elainegrey | (no subject)

Today's distraction inspired by someone musing about adopting a pet. It's been a year since Greycie Loo passed on. Christine and i are gently poking around cat-or-dog. I am a cat advocate, thinking that the two boy-os might could use someone young around. That's when we got Greycie: after GreyBrother died, and GreyBeard and Mr M were looking at their older years. Greycie's the only cat we have ever acquired from an organization: they rescued feral cats from Moffett Field in the Bay Area. I don't recall ANY adoption form. (She's also the only girl-cat.)

All the other boy-os came to us from the neighborhood or friends.

These adoption forms have agreements that you will allow the shelter folks to come visit and inspect. I was surprised when i saw this on donkey adoption several years ago -- but apparently this is common now? One requires a "co-signer" if you are over 65 years old.

I can appreciate a foster group wanting people to consider all these things, but putting them in as terms of an agreement seems ... well, i find it off-putting that i am agreeing to include the adoption group in some of my decision making if i'm moving or other cases. I valued the "tell us about all the pets you have had and what happened to them:" that seems very valuable. Getting a reference from the family vet and a non family member: that sounds good. Demanding that you must monthly treat fleas and ticks is ... problematic in my opinion. In California, for example, an inside cat has no need of tick care. It makes all the sense in the world for North Carolina, particularly in this area with such problematic tick issues. Demanding absolute agreement, without noting any exception for when a vet may suggest that you do NOT treat and so on, is not a responsible way of expressing the expectation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I agree that shelters have become intrusive about adoption agreements. I ran into that when I adopted Basil 5 years ago. Some shelters here require an agreement to keep the cat indoors.

Between that and vets that require bloodwork even when there's no decision to be made, I'm dubious that I'll adopt another animal after Basil goes. I don't like the control wielded by outside forces.

Best wishes with your decisions around adopting a pet!

There was unlikely to have been a home inspection requirement when the housemate adopted the current dog from the Milpitas shelter, but there was a fairly long form and I believe we had to promise to return her there rather than take her somewhere else if we had to give her up. And as the parade of beautiful kitties with no apparent homes across our porch demonstrates, people around here seem to let their cats roam. Some of it may be security theatre. You two have a great track record as cat owners.

I suspect a cat will find his or her way to you. My larger concern after our experiences as cat people with dogs is that Carrie continues to be good with cats, but she clearly is. It's proved impossible for us to have cats except for porch kitties.

They have those clauses, but they hardly ever enforce them - who has the time? I've heard of a lot of people signing these forms, and never heard of anybody who later got a home visit.

Try the classified ads? At least locally, there are often private individuals advertising in there trying to find homes for unwanted litters. You might find some of those on community bulletin boards, too.

Given the existence of ways to adopt that do not require submitting to such agreements, my inclination is that I am unlikely to sign an intrusive agreement that submits my adoption to monitoring by strangers whom I do not know or necessarily consider to "know better". I recognize folks' right to start such groups or have such agreements, but I observe my own right not to sign such an agreement.

this is why I rarely go through actual rescue any more. Granted I have enough and proper connections to be able to avoid that stuff cause of my job, but it's daunting and discouraging. If you need help let me know. I know of an absolutely ADORABLE and sweet lil ginger and white boy named Garfeild who needs a home and is in rescue but it's a rescue I'm very familiar with

I think I've had to sign agreements with adoption orgs, but like others say above, once you are approved they will not keep up; they cannot possibly have staff for that. When I got Friday (from the Chatham animal rescue), they did come over once before I took her home, but were not intrusive, they just wanted to see my house and make sure she was going to a safe home. Some rescues have odd (to me) requirements for dogs, like you must have a fenced yard? I've never had a fenced yard, and don't leave pets outside unattended. What do they think people in apartments/cities do?

Anyhow, with the cats from IAR in Durham, I think they required that the cats be indoor-only, which was my plan anyhow, and the foster parent came over to deliver them, and we hung out for a while while they got settled, but it was very low-key and we just talked about pets and played with them, and I guess I didn't have any bad-owner red flags. Sophie's foster mom was pretty attached to her and would have kept her if I (or someone else) was not the right situation. I got Dutch from the vet's office; there was a last-minute form to fill out, but they knew me and my other pets, so just a formality.

With Andy, I got him from a rescue in Greensboro (through Petfinder, which has good filtering on their site, so I could look at only cat-friendly small dogs in the age-range I chose) so did not have a home visit, but probably agreed to some intrusive things that never happened (oh, I think I agreed that if I needed to re-home him that I would call them first and they would take him.) I never got his chip transferred to my name; it involves some weird mailing in of stuff from the rescue that I never did; I really should do that.

Donkey rescue?

Wow! This seems excessive to me. I have encountered this with breeders, where I acted as a "reference" for a friend a couple of decades ago. But even there it was only a case of check-out-the-prospective-owner-in-advance not rights to intrude later, AFAIK.

At any rate, I'm happy to report that the shelter I support doesn't do this.

Chauncey’s adoption involved that kind of agreement, but the home visit was the rescuer bringing her to me. I guess if I had looked like a bad cat mom they wouldn’t have left her. Her rescue is affiliated with a cat sitting business, so in a sense their home visits are built in. LOL

If you go to a shelter and bring the cat home yourself, it’s unlikely anyone would visit. (Although I see your point about not wanting to sign up for it even theoretically). I think the consultation on moving is to discourage people abandoning cats. The shelters see all the negative outcomes every day and that's reflected in the form. I agree with you that medical decisions should be left to the vet.

You might check if there is a local area pets group on Facebook. People in my neighborhood pet group are always posting about pets that need homes.

Good luck!