“He’s an Adirondack mix,” said Brooke Gallo as she fed Buddy, a mash-up of shepherd, hound and probably a few other breeds, treats through the wire cage. A few cages down, a 3-year-old pit bull named Frankie calmly waited until Gallo opened the door to feed him treats, quizzically cocking his pewter-colored head.

Frankie and Buddy were two of four dogs recently living at the humane society, which along with the North County SPCA in Elizabethtown is one of two shelters in the Adirondacks. In another room in the building, 31 cats — many of them kittens — were mostly asleep in their smaller cages. A lone rabbit, already earmarked for adoption, sat serenely in its cage. Of the two other dogs, one is Buddy’s mother and the other, Laverne, is an older black Lab mix. “He loves people on lawnmowers. Also motorcycles,” Gallo said of Frankie, shrugging her shoulders.

“I’ve been here 10 years and it’s the first time I’ve seen it looking like this,” said Gallo, referring to what are record low numbers of animals at the shelter.

Across the country, pet adoptions have risen to unprecedented levels since the beginning of the pandemic, as people have been wanting company as they shelter in place. Many signed up either to foster or adopt — or in many cases both — cats and dogs at shelters, humane societies, rescues and other pet agencies, having more time at home and wanting the company.

“In the beginning of quarantine a lot of people reached out to foster and a lot ended up keeping cats,” Gallo said. Tri-Lakes’ insurance doesn’t allow them to foster dogs, but that didn’t stop them from being adopted as well. “It’s been a while since we’ve been down to four.”

Deemed an essential business, the humane society never shut down after the pandemic hit, but it did close its doors to the public, doing curbside adoptions. A month ago, it reopened on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and by appointment.

Shelter Manager Lena Bombard helmed the front desk with Tigger, a 16-year-old one-eared tabby who’s been there for seven years.

“She’s totally happy here. She doesn’t try and get adopted,” said Bombard, who herself has been at the humane society for nearly 20 years. “She likes men with tool boxes,” Bombard said of the cat.

The Tri-Lakes Humane Society has been open since 1942, serving Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake and Lake Placid through outreach and community service, and becoming a nonprofit in the 1970s. In addition to sheltering abandoned and rescued animals, it provides spay and neuter assistance for cats and dogs in the form of vouchers that are accepted at 14 area veterinarians, a service the shelter has been doing for the last 10 years.

The humane society also provides free food and cat litter to those who need it, an increasingly important service during the pandemic, with rising numbers of unemployment and economic hardship. And it will help people find housing for their pets, doing courtesy posting on their own website and through the Petfinder and Adopt a Pet sites. “It’s like a dating site,” Bombard said.

“We cleared the shelter out,” Bombard said of the months since COVID-19 took hold across the country.

The biggest change has been the cancellation of so many of the events that the humane society relies on for its operation, including public adoptions and fundraisers. “We’d go to tractor supply stores; we’d do PetAPalooza at Curtis Lumber,” Bombard said. They’ve adapted by using Facebook for many things, and they did a pet portrait fundraiser, with the portraits posted on the social media site.

With this year’s Bow Wow Meow Luau canceled — last summer’s event, which featured live music, dancing, a silent auction and beer, and raised over $10,000 — the humane society is selling $50 Yappy Pint Cards, which entitles the bearer to get a free pint with every one purchased with a $50 donation to shelter. And this year’s Mutt Strut, the annual dog-friendly run, will take place sometime in September or October, albeit virtually.

“People have been very generous with their donations,” Bombard said.

This has meant that the humane society has had enough donated pet food to meet its own needs, to supply others and to have more on hand if the need grows in the future.

“There are going to be housing issues, with people not being able to afford things, people not going back to work,” she said of the coming months, with many losing additional unemployment benefits and an uncertain future. “If we can keep pets in the home, we’ll give out supplies.”

Bombard said she’s noticed other changes in this most unusual of years. There have been fewer dogs left unattended, likely because most people were at home. There has also been a marked increase in stray cats, many either pregnant or with kittens, and in missing cats. And although there haven’t been more stray dogs, “I did get an increase in dog-barking complaints,” she said.