Too Cute Tuesday: Police launch pet adoption project

Texarkana, Texas, Police Officer Amber Belin poses with Roxanne on April 3 at Texarkana Animal Care and Adoption Center.
Texarkana, Texas, Police Officer Amber Belin poses with Roxanne on April 3 at Texarkana Animal Care and Adoption Center.

Roxanne, a black-and-tan puppy, squirmed and wagged her tail, more interested in playing than posing with Officer Amber Belin.

"She liked to move around. It was difficult trying to get pictures. I bet I took probably a hundred pictures trying to come up with two or three that would work," said Shawn Vaughn, public information officer for Texarkana, Texas, Police Department.

"And then just as we were finishing up, this family comes up. 'There's the dog! That's it! That's it!' And I'm thinking, 'Great!' But then I'm thinking, 'We've got to do this again.'"

As Roxanne's new companions finalized her adoption, Belin chose a different dog from the shelter's kennels, this time a striking brown and white pit bull mix named Kohler. After a few dozen more clicks of the shutter, Vaughn had the latest images for his pet project.

Too Cute Tuesday is a weekly photo feature on TTPD's Facebook page that pairs police officers with dogs or cats awaiting homes at Texarkana Animal Care and Adoption Center. With about 21,000 followers, the page is an effective way to spread word about animals in need, Vaughn said. And it offers opportunity to let the public meet the men and women in blue.

"It's been a fun thing for us to do, and it lets us show another side of the officers, too. Sometimes people do only see officers in bad situations, or at least situations where they might not necessarily like the cop, depending on what's going on. But this lets me put a face and a name and a little bit of personality out there for the officers. And we've got some great people who are working here. I love being able to share that with the community," he said.

Officers volunteer to participate, and Chief Dan Shiner was at the top of the list. For Too Cute Tuesday's first post, he posed with a husky mix that had been in the shelter for a month. Her cold-weather coat reminded Vaughn of the movie "Frozen," so he named her Elsa after one of its characters. Within a week of the post, Elsa was adopted.

Success like that has brought home to Vaughn how compelling it is to see-not just hear about-shelter animals. And after a few Too Cute Tuesday photo shoots, he doesn't know how much longer he can resist adopting one himself, especially given another powerful motivation.

"My wife, quite honestly, is on me," he said. "She wants a dog."

 

 

 

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