The Challenges of Rescue Puppy Adoptions

The Challenges of Adopting a Puppy or Kitten

We have all heard the saying “adopt, don’t shop”, but adoption can be a complicated and sometimes confusing task for pet owners.  When it comes to adding a four-legged member to the family, it is important to look at many factors before making the final decision of adopting your new family member.

Once a pet owner decides that they are ready to add a new pet to their family, they must start to consider many factors to ensure that the best match is made for the people and the pet. Of course adoption is a great answer, and there are so many pets looking for their forever homes, but there are some challenges that need to be addressed before a decision is made. 

Lucy. Rescued from the worst circumstances imaginable.

 The first thing that should be considered is the rescue or organization that you are adopting the pet from.  It is important to make sure that the organization is credible and that they are doing everything that they can to ensure the animal’s safety and health.  Unfortunately, many rescues, while trying to do the right thing, end up creating more risks for young puppies and kittens.  Often times rescues will combine many small groups of puppies or kittens into one larger group to transport them from one area to another to be fostered, before being placed in their forever homes.  This can expose the puppies or kittens to many different diseases or illnesses, therefore causing illness in these young animals.  It is important to ask the rescue questions about where your pet came from, and how it was brought to the rescue? It is always important to ask about how long they have been in the last "quarantine" place. My personal recommendation is that the puppies/kittens are in the last foster home for at least 14 days without new pets being brought in. I also always ask where the parents are. I also ask for proof. Too often rescue groups take the puppies and kittens (some even "sell" them and leave the parents behind.  As potential pet owners, you are always asked many questions, but many people forget that they should also ask questions to the rescue as well.  It is important that both groups know all of the information so that the best decision can be made!

Additionally, after learning about the pet’s history, the new pet owner should make sure to receive the health records for the pet from the rescue.  Vaccine records and a record of any health issues are paramount to the short and long term health of your new furry friend.  If the pet doesn’t have any records or the rescue can’t provide documentation of the vaccinations, then you should ask the rescue to get the records.  Rescues commonly will provide veterinary care, or they can assist you in getting the proper care. If there is not a signed physical exam report from a veterinarian you should ask why? There is no reason this should not be a part of the pet adoption process. I also call the vet office to confirm, including that they, the vet themselves, gave the vaccines. In many cases the vet only signs an exam form, they do not provide veterinary care. This is also a cause of great concerns for me. In the end, everyone wants what is best for the animal, so making sure that it has all of the veterinary care that it needs is very important.

Lastly, every pet owner needs to make sure that they make an overall well informed decision.  If something just doesn’t seem right or you aren’t completely sure about adopting a certain pet, then don’t go through with the decision.  Make sure to take some time to make sure that this decision is the right one for you and your family.  While it might not seem obvious to ask the rescue questions, it is important to become informed so that you can make the best decisions for your new furry family member!

Scout. rescue pup, all adorable!

As a last note of personal experience I have witnessed many "new rescues" that are in essence "puppy brokers." Just because they call themselves a rescue does not mean that they are. All rescues should be designated as a 501c3. You should ask before giving them any money. You should also ask for references. I recommend three people from the last adoption verified by a previous social media post. You can also ask for references from their fosters. Most for profit people don't and won't use fosters. They should also have been around for 2 plus years. Many states also have publicly available lists from overseeing government organizations who investigate puppy mills and animal cruelty. Ask about whether any complaints or charges exist?

Jerry. Off the streets rescue.. total love-bug

The take home message is that there is no way anyone can deny the heart gripping adorableness of a puppy or kitten. It is impossible to resist. The challenge is that there are people who prey on this for profit and at the expense of the animals they procure and distribute. Be very cautious. Stay offline. Seek advice from people you know and trust. And as always, it is buyer beware even though those little ones melt your heart and skew your ability to be cautious. 

My beloved jekyll,, all rescue all the best of everything (and in beagle form).

Many Thanks to Lydia Schlitz for writing this. Lydia is a pre-vet student working at Jarrettsville Veterinary Center this Summer.

If you have a pet story that you would like to share, or an experience with this condition please add it to our Storyline page at  Pawbly.com.

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"It's Not My Cat Either"

Seems that many people believe that every stray, hurt, or unwanted animal is the vets responsibility. It's as if everyone in the community believes that we have signed some imaginary contract, or make some voluntary pledge upon graduation, to the neighborhood we hang our shingle in that we are the local receptacle for all things four legged in need.

Mystique and Cy.
Both are at the clinic now and in need of a home.

I suppose many would say that I did it to myself. That when we at Jarrettsville Vet began taking on these forlorn creatures who had no other compassionate options elsewhere that we were opening Pandora's box and inviting the perception that we are also a shelter. What else was I supposed to do? If I can help I feel obligated and compelled to do so. And so we do. We try very hard to do as much as we can. But when you crack the gates you should be prepared for the flood to follow.

We are now getting calls from loads and loads of people. It was intended to be a safety net for our patients and clients but has become pleas from friends of "friends", shelters referring anyone and everyone, and even other vets referring their financially strapped clients to us. It becomes unmanageable. We simply do not have room for them all. Worst of all too few people who find pets and say they are "trying to help" really want to make, take, or provide any meaningful help. They want to think and feel like they are "helping", but it can't "cost them anything," and they "can't really do anything." If you don't shoulder the burden of this needy pet and thereby remove the guilt from their eyes they too often become angry/unkind with pointed fingers and blame insinuating that somehow we retracted our obligation to be the safety net for societies furry citizens.

Angus.
Also in need of a home.

"I found this cat near my house. If I didn't take her inside the foxes would have eaten her. (Client then takes out ipad to show me pictures of said fox). She's not my cat. She's a stray. I can't pay for stuff that isn't for my cat. What if the owner comes forward after I spend all this money?"

It's a sales pitch. A way to clean the palate of impending doom. She came prepared with slides and a business plan. I am the skeptical Philanthropist. Between us sits a tabby cat contentedly sleeping.

"OK, let me get this straight?" My first words to the prosecution begin as;

• "She is, or, is not, a stray? You seemed sure that she was 5 minutes ago when you gave me that long winded description of living far away from everyone (hence the circling foxes), and the only place she might have come from was one of the many farms with barn cats? But you don't want to ask the farmers if she is their cat because they won't know?"
• "And you don't think you should have to pay for anything because she is not your cat, although you are willing to give her a home once someone else pays for her vaccines, spay, FeLV/FIV test, fecal exam etc.." 
• "She's too nice to be put back outside as you fear she might become "fox bait" which would be on my conscious because you are the Good Sam kind hearted person and I am the person screwing you out of the money you shouldn't have to pay to fix someone else's cat."

Debate begins about presumed ownership of said nice cat...

"It's not my cat," her.

"It's not my cat," me.

"Well, it's not my cat either."

"She was at your house. She is in your carrier. You want to keep her if I perform everything for free, (or some significant capped fraction of what it might cost), and then you want her to be your cat?"

She volleys back; "It's not my cat."

Eye roll,,, (I don't think she saw it).

I pack up. The verbal arm wrestling will end with a retreat.

Monica.
Looking for a home now.

The dilemma revolves primarily around the fact that this self proclaimed Good Samaritan adopted a cat from us two years ago for $100. At the time of her adoption she was spayed, vaccinated, microchipped, tested and dewormed. She expects the same deal with this cat.

"I'm sorry it doesn't work like that. You can surrender her and we will have one of our rescues find her a home. You can bring her to the Humane Society. We can give you a payment plan to help space out any charges her care might require. Or, we can give you information on low cost spay and vaccine clinics." These are the options I provide her.

"No, I'm leaving,,, (pointed finger in my face, yelling and the "you're screwing me!" statement follow),,, "I'm going to dump her at someone else's house." She grabs the tabby from her slumber and puts her in the carrier. Opens the exam room door and starts walking out the front door. 

"That's horrible and illegal!" I blurt out in shock and incredulity.

She leaves the clinic angrily after making a scene to anyone present in the front office.

Twenty minutes later her very elderly mother calls me to berate me for "making her daughter feel bad. Not giving her any options, and punishing her for being a Good Samaritan." Grandma reminds me that she has "been a long time client who spent thousands of dollars here over the many decades she's been with us. She will not be back."

"Music to my ears." ( I think she hung up on me before she heard me).

.... and now I lose sleep at night with worry that two cats are in peril because I preferred to not feel taken advantage of than help them. 

Joey.
Monica's brother, also in need of a home at JVC

I want to write her a letter that somehow shifts the guilt and blame back on to their shoulders. I want to throw a temper tantrum like a disgruntled two year old in the off chance I feel better afterwards... But, I don't. I let the days go by. I try to see it from their side? But, all that happens is I feel worse and I fear more that the cat is being torn apart by foxes,,, screaming for her life.  I try to hold a tiny bit of faith that the sweet unwanted cat can win over her angry, manipulative, sorry heart. Lord knows I couldn't.

There are some games that you play with some people you cannot win. In these games you try to walk away at a draw. In vet med the pet always pays when you do. The vet always knows this. There is a time when you have to choose who to abandon. Your ability to be profitable, your setting precedence that puts you right back here in the same predicament next week, the pet, the person, or the grief you sleep with every single night. The grief that makes you want to vomit from stress on the drive into work the next day. You have to choose who to walk away from. I promise you that in every single scenario like this every vet wants to chose to walk away from the person. It is never, ever, the patient, and too often instead we chose to walk away from ourselves as the easiest, least publicly visible painful option. 

Another JVC kitten up for adoption

Many Thanks to the people who make JVC such an amazing place. We are surrounded by so many generous people. The people who help adopt, foster, and share the posts of the pets seeking second chances, recovering from disease, illness, accidents, and misfortune. Without you we wouldn't be possible, and these miracles wouldn't happen.

...and please be kind, to your pets and the people who work so hard to keep them safe and healthy.

Related blogs;

Compassion Fatigue

The Holes In The Safety Net

Pieces Of Me

Ethical Fatigue

For anyone with a pet, anyone who loves, or has loved a pet, and anyone in search of helping others with pets I hope that you will join me at Pawbly.com. We are a community driven platform designed to help pet people by empowering and educating them. It is free to use and join.

Please also visit me on the other social media places I frequent; YouTube, Facebook, Twitter @FreePetAdvice our clinic site JarrettsvilleVet.com and the clinic Jarrettsville Vet in Harford County Maryland.

Post Script; This blog was taken down after the viral vet video hit the profession. At that time there were a handful of angry vets seeking any kind of fuel for their venomous anger. For reasons I still don't fully comprehend (feel free to not enlighten me if you still feel compelled to be angry at me) this blog proved their point about not feeling obligated to help people in financial need. The truth of the argument is that this person, the subject matter of this blog, was not in financial difficulty. She was given options, the ability to decline service items and goods, to pay over time, and she was even given options to surrender a cat that she stated repeatedly was "not hers." While other vets might see a parallel between standing ground and walking away from an angry client who may always foster anger toward me, I never turned my back from trying to help the cat in this case.

I am reposting this blog as I continue to stand by its real-life basis and the challenges vets face when trying to help a pet in need and a client who is argumentative and difficult. It is my real-life. This is a real case.

Do I ask myself if I could have done more? Yes. I always ask myself what part I played in a scenario I question as remaining unresolved in a satisfactory manner.

The Kitten House Of Cards

The most dreaded part of my being a vet is the deluge of unwanted, homeless tiny felines. It begins in early March and continues through October. Even as September descends upon us the kittens still bloom. This last week we had 8, (oddly all black or black and white), kittens arrive without a person to love them. Apparently the admission of having a soft spot in your heart for cats and the helping of those in need of a halfway house leads to the flood gates being flung wide open. The idea that everyone doesn't admire and adore cats of all sizes, shapes, and colors is almost impossible for me to comprehend. At the beginning, middle, and end of every disastrous day is a purring mass of fur and my encompassing arms. I take therapeutic kitten breaks daily. It is the single best part of my job, my workplace, and the life blood of my soul.

Every day there seems to be yet another kitten, from yet another person, that appears to have either manifested "out of thin air," was "dropped off by some transparent being," or came from the "cat-cornucopia-farm across the road that never spays or neuters their barn cats."

Every request is the same, "I can't keep it," or, "I'm not a cat person," (what the hell does that mean?),  "but I heard you guys like cats." All delivered with a tone of expectation and a demeanor of self-assured justified shirking of responsibility.

How do I respond to this? "Umm,,,, Yes, of course I like cats. I'm a vet. But, no, I can't take every cat from every person who asks me to." (Although secretly I do wish I could).

After school visit with the kittens.
Our daily ritual with my nephew.

Any species who can adapt so quickly, so efficiently, and so successfully to as many places and conditions as the domestic house cat has deserves respect and adoration. They are incredibly prolific and reported as being able to produce over 400,000 cats in seven years from one cat. Quite impressive and quite humbling to all of us who dedicate huge amounts of time and resources attempting to spay and neuter our way out of the millions of cats euthanized in the US every year.

Found by a client this kitten was caught in a fan motor.
She lost her front left leg, suffered some facial injuries and is being treated for a crushing,
degloving injury of her back left leg.
We are intensively trying to save her back leg.
Many Thanks to our technician Laura and Dr. Hubbard for caring for her.

We say that a cat has 9 lives because they are impressively hardy, smart, cunning, calculating, and savvy, all characteristics of a survivor. Every single one of us has much to learn from the cat.

When it comes to providing for a kitten there is a short list of needs that must be met.

Kittens are like a house of cards. It takes a few cards to be stacked, a shaky foundation and the whole structure can collapse. Should you ever find a kitten of your own they must be provided the following;

• Warmth. Every newborn needs to be kept warm. Whether it comes from a cuddling mom, a warming blanket, a heating pad, a heat lamp, or just being kept close to your heart.
• Keeping them clean and dry in an enclosed place out of the elements.
• Food. Babies burn calories at an alarming rate. Keep them eating. For a kitten this is about every two hours of an age appropriate food. We have calorie dense wet foods to help, think the kitten version of Ensure.
• Fleas. The blood sucking, life depleting parasite that is the demise of many a small soul. Remove them with a flea comb and soapy water, nothing else. Those adult flea preventative topicals can kill a weak, compromised baby, avoid them. Be patient and comb.
• Parasites. The invisible intestinal parasites can, and do, grow to such numbers that they can steal the life from a kitten from the inside out. (Reminder, you will likely NOT see evidence of intestinal parasites in the feces, they are microscopic).

The kitten whole stole my heart,,again, Lucky.

This is Lucky, a two month old feral? (more like homeless) kitten. He came to us almost comatose. He was soo cold that he would not register on the thermometer for almost 30 minutes after aggressive warming was begun. He was emaciated, lifeless, and very pale. He was also covered in fleas, dehydrated, and suffering from an upper respiratory infection.

Within 30 minutes of warming him, removing his fleas, and feeding him he was lifting his head and purring. After 4 hours he was up and cuddling.

He is a miracle of gratitude and the best answer to a long day of not feeling like my life has a deeper meaning. He is the reason veterinarians do what we do.

Lucky was adopted yesterday.

We still have six kittens and four adults looking for a home to fill with a sense of purpose and completion.

Should you find yourself in need of a hug, a warm nose to snuggle, a purr to keep the night from lasting too long, or just the unconditional love of a pet please come by and visit Jarrettsville Vet to see and meet our babies.

Or, ask me a question FREE about how to care for your kids at Pawbly.com, or like us on Facebook at Jarrettsville Vet, or Pawbly. You can also follow me on Twitter @FreePetAdvice.

Life Is All About Second Chances

A very good friend of ours, long time client, and one of the most worldly and devoted pet lovers I have ever met suffered a terrible loss recently. His dear longtime friend lost her battle with old age and the diseases that it often keeps company with.

He, like so many of us, spent tireless hours tending to her every need. He brought her in often to see if there was any new changes to her status and to see if there was anything else we could add to her long list of remedies. He coddled her, comforted her, and spent every second he could with her.

When he came in to say good bye to her we all mourned for both him and his dear departed cat.

We see death too much in the clinic. We sometimes lose our ability to relate to those who are struggling with a loss that cripples their ability to still enjoy the beauty of a sunrise, the life still surrounding us, and the foresight that things will get better. To those of us who center our lives around our pets the loss of our pet is debilitating to the core.

Oddly, I had just lost my dear cat, also named Midnight, when he lost his dear Midnight. They had both lived longer than most cats do, and had both died from kidney disease.

For our friend we wondered how he would fare facing the loss of his cat? We wondered if we would see him back, or if he could find another place in his heart for another cat.

After a few weeks of worrying we received a call from him asking us to keep our eyes open for another black cat. Within a few weeks a little black female came into the clinic looking for a home. We knew that she was the perfect match for him. Very calm, gentle, and affectionate, cuddler. We knew that she was just the answer to his sadness.

After he came in to see her he alerted us all that he would be back for her. He wanted to go home and talk to his wife and get the house ready.

A few days later he returned, carried her home and sent me this email a few days later.

Krista,
>
> I thought I would pass along some information about the kitten I adopted formerly named Molly and now named Scout.  My former wife had a nickname of Molly so I stayed away from that.  Scout is the name from a character in "To Kill a Mockingbird" probably my favorite movie of all time.
>
> Anyway, the kitten is amazing.  When I brought her home, I thought there might be a break in period when she had to get used to me and would be in hiding until she got accustomed to the house, after all she had just met me.
>
> I was pleasantly surprised when she immediately was all over me purring and licking and rubbing.  When she was tired she would curl up with me and sleep and spent the night sleeping in bed with me.  She is a little skittish with loud noises but not with me.  I am amused that she runs from my wife (but eventually comes out).  She sits on the sink in the bathroom while I shave which was a favorite activity of Midnight.
>
> I just can't believe the immediate bond we had with each other and that she is providing me with just what I need.  It seems it was meant to happen.
>
> I thank you again for all you did for Gilda, Midnight, and me.  I am glad that circumstances caused our paths to cross.
>
> Steve

My Midnight.