How We Work
Where we get our dogs:
Most of our dogs come from animal control facilities (also known as dog pounds or "doggie jail"). They have either been found as strays or abandoned there by their prior owners. We also accept dogs directly from owners who no longer want them - most of the time, it's due to a change in their family circumstances and they find that the dog simply no longer fits into their plans, but sometimes it's truly an unfortunate set of events that require them to relinquish a beloved pet.
How do we choose which dogs we accept:
There are three main criteria we use to determine which dogs come into our organization for rehoming.
First, and most importantly, is the temperament of the dog. In an ideal world, this would be the only criteria we would apply to accepting a dog for rehoming. We try to get as good a behavioral assessment as we can prior to committing to taking the dog. If a dog is still with its owner, we require that the dog be assessed by a professional selected by us before we will agree to accept the dog.
Second, whether we have an open foster space available. This, sadly for many dogs, is simply a matter of lucky timing. We have no physical facility, so we have to wait for a dog to be adopted before we have a foster space available (although we dream of having a facility some day). Foster space is definitely the bottleneck in our ability to save more dogs.
Third, if we have a way to get the dog transported from where it is to where the foster home is located. We sometimes have a dog in one state, but the open foster space is in a different state. If we have volunteers to help transport, we have to incur expense to board the dog for at least two weeks, get its vaccinations and have a health certificate issued in its home state before we transport the dog across into another state for fostering. If we have the funds and volunteers available, we can save the dog.
Where are the dogs located:
Once a dog enters our program, he or she lives in a foster home. Our foster homes are in many different states. The dog lives as a member of the foster family until he or she is adopted. The foster parents learn all about the dog and can give potential adopters a detailed description of the dog's personality and quirks.
What keeps us going:
WE LOVE PHOTOS AND UPDATES! Hearing that our dogs are doing well and that you're happy with them is what keeps us going in this otherwise fairly grim business. Please keep us posted on significant events or just whenever you happen to think of it. We love to hear from you!
