Adopting Dogs

Adoption Procedures:

We only consider your home for adoption after we receive an application.  Once this is complete we then move on in the process to adopting your new best friend.

Once we receive an application we review it to see if the particular dog(s) might be a good fit for your home/lifestyle and that you meet the required needs of the dog.  Once this is done we proceed to check veterinary references.  This is to ensure that pets you have or have had in the past were cared for, altered, and up to date with necessary medical care.

Once you have been through this initial screening we then set up a home visit to ensure that the home is a safe home with little concern about their personality matching yours.  We also want to ensure that the home is set up for the same energy levels or medical needs they may or may not have (dog that can't climb stairs, or not enough room to walk, etc.)  These steps are important to ensuring that we are finding the proper home for the dog to be FURever!

A few requirements of adoption are:

*We currently do not adopt out of state.

*Your current pets MUST be spayed/neutered.  This would negate our entire mission statement if we did not ensure the safety of all of our dogs and ensure that we are helping to END unnecessary euthanasia due to over breeding/overpopulation.

*We do not adopt to homes with smoking indoors due to health concerns for the pets

*Our "bully" breed adoptions require you to be a homeowner, have a fully fenced yard (not invisible fencing) unless you have acreage, and you are required to attend an obedience training class.  This is due to the high rate of returns in dogs that are not properly exercised or trained and make it difficult to re-home.

Available Dogs

Adoption Application

Happy Tails

Frequently Asked Questions:

1.  I applied to adopt a pitbull but we have an invisible fence not a solid fencing, can we still adopt?

-unfortunately invisible fencing is not full proof fencing and does not protect your own dogs from other loose dogs entering your property.  Many dogs get out of invisible fencing and then are too afraid to return back to the yard, and there are just too many concerns with the bully breed to put them at risk.

2. Do you negotiate on your adoption fees?  If I want to take the dog to my own vet for spay/neuter can I get a discount on adoption fees?

-Unfortunately 80% or more of our dogs cost hundreds more than we actually adopt them out for.  When a dog has a major medical concern the rescue pays out of our adoption funds to get the dog the necessary help it needs to get it to an "adoptable" status.  We rely heavily on donations and adoption fees to be able to care for these dogs who otherwise would have died, so we are insistant on our fees staying the same in order to continue rescuing future dogs.  Without the set fee we are unable to rescue, and cannot afford basic care on dogs.  Please understand that very few dogs (even ones that are free to us) are not free....our vets may provide a SMALL discount, but it still cost on average $300-400 to get a dog fully vetted.  Our adoption fees are always under this, so as you see it is a loss.  If you choose to use your own vet to spay/neuter, we allow that within 30 days of adoption; however we are unable to provide adoption fee discounts due to the reasons stated above.

3.  Can I meet the dog before the home visit?  Why Can't I take the dog home the day I meet them/fill out an application?

-if you wish to meet a dog before the home visit, our suggestion is to attend an adoption event if they are going to be in attendance.  The rescue has had numerous situations where people that are not serious about adoption have requested visits to see the dog and then never fill out applications, or set up home visits.  We have made the decision that if you take a few moments of your time to do those steps first, it shows your commitment to the dog and we then will proceed to meeting the dogs.  This cuts back on many wasted hours for our volunteers who drive all over free of charge to do these meets/home visits.

The rescue must be very careful about our adoption process.  Unfortunately we do see dog abusers apply, people that have no funding to care for a dog, hoarders, etc. and it is the rescues sole responsibility to ensure the safety of our dogs.  We want to be sure that our dogs are going to a home that they will always be provided for and will not be returned.  Because of this, we do not allow the dogs to go home upon first meet at an adoption event.  We must proceed with vet references and home visits first.

4.  Can you make an exception for us because we live out of state, we are great adopters?

-While you may be an AMAZING home for the dog, our rescue at this point does not have enough resources to have home visits in many places, nor the contacts of other rescues that have the same criteria in judging a home visit in order to allow a dog to travel that far away.  We would have to consider the fact that the dog Could be returned one day, and we dont have the finances or resources to come get them...many of our volunteers work full time and cannot travel due to our schedules and our own dogs in foster care.  It simply is not a risk we can take at this time and we apologize and will be more than happy to review this policy as our organization grows.

We have helped over 300 dogs.