When deciding to bring a new pet home the more you do ahead of time, the better! Plenty of preparation is the key to creating a happy home life for you and your new pet. Making an impulsive decision on the other hand is likely to result in a bad situation.
Make sure you weigh temperament, energy level, noise and the time you will need to invest in your companion animal, in addition to the pet's immediate appeal. Consider your choice very carefully before bringing a puppy home! Puppies are wonderful, but may require potty breaks in the middle of the night as well as considerable time spent with training and socialization.
If you are considering a dog, make sure you purchase your crate, chew toys and so forth before you bring the dog home! A crate will help with housetraining, provide a "safe haven" for your dog and save your sanity! Make sure you budget carefully before adopting a pet. Plan for food, veterinary care, chew toys, flea and tick preventative & heartworm preventative.
Adoption Checklist
Consider what you are looking for in a pet
Work out your budget ahead of time
Purchase your supplies ahead of time
To apply for pre-approval - Click Here!
Come to Caring Hands for a supervised
introduction. Bring your children.
Complete the application process
(We will need contact info for your
veterinarian and landlord)
Now you're ready to start looking for potential matches! Read personality descriptions online, or come in and talk to our adoption counselors!
If you like, you can submit an application for pre-approval by clicking here! We will need you to provide contact information for your veterinarian if you have had pets in the past, and if you rent we will need a phone number to reach your landlord.
Come in and meet the pets! We have a visitation room and a fenced dog walk area. If you have resident pets we recommend bringing them in for a supervised introduction. You will probably find it easier to make this a seperate visit unless you are coming in to meet only one pet.
We love nothing more than finding great homes for great pets! Sometimes, there is something in the application which in our experience is likely to pose a serious problem. For this reason, not all applications are approved. We can, however, help you find workarounds for many issues.
Sometimes we will simply recommend a different choice of companion animal. For example, if you don't have a fenced yard that would not necessarily prohibit you from adopting a large dog, but you would need some other system in place to ensure the dog does not run away. (See our Common Concerns Page) On the other hand if you were to adopt a cat a fence is a non-issue. You can fill out an application online (click here) or print the application (click here) and return it by fax for pre-approval.
Again, the more that you can do ahead the smoother you can make your adoption experience!