How to adopt a shelter dog

Adoption saves lives

At Pasado’s Safe Haven, we do say “Adopt don’t shop!” and we’d love for you to adopt your new family member from our sanctuary. When you do adopt, this means we can save another life! However, it’s equally important that you have a good experience bringing your new family member home. So, here’s more information about adopting from Pasado’s (and other places you can find your perfect fit by adopting).

At Pasado’s, we have animals of all sizes and types, and in time we may rescue your perfect fit. Just about every kind of dog and every kind of cat eventually comes through our gates. We adopt pigs of all sizes, sheep, goats, cows, and alpacas, too. However, most of our animals do come with medical and behavioral needs to start with and most of them have never lived in a home before! This is not to say that we don’t rescue kittens, puppies, and healthy, friendly animals. We do! But you may need to wait for your match.

PROS

When you adopt from Pasado’s Safe Haven, the animals get very good medical care. We will send them home spayed/neutered, microchipped, and up-to-date on vaccinations. We will give you good information about any medical conditions we are aware of. The animals will also be evaluated by our behaviorist and we will let you know what behavioral challenges we are aware of. Our behaviorist provides pre-adoption counseling and also post-adoption support and can refer you to further resources.

When you adopt from Pasado’s, you are supporting our work to advocate for animals and provide pet services for those in need. When you adopt from Pasado’s, we can save another life. Often, we have animals waiting for our help. Animals stuck in criminal cruelty cases who cannot be adopted while their cases are active would love to be at Pasado’s in a more spacious environment.

In addition to dogs and cats, Pasado’s adopts farmed animals. We have cows, pigs, goats, sheep, and alpacas waiting for homes. And when you adopt them, we can save another life!

Pasado’s promises all the animals who come through our gates that they will never experience cruelty or neglect again and they will never end up in a shelter. That means that if, at any time, you are unable to care for your adopted pet, you can bring them back to Pasado’s. We hope this is not the case and that the animal is going to their forever, ever, home!

CONS

Most Pasado’s animals are victims of cruelty and neglect. They typically have more medical and behavioral needs. We’ll be transparent about the issues we are aware of. Pasado’s would love to have more adopters come to us with a heart to help animals in need. For dogs, we need more adopters who’d like senior dogs with medical issues, big, energetic, jumpy/mouthy dogs, and dogs who may need homes without other dogs, cats, or children. For cats, we need more homes able to take senior cats with medical issues, FIV+ cats, shy cats who may needs months to decide they are OK with pets, and bonded pairs of cats. And, we always need more farmed animal adopters!

Typically, Pasado’s is not the place to look for an animal who will settle in right away to your home, is easy to take care of, and has few needs. More often, our animals need special adopters willing to give an animal time, patience, and lots of positive reinforcement and love. Our animals are not qualified to be emotional support animals for humans (usually they need your emotional support!).

OTHER GOOD OPTIONS FOR ADOPTION

Washington State Breed Rescues –If you are looking for a “purebred” animal with a specific look, do consider local breed rescues. Many of these are run by volunteers who really care about the breed. Check out Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue.

PROS: You’ll be helping these rescues find homes for animals in need (they may also be senior animals or animals with medical issues).
CONS: The rescues may ask for more information from you before adopting and may require that you have some experience with the breed.

Your local shelter –Do consider adopting from your local shelter. They are working hard and doing good work. Yes, they may have to euthanize animals. Yes, they do try to save as many lives as possible.

PROS: There are few barriers to adoptions. Many shelters must adopt on a first-come basis. The adoption fees are often low. Many of the animals may be strays or have been relinquished because of owner death or inability to care for animals. So, they may have lived in homes before. Pasado’s partners with many shelters (we take transfers when they are overcrowded when we can or if they have cases with more medical or behavioral needs). Support your local shelter.
CONS: The shelter may not be able to tell you as much about the animal’s history or behavior needs. They may not have had as much medical or behavioral evaluation prior to adoption.

Other well-known rescues and humane societies –In addition to Pasado’s, there are a lot of great organizations doing rescue work. Do support the experienced rescue workers in your state.

BE CAREFUL, ASK QUESTIONS

Adopting out of state or out of the country –There are absolutely great rescues doing great work in other states and countries and especially in emergency situations (natural disasters). Pasado’s has worked to help bring other animals to our state. Do be aware though that you may have little information about the animal’s medical and behavior needs and it may be hard to return the animal if it doesn’t work out. Some inexperienced rescues may be inadvertently transporting diseases into other states or not be able to disclose accurate information about an animal’s health or behavior.

Small or new rescues –Please do your research. Rescue is a lot of work and even the most well-intentioned people can easily get overwhelmed and occasionally there are bad “rescues” who are trying to profit off of animals. Here’s an article about Transparency in Animal Sheltering and Rescue.

Red flags include:

Working with trainers who use aversive methods (shock, choke, or prong collars).
Bringing in lots of animals from out of state (see above).
Charging high adoption fees.
Taking in more animals than they have capacity for. Where are the animals placed? What do the facilities look like?
Threatening euthanasia: This animal must be adopted or they will be euthanized tomorrow! Yes, animals need homes, but you should adopt because you are taking in a family member who is a good fit (or can be!) for your home, not because euthanasia has been threatened.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Craigslist: Pasado’s does not recommend adopting animals off of Craigslist or a similar service. You just have no information about this animal and no recourse if the animal turns out not to be a good match. Also, you may inadvertently be supporting a puppy mill type situation –and you won’t be supporting those involved in animal welfare and rescue work.

THINGS TO CONSIDER IF YOU ARE BUYING AN ANIMAL

We think of animals as family members and individuals, not commodities.

Do not support puppy mills or pet stores who sell animals.
Do not support breeders who breed for appearance only and don’t pay attention to temperament.
Do not buy a fad new breed based on appearance if you don’t know about their temperament and needs (including exercise and activity requirements).
Do make sure that the animal’s mother and father are both well cared for and treated well.

At Pasado’s we really want you to “adopt don’t shop” so that we can save more lives, but we understand that there are times when someone wants a puppy of a particular breed. If that’s the case, please choose a responsible breeder (so you are not inadvertently supporting a puppy mill or hoarder). Check out this helpful guide to choosing a breeder.