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Calgarians have answered an animal shelter’s appeal for help to deal with an influx of more than 600 homeless pets.

As of Wednesday morning, the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society received more than 500 applications for adoption — such a rush, the traffic crashed its website at one point, the society said.

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“The phone was ringing off the hook and the emails poured in. There was so much traffic to our website that it was timing out and eventually crashed — it took a few hours to get it back up and running, and we had to put extra adoptions staff on to get through the large number of applications and calls,” said Deanna Thompson, AARCS executive director.

“The response has been incredible. We are so lucky to live in such a caring and compassionate community. Many people came forward who weren’t able to adopt, but wanted to give back through donations of funds, dog and cat food, and much-needed supplies.”