Proverbs 12:10

Animal Rescue

ADOPTION DAY

Petco - Bellevue Location

7657 Highway 70 S #116

Nashville, TN 37221

WHEN: EVERY Saturday TIME: 11 AM - 3 PM

The adoption fee for our puppies is $175.00 plus a $150 spay/neuter deposit. The spay/neuter deposit will be returned upon receipt of documentation that the puppy has been spayed/neutered by 6 mos of age. We will reimburse one-half the cost of spay/neuter UP TO $50. The adoption fee includes a series of four puppy shots.

The adoption fee for dogs that are fully vetted is $150.

The adoption fee for unaltered kittens is $50 plus a $50 spay/neuter deposit on kittens too young to be spayed/neutered prior to adoption. For cats/ kittens that have been spayed/ neutered prior to adoption the adoption fee is $75.

Adoption of cats over 10 yrs old will be free of charge.

NOTE: Please understand we are undergoing set-up at Petco until 11 am and will not be ready to complete adoptions or give shots until 11:00 a.m.

We will begin take-down and preparing to leave at 4:00 PM. Our foster parents will be picking up the pets starting at 3:15 pm. No additonal applications will be processed for adoptions that day after 3:00 pm to allow us to get all pets back to their fosters in an orderly fashion.

Due to the large number of animals in our care, we are unable to have all of them at Petco each Saturday. If there is a particular pet you would like to meet, please notify us in advance so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Thank you for taking this into consideration when coming to Petco on Saturdays.

ONLINE APPLICATION

Submitting your application online will reduce the time necessary to complete the adoption process. It will allow us to hold a particular pet for you until the next Adoption Day.

Once you have finished the application, an alert will be sent to an Adoption Coordinator for review (Please allow 24 to 48 hours for a response). In order to prevent delays in processing your application, each question must be answered as completely as possible.

While completing the application does not obligate you to adopt, or to adopt a particular pet, please do not submit an app unless you are are ready to adopt and all family members are in agreement.

We are unable to hold or adopt a pet without an approved application.

ONLINE APPLICATION

Our application is designed to serve 3 functions:

1. Adoption – you are ready to adopt if approved, no questions or concerns with other pets or your health. Our adoption fee is required at the time of adoption, as well as an additional spay/neuter deposit in the amount of the adoption fee, for all pets that have not been spayed or neutered. This will apply to most of our young puppies, and under some extenuating circumstances to older pets.

NOTE: We do not accept credit card payments. We will accept cash or personal checks with proper identification. You may also make payment through PAYPAL. When using PAYPAL, please add an additional $5.00 to the adoption fee to cover the costs of this service.

2. Foster to Adopt – we recommend this option particularly to those adopters with health concerns, children and/or other pets. This will allow you to evaluate their reaction to you and your family during a one (1) week trial basis. We do require a minimum commitment of one week as it is difficult to make foster arrangements during the week. A check deposit in the amount of the adoption fee is required. This check will be held with your application until you return the following Saturday. If you decide to adopt, please arrive to complete the application process by 2:00 PM the following Saturday. Should you decide not to adopt, please advise us ASAP and make arrangements to be at Petco by 10:45 AM so that other prospective adopters have the opportunity to meet it. We prefer you "foster-to-adopt" to ensure the perfect match. Our goal is to provide permanent homes for our animals and only the perfect match will ensure this.

3. Foster Only - You are willing to provide a temporary home for one or more of our pets. While we prefer fosters who can provide a stable environment for each pet until it is adopted into it's forever home, we rely on fosters who will commit to one week at a time and who will bring their foster pet to us at the Bellevue Petco each Sat. and pick it up if not adopted by 3:15PM. It is through your willingness to provide this care that we are able to continue our mission. We greatly appreciate each and every one of you. Please see our Fostering Pets page for additional information.

Those darn dog rescues with all of their rules and questions - what gives?

Penny Eims

, Dog News Examiner

March 17, 2010 -

If you have tried to adopt a dog, you know what I'm talking about. Dog Rescues - so many in-depth, personal questions; just to adopt a dog! For goodness sake - do they really need all of that information?

After all - aren't these homeless dogs? Wouldn't any owner be better than being a dog, lamenting in rescue? Than being homeless??

Nope - as a matter of fact, those questions and in-depth applications have a purpose. The individuals who run these rescues have seen quite a bit of dog stuff in their day. They have seen the circumstances that brought these dogs into rescue in the first place.

There are a few "real" cases where a dog needs the help of a rescue because the owner has died or fallen gravely ill (please see the article "cancer leaves 2 dogs without an owner"), but the majority of dogs in rescues are there because they had owners who did things all wrong.

So, why does the application ask the names and ages of those in the household? Because they need to know if there are kids in the house that might be at risk if an inappropriate dog is placed in the home.

Why does the application ask you where the dog will be at night, or while you are away? Because many of the dogs in rescue are there because a prior owner had to get rid of them after neighbors complained about constant barking.

Why does the dog rescue care about training? Really, if it is your dog, shouldn't training (or not training) be your decision? Nope. Many of the dogs in rescues are there because nobody took the time to train them.

The dogs become unruly, hard to own and guess what? Dumped at a shelter or in a rescue. The dogs become somebody else's problem. Unfortunately, at that point, they are often out of control and require considerable work to even become adoptable.

Why should the rescue know about your prior dog-ownership? Is it really their business? Yep. If you had a couple of dogs that you got rid of after they peed in the house, or because you were having a baby, or god forbid - moving, the rescue needs to know.

You see, rescues would not function if dogs were not re-homed. There would be no need for organizations to exist if all owners kept their dogs, no matter what. If all owners altered their dogs and prevented unwanted litters of puppies. If all owners kept their dogs safely indoors, instead of out in a kennel or yard where they might bark, or even get out of a yard and possibly injure someone or something.

The questions on the application (and if you're lucky enough to get that far, those asked of you in a phone interview) have been designed to weed out the bad owners. Is the system perfect? No. Nothing is perfect. However, the situations that the rescue organizations have encountered through the years has given them a pretty good idea of what to ask in order to find exceptional homes for the dogs.

Why are exceptional homes needed? So these dogs do not end up without an owner again. So the dogs don't end up at a shelter where they might be euthanized. The rescues aren't able to take in every dog that needs a place to go. Too many dogs are in danger at the shelters.

So the next time you are looking to adopt, be prepared to complete a lengthy adoption application and to spend some time chatting on the phone with a volunteer. Don't be offended or annoyed - be thankful that those rescue-minded individuals care enough about the dogs in their care to ask the questions that need to be asked.

Rescue organizations find some phenomenal homes - amazing people are out there. That being said, so many of the dogs in rescue are amazing too. They are worth the time and effort and they deserve the exceptional home. They deserve a home that will keep them until the end of their days.

And a final note - a bad owner is not better than getting a dog "out" of rescue. Getting out of rescue, only to be left in a kennel for 10 hours a day or chained in a yard is not better than sitting in rescue. Those "sitting" dogs will eventually get adopted and the new owner will not be keeping them in a bad situation.

Please adopt. Please alter your pets. Please own responsibly.

There are many ways to help!

Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue | HELPING HIS HELPLESS

Our application is designed to serve 3 functions:

Those darn dog rescues with all of their rules and questions - what gives?

Penny Eims