Puppies pop up in downtown Vancouver hoping for adoption

And they called it puppy love.

Downtown Vancouver crowds took a break from their routines Friday to get some face time with a roomful of shelter dogs, as the Vancouver SPCA held their first “cups and pups café.”

The lineups stretched as long as 200 people outside the Richards Street lobby of ad agency TAXI, the event’s sponsor. Would-be puppy-cuddlers paid a minimum donation of $10 to get in for a cup of coffee and a 20-minute shift with eight dogs, all looking for new homes.

“When we showed up with the dogs, I could not believe the lineup,” said Vancouver SPCA manager Jodi Dunlop.

The lineups started more than half an hour before the doors opened at 11 a.m. The event wrapped up at 3:30 p.m., with SPCA staff on hand to answer questions about the dogs, brought in from throughout the Lower Mainland and from as far away as Quesnel.

Currently 12 dogs are housed at the Vancouver branch, Dunlop said. About eight are brought in every week.

“We’ve noticed probably in the last two months quite an increase in the dogs we’re getting into our shelters,” she said.

gschaefer@postmedia.com

twitter.com/glenschaefer

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

SPCA volunteer Sandy Russell with Tuffy at Friday’s ‘cups and pups café.’

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.