It’s hard to miss the pet news of the day. It’s at the top of our Sun-Sentinel Web site, with video and all:

“Lines out the door for puppy mill adoptions.”

Hundreds are lining up at the Humane Society of Broward County, in Dania Beach, eager to adopt one of the 130 dogs rescued from a Tennessee puppy mill. (You can click here for today’s story). In some cases, there were as many as six people wanting the same dog.

“Oh, I guess I’m going to cry,” said Alison Lindy, of Pembroke Pines, when she learned there were four families ahead of her for her top choice.

Don’t cry, Alison.
Go see Sami and Danni.

I met these sweet sisters, Sheltie-spaniel mixes, at the Tri-County Humane Society shelter in Boca Raton. They ended up there through no fault of their own. Their family left them behind, with a note and their vet records, saying they had lost their house in foreclosure and could not take them. A real estate broker found the dogs in the back yard.

Here is their picture. It was taken when I went to see them at the shelter in April, as part of a story I was doing on the growing number of companion animals being surrendered by their owners as the housing crisis gets worse. Sami watched me carefully but Danni, determined to make a good impression, immediately rushed forward and licked my hand through the kennel’s chain link gate.

“Hey,” her eyes said. “What the heck are me and my sister doing here? Get us out of here!”

That was three months ago. They are still there.

Jeannette Christos, Tri-County’s executive director, thinks it may be because the shelter is insisting the two sisters, who are litter mates, be adopted together. Or maybe it’s because they are 7 years old, “although most dogs have many years of life left after 7,” Christos said. The dogs are well-behaved and in good health, and many people have come to look at them, Christos said – have looked into their hopeful, dark eyes.

But no one has opened their heart and taken them home.

There are thousands of stories like this in our animal shelters, and with our rescue groups, right now. There probably will be more, as the number of South Florida foreclosures is predicted to grow. And it isn’t just here. A recent New York Times story talked about how shelters around the country are seeing record numbers of surrenders.

There could be any number of reasons that people are coming out of the woodwork to adopt the puppy mill dogs imported from Tennessee, if you read the comments piling up on our message boards.

They just want a purebred at a discount price, some say.
They just are responding to the publicity deliberately generated by the Humane Society (And we need to bring more dogs here when we are euthanizing hundreds daily?), wrote others.
And: Why don’t they spend their time and money helping people instead of pets, say others.

I guess we could debate these points. Me, I think anything that sheds light on the horror of puppy mills, and that finds good homes for neglected animals, is a good thing.

But I hope when the news cameras shut off, people will remember that dogs and cats are suffering in this bad economy, too – and some will pay with their lives.
If you, like Alison, are disappointed that you didn’t get one of the puppy mill rescues, go see Sami and Danni. Or the thousands like them. You’ll have plenty of good choices.

All of our animal companions, not just the ones in the spotlight, deserve a forever home.