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What Do You Get For The Adoption Donation Fee?
People often ask us why we don't just give the animals away if we want to save them. The reason is that we can't continue to save animals unless we have the money needed to care for them properly. Our adoption fee is NOT a price for the pet, it is needed to help recover some of the costs that TreeTops Animal Rescue incurs while rescuing the animals from the shelter, fostering them in our homes, and providing them with medical care, as well as allowing us to continue to rescue other animals.
On average, our actual cost of caring for an animal is well above this fee. For example, in 2008 TreeTops Rescue spent about $29,000 on care for the animals and that's not counting the food, toys, and other supplies provided by our volunteers, but the amount we received in adoption fees was only about $19,000. So even charging adoption fees, we have to rely heavily on donations to cover our expenses, which also include administrative costs (printing flyers, website, etc.).
Shelters, which usually are subsidized by the government and/or large grants, often charge a smaller adoption fee and we urge those who have limited resources to adopt from shelters and utilize the sponsored spay/neuter and vaccination clinics they provide. After all, every animal who gets adopted from a shelter is one less animal that needs rescue. But what do you get from a rescue that you don't get from a shelter? In a shelter environment, the animals are stressed, so you may not be able to tell how they will behave in your home and the staff may not be able to tell you much about the animals. But our volunteers foster these animals in our homes, which allows us to give you an accurate description of each animal's health, needs, and personality. We can tell you whether they are active or low-key, if they like other dogs or chase cats, if they get car-sick or are scared of thunderstorms. Much more than at a shelter, you know what you are getting, and our adoption process is intended to make sure that the adoption is a good fit between applicants and the foster animal.
Below are listed our goals for our animals in foster care. All animals are fully vetted, but please understand that although we work towards all of these behavioral and training goals we cannot guarantee that every animal will have accomplished them within the limited time they spend in foster care. After all each foster animal comes into rescue with a different background and needs, and our foster families all have jobs and families of their own and do the best they can as unpaid volunteers.
Pre-Adoption Goals
All animals are temperament tested before placing them in foster homes. All animals receive necessary age appropriate veterinary treatment, including:
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Testing, treatment, and preventatives for tick and flea born illnesses, intestinal worms, heartworm (dogs) and FeLV/FIV (cats)
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Vaccinations for Rabies, DHLPP & Bordatella (dogs), FVRCP (cats)
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Spaying and Neutering
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Microchipped
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All animals are bathed & groomed as needed, and fed a well-balanced diet to improve their health and appearance.
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All animals are re-socialized in our foster homes to become good family members. This includes work on:
For Dogs:
Crate Training
HouseTraining
Leash Training
House Manners (e.g. no counter surfing, no jumping on visitors, no mouthing
Basic commands (sit, stay, come, paw)
Meeting new people (including children)
Meeting new animals, including both dogs and cats
For Cats:
Using the litter box
Being picked up and petted
Being groomed
Meeting new people (including children)
Tolerating other animals
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