Dogs show off their Halloween costumes at Richmond-area pet sanctuary

About half a dozen dogs showed off their Halloween costumes Saturday at the Furever Home Dog Sanctuary near Richmond and Spring Grove.

The dog sanctuary is planning to convert a barn on a property off Zarnstorff Road into a haven for dogs that have been rescued. The organization hopes to get the dogs ready to be fostered and adopted, according to its website.

“We’re going to rehabilitate them,” said David Kerpel, who founded the organization in 2022 and serves as its president. His wife, Erin, serves as vice president.

At Saturday’s event, people could take a hayride and explore the grounds, gather around a bonfire, meet some dogs waiting for their forever homes, check out vendors and enter their dogs into a halloween costume fashion show and dog musical chairs.

Kerpel also noted Saturday’s “beautiful” weather, which was sunny and featured highs in the low 70s, and said Halloween is his favorite holiday.

At the fashion show, dogs modeled their halloween costumes and competed for prizes in a variety of categories, including best costume, funniest and scariest.

However, some of the pups did not enjoy the costumes.

“She’s not happy with me right now,” Cathy Maloney of Rolling Meadows said about her dog, Nevaeh. Nevaeh was dressed as a hula girl this year and was dressed as a grinch last year, Maloney said.

Nevaeh was not a rescue dog, but Maloney said she has three other rescue dogs at home. “Rescue dogs are the best,” she said.

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo were dressed as the Riddler and Batman, respectively. Their owner, Kristin Zimmerman of Spring Grove, said Scrappy-Doo sometimes is called “Batman scrap” and sometimes his ears go and make the top of the bat symbol. That inspired this year’s costume.

After the fashion show, a few canines and their humans stuck around for dog musical chairs. The dogs walked in a circle until they were told to stop, at which point the owners told their companions to sit. The last dog to sit was out.

The sanctuary also had programming Friday night to kick off its Howl-O-Ween Bonanza, including outdoor scary movies, according to its website. There was an open house on the property in 2023, Kerpel said.

Attendees could see the plans to convert the barn into a home for the dogs. A table outside the barn featured a video and a giant printout of the layout of the barn. Some of the things inside include a caretaker’s suite, an open play area and two sizes of kennels, according to the map.

There’s 21 kennels proposed in the plans. “We’re emphasizing quality over quantity,” Kerpel said, adding the organization is doing research down to the color of the walls.

“It’s going to be paradise” for the dogs, Kerpel said. The hope is for construction work at the sanctuary to take place over the winter.

To learn about the sanctuary, people can sign up for the newsletter at fureverhomedogsanctuary.org/newsletters-progress-reports or email Kerpel at info@FHDSmail.org.

“I just love dogs,” Kerpel said, adding he wants to help as many as he can and everybody can benefit.

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