The Mall Dogs Project: From Film to Print
Calling Lucky Paws adopters: Did you adopt your beloved furry family member from Lucky Paws? Would you like to share your story in the book? I am interviewing and photographing adopters and their beloved animals for the book now. If you’d like to be featured and share your wonderful story, please contact me ASAP at jessi(dot)badami(at)gmail(dot)com
In tough economic times, it can be difficult to raise the funds necessary to make a film—no matter how important and worthwhile a project it is. So we’ve decided to switch media. We’ll be telling the story in print, rather than film. Mall Dogs will be a beautiful, full color book that will tell the story of “Lucky Paws”—a unique animal pet adoption center that’s located inside a mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lucky Paws, an Albuquerque municipal shelter, has had a tremendous amount of success placing thousands of dogs and cats into permanent homes. Their remarkable approach to pet adoption starts with creating a positive retail environment that makes adopting a pet a pleasant experience.
Mall Dogs will tell the story of Lucky Paws, from its dramatic beginnings to the psychology of its design to the reasons for its success. A big part of the book will be the beautifully photographed stories of dogs and cats and the people who have connected with them at Lucky Paws. This book is designed to spread the word about this successful model for pet adoption centers and shelters. But we don’t want to stop there. Included in the book will be a resource guide—a blueprint— that other animal shelters can use to recreate the success of Lucky Paws in their own cities, or at least implement aspects of it at their shelters.
Why We Are Doing It
Lucky Paws is the model of what shelters could and should be, and the story of Lucky Paws needs to be told. Nearly every community in America is suffering from a pet overpopulation problem. If other cities can learn from what Lucky Paws is doing in Albuquerque, thousands of pets could be saved from euthanasia and be adopted into loving homes instead.
We’ve all seen documentaries and news stories about animal shelters. They tend to be very emotional with lots of crying and sadness about the plight of the animals. But Mall Dogs, we’re taking a different approach. We’ll be focusing in on the positive results that Lucky Paws has achieved. It’s a happy story with lots of happy endings for thousands of dogs and cats.
Meet the Team
We have an enthusiastic and experienced team ready to make this project a reality.
Jessi Badami is an accomplished Graphic Designer, writer, and actress who has been helping animals for over 20 years. She will be writing Mall Dogs.

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Lili Chin, Animator/Illustrator, Principle of FWAK! Animation is an award-winning illustrator and animator, and runs FWAK! Animation
in Los Angeles. Her illustrations are fun, hip, and will provide the perfect complement to the tone and message of Mall Dogs. Lili is also passionate about helping dogs.

Jeff Narucki, Jeff is a Social Media expert who will lend his expertise to the project. He is also passionate about helping dogs, and runs the blog, SeniorPooch.com, to bring more attention to the joys of adopting senior animals.
How Can You Help?
The book will be created through the donations of the team. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready to purchase with a big launch. Stay tuned! If you would like to inquire about helping even more, please contact us directly.
Thank You
Thanks very much for checking out our project page. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
4 Responses to The Mall Dogs Project
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What a great video testimonial to the Mall Dogs project – I can’t wait to see the film! Pet parents know how much their pets mean to them, and they want to encourage others to love pets the way they do! We would love for you to tell this story in the Pet360 community as well! Please check it out and consider posting … http://bit.ly/UB72Le
Spreading the success story of Lucky Paws has been a part of Save Lucky Paws’ mission from the beginning; so we are thrilled with the documentary project! We will be supporting it as much as is
possible, while keeping emergency funds for Lucky Paws itself. We encourage all who can to support this wonderful project.
I don’t know if this is a pertinent story or not, but I wanted to share my experience. LuckyPaws had a huge impact on the start of my “fostering career”. The first dogs we fostered was a little family from the west side shelter. We got a mom and her 4 2 week old puppies. When the puppies were old enough to be adopted, Lucky Paws already had a room set up and ready for them. It was so hard to take them, but when we got there, the staff was just wonderful, so I knew they were in good hands. All of the puppies were adopted the first day, and the mom (who we were most concerned about) got adopted about 2 weeks later. They knew we were concerned for her, so they called and informed us that a nice couple had adopted her. We then fostered 3 litter mates, and then a single puppy. Every experience was great! I have fostered for rescue groups, but my experiences with Lucky Paws has by far been the best. Every time we dropped off puppies with tears in our eyes, the staff reminds us of the importance of what we have done. It truly is a very special place! Thank you for doing this documentary!!
I am honored and humbled that Jessi and her team are wanting to tell our story. Being the first “Retail adoption center in a mall setting in United States” has always been a really big deal to myself and all the staff past and present who have made it what it is.
This project is worth funding and supporting as it is a terrific example of how other shelters can change the world one animal at a time! Lucky Paws is our “Fish Story” to the world – please come join in our celebration and joy of spreading the word by having Jessi and her remarkable team tell our story.
Words are not enough here to thank Jessi, she is the perfect person to tell our story!
Michelle King, Manager of Lucky Paws