Wait until you adopt a MWD K9 (military working dog) or police K9 full background check, criminal history, references, vet reference, credit check, fencing of yard specs and sometimes a house visit also. Military dogs can take up to 2 years to actually get one usually about a year but well worth it. Also about 4 days at kennel to meet dog handler and vet and work with each one then if all good you have a $00000 figure trained animal to get to know. Last day is about 4 hrs with a vet and dog gets an MRI and total check up, xrays and blood work. You will know exactly what your are getting. Adoption is free if you qualify it will happen just takes time to do it...
That's one factor that has kept me from getting another pet. I love dogs and cats, but they are animals, not human children. You do not need to inspect my home. It is not an adoption. Be thankful that someone has taken them out of the shelter and avoided the gas chamber (7,600,000 annually if the site I just read is accurate.) I had friends who were looking for a dog, and one lady wanted to reserve the right to drop by at any time for the duration of the dog's life! It's truly insane. When did things take such a weird turn?
@John Brunner - I understand your feelings, but many get pets then do not care for them. But visitation after taken the animal ,No. Radars previous owner was a bit like that. We do keep in touch because I met her where I worked at the time, but she gets a picture from text ever so often.
I completely understand. But lots of people go horribly overboard with the requirements. If you read some of the website comments out there, these people are not weeding out abusers, not that I think it can really be done. The requirements are often capricious at best. "No one under 23 years of age," "No one over 63 years of age," "No home with children under the age of 13," "I don't like this neighborhood" (then gets back in car and drives away without checking out the home, not that I would ever submit to such a process.) None of this has anything to do with meeting a minimum standard of care for an animal. It's nirvana for intrusive over-controlling people in many cases...and needy pets go without loving homes because those who purportedly care the most are the ones erecting needlessly high hurdles for their own benefit. And it's not "adoption." Sorry. I love critters. I've done animal rescue volunteer work many decades before it became the hip thing to do. That's how I got my last dog and cat (that both lived into their 20s.) I can list the many ways in which pets are better than most people. But it's not "adoption." They are not humans. The entire thing has gone completely over the deep end. All these hurdles actually help keep "mills" in business and prevent these pets from having a "good enough" home. And exactly what does someone think they're gonna see that tells them that the pet won't be properly taken care of? I've seen well-to-do people in nice homes and nice neighborhoods who get a dog or a cat just because they think it completes the picture of "family." There's no love or care for the critter in that house. The dog or the cat is just another accessory of suburban life that is soon ignored and that gets underfoot. Who do we think has the highest rate of returning pets to a shelter??? But people like that would never get rejected, because the externals of their lives check all the right boxes. And "clean, nice-looking people" can be abusers. I think my whole reason for this rant is I resent some idiot stranger I wouldn't even ask directions from making some subjective moral judgement about whether or not I can properly take care of a friggin' dog. It ain't really about the critter.
The shelter in Brownsville, Texas required that people sign an agreement to feed the cat only Science Diet food, plus you'd have to agree to let them make yearly visits, keep them current on all recommended vaccinations, and a bunch of stuff that was none of their business and some of which would be detrimental to their health, as I fed my cats food that was much better than Science Diet. To top it off, it wasn't a no-kill shelter so cats that weren't adopted were killed. They'd rather kill a cat than give it to someone who wouldn't feed it Science Diet. Nuts. Please be sure and post pictures of your cat when you get it home, @Lon Tanner.
My dog and cat both lived to be in their early 20s. I fed them nothing but the house brand food from the local chain grocery store (canned and dry.) And I mean they got nothing but that, including people food. They died without ever having had a scrap of people food touch their lips. I figured it was better for them, and I did not want to train a couple of beggars. That whole "we'd rather kill them than let them eat second-rate food" is emblematic of the current insanity. Why would I waste my money on helping such groups?
I am all for the checking out of future adoptive homes and have no issues at all with the requirements and rules I have gone to accept it, either go with it or forget it are my views. I have adopted many cats and 4 German Shepherds with great results. I would totally expect to go through all again if I adopted another with no issues at all.
Larry the cat and I will meet for the first time and see what we think of each other. This is a requirement of the Valley Animal Center. I must do this along with a personal interview as required procedure for adopting an animal. If we both pass the test I will bring the cat back to my apartment where I have already set up his litter box, scratching pole, feeding area and toys.
I am nearly seventy years old and I have always had cats and as many as five at one time, yet I have had only eleven cats, the latest of which is one year old.
Conceptually it’s a nice idea but it’s like a self cleaning oven, when it’s done cleaning you still have to clean it.
Yeah, since I was the one who had to clean my stepmother’s cat’s litter box. It’s not that I do not like cats but those memories do not fade away easily. I would rather clean a horse stable, which I have also done, than a cat’s litter box. I renovated a house a couple of years ago and there were two kitty litter boxes that no one had cleaned for months(?) maybe. There was poop everywhere and yep, I had to clean it all up. So, self cleaning or otherwise, nope, not for me. Note: That’s just me and nothing against all the companies that make litter boxes nor the cats which use them.