Welcome to My Furry Valentine

Since our inception in 2012, My Furry Valentine has grown to become one of the largest animal adoption events in the country! In 13 years, we’ve helped more than 8,500 dogs, cats, and other companion animals find a home.

The Cincinnati Business Courier has recognized My Furry Valentine among the top 10 largest Cincinnati conventions and expos! Thank you for helping us grow!

These numbers speak to the impact you can make by attending our event in support of animal adoption. You can help us rewrite the script for homeless animals. My Furry Valentine exists to educate the community about the importance of adoption, and connect animals in need of a home with those people willing to give them one – and we can’t do it without you!

Tens of millions of Americans plan to get a new pet each year and an estimated 6-8 million healthy, loving cats and dogs enter our shelter and animal rescue systems annually. However, only an estimated 10-15% of American homes get their new pet from a shelter or rescue, while millions of adoptable animals sit in shelters waiting to catch the eye of a potential adopter. And so, today in our country, nearly 1 million animals still lose their lives because no one comes for them.

We can change that

According to the Humane Society of the United States, of the 1 million cats and dogs euthanized in shelters each year, approximately 800,000 (80%) are healthy and treatable and could have been adopted into a new home. If just 1 out of 10 more people getting a new cat or dog were to adopt from a rescue or shelter, not one single healthy cat or dog would have to lose their lives. You can be that 1 in 10!

Thank you

An event this large takes a whole team of kind-hearted people with a love for animals who have contributed their time, talents, energy, and funds toward bringing MFV to Cincinnati year after year.

to our host, sponsors, funders, and individual contributors for their generous financial support to keep this event going;

to our and public relations, media, and radio partners who offer their expertise in promoting this event to bring in the large crowd that result in more adoptions;

to our vendors and business donors who bring energy and excitement to the event with their product offers and raffle prize donations;

to our rescue and shelter partners who work tirelessly each and every day throughout the year with an unyielding passion and commitment to the cause;

to our event-day volunteers who serve in countless ways to ensure the event runs smoothly and our visitors are happy – you’re the superheroes;

to our small, but mighty My Furry Valentine Organizing Committee who commit countless hours to the planning, logistics, and execution of the event weekend;

and to you, our visitors and adopters for joining us for this event and giving adoptable animals a home.

Whether you join us at the event to adopt a furry companion, help out at a booth, or support the cause and get your daily fix of adoptable animals, the My Furry Valentine Team behind the scenes is thankful for each and every one of you!

The My Furry Valentine Organizing Committee

Carolyn is the founder and Board President of My Furry Valentine. She envisioned the first adoption event on Thanksgiving weekend of 2011 and introduced the region’s first Mega-Adoption event three months later in February 2012, hosting the event by her pet photography business, phoDOGrapher. Carolyn has an impressive resume of launching initiatives and leading work driving transformational change on behalf of animals. She is an acknowledged pacesetter in the field and has been an integral player on the local animal welfare scene for over two decades. Carolyn is a progressive animal welfare leader dedicated to professional excellence in the field of animal services, using compassion and ethical principles to end the killing of shelter pets in our community. In 2003, she was Board President and an early leader of Cincinnati’s United Coalition for Animals (UCAN), helping lead the opening of the first and only low-cost, high-volume spay/neuter clinic for dogs and cats in the Tri-State region, having now performed more than 171,000 surgeries to-date. From 2004-2007, Carolyn served as Board Secretary of HeARTsSpeak, an international organization uniting art and advocacy to increase the visibility of shelter animals. She now serves as the Executive Director of Cincinnati Animal CARE, (CAC), an organization she founded in 2020. CAC is Hamilton County’s municipal animal shelter, intaking nearly 8,000 annually with a 95% Live Release Rate.

Carolyn Evans, MFV Founder

Jen Grimmett, Volunteer Lead

Jen joined My Furry Valentine in 2017 as a volunteer and quickly knew that she wanted to be more involved with this amazing organization as our Volunteer Lead. She is passionate about animals and helping all animals to find loving and secure homes. Animals have been a part of her life since birth and she feels strongly that animals are family members and provide us with unconditional love. She enjoys meeting volunteers and sharing with them a love of animals and particularly rescue animals. She is continually grateful for all of the volunteers that continue to come back year after year to show their support of this amazing event.

You may also see Jen’s now grown children volunteering at the event in several capacities. Her son loves participating as the Scooter the Neutered Cat mascot!

Lisa Jones was hired by Carolyn Evans in the Fall of 2017 to be My Furry Valentine’s Event Manager. She met the team and jumped right in on organizing all the logistics for the February 2018 event. She was eager to play a part in what was already a large and successful mega-pet adoption event and remembers being blown away by the ize of the crowds and the number of animals that were adopted during the event that year. After February, she started planning for the first Summer 2018 My Furry Valentine event. She continued in her role as Event Manager thought the 2020 event before starting a job with LasikPlus as the Events Team Lead. She continues her involvement with My Furry Valentine now with the small and mighty organizing committee primarily as our Vendor Lead – building relationships with the outstanding vendors who participate during the event weekend. Lisa has loved animals her entire live and is so proud to be a part of this amazing event.

Lisa Jones, Vendor Lead

Shay O’Brien, Social Media Lead & Website Designer

Shay came on board with My Furry Valentine in 2015 as an event volunteer prior to taking on a larger role with the My Furry Valentine Organizing Committee as a Social Media Lead and Website Design. You may have seen her in the My Furry Valentine live videos if you watch on social media leading up to and during the event – and likely crying in a few video. Passionate about helping homeless animals, she volunteers with community rescues and shelters (Cincinnati Animal CARE & Proud Pups, Inc.) throughout the year. Shay is also a three time adopter from the event (Embry from Louie’s Legacy, Jonesy from Louie’s Legacy, and Lorna from Proud Pups Rescue, Inc.).

When not volunteering with animal rescue, Shay is busy as a co-host and writer on the Cinister Explorations podcast & facilitating paranormal investigations.

Katie Mosure started off with My Furry Valentine as a volunteer back in 2019. She joined the My Furry Valentine Core Team in 2021 as a Project Lead, then moved over to the role of Donations Lead in 2022. She loves coordinating the large amount of donations that come in each year, giving animal-loving businesses and individuals in Cincinnati the opportunity to participate in the much anticipated visitor raffles and adopter raffles.

Katies lives in Deer Park, along with her two resident cats that are equally sweet, sassy and spicy. She also frequently fosters dogs in need of temporary homes for Cincinnati Animal CARE, Hamilton County’s open-intake, no-kill animal shelter.

Katie Mosure, Dontation Lead

Colleen Starr, Graphic Designer

Being surrounded by dogs growing up, Colleen always had a soft spot for helping animals. She volunteered for MFV for the first time in 2019, and has been a part of the core team since 2020. Colleen is a Graphic Designer and had been looking for a way to use her design skills to help out in the community. She loves being able to use design to bring attention to this amazing event! She can’t wait to add a sweet rescue pup to their family in the near future!