As we head into the holiday season, you have likely been making your list and checking it twice to make sure that you didn't forget a gift for your extended family's white elephant exchange. Or maybe you're trying to make sure that you have everything you need to bake your world-famous chocolate chip cookies for Santa...

I am going to go out on a limb and bet that unless you work in the animal rescue community that rescuing a homeless animal this holiday season may not be on your radar. Well, consider this the doppler ping you didn't know you needed on your radar.

Evansville's It Takes a Village No-Kill Rescue is offering a special holiday adoption event with #OperationHomeForTheHolidays in hopes of emptying the rescue center ahead of the Christmas season. Let's be honest, the greatest gift you could give to a four-legged friend this Christmas would be a warm bed, soft couch and a cozy lap with lots of head pats and treats.

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It Takes a Village is currently offering waived adoption fees for qualified and approved adopters. (I want to stress this part because it is important - you cannot just walk into the rescue and walk right out with an animal if you do not meet their adopter requirements. This is for the safety and well-being of the animals.) #OperationHomeForTheHolidays will continue through Thursday, December 23, 2021 for the Evansville location and Wednesday, December 22, 2021 for the Spencer County location.

So which animals can you adopt without a fee? Any dog over the age of one year old and any kitty over 6 months old that is currently residing in one of the It Takes a Village Rescue Centers. Normally, Adult dog adoption fees are $200 for small breed dogs and $175 for large breed dogs. The adoption fee for cats or kittens is $100. Adoption does include spay or neutering, deworming, rabies vaccine as well as microchipping. If you are interested in meeting a new best friend for the holidays, who may or may not love to share the whipped cream on your hot cocoa, visit one of the two It Takes a Village Locations:

The waived adoption fees apply only to the animals residing at the shelters and do not include any of the It Takes a Village animals currently living in foster homes.

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

SEE: 15 Animals You Cannot Own in Evansville

I got the idea for this after seeing an article by Michelle Heart with our Townsquare Media sister-station, 107.9 Lite-FM in Boise, Idaho. She had discovered several animals residents in that city can't own based on city codes she found online which got me thinking about whether Evansville had any regulations that were similar. Obviously, they did or this article wouldn't exist. Chapter 14, Article 3, section 42 and 43 spell out a lengthy list of exotic animals you can get in trouble owning if local officials find out. You can see the entire list on the city's website. These are the 15 I found to be the most interesting.

 

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