Adopt A Shelter Pet Day: Tips for Cat Adoptions & Dog Adoptions

Will you adopt a new furry friend soon? There are many things to consider when adopting a pet. With Adopt A Shelter Pet Day on April 30th, I wanted to share some sobering adoption facts. In the ASPCA alone, 6.3 million dogs and cats enter their shelters each year, and only about 52% get adopted. I wrote about my pets’ adoption days here, and they chose me more than I chose them. But you don’t need to wait for happy accidents to get your pet, and can adopt shelter pets anytime all year long.

We want every cat and dog adoption to go into a forever home. Sadly, sometimes life gets in the way. I can’t tell you the number of messages I get from people needed to re-home a beloved companion because of moving, or the death of their human, or all kinds of things. How shocking and heartbreaking for the humans–and for the pets–ending up back in the shelter.

Keeping Pets Out of Shelters

I just discovered a new service that addresses this sad situation. Since launching in 2015, Get Your Pet–an online adoption community–has saved 15k pets from seeing the inside of shelters by comfortably transitioning pets from one good home to another. Get Your Pet is the simpler, smarter, and more humane way to help animals find new homes.

How Get Your Pet works

1. Current owners who can’t keep their pets post pet profiles online
2. Potential adopters browse profiles and select pets they would like to meet
3. Current owners and potential adopters arrange a time/date/place to connect
4. If both the current owner and potential adopter wish to move forward with adoption, we took the pet to a Get Your Pet veterinarian for an examination at no additional cost
5. They finalized the adoption at the vet’s office, and the pet gets a loving new home

Help for Adopting Your Shelter Pet

I know you don’t want to think about re-homing, so let’s talk about shelter adoption tips. I’ve posted about the topic on many occasions, and thought a roundup post could help.

Learn about the benefits of adopting senior pets. Here are 8 reasons for considering these golden oldies.

What about those less-than-perfect pets? Yes, they have just as much love to share whether they have three legs (Bravo-Dawg my tripod was a glorious boy!); or only one eye; or any other “perceived” problem. Check out this post on adopting other-abled pets.

Here’s a whole list on kitten adoption do’s and don’ts I hope you’ll use (or share) for those who need the help. Maybe not ready to adopt–but can you foster? You can check out all the glorious positives of fostering kittens in this post.

And if you want to adopt a puppy, review these tips for how to temperament test puppies to help choose your perfect pet match.

I hope you’ll never need to re-home one of your pets, and that National Adopt A Shelter Pet Month brings you the pet of your dreams.

I love hearing from you, so please share comments and questions. Do you have an ASK AMY question you’d like answered? Do you have a new kitten and need answers? Stay up to date on all the latest just subscribe the blog, “like” me on Facebook, and sign up for Pet Peeves newsletter. Stay up to date with the latest book giveaways and appearances related to my September Day pet-centric THRILLERS WITH BITE!

Amy Shojai, CABC is a certified cat & dog behavior consultant, a consultant to the pet industry, and the award-winning author of 35+ pet-centric books and Thrillers with Bite! Oh, and she loves bling!