Best Friends Animal Society in Bentonville is hosting a couple of holiday-themed events this weekend. Ozarks at Large spoke with Best Friends NWA’s events coordinator, Payton Middleton, over Zoom to learn more.
Payton Middleton: Kitty Bingo is an event that we have every single month. It’s just your typical bingo, but make it kitty-themed. We usually have some adoptable cats that are available to pet and view at the event. We have different prizes, different level prizes that you can win. It’s a very fun, competitive event. Great for families, great for friends.
It’s from 5 to 6 this Friday. Kitty Bingo is very fun if you’re a kitty lover or if you just love bingo in general.
And our Pawliday Party is super exciting. That’ll be this Saturday from 4 to 7. We’ll have a lot of different things happening in the center. We’ll have a holiday-themed dog treat lab where you can make your own dog treats for your pet at home, or you can donate them to the dogs here at Best Friends.
We’ll also have a little treat decorating station. We’ll be watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We’ll have some different holiday crafts, a hot chocolate bar, all sorts of fun stuff. Just different festive, holiday-themed activities all night, and snacks and music and movies and lots of fun.
Jack Travis: Which Grinch are you going to watch?
Payton Middleton: We’re watching the one with Jim Carrey.
Jack Travis: OK, nice. That’s my favorite one.
Payton Middleton: Yes. The best one.
Jack Travis: With Kitty Bingo, do people often walk away with a cat? Do adoptions happen?
Payton Middleton: It has happened the last couple of times. It depends on the day. A lot of times we actually bring our kittens out for adoption right before or during Kitty Bingo, so the timeline kind of works well.
Our last one, one of the families that came in ended up adopting a kitten after. And the one prior, there was a cat adoption that came out of it the next day. So it definitely does happen.
Jack Travis: Outside of those really special connections being made, what else excites you about these events?
Payton Middleton: I think just seeing people come and interact with the center in different ways and interact with the mission in different ways. I think people sometimes don’t realize that we have these different events, and most of our events are free.
It’s just a fun way that you can spend time in the building, learn about our animals, learn about our mission, and ultimately support the work that we’re doing just by coming and having fun and being present in this space. It’s exciting seeing that happen.
Jack Travis: Let’s talk about the work that all of this supports and your mission at Best Friends Animal Society.
Payton Middleton: We’re actually part of a larger nonprofit that started in Utah. Our mission is to end the killing of animals in shelters.
The work that we do here specifically is supporting shelters across the state and surrounding regions that are not yet at no-kill status. We build relationships with those shelters and work with them to help them get to no-kill, which means they’re saving 90 percent or more of the animals that come into their program.
All of the animals that we have in the building are adoptable, and they all come from those shelters where they were at risk of being killed. We bring them in every week. We have new animals. It’s always changing. It’s really important work and directly supports these shelters that we want to support in any way that we can.
Jack Travis: What challenges arrive for animal shelters during the holiday or winter months?
Payton Middleton: One of the biggest things for us right now is having fosters. We really rely on fostering. We’re not designed to house dogs on site, so we rely heavily on having dependable fosters.
During the holidays, especially Christmas, we have a huge push to get all of our dogs into foster homes so they can spend the holidays in a home with a family. Sometimes those turn into adoptions. Usually they don’t, and that’s perfectly fine.
Recently, we’ve had a lot of mom dogs and puppies and litters come into our program, and those have to be in foster homes because of the amount of care that’s required. I don’t want to misspeak, but I think we have at least 100 dogs in foster homes right now, including those litters of puppies.
It’s important all year round, but especially this season, having fosters that can share that load and effort. It gives the dogs a great experience. They get a lot of care and attention here at the center, but it’s not like being in a home with a family.
Jack Travis: Outside of being a foster family, are there ways the Northwest Arkansas community can support Best Friends?
Payton Middleton: There are a lot of different ways you can support. Even just coming to the center is a huge act of support because it introduces you to the different pathways to get involved.
Volunteering is a huge part of what we do. We could not do what we do at the scale that we do without volunteers. Anyone can volunteer. From ages 12 to 17, you do have to volunteer with an adult.
You can support with events. You can volunteer in our clinic. You can volunteer with the animals. You can donate. We have an Angel Tree right now for our animals and for other local shelters.
We have a pet pantry that’s a resource for any members of the community. Almost all donations go directly to that pantry and back into the community. And of course, monetary donations help.
Even just coming in and petting the cats and socializing with the dogs is great. It improves their lives and gives them good interaction. We’re happy to see people coming in and loving on the animals.
Jack Travis: Where can people go to find more information about Best Friends and these events?
Payton Middleton: Our website is Best Friends. We post a lot on our Facebook group, Best Friends of Northwest Arkansas. It’s a group you’ll have to enter.
Our Instagram is BFAS_NWA. We post a lot about our events. Our events calendar is on the BFAS calendar. You can go there to see all of our events because we have lots of other events, even just this week and into the new year.
We have events every single month, some repeating events and some new ones. Most of our events are free unless stated otherwise. People can take a look, register and come.
That was Best Friends Animal Society’s Payton Middleton speaking with Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis over Zoom earlier this week.
