PORTLAND, Ore. – Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are going to the dogs, and cats. 

In a strat egy called "social petworking," shelter personnel are opening social networking accounts to do more than just make friends. It's about getting abandoned animals a new place to call home, and it’s working.

Desmo is one such friended four-legger. “We were just madly in love with him and we adopted him,” said Greg Koening, Desmo's dad. “We took him home the first day.”

Farley is another, a cat adopted by Nathan Miller and Teresa Forsell of Portland.

It was love at first sight for these pet owners, and they have something else in common. They first set eyes on their pets on Facebook.

“When we saw him online we knew he was the one before we even met him,” said Miller, co-parent of Farley. “We've had several animals adopted through Facebook.”

The Pixie Project
Amy Sacks is the executive director of the Pixie Project. Her shelter has done what a lot are doing: they're hitting up Facebook and Twitter users to get their animals adopted.

“The new social media forums have been an unbelievably successful because it's all about exposure for these animals,” Sacks said.

The people at Pixie take pictures of each animal, write up a brief story about the animal’s life and post it on the shelter’s Facebook page.

“It's always interesting when you hear where these dogs come from,” said Sacks, [who writes many of the pet bios].

The shelter’s “friends” then can check out who's available for adoption, who's been recently adopted and what's happening at the shelter.

Making "best friends" online
It's a move making the search for a new pet a little bit easier.

“It lets you see a lot more animals and find one that will work really well for you,” said Sacks, “…like Desmo.

“It really is just a great way to tug at the heart strings a little bit,” Sacks said. “You get the visuals; you get the story behind it.”

For social networking users like Miller, “it was so easy it just happen so quickly and it was just so perfect.”
    
And if you're not in the market for a new dog or cat, the Facebook pictures can be passed along to friends who are. After all, in the end it's all about finding homes for these animals.

“It's been very very gratifying,” said Sacks.

Most shelters do have Facebook pages, according to our sources. For more on the Pixie Project and its page, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-OR/The-Pixie-Project/60138945750.