KENNEBUNK — It was love at first sight when 10-year-old Caleb and 7-year-old Elizabeth met Shannon, an active 1 1/2-year-old Rottweiller, on Saturday at the Animal Welfare Society in Kennebunk. Shannon seemed to have no trouble adapting to her new family, despite her three month quarantine with no exposure to strangers.

Shannon was one of 27 dogs that had been quarantined because of an outbreak of contagious distemper, an upper respiratory disease, at the shelter. The dogs were released from their isolation from the rest of the pet population on Saturday, which was the first day they were available for adoption.

Some of the quarantined dogs were already spoken for, so only 22 were available for adoption, said Animal Welfare Co-shelter Manager Bobbi Allen. Sixteen dogs found new families on Saturday.

Those looking for pets began queuing up at the shelter long before the doors opened.

Caleb and Elizabeth’s father Chris, who asked that the family’s last name be withheld, was the first to arrive at 6 p.m. the night before; the children joined him early Saturday morning. Chris said he wanted to ensure his family had the first crack at Shannon. They had been looking specifically for a Rottweiller, which Chris said have been hard to come by in shelters for several years.

When the doors finally opened, the family was one of the first to get to meet the dog in which they were interested. After a short time of playing with the children, it wasn’t long before the family knew they wanted to bring Shannon home to join their menagerie with includes one cat, six or seven fish and three hermit crabs.

Another selling point for Chris was that during their time in quarantine the dogs were kept busy. They were given obedience and agility training which should make them easier to care for than a new puppy.

That training was a big selling point for Paul Burke of Arlington, Mass. He, his wife and three children were planning to bring home Annie, a 3-year-old Hound mix.

Burke, who has a second home in Ogunquit, said he and his children had been visiting the shelter whenever they came to Maine for several years. Now that the family had a new home with a big back yard, it was a good time to adopt a dog, he said.

“We believe in supporting shelters,” said Burke as to why they were getting a dog from the Animal Welfare Society as opposed to purchasing a new puppy.

Before he and his wife had children, he said, they used to foster rescue dogs.

The dogs being adopted on Saturday had been placed in quarantine in mid-October, said Allen, when workers found that the some of the dogs had distemper.

Earlier in October, workers at the shelter suspected something was wrong when each day, two or three new dogs were sick. It’s impossible to verify the disease in living dogs, said Allen. When two of the dogs were so sick they had to be euthanized, those animals were tested and the disease was confirmed.

“In October, this was sort of a disaster for us,” said Animal Welfare Society Executive Director Steve Jacobsen. But after caring for and training the animals, he said, “we ended up with a bunch of happy dogs.”

“We’ll stand behind the dogs,” said Jacobsen, and added that those adopting the animals can call the shelter for support if they have any questions or problems when they bring the pets home.

For information on adopting these dogs or other animals from the shelter, contact the Animal Welfare Society at 985-3244 or visit the Web site: www.animalwelfaresociety.org

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.