Animal Welfare Professionals

Are there any barriers to their adoption? Feel free to post photos! If you see a pet in someone else's comment that your organization has gotten successfully adopted, share how you did it!

Baby and Maisie.  Baby has been with us since February and was adopted about a month ago for a few days and returned for being too much for the adopter to handle and Maisie aka Spookie who has been with us on and off for the better part of 2 years.  Was recently adopted after her most recent stay of over 6 months and was just returned today.  We've been hitting social media hard in the past few weeks with daily posts to get them adopted.  If only we could get them to stay in their adoptive homes.  Both are wonderful with people however need to go to a home without other animals which we all know makes it so much harder to find a home.

What reasons has Maisie been returned for?

Most recently housetraining issues.  Before that it was just the "don't have time for her" type returns.

Awwww, poor pup. It might seem counter-intuitive (like it will deter adopters), but I'm always very open and honest about 'higher-maintenance' animals that really need the adopter to make time in their lives for a pet. While I prefer that for every animal that's just not always the case... some people want a dog but are only going to walk them once a week. 

Maybe try marketing them as Adventure Dogs? That is a pretty big trend right now (adventure dog, adventure cat, etc) with younger adopters, who want dogs to take hiking and such. 

We've had Inigo Meowtonya for over a year. He is 4/5 years old and painfully shy, as he was a former feral cat. He has Entropion (eyelashes flipped under, rubbing the eyeball) and it's taken 3 surgeries over several months to fix the issue - during which time he transformed into a housecat!

He loves his foster family, but totally disappears with visitors in the home and shuts down when "trapped" in a room to meet potential adopters. He loves other cats but is terrified of dogs and kids. We feel obligated to disclose that entropian might also be an issue for him in the future. 

Once he's comfortable with someone (which takes a couple months in our experience), he's a total lapcat and basically their adorable shadow around the house. He makes adorable small chirrrup noises for attention. 

#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms

This is Blender. He's 1.5 years old and a total wreck of nerves in the shelter. He came in with his brother from a fairly violent DV situation (sibling was adopted). Blender does well away from the shelter. He's playful and affectionate and just a normal puppy. But in the shelter he suffers from pretty serious kennel stress and jumps very high in his (topped) kennel, injuring his feet and legs. He is jumpy/mouthy and has a serious determination with leash tugging even with a chain leash. We need to use a basket muzzle to safely get him in and out of his kennel without getting a finger instead of a leash because he becomes frantic on the way in or out; attempting to bite the leashes and flailing with his legs/tangling in the leashes. He has a quiet (as quiet as it comes in a huge municipal shelter) kennel closest to an exit and he is medicated with Prozac. He attends playgroups and has had day passes, sleepovers and short term fosters. He was even a Maddie's Fund Champion dog when we had apprentices out for foster program training. Lots of positive notes but getting him in and out of his kennel is a challenge and intimidates adopters (as does the Prozac). I know this dog will do just fine once he's in a home, but getting him seen and finding that home is the challenge. He's had a fair amount of press and marketing but we'll keep at it until we find the perfect home.

Could you have someone take the adopters somewhere else while you get him out of the kennel so they don't see that part? Another staff member could direct them to pick out a few toys and tell them Blender will meet them in the play yard or meet-and-greet-room or something. 

Yes, we absolutely do this. We try to arrange to have one of his advocates (who are very comfortable with his kennel exit protocol) get him out and bring him to a quiet area to meet potential adopters. However we are very transparent about his kennel stress behavior and let adopters know that we use a muzzle when taking him out to protect him from an accidental bite when he bites at the leash. He has done well in meet and greets.

Great news...Blender was adopted a few days ago by a wonderful young lady who was given all his information, notes and full disclosure. She has updated us and he is doing very well. I've warned her that once he catches up on all his sleep she can expect his puppy energy to come to life :)

Mia (the heeler) has been at the shelter for over a year. We have had to keep her in the offices due to potential to bite fingers when put through her kennel door. She does well with other dogs and obviously gets along with cats but she is very picky about human friends. She is a fear aggressor and hasn't bit anyone yet but will "heel" people on their way out of the office. Once she warms up to a person, she is an absolutely fantastic dog. We know if we can ever get her adopted she will be a loyal and faithful friend for life but most people lose interest in her if she is not wanting their attention the instant they meet her. The biggest barrier to her adoption is her indifference towards people when she first meets them. We know eventually the right person/family will come along and take her home.

i think you need this

https://petntech.com/product/tennis-ball-dog-toys/

What about conducting her meet-and-greets with another dog present? When I have a really timid or fearful cat that would thrive in a home with a feline friend for them (my focus is currently on cats lol), I will usually try to market them as a "cat's cat" and will bring out one of their friends for the meet, so the adopter can observe them with another cat. That combined with videos of them being really snuggly towards me can be really helpful when the adopter is making a decision. 

Hey all! I am late posting, but here is a link to one of our pups Captain America :http://ws.petango.com/webservices/adoptablesearch/wsAdoptableAnimalDetails.aspx?id=42206906&css=http://ws.petango.com/WebServices/adoptablesearch/css/styles.css

He's such a good boy, but he has been with us since the summer and is starting to get a little cabin fever. Who can blame him? We all know pitties can be hard to place, but we recently adopted out two of our longest dog residents that were big pups and were a bit intimidating. It took a lot of work and sharing to get the other two adopted out. 

The hardest part is just getting people to give them a chance and look behind the cage presence. 

Some months ago, there was a featured post on this forum dedicated to this topic and the winners of the challenge. There were some really impressive & creative long-stay placement ideas presented. I don't have anything really significant to add other than a reminder that #givingtuesday is 12/3 so maybe borrow some of these ideas and incorporate holiday themes.  Including link to article for convenience. <3 

https://maddiespetforum.org/thread/challenge-spotlight-1st-place-most-creative-program-overall-jacksonville-humane-society/