19/12/2024
RESCUE AND ADOPTION
When you see the word “rescue” attached to an animal organization, have you ever thought about what that means for the animals besides a home away from a bad situation? Let me walk you through it.
When an animal is “rescued” that is just the first step in a long line of things that will happen to that animal. At our rescue we have dogs surrendered to us for two basic reasons: the owner either is not able or willing to provide care for the animal any longer or the owner’s life circumstances have changed to the point where they can no longer provide a home. Behind those two reasons are a hundred others that owners use to justify surrendering a dog. We are not here to judge. Once the owner decides to surrender the dog, our goal is to get that dog into rescue as quickly as possible and begin assessing the needs. We also have people who call us to report a stray they have found and cannot keep. We take those dogs as well.
Rarely will a dog come to us in peak health, not neglected, and up to date on vetting and vaccinations. Those dogs require minimum testing for disease (heart worms, tick fever, valley fever) and a wellness exam, nail trim, and they are ready to be adopted. More often the case is much more dire. The animal is neglected, or old, or both. It has had little to no vetting in its life, or it is severely out of date, and the rescue has to start from scratch, which often includes spay/neuter, dental cleaning and extractions, vaccinations, worming, nail trim, treatment for skin or internal disease, testing for diseases and parasites, and a host of other emergent things that can be discovered during the vetting process. A rescue can anticipate spending $1000 for the basic needs and at times much more if treatment or surgery is required. So when we tell you the adoption fee, nine times out of ten we are losing money on that dog. The rare ones who come in fully vetted help defray that loss.
Now once the dog is ready and healthy for adoption, which can sometimes take months in a foster home, we begin matching applications. Those applicants are screened and interviewed, and if approved they move on in the process. Most rescues worth their salt require personal references and a vet reference that they will check, a home safety visit, and a meet and greet, especially if there are other animals already in the applicant’s home. Any rescue that does not take these measures is not doing it for the dog. If you are not willing to have your references checked, a home safety visit, and a meet and greet, then why are you applying? Would you adopt a child without expecting at least these measures? And if you are not willing, that tells us you have something to hide, which will get you off the list PDQ.
So adopting a rescued dog comes with good things. The dog comes to you fully vetted, evaluated by its foster for training needs like potty or leash training, and so grateful for a loving home. You have quite possibly helped save the life of a dog who might otherwise have been put to sleep or died on the streets or lived its whole life in less than ideal conditions in a home where it is an inconvenience, not a pet. But we in the rescue end have made a commitment to find the best homes for our dogs, and that takes some searching and questioning and checking. Please do not think we are being nosy…we are here for the dogs.
