Rescue Shit
Go behind the scenes with Pate and jme from Motley Zoo Animal Rescue. Learn about rescue, pet ownership, dog training, volunteering, fostering, and more- plus, hear the untold stories of the animals as told by this dynamic duo who have been partners for almost 16 years.
Despite the name, this is not an explicit podcast though the content is geared toward adults to learn in-depth about their pets and the world of animal welfare.
Rescue Shit
E7- The (Foster-based) Application Process Part 1
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This episode discusses some of the differences between rescue and shelter applications, why we ask for the information we do as well as what we're looking at when trying to match you with a pet. It's good information to know if you're considering adopting from a foster-based rescue anywhere!
This will be followed up with a Part 2, as there was too much information to fit into one episode!
Original music by Matt Setter and friend Sean!
Original content by Matt Setter and friend, Sean!
Hey, this is Pate.
jmeAnd I'm Jme.
PateAnd we are Motley Zoo Animal Rescue, and we are talking about Rescue Shit.
jmeThis episode we're gonna talk about the application process which can be different for different rescues and shelters, and there is a difference between rescue application and shelter application and what they're looking for and how it works. But we're gonna talk about how Motley Zoo adopts our animals out, and the process of adopting from start to finish.
PateFirst you see an animal that jumps out to you online. Maybe it's their picture. Maybe it reminds you of a dog or cat that you had when you were a kid or one who just recently passed away, and then you see that animal and you just have to apply for it. How do you get that application for that animal? If you're on Petfinder, I think Petfinder has a button that says "request information".
jmeYeah. They have a semi-automated process and I would say Petfinder, Adopt a Pet. Those are typically gonna be the two big ones, two big ones where people see the majority of pets and, and let's describe that they are like a Match.com for rescues and shelters. So Petfinder is an institution and the animals that are on there are individuals, and if you search by zip code and you go from one animal to the next, they're probably going to be from different rescues as you go down the page. You have to look at the rescue's page to see only the dogs that are at that rescue or shelter. So a lot of times people look at Petfinder and think we are Petfinder. And that's why they say they emailed us the day before and we didn't respond. Or they ask us about Fluffy, and we don't have Fluffy, it's because they're,
PateWe will never have Fluffy.
jmeIt's because they're looking at the Petfinder page and all the many rescues that make up, all the animals on that page. So that's the first thing to understand. We do have our animals on our website too. So if people know about Motley Zoo or they end up on our website, they can see the animals there. So each animal has a profile and a bio, and.
PateYou should read that bio.
jmeYes. But it's also hard to write ones for puppies, and they all say the same thing because puppies have the same personality in general. So a lot of times people will say, "Hey, the puppies, it all sounds the same". And we're like, "Well, it really is at this point". People will email us then for the application, either through one of those automated systems or email us directly and we have an autoresponder. So right away people will get the link to our application to hasten the process, but we still go through and respond to each email and send them kind of a form and say, "Hey, what are you looking for? What do you want"? Then you can use these links to do that. So we do respond to every email and the ones from Petfinder and Adopt a Pet, we actually have to respond to, because the application isn't in Petfinder.
PateThat's correct. Although people do say, I filled out an application with you already, and they haven't, but they filled something out on Petfinder.
jmeMm-hmm.
PateSo don't be confused by filling something out on Petfinder, cuz we actually will not see that at all.
jmeYes. So that is another thing that is another problem about filling out something on one of the pet finding sites is that it's not our rescue. The rescue or shelter that you want to adopt from is going to ask you for new paperwork. On that note, why is it that every rescue or shelter has different paperwork?
PateEveryone has different criteria. Everyone works in a different way, and it's not a right way, it's not a wrong way. Some people, or like the shelter, they were looking at numbers, so they will not be looking for the answers that we look for when making a match.
jmeMost of the time when you go to a shelter, you can fill out one side of one paper.
PateMm-hmm.
jmeWith your contact information, and...
PateSometimes the same day.
jmeYes. And you can walk out the same day with an animal. That is definitely not true for most rescues and especially for Motley Zoo. A name, address and contact information is not at all enough for us to know whether or not the animal is gonna be a good fit for you. So it is important that you understand that rescues over shelters as well are going to need more information from you. And I equate this difference too like you wouldn't go to Chase and apply for a mortgage there and then go to KeyBank and expect KeyBank is going to get the information from Chase or use Chase's application. You have to fill out another application for a mortgage at KeyBank and any other bank you go to So we are all different institutions with different policies, different rules, different focuses, and there is no universal application. It is my dream that we can eventually...
PateOne of many!
jmeYou are correct, I have too many dreams, but it is my dream that we can eventually standardize it and have an a centralized processing place where it doesn't matter what questions this rescue asks compared to what we ask. The person at the the processing center is trained to understand and know the difference to all of the questions and why they're being asked. And the rescue could pick and choose what they want on their application because our application does ask very different things.
PateWith our application, we have an online application, and that application has a processing fee, which is a $5 processing fee, less than a cup of Starbucks coffee, for example. Yet, we get asked about it all the time. Why do you charge this processing fee? What is your purpose? No other rescues do a processing fee. So Jme, why did we start that?
jmeWe started the processing fee, when we realized that people were writing out applications and sending them to 10 different rescues, then by the time, we would approve it and we would go to them and they'd be like, "Oh, I'm already working with another rescue". Okay, that's fine. But it happened enough that I was like, you know, how could we get these people to be a little bit more invested and maybe less likely to run around and instead invest and engage with us so that we could help them from start to finish? And I thought $5 isn't a lot. It is less than a cup of coffee but maybe it's enough. If people really have to put down money, then either they won't apply if they're not serious or they will be a little more likely to work with us and not anybody else. People ask what we use the fee for? The fee is to look at your information. In no way does $5 guarantee you an animal, and you'd be surprised how many people act like that's the case. But the fee is for us to look at your information for the half an hour that it takes us to spend reviewing it and working on your paperwork The only things we have time for are adopting out animals or raising money for the purpose of those animals. So at least when we collect the $5 and it doesn't yield an adoption, at least we end up with a few dollars towards a dewormer for one of the animals so that no applications are coming to us and ending up completely without any win for the animals. Once they've emailed us and they have an application, they filled it out and to submit it, they pay that $5 processing fee. What happens after that?
PateThey get to hear a bunch of puppies barking.
jmeWe must make a disclaimer that there is nowhere in either of our homes that we can work without dogs barking. As we no longer have a facility, we can't do it there either, so Hmm. The ambient dog music is, that's just how it's gonna be.
PateIt's the songs of their people, enjoy!
jmeWhen people send the application back, it does take us some time to look at that information. So why don't you explain the general expectation of how long it takes and the next steps.
PateKeeping in mind that our application processors are volunteers, they have jobs, et cetera. Sometimes they are not able to look at them that same day and contact landlords, contact vets.
jmeThey go on vacation.
PateThey, yeah. How dare they! I haven't gone on vacation. But yes, if they go on vacation, then it's gonna be a delay.
jmeWe do try and show people where the application is at, especially if there is some kind of holdup with the landlord or something. We do make the applicants aware that the ball is now in someone else's court. You're not waiting on us. You're waiting on your landlord. You're not waiting on us, you're waiting on the vet. We want you to know that we're not just lollygagging over here, we're trying to get things done in an efficient amount of time, and we say typically three to five days is the very minimum.
PateBusiness days.
jmeThat's true, business days. Three to five business days is the very minimum that we will be able to get through your application. That depends on time of year. It depends on, if we have a litter of puppies that's super popular, we're getting 20 applications in a day for those puppies. And so it's gonna take longer when the animals are super popular, a special breed, a unique breed. It's just gonna take a little bit longer.
PateKitten season can take a little bit longer for those litters.
jmeYeah. Cuz all of the animals we're dealing with are popular and very desirable.
PateRight. And if you don't provide us all of the information, like the pictures and the proof of residence, if we have to send out more emails to gather information that causes a delay, it doesn't mean that that's right or wrong, it just may add a little bit more time. So we just ask that you be patient while we work with you.
jmeWell, and sometimes unfortunately people do get mad.
PateMm-hmm.
jmeAbout that because they didn't give us information. It delayed their application and then they missed out on that animal.
PateMm-hmm.
jmeThat they really wanted because we were waiting for something from them. And of course they don't blame themselves for that. They are gonna blame us that it took us too long to do it. But we just say then like, "Look, it just wasn't your animal, it wasn't the right time. Someone else was ready today and they had all their information". So be thorough, give us as much information as you can, and then the less back and forth there'll be that will delay or get in the way of you getting the animal that you want.
PateAfter the application comes in, one of our trusted volunteers will grab it, review it by calling the landlord reference to ensure that the maximum number of animals are not met, that there's not a weight limit, an age limit, a breed restriction, et cetera. And if dogs are even allowed, especially when they're barking in the background like this.
jmeAgain, there is no place that Pate and I can record where there are not dogs barking. So get used to it.
PateBut anyway, the information we look for is not whether you own your home because you can rent, not that you have a fenced yard, because we adopt to condos, town homes without big yards, and even apartments with no yards. It really depends on the personality of the dog and the lifestyle of the applicant.
jmeOne of the other things that we look into is the vet history of the animals in the home, and that is one of the simplest ways that an applicant can paint a picture of the care that they've provided their animal. And most importantly, we wanna make sure that the animals are current on their vaccines. So, although it's a small risk when bringing in one of our animals because we've put them through quarantine, we vaccinated them and so on. There is a risk when bringing a new animal home, so we wanna protect the animals in the home as much as we want our animals to be protected. So we do check the vet history and that means you can send your vet records to us, we do vet calls sometimes and talk to the vets and we're looking for vaccines and to make sure your pet is spayed and neutered, as that is a founding principle of what we do.
PateAnd also that you are vetting your animals. Not that there's a three or four year gap because they look healthy. There are things that you can't see that could be going on with a dog or cat, especially when they they age.
jmeYeah, we really do want to know that you've been going to the vet regularly, and if we see that an applicant has a dog that they haven't taken to the vet for 10 years, that's actually pretty concerning because chances are the dog has had something going on in those 10 years and it was either not considered or it was overlooked or ignored. That is the simplest way to paint a picture of how you're gonna care for the animal that you adopt from us in the future. I do want to harp on your discussion about what you answer and how you answer. You know, one word answers really aren't gonna give us any information and there's a lot of applicants that get really offended if f or some reason we either deny them or we have to ask them another question and they're like, "Well, I filled out the application". Well, you said yes or no, like to health or behavior situations that you've experienced with other pets. You get to paint the picture and if you paint nothing, that's all we have to go on. And we are not judging you as a person, but you need to take the opportunity to show us who you are.
PateRight, exactly. Because a lot of people will see an animal and fall in love with that look. I know that I will just see a dog and think it's gorgeous, things like that, but it may not be the appropriate fit for my home because of my lifestyle. And everyone should consider that as well when getting an animal. You are gonna have this animal hopefully for at least 15 years, or 10 to 15 years depending on the size. And cats, we're looking at sometimes 20 plus.
jmeYeah, it's crazy. Cats can live a really long time.
PateSo adoption is for life, for the life of that pet that you choose to be responsible for, and that means if you are not going to set time aside for training then maybe you should not have a German Shepherd.
jmeYeah, the inappropriate choices.
PateRight.
jmeI think the really important thing is for people to understand, not to be offended.
PateRight.
jmeBy those choices, by those things that we've said, "This is just not compatible". That doesn't mean you're a bad person or you're a bad adopter, that that it just means this particular animal that you're looking at is not a good fit. Hold your horses before you start getting mad that we're not gonna give you a dog that you're not gonna want in the end. Don't get offended. This is about matching and we're not judging you, we're just trying to make sure it's a good fit. And you don't know as much as we do about the animal. And yeah, chances are you fall in love with a picture, but that's not enough to determine compatibility. So let us do what you've come to us ask us to do, which is find a pet for you, which is match you with a pet. So, you know, let us do that. And we understand it's an emotional time. It can be hard not knowing if you're gonna get the pet you want, but what you need to know is that if you're patient and you don't get offended if we tell you this isn't a good fit, that we are going to continue to work with you and find you the right pet. And that's what we want you to be excited about. Finding the right pet, not being so specific that THAT pet isn't the one that you're getting.
PateWe had a family that was in love with one of our Jack Russell puppies, and that family came to us and saw the dog multiple times. And I wanna say it was Polar Bear. No, it wasn't Polar Bear. It was one of the Bears.
jmeMm-hmm.
PateAnd she was a crazy, crazy puppy. Jack Russell. Right. A lot of energy, a lot of barking needs a lot of training. And the family was new to dog ownership. But you've got this adorable, adorable, and she was adorable puppy. So they had to be guided away from her and they waited four months and I knew I had them in the back of my head. And in four months we got a litter of, I don't know what they were- long-haired, chihuahua mixed, terrier thingymajiggies. And she looked like a little baby cocker spaniel. And so when she came into our care, she was maybe three weeks old and I reached out to them and I said, I think I have someone for you. And they waited four months and they are still contacting us, letting us know how she is. She went to our daycare, but then they moved away and they still send updates on her.
jmeYeah it's important to be patient. We've kind of talked before about saying, you know, "This is a dog you're gonna marry". Like, you don't necessarily marry the first person you date. You don't necessarily need to marry the first picture of a dog that you've seen, or the first dog that you picked out and understandably when there's kids involved and stuff, it can be really hard. But it's also a really important lesson to teach your children not to be impulsive, especially about animals. And you know that some things you, you have to wait for, and sometimes that's the best way to do things. After the volunteers have looked at the application and made some general notes, that is when you as animal control animal...
PateI'm the animal controller!
jmeThat is where you as the Animal Care Director will step in and review the process for the dogs and we are very fortunate to have a really functioning cat team. And they will step in and review the information for the cats, and that's when the matches start to be made. So when you're looking at that application and this dog in front of you, what are things that are going through your head?
PateFirst, what are you looking at? Most times people will have a dog in mind and they'll have their top three references, or they'll just have one, but that gives us an idea. Some dogs want us to match, make, and we may have an animal at that time. We may not.
jmeSome applicants want us to match make...
PateWhat did I say?
jmeSome dogs. The dogs all want us to match make.
PateYeah. The dogs are all asking for a family.
jmeSo some applicants do come to us and just say, we've heard how great you are at finding the right pets for people.
PateMm-hmm.
jmeAnd do your magic. And that works for us too.
PateYeah, it does again, based on how much information they have in the application. And I keep talking about Huskies cuz they are one of the top dogs that I see being surrendered. We have so many Huskies in rescue, in shelter. I mean, look at Renfri. She's been with us for a year. Because she has to get her rabies shot renewed this month. So that makes it a year. And there is nothing wrong with that dog. She's sweet, she is friendly, but she is all husky. And so when I look at applications and you tell me what your lifestyle's like, how active are you? Do you like to hike? Are you a weekend warrior or are you very athletic all the time? Do you really not do a lot of exercise? Again, it's not judging your lifestyle is your lifestyle and it's all good, but it may not be all good for a husky if you are super chill. And if you're super athletic, then maybe that pug can't keep up with you. So I do look at your lifestyle. I do look at your experience sometimes with some of our dogs. We adopt to families with small children all the time, but it has to be an appropriate match. We adopt to people in condos and apartments all the time, but again, it has to be an appropriate match. It cannot be super vocal, it cannot be super destructive...
jmeWhich Renfri is super vocal and she has like an ear piercing excited cry that she does and...
PateShe's awesome.
jmeYeah, it's pretty funny. But you know, if...
PateWe need to do some Tik Toks with her.
jmeIf you lived in an apartment and that's what she did every time you left or when you came home, it wouldn't work out. And some of the applicants that looked at Renfri did live in apartments and that's probably why.
PateAnd that's why she got surrendered.
jmeYes. So, yeah.
PateCause she was a baby. She was purchased as a baby and as she got older, it was a man and his daughter, and again, we purchased a dog for our child and instead of researching the breed, or it doesn't even need to be the breed per se, because we have mixed breeds all the time. But when you're getting a pure bred, you better, you better research that breed. We have a Pumi with us who was sold to an elderly lady living in an apartment.
jmeA puppy, a Pumi puppy. So Pumis are Hungarian herding breeds. So this is a working dog.
PateHigh, high, high, high, high energy.
jmeYes. So this is not a dog that is a good match for an elderly person in general. Then not a good match for an elderly person in an apartment. But this happens all the time, and this is why it's frustrating to us that breeders will sell a dog to just about anybody. And I think the reason that there are Huskies and German Shepherds in the shelter is because someone around here keeps breeding them.
PateIt's not just around here. I have a shelter who reaches out to me weekly about their, they're overflowing needs in Oregon and it's Huskies and German Shepherds. Pit bulls.
jmeYeah, but that's still the northwest someone...
PateOkay, fine.
jmeSomeone in the northwest is overbreeding and overselling.
PateSo stop it.
jmeYeah, please stop.
PateHey, so we, so we ran out of time. We blah, blah, blah, blah. See, it's a script. I'm like, wait a minute. Doing it. Okay. We ran out of time, so we will have to make the Application Process a two-part episode.
jmeI'm Jme.
PateI'm Pate.
jmeThis is Rescue Shit.
PateOh shit.
jmeRock On.
PateRescue on.
