House Of Hounds

We do have an adoption process to try to ensure that each and every animal in our care get a loving forever home. We do always take our animals back if an adopter can not keep the animal for any reason. The first step is filling out the adoption application for the animal or animals one wishes to adopt. Once we receive the application we will do a vet check. A vet check is where we call the applicants veterinary office and speak with the staff to see how well the current or past animals are/were cared for. We want to see if they were all spayed and neutered, see if they were kept up to date on vaccine, heartworm test and preventives. We do this to try to make sure we place the animal with someone who will be diligent at keeping the animal up to date and well cared for. Once the vet check passes we set up a meet and greet. A meet and greet is where we get to see how the animal reacts to the applicant and vis versa. This is also a good time to introduce any current animals in the applicants home to the animal they applied to adopt. We want to make sure they are a good fit for each other. we like to have the whole household meet the animal applied for. If things go good here then we set up to have a home visit done. A home visit is NOT a white glove test to see how clean your house is. It’s more of a chance for us to get to know you and you home dynamics. We get to see if your home is an active one or maybe a quiet one. It gives us a chance to talk to you about your life, your animals, and your application in a face to face conversation. And it gives us a chance to see that the home is safe for the animal. For example, if you adopt a puppy we like to make sure that things are not laying out for a puppy to reach and be able to chew up. We also like to make sure there are no chemicals within the animals reach. If you have a fence, we like to look it over and make sure that there is no way to get out of the fenced yard. It gives us a chance to point things out that may be a specific issue for the animal applied for. Maybe you applied for a senior with some mobility issues, and you have a few stairs that go out to the back yard. We would take this opportunity to try to problem solve and find a better way for the animal then the steps like a ramp, or maybe a better fit animal altogether. The whole process can take from days to a few weeks, it all depends on where the applicant is located, and when our volunteers get free time for meet and greets and home visits. Remember we are all volunteers and are not paid to do this, so we have to do it in out free time around our full time jobs and normal lives.