Thursday, July 07, 2005
"...Everyone in your household"
"Is there anyone else going to be living with your new companion?""Does anyone else need to come in to meet the kitten?"
"Are there already any resident animals at home?"
These are some of the ways that we try to ask adopters about who lives in their household. It is so important to know all the different people and animals the new companion is going to encounter and adjust to. Often a client is a bit put off with our asking that everyone at home come in to meet the animal before we complete an adoption. Recommendations we make regarding helping an animal adjust to the new home and other pets fall on deaf ears at times.
A handful of returns this week are related to the above issues. Family members not mentioned at the time of adoption made decisions regarding returning the animals. Adopters integrate a new animal into the home too quickly (with felines we recommend a slow and gradual introduction into the whole household) and decide it won't work. They return the animal. Another family considers returning a pair of kittens because they adopted out of impulse right after the death of another animal.
Sometimes when people come in to adopt it seems you can almost feel that they are in a "hurry". I want to just walk up to each person and say "...relax, there is lots of time, there are lots of animals, take your time and put the thought into this that a decision like this deserves."
Each one of the animals in our shelter are waiting for a home, but they deserve to have people really give it the time to make the right decision. Well considered decisions make for Forever Homes!
