Many SF animal adoption centers have shut down due to coronavirus. They need your help.

Muttville Senior Dog Rescue dogs are great work-from-home companions. Click through the gallery to see dogs currently up for adoption. Muttville Senior Dog Rescue dogs are great work-from-home companions. Click through the gallery to see dogs currently up for adoption. Photo: Courtesy Of Muttville Senior Dog Rescue Photo: Courtesy Of Muttville Senior Dog Rescue Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Many SF animal adoption centers have shut down due to coronavirus. They need your help. 1 / 28 Back to Gallery

If you don’t already have a pet to keep you company while you’re sheltering in place, you're probably wishing you did right now. Here’s the good news: Now is the perfect time to let a dog or cat into your life, and animal shelters need your help.

San Francisco SPCA and the San Francisco Animal Care & Control have both closed their adoption centers until April 8 due to the shelter-in-place order. The order defined veterinary care for animals as an essential service but not adoptions.

“It’s incredibly difficult,” said S.F. SPCA president Jennifer Scarlett. “Our number one priority is to stop the spread of coronavirus, and adopting animals is not essential to most people — but it's essential for the animals.”

Instead of adoptions, SPCA and most other shelters have started moving all their animals into foster homes.

“We've had to suspend our volunteer program, and our staff has stepped in to provide enrichment to animals,” said Deb Campbell, the volunteer coordinator at S.F. Animal Care and Control. "We are getting as many animals out to foster as possible.”

San Francisco's Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, on the other hand, is still allowing adoptions — but virtually. And they’ve even waived adoption fees during this crisis.

“We use Facetime or Google Hangout to have the foster family and the adopter do sort of a virtual face-to-face with the dog,” said Sherri Franklin, founder and CEO of Muttville. “They talk about him or her, what their needs are, and it’s pretty much a done deal by the time the drop-off happens.”

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With all of their dogs currently out in foster care, Muttville has been able to maintain its usual number of weekly adoptions using the virtual meet-and-greets. Drop-offs then happen in a safe outdoor area, and the adopters are given a new leash in a bag.

Franklin says that it’s essential that adoptions still happen, otherwise the number of animals could stack up.

“I think we are only at the beginning of this crisis,” said Franklin. “If more people start getting sick, we are going to start to see more animals in need.”

Fortunately, shelters have received an outpouring of support from people looking to foster or adopt right now.

“The community has been amazing,” said Campbell. “Where animals are concerned, everyone's hearts are there. It’s just comforting that people still care.”

Muttville, too, has received a lot of love.

“We have definitely at least doubled the amount of applications as usual, both for foster and for adoptions,” said Franklin. Plus, she hopes that some of the foster families will end up adopting the dogs they’re taking care of.

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After all, you couldn’t pick a better time to get a pet if you’re someone newly working from home every day. Social distancing may not be doing wonders for your social life, but it does give you plenty of time to get acquainted with your new dog or cat. And it gives you an excuse to get out of the house.

“I have a bunch of dogs home, so I could've been working from home sitting on my computer all day, but I have to go out and walk my dogs. It gives me a chance to do something else,” said Franklin.

Demand to foster or adopt might be high right now at the beginning of this crisis, but Franklin also estimates that it might start to taper off — so even if your shelter doesn’t have any pets available for you at the moment, it helps to let them know you’re interested so they can find you when they need you.

And in the meantime, all shelters can still use donations — either monetary donations or enrichment materials such as chew toys. Smaller rescue groups operating on tighter budgets may need your help most, so ask your local shelters to see what they need.

Here are the current needs of the aforementioned San Francisco animal shelters:

SF SPCA: Looking for fosters (especially for dogs), or donate here.

SF ACC: Toys and treats for the animals, foster or donate here.

Muttville Senior Dog Rescue: Looking for adopters, or donate here.

Madeline Wells is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: madeline.wells@sfgate.com | Twitter: @madwells22