SAN ANTONIO – Since April, San Antonio Pets Alive has rescued more than 700 dogs and cats.
With the recent flooding in the area, that number continues to grow, and they're struggling to make room in their shelters to save them all.
One lucky puppy is two-month-old Max. He's headed to his new forever home, thanks to Joshua, 9, and his mother Leslie Wall.
Even though they already have Jerry, a rescue Daschund, Leslie Wall felt compelled to adopt another dog after watching the news and seeing all the lost and stray animals brought in after major flooding in our area.
"We think it's really sad, we saw it all on the news, so we wanted to give him a safe place to live," said Leslie Wall.
According to San Antonio Pets Alive spokesman Chelsea Foreman, it's not surprising there are more dogs and cats in their shelters.
"They're scared of rain, they're scared of thunder, and so they'll run away from their homes and end up in shelters," said Foreman.
She said all four of their shelters are overflowing beyond maximum capacity.
The no kill shelter focuses on saving lives of dogs and cats that are already on the euthanasia list. Right now, Foreman says they especially have a large number of kittens that need adopters or foster homes, because the heavy rains washed away their homes.
"It's been especially crowded over the last couple of weeks, because the kittens that haven't been rescued yet that are living in the drain pipes have been pushed out are now just coming out at once," said Foreman.
Last year, 6,000 dogs and cats were adopted from SA Pets Alive shelters. Foreman said with the city shelter increasing its intake since the heavy rains, they're in desperate need of people like Leslie Wall coming in and helping them out.
"We have rescued 700 so far since April, and it's really pushed it to max capacity in the last couple weeks where we're having a hard time saving them all," said Foreman.
"We thought we were ready for a puppy, and we're just ready to spend some time with him when we're not in school," said Leslie Wall.
SA Pets Alive says its goal is for San Antonio to become the largest "no-kill" city in the country.