Adoption Process
Animals are brought into Alma Tails of Hope by surrender, stray intake, or transfer. This means that each animal seen on any of our social media platforms may have a different path they take in the rescue.
- Stray – A stray animal is an animal that has been rescued by Alma Tails of Hope from being loose, abandoned, or found. At this time, Alma Tails of Hope ONLY takes in stray dogs that have been held at other shelters and were not claimed by thier owner.
- Surrender – A surrendered animal is an animal that is surrendered directly to Alma Tails of Hope, whether it is directly from an owner or an agent of the owner.
- Transfer – An animal listed as a transfer is a transfer into Alma Tails of Hope from another rescue organization (shelter, rescue, etc).
The majority of surrendered, transferred, or unclaimed stray animals that are brought into Alma Tails of Hope foster homes are given a minimum of 5 days to decompress in their new surroundings and to give the foster family time to get to know the animal’s personality and what might be the best fit for their future furever home.
During this time of decompression and getting to know you stage, pictures are taken and biographies on the animals are starting to be written by the foster families to share with the public. Animals that need it are also taken to the veterinarian their first week with Alma Tails of Hope to get a well check and address any concerns there may be – missing vaccines, health issues, and/or scheduling surgeries (dentals & spays/neuters).
Alma Tails of Hope waits to spay/neuter dogs until they are at least six months of age and cats until they are at least eight weeks. Because of this some animals in rescue may be adopted into their new homes before being altered. These animals have a spay/neuter deposit required to be paid by their new owners with a refund available. Once proof of spay/neuter is submitted to Alma Tails of Hope, a refund will be issued provided it is still in the one year grace period after the adoption.
Once an animal is given an all clear from the veterinarian and the foster family is comfortable with knowing what a good fit for their animals would be, it is time to move onto the next step in their journey and be posted as available to the public! It is also at this time that foster families are given the first opportunity to adopt their fostered animals before they are released for public adoption applications. ((What a great benefit of being a foster family huh?! If interested, please apply here: Foster Application))
Our available animals are then posted on our rescue’s Facebook page, as well as Petfinder.com for the public to view. At this point is when we hope the adoption applications come flooding in! Our ‘Adoption Coordinators’ take these applications and complete background checks, call references, verify identities and addresses, and contact landlords if applicable. They then reach out to the applicants themselves for any necessary files to complete the application – copy of Drivers License, veterinary records, etc.
Approved applications are then forwarded to our foster families to do follow up phone interviews to try and find the best fit for their animal. This is the lengthiest part of our adoption process as we want to make sure we have the best fitting applicant for each of our animals! After the interviews, foster families will set up meet and greets with the potential new families to be able to meet their potential new family member.