Adoption Information

Most of our adoptions occur in one of two ways:

Email or In Person

For information regarding our adoption fee, please scroll to the bottom.

Adoption Inquiry Via Online/Email:

You complete the online application (ARF Adoption Application) under "Forms and Applications." DON'T FORGET TO CLICK "Click to Complete", otherwise we can not see your "Incomplete" application!! Your application is reviewed by the ARF Administrators and volunteers. If approved, you will be invited to come to one of our Saturday Adoption days at the Well Pet Clinic in Lexington Park, MD.

SUBMITTAL OF APPLICATIONS ARE SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BEFORE ADOPTION. YOU WILL BE NOTIFIED IF YOU ARE APPROVED! INSURE THAT YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION IS ACCURATE. INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WITH NO INFORMATION or NO POINT OF CONTACT ENTERED WILL BE DELETED.

If approved, arrangements will be made for you to meet the animal on our regularly scheduled Saturday sometime between 11-3. We can try to "hold" the animal for you until 1:00, so that in the event we don't hear from you, the animal will still have a couple hours of public availability.

Once you arrive to meet the animal, you can spend time inside and outside with the animal to see if your personality matches. During this time you'll have the opportunity to chat with one or two of our Adoption Counselors, or the foster parents of the animal. If you have other pets you'd like to bring to meet the animal, that is fine, just please let us know. We like the adoption to be a family decision, so the family is encouraged to visit as well.

Once a decision has been made to go through with the adoption, you are given a Contract to review and sign. The contract basically states that you will adequately care for the animal, and if for any reason there is a problem, the animal is to be returned to ARF without question. Once the contract is discussed and signed, we do request a $125 (cats) or $150 (dogs) adoption fee that can be paid cash, check or charge.

You will be given a starter pack with coupons, the animal's health record and any other tips or concerns that are appropriate. Most animals are healthy and ready to go. A few may need return visits to the Well Pet Clinic or your local vet for boosters, or in special cases, follow up procedures for surgeries etc.

For cat or other small animal adoptions, we recommend bringing a carrier with you for the transport home. For dog adoptions we recommend a slip lead for the journey home. A slip lead, or just a simple leash with a loop at the end is better than a coller because of size estimation. Ideally, some sort of ID tag with your phone and address on it would also be helpful in the event your new companion gets lost on the way to his new home.

Adoption Inquiry IN PERSON:

Come meet the animal you are interested in.

Fill out an application for adoption. This application helps us ensure a good match for both adopter and adoptee!

Sign our contract. We will be including the contents of the contract here soon, but basically it states that you will provide for the animal appropriately, not tie the animal out, or let the animal roam (including cats which are indoor only!!) You will also have to agree to bring the animal back to us if things do not work out for you. You cannot take the animal to a shelter or pass the animal on to another person (even a friend or family member) unless approved by us.

While a fenced yard is not required, we do want you to be aware that if you do not have a fence, you will need to leash-walk your dog. It is an important stipulation of our contract that you cannot let your dog roam.

While we generally do not perform house checks, we do reserve the right to do so prior to adoption. There are times when we feel this is necessary due to circumstances such as the specific breed, disposition, or special needs of the animal.

Pay the $125/$150 adoption fee. If this sounds like a lot to you, and you are considering a "free" pet from your local newspaper, please consider this: All of our dogs/puppies are spayed/neutered, have current shots, wormed, tested for heartworms, treated for fleas (advantage) and current on heartworm medication (generally heartguard) if appropriate. All our cats/kittens are spayed/neutered, have current vaccinations, tested for feline leukemia and feline AIDS, wormed, treated for fleas (advantage), and ear mites if appropriate. When you also consider our costs for food, equipment, medical care, etc., you can see why that the term non-profit really fits! (By the way, we are always in need of donations, whether money, blankets, towels, newspapers, pet supplies, pet food, etc! We will be also be glad to come pick up large items such as kennels, crates, dog houses, etc)

You're done! Take your new friend home and get settled in!! Please call us if you have any concerns or need any additional information. We want to make the transition as easy as possible for you and your pet!!

We expect all our adopted animals to be kept inside and treated as members of the family. We expect them to receive annual vet care and be kept in good health. We also do not approve of declawing cats. We take great strides to insure that the animals in our care are loved, respected, and cared for, so we expect that quality of care to be maintained for the animal's entire life.

ADOPTION FEE

Occasionally, we get asked, "$125 for a CAT???!!" It is only fair to inform our adopter of the basis of our fee, so in explanation, please continue reading...

$125-$150 is an incredibly reasonable adoption fee. It covers the animal's initial shots, altering, food, flea and/or heartworm preventatives, and kennel or foster home space. The altering alone at a full service vet would cost $100 to $150 for even a 6 month old kitten! We are a non-profit organization, so we don't make money in finding homes for abandoned animals. What money we might save on one animal is put towards another animal whose medical needs go beyond $150. Heartworm treatment alone costs us nearly $500 per animal, yet when that animal does find a home, we only request the basic adoption fee, so other animals' adoption fees help keep us financially able to continue taking in animals for re-homing. So really, it is best to understand that your $125-$150 fee is not for ONE particular animal, but more of a donation to a non-profit organization that assists many animals.

Another reason we request the $125-$150 fee is to help us feel reassured that the family can financially provide for the animal for its entire life. Not all, of course, but many people who get a FREE animal find it much more disposable than a person who spends a couple hundred dollars initially. It may sound shallow, but most people who like to "get their money's worth" will spend extra time training and socializing an animal that may have some reasonable hurdles to overcome.

Finally, it may be a plain and simple fact that if a person is not willing to pay the $125-$150 adoption fee, then they might not be willing to pay the potentially greater costs for the animal to get his/her annual shots and exams. It may mean that the person will not provide the animal with a quality pet food or monthly heartworm and flea preventatives YEAR round.

Please understand, that we don't generalize all our applicants into this category, but because we have years of experience dealing with adoptions, it is from that experience that we have created a few strict policies for the adoption process... the $125-$150 fee is one of them that is rarely broken.