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A company in Ohio is offering its employees 'pawternity' leave to encourage pet adoption

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CLEVELAND — A little more than a year ago, Alana Ferrante rescued her dog Bylah .

"There's hundreds of thousands of dogs that are in kennels and city shelters throughout the state that don't have forever homes," Ferrante said.

When she was brainstorming ways to get more of those dogs adopted, she brought it to the owners of her company, Relentless Recovery .

"The newest idea is called 'pawternity' leave," Ferrante said.

"I decided to implement this policy where if an employee at Relentless Recovery adopts a dog from a shelter or a kennel, they would be granted a week of paid time off."

She says the week will help the owner get acclimated to their new friend and allow them time to train him or her, or take the dog to the vet.

"Hopefully by implementing this policy, it will encourage my employees if they were ever on the fence about it to go and finally adopt a dog," she said.

"I was like-what? This is amazing," said Molly Wolcott, who works for the repossession services company.

Wolcott is one of 130 Relentless Recovery employees across Ohio. Her dog passed away recently and she's finally ready to adopt again.

"I miss the companionship and coming home to a dog and the tail wagging and going and exploring," Wolcott said.

This new policy which allows employees to adopt from whatever shelter or kennel they want just made Wolcott's future adoption that much easier.

"An amazing place to work," Wolcott said. "And with this new policy it just makes it even better."

This story was originally published by Amanda VanAllen on WEWS .