ROCHESTER — Rochester residents were treated to a paws-itively adorable dog meet and greet at Captain Bonney’s Ice Cream on Saturday, July 26, provided by the New Bedford-based Lighthouse Animal Shelter.

Four mixed-breed pups walked around on leashes and were eager to receive pets from attendees, including a two-year-old Labrador mix named CJ, a 1-year-old Beagle mix named Cody and a two-year-old Pitbull mix named Wren.

Lighthouse Animal Shelter board member and Wareham resident Casie Carbone said the organization brings a mix of dogs that have social personalities and dogs that need exposure to people to public-facing meet and greets.

The shelter is a non-profit organization that is entirely run by volunteers. While the cats at the shelter are rescued locally, the adoptable dogs are brought in from high-intake shelters in southern states.

“[We hope to] increase adoption exposure. We have a ton of dogs. We save all of our dogs from the South or Kentucky. They are almost all pulled from the euthanasia list, we are getting them right before they’re going to be put down,” said Carbone.

Recently, the organization has struggled with the current nation-wide issues of crowding and lessened adoption rates at animal shelters, with Carbone stating that “[While] we’re not over capacity, we are affected by it because we're not having adoptions like we’ve seen in the past.”

“We had a couple of months where it was maybe one application a week, which is unheard of,” she said.

According to NBC Boston, Massachusetts is experiencing a statewide crisis of crowding in animal shelters that is partially attributed to increasing costs of pet care and the financial strain this may put on a family’s budget, in addition to landlords enacting no pet policies on their properties.

Carbone and volunteer Katie Gomes encouraged South Coast residents to donate to the shelter if possible, share social media posts to increase exposure and foster a dog if one cannot commit to an adoption.

“We understand adopting can be a big decision, but if you have space to take in a dog, it would save more dogs,” said Carbone, adding that the shelter will supply foster homes with supplies and cover all medical costs associated with the dog.