPLAUSE]
--you look fantastic.
[LAUGHS]
And one more thing.
Ellen has friends at an amazing company called Shutterfly.
And they care about supporting organizations like yours.
So they want to donate $5,000 worth of pet toys
and accessories to your shelter.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
We'll be right back.