Our adoption weekend results

[auburngrad82]

We had a great weekend with our rescue group. We found homes for six dogs/puppies and three cats/kittens.

But as fast as they go out, they come in. We took in a litter of five 6 week old puppies late Sunday afternoon. So it was a net gain. But that's what we're here for, to find homes for animals who need homes.

We registered with Petfinder about three weeks ago and it's probably the best thing we could have done. We have had almost 5000 views in less than a month and every day we receive inquiries about our animals, some as far away as Pennsylvania, New York and even Maine (we're in North Carolina). We're running our butts off but it's worth it.

On another note, we're considering taking online donations via a donation button from PayPal. Does anyone have any experience with this? We want to make sure it's secure and we don't run the risk of having our funds cleaned out overnight. Any input?

http://www.heavenandearthrescue.org

http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NC419.html

[superconnected]

1. auburngrad82 you guys are awesome for doing this!

Good weekend. I hope you'll find homes that want to adopt 2 puppies instead of one this week. I've known people who prefer dual pets. My dad always had 2 dogs so one wouldn't be lonely.

[wildeyed]

2. Excellent!

I shouldn't read your posts anymore. Your rescue is too close by. I adore the golden/bc mix you have up on the website. He would be such a nice companion for Sam........

[auburngrad82]

4. We actually have a man in New York interested in him

He may fly down and adopt him if we can work things out.

[wildeyed]

10. Yeah!!!!

:yourock:

We are not able to afford a third dog right now. But I still wish we could. I would have a pack, finances and hubby allowing.

[NMDemDist2]

12. i have a pack of four, you want one?

:rofl:

[wildeyed]

15. lol!

OK, but you get one of my kids.

[NMDemDist2]

17. ooops! no deal. I'm "Not the Mom" for good reason hehehee n/t

[Lorien]

3. Our rescue uses paypal and it's gone well so far

I think we brought in over $10,000 for our Katrina rescue effort, and much of that was through paypal.

Have you done any "adopt-a-thons"? Our rescue did one recently, which we heavily promoted on the local news, on the radio and in a newspaper article. We adopted out 77 pets in just three days! (We had to raid all the local shelters for dogs because we kept running out)!

Good luck!

[ernstbass]

5. What a wonderful diemma

running out of animals to adopt!! Just out of curiosity, how so you screen the prospective homes in that short amount of time?

[Lorien]

8. We have a large team of volunteers that weekend to interview each

family interested in adopting. They do turn away a fair number; several hundred people showed up to adopt pets, but only 77 actually came away with one.

It's easier for me to feel comfortable about the homes that I'm sending my pets to; I adopt out of a natural/ holistic pet supply store. The customers are generally very well educated on pet health (and care enough to spend top dollar on the bast for their pets), and are well known to the store owners-I've only had to turn away three of their customers so far.

[ernstbass]

11. That's fantastic

[auburngrad82]

6. We do adoptathons every week here.

Actually we're doing them every week, alternating between two locations. We're rehoming about 8-10 animals per week. We've been pulling from the local kill shelter when we have room. Three of the dogs adopted this weekend came from the kill shelter. Beautiful little pups but their time was up. We pulled them and they lasted about a day before they found a home.

We're relatively small and can only take in as many animals as we have foster homes for. Hopefully we'll be able to grow it as we find more volunteers. That's the plan, anyway.

[Lorien]

7. We do weekly adoptions from several Petsmarts and other pet stores

and average about the same, but our "adopt-a-thons" only happen twice a year; we make them into huge events, with a tent outside a Petsmart, live radio personalities, hot dogs, balloons-the works. They help to make the rescue more visible and they empty out our foster homes and kennel for a short time.

[auburngrad82]

9. We'll have to try that.

We don't typically advertise, depending on our website and petfinder for our visitors.

Thanks for the tips.

[AirmensMom]

13. What is the return rate at your adoptathons?

I know someone who does cat rescues and adoptions at Petsmart. When I mentioned adoptathons to her, she said many of the animals are returned because there are so many impulse adopters and the screening isn't as careful as it is for other adoptions. What is your experience with this? Do you get a lot of animals back?

[Lorien]

14. At Petsmart it's probably 10-20%

I've never had anyone return a pet from the holistic pet food shop where I do my adoptions; but as I mentioned earlier; their customers are more passionate about their pet's well being.

[AirmensMom]

16. Thanks.

Sounds like a holistic pet food shop is a better place to do it. I'm going to pass that on to my friend. She gets them back after 4-5 years for really stupid reasons. And these are the people who passed the screening. It's hard when you get a couple of kitties who are used to living together and then it takes extraordinary luck to find a home for both of them ... or even one because they're so much older now. Everyone wants the younger kitties.

[China_cat]

18. I've used PayPal for about 4 years now

with no problems. Just remember when you start getting spam saying your account is about to be closed that this ISN'T coming from PayPal itself.