Question Regarding Adoption

A friend of mine is looking for a good home for a cat she's been
fostering. She has a prospective adopter. I am wondering if anyone
who works in rescue or otherwise has a list of questions one would ask
a prospective adopter. It seems to me that someone had posted such a
list a while back but I couldn't find it through a search.

Thanks,
Lauren

If you want, I could email you a form I recently filled out for a shelter
when I adopted a kitten. Let me know if you'd like it.

Sue
"PawsForThought" wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend of mine is looking for a good home for a cat she's been
fostering. She has a prospective adopter. I am wondering if anyone
who works in rescue or otherwise has a list of questions one would ask
a prospective adopter. It seems to me that someone had posted such a
list a while back but I couldn't find it through a search.

Thanks,
Lauren

On 7 Apr 2006 16:21:57 -0700, "PawsForThought" wrote:

A friend of mine is looking for a good home for a cat she's been
fostering. She has a prospective adopter. I am wondering if anyone
who works in rescue or otherwise has a list of questions one would ask
a prospective adopter. It seems to me that someone had posted such a
list a while back but I couldn't find it through a search.


First I would ask if they have had pets before and if so the name of the vet. Then I
would check with the vet and see what kind of care they took of the pet,

"PawsForThought" wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend of mine is looking for a good home for a cat she's been
fostering. She has a prospective adopter. I am wondering if anyone
who works in rescue or otherwise has a list of questions one would ask
a prospective adopter. It seems to me that someone had posted such a
list a while back but I couldn't find it through a search.

I adopted a cat on Monday from a shelter. They required 2 forms of ID (one
photo, one with proof of address) and I filled out a form that asked stuff
like: who else lives with you; any other pets; vet name; job info. 7 years
ago when I got Stinky & Harriet from North Shore Animal League, they also
asked for names & phone numbers of two references. NSAL also asked about
past pets my family had when I was growing up, and what happened to them!

--
Liz

"PawsForThought" wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend of mine is looking for a good home for a cat she's been
fostering. She has a prospective adopter. I am wondering if anyone
who works in rescue or otherwise has a list of questions one would ask
a prospective adopter. It seems to me that someone had posted such a
list a while back but I couldn't find it through a search.

Thanks,
Lauren


You need to find out where they live. If an apartment, do they have
permission from the landlord to have a cat. Who lives with them? Is the cat
suitable for the situation?
Have they had animals before? What happened to them?
Vet reference. Ask vet about the care other animals get. Any injuries that
might indicate the cat is an outdoor cat? Do they cough up the cash to take
proper care of any other animals (you define proper care. It's your foster,
you make the rules)
Ask for personal references. Do they think the person is a good pet owner.
Is the applicant in a stable situation? (ie. student living off campus who
might be moving back home in another year and may or may not be able to take
the cat with them - not stable)
Why do they want to adopt this animal?
If it's a first time pet owner, did they grow up with pets. What happened to
those animals? This isn't as clear cut because just because someone's
parents are a**holes and aren't the kind of pet owner you might want your
kitty with doesn't necessarily indicate this person will be. They you need
to open up conversation with the applicant and see what their attitudes
toward pet stewardship are.

I'm sure there are other questions - de-claw, inside outside etc. but the
trick is not to directly ask some of these questions. Questions must be
carefully worded so you don't reveal the answer your looking for. If you
catch them in a lie, no matter how apparently insignificant. deny the
application. You can't trust anything they tell you then.

You have to be tough or these guys stand the chance of ending up back on the
street. Too many people see animals as disposable. I hate to tell you how
many cats we've had recently who were left outside to fend for themselves
because their people moved and just left them behind.

W

"Wendy" wrote in message
...

You have to be tough or these guys stand the chance of ending up back on
the street. Too many people see animals as disposable. I hate to tell you
how many cats we've had recently who were left outside to fend for
themselves because their people moved and just left them behind.

When I was at the clinic with my cat yesterday, a man came in with a HUGE
carrier. I thought he had a dog, but it was just a lone cat inside. He
said that a neighbor was getting rid of the carrier so he took it, because
he needed something in a hurry. He had just moved into a new apartment and
said it came with two cats. The previous tenants were college students who
were evicted because they couldn't pay the rent. The man said he told them
to leave the two cats, because he figured the kids would just end up
abandoning them somewhere since they didn't even have a new place yet. He
had a male cat with him that day and said the other cat was female, and
pregnant. College students should not have pets, whether they live on or
off campus!! I thought it was fantastic that this man decided to keep the
cats, and now he's going to have a litter of kittens that will need homes in
a few months.

--
Liz

These are the types of questions the shelter asked me. And they did contact
my veterinarian to check to see if I had my other animals vaccinated, etc.

Sue
"Wendy" wrote in message
...

"PawsForThought" wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend of mine is looking for a good home for a cat she's been
fostering. She has a prospective adopter. I am wondering if anyone
who works in rescue or otherwise has a list of questions one would ask
a prospective adopter. It seems to me that someone had posted such a
list a while back but I couldn't find it through a search.

Thanks,
Lauren


You need to find out where they live. If an apartment, do they have
permission from the landlord to have a cat. Who lives with them? Is the
cat suitable for the situation?
Have they had animals before? What happened to them?
Vet reference. Ask vet about the care other animals get. Any injuries that
might indicate the cat is an outdoor cat? Do they cough up the cash to
take proper care of any other animals (you define proper care. It's your
foster, you make the rules)
Ask for personal references. Do they think the person is a good pet owner.
Is the applicant in a stable situation? (ie. student living off campus who
might be moving back home in another year and may or may not be able to
take the cat with them - not stable)
Why do they want to adopt this animal?
If it's a first time pet owner, did they grow up with pets. What happened
to those animals? This isn't as clear cut because just because someone's
parents are a**holes and aren't the kind of pet owner you might want your
kitty with doesn't necessarily indicate this person will be. They you need
to open up conversation with the applicant and see what their attitudes
toward pet stewardship are.

I'm sure there are other questions - de-claw, inside outside etc. but the
trick is not to directly ask some of these questions. Questions must be
carefully worded so you don't reveal the answer your looking for. If you
catch them in a lie, no matter how apparently insignificant. deny the
application. You can't trust anything they tell you then.

You have to be tough or these guys stand the chance of ending up back on
the street. Too many people see animals as disposable. I hate to tell you
how many cats we've had recently who were left outside to fend for
themselves because their people moved and just left them behind.

W

Thanks so much everyone for the great responses. My friend has found a
woman who wants to adopt the cat (which is a bengal). She is going to
be meeting with the family today to see what they're like, etc.
Apparently it is a husband and wife, 3 children (young) and they also
have a 3 year old female cat (can't think what they're called but one
of those hairless kind). Sue, if you could email me that form, that
would be great. She says the people sound good but she is concerned
about the fact that they have 3 young children. Also, this cat (a 2
year old bengal neutered male) was living with 10 other cats and was
stressed so he was spraying. She has told the woman about the
peeing/spraying problem.

Thanks again,
Lauren