As a foster for dogs on Kauai, I take copious notes on each pup's growth, health improvements, behavioral patterns, individual personality development, adaptations, learned skills, social development, energy level, sleeping patterns, bonding success, separation responses, dietary and biological rhythms, notations on breed specific expressions in their nature etc… when the pups are accepted by a rescue organization on the mainland that has a high adoption success rate and they are transported my notes that would help a potential adopting family don't follow along. It is so bittersweet to see my fosters get adopted and maybe I'm too attached but, I want to ensure a good fit and successful long term adoption occurs. As a volunteer it is out of my hands for any follow up and I find this challenging to accept. Maybe improved communication from fosters via a questionnaire form to the adopting agency would be a helpful tool? We remain very grateful to mainland rescues to have island dogs accepted and transported for their chances to have a happy life are much greater as Kauai is inundated with abandoned, sick, neglected, abused and lost dogs and the small population of full time residents and the economic status of many can't support the quantity. The people generously care for and feed the feral cats that have gotten out of control since Covid halted the free spay and neuter events but, thankfully that is changing.
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Barbara Richard
Volunteer Foster/Grant Writing & Development
Kauai SPCA
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-13-2023 12:54 PM
From: ERIN ELLIS
Subject: Tips/tools to get adopters to listen.
We have been seeing a bit of an increase in returns over the last year and we're looking into solutions to tackle that. A lot of the reasons for the returns are due to the adopters not following through or listening to our adoption staff during the adoption process. We are looking for ways to be clearer and more concise. Have any of you out there cracked the code to this and have tips or tricks to what you have found to work? Thanks!
#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
#PeopleManagement(includingVolunteerIntegration)
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Erin Ellis
Community Engagement Director
Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe
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Foster Program & Volunteer Management Specialist
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