We apologize in advance for the book, but adoptions are the most important thing we do and this explanation is an attempt to address as many questions about this process before you submit an application.

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1. View our adoptables and their information

   1. We take the time to provide as much information as possible about our adoptables: how they came to our organization, medical history, temperament, whether or not they get along with other animals, etc. Use this information to determine two things - 1) If a particular animal is a good fit for you and 2) If you are a good fit for that animal. We want to setup our animals for success and even though we would accept them back without any questions asked, we want them to stay adopted when they are adopted.

   2. Please consider the information we provide to have an asterisk attached to it - this is all the information we know about a particular animal. We rescue animals from a variety of situations and the information we get comes from the shelter we rescued the animal from, input/insight from the veterinarian, interactions during the animal's time at our facility. We say this because we do not guarantee the health, temperament, breed, or any other details about the animal. In life, there are no guarantees and someone is trying to sell you something if they guarantee an animal's health, genetics, etc. We do a thorough evaluation of every animal that comes our way, but animals are just like people - they have their own quirks and they change over time.

2. Complete the Adoption Application​

   1. The application is intended to gather various pieces of information ​that will help us to determine if you are a good fit for an animal and if the animal is a good fit for you.

   2. Some of the information you provide will, unfortunately, result an immediate rejection based upon the animal you are considering adopting. If a dog has shown aggression towards cats and you indicate that you have cats in your home, we will not setup a dog for failure.

   3. The information you provide will be kept private and is only accessible by our organization.

3. Meet-and-greet​ and Home-check

   1. We conduct a meet-and-greet and home-check at the same time so that you can meet the animal on "your turf" and so we can snoop through all your cabinets. Except for that last part, we feel that ​seeing how an animal will act away from our facility is one of the best ways to determine (once again) if the animal is a good fit for you and you are a good fit for the animal. Meet-and-greets are also extremely important when you have existing animals and want to see how they will take to someone new. While it will take some time for the animal to fully settle in if the adoption goes forward, the initial meeting is a great start.

   2. As far as the home-check is concerned, we get all sorts of people interested in adopting from us and not all of them have the best intentions. Not every organization takes the time to do home-checks and the reason we do them is (once again) to make sure that an adopted animal stays adopted. We have had potential adopters hesitate when we even mention the words "home" and "check," which almost immediately puts up a red flag in our minds. We were kidding when we mentioned snooping through your cabinets, but we will use the home-check as an extension of the adoption application to identify potential hazards, concerns, etc. about the animal's potential living environment. Some of our animals are fence jumpers, excavation professionals, and escape artists, so we want to ensure they will have a safe and secure place to call home.

4. Adoption Contract and Adoption Donation

   1. The Adoption Contract and payment of an Adoption Donation is the "final" step in the adoption process. The reason we say "final" is because you will notice a clause in the Adoption Contract stating that we will take the animal back with no questions asked, we will attempt to reclaim the animal in the event we feel their well-being is brought into question, and a lot of other legal jargon. We never ever want to go down that path, which is why our application process is so thorough, but we would be lying to ourselves if we didn't find ourselves periodically asking, "I wonder how (insert animal's name here) is doing."

   2. Our Adoption Contract finalizes the adoption and includes some key items such as...well, you can just read it for yourself. 

   3. Ah, the controversial Adoption Donation. Believe us when we say it, but we have heard it all when it comes to the adoption fee:
      
      "Don't you want them to go to a new home - why do you need to charge a fee?"
      "Why is your adoption rate so much more expensive than the shelter's?"
      "Why should I pay for an animal that you got for free at the shelter?"
      
      The Adoption Donation's sole purpose is to help us recoup some, we say again some, of the costs associated with getting an animal ready for adoption. If we take food out of the equation, it costs us ruffly (see what we did there?) $300 on the low-end for spay/neuter, vaccinations, veterinary visits, flea/tick/heartworm preventative, and microchip. We are not in this business to make money and we use the adoption fee to help us continue doing what we do best - save more animals. If you take a second to think about, if you hesitate about paying a minimal adoption fee how are you going to feel paying for food, treats, supplies, annual veterinary visits, or emergencies?

   4. The Adoption Donation for all dogs is $200. Our Adoption Donation for cats is $75 for males and $85 for females (their spay procedure costs $10 more at the low-cost clinic we use).

   5. All adopted animals are spayed/neutered, up-to-date on vaccinations (including a rabies tag), current on flea/tick/heartworm preventative, and microchipped. Electronic copies of the Adoption Contract, medical records, and other pertinent documentation is provided at the time of adoption.

5. Post-adoption​

   1. We hope that you will keep in contact with our organization via social media or other means of communication. We will update our Status Change page to complete the adoption story and we periodically do events where we love to get a chance to see our past guests again.