Your Dog Is Dead, and other happy endings...
We get THOUSANDS of messages and emails a week.We reply to very few. THIS IS WHY.
Puppy Mortality Rates
Parvovirus
distemper
being infested with worms or ticks
being starved due to being dumped and unable/too young to find food
or being abused by humans
are JUST THE START of the problems a new puppy faces on it’s perilous journey to being ready to adopt.
We suggest you use youtube and see the state dogs can come into rescue, but you won’t see them here as unlike some rescues, we don’t guilt people into donating by showing them 'horror stories’ of dogs pooing themselves to death… but use your common sense! We don’t just walk along picking up dogs like mushrooms and put them in a bag like some weird Sunday picnic outing, it’s HARD WORK and they don’t all make it! They are
dumped in KILL SHELTERS,
dumped IN THE ROAD
dumped IN PLASTIC BAGS
sometimes INJURED and
ALWAYS SCARED TO DEATH at first…
We have lost over 100 puppies to parvo! Even the vaccines, and flea and worm treatments can kill a pup who has a weak immune system. Usually we have an 80% survival rate in our pups. This year it has been under 60%. This is due to a new fast acting strain of parvo that hits in hours and the dogs are playing one minute and dead the next. So when you first message us, your contact is the ONLY information we have on whether we will reply. And THIS is what we are dealing with every day to get dogs ready for YOU to adopt. MAKE IT COUNT. And for god’s sake, don’t ask us things that are on their photos and videos, or use language that makes the dog sound like an item listed on eBay- we don’t have time to repeat ourselves or explain to you that you are NOT the sort of person we want adopting our dogs.
TYPICAL FIRST MESSAGES WE DO NOT REPLY TO
Why can’t I foster a dog of my choice?The only dogs that need a foster first are already noted as such in their photo albums. Our dogs are already in a foster or safe/small rescue in Romania, and (due to lockdown), currently very few in UK foster homes and while adopters can now travel more than 30km/30 minutes each way round trip to visit a pup, we do try and adopt pups in the area they are fostered in as we can offer support more easily then as well on our online Skype portals. We kept to April 2020 DEFRA virus protocols for two years as our ‘government’ can’t find their arses with an atlas and people are still dying, so you don’t get to choose that, we do. As we are operating under these rules as given to us on 16th April 2020 and are only relaxed our protocols in April 2022, which makes adopter visits problematic to impossible depending on distance to the dog’s location and any at risk residents at a foster’s home. And we assess dogs in that way to ensure they get the right foster/forever home. The assessments are based on actual interactions with the dogs by us/our team of fosters and rescuers. And you may not be in the area of the UK we need for fosters, areas that have a high success rate of rehoming. We try and avoid as much as possible by NOT moving a dog about too much till they find their forever home as it can cause trauma and attachment issues. So if we say that dog is not for foster our decision is final.
Why can’t I adopt the dog of my choice?
We fit the humans to the dog not the other way round.
If for example you’re looking at a terrier type just because it’s small but can’t walk a dog much then this is not a good match as terriers have both energy and endurance and we won’t do it.
If for example you ask for a dog that is 'kid friendly' or 'cat friendly' but have no proof (photos/videos) your kids and cats/other pets get on with/are used to dogs we won’t do it. If we can't provide proof, we won't take that application further either as not all our fosters have kids and/or cats.
If you want a puppy but expect them to already be lead, off lead and toilet trained we won’t do it, as that means you’re not prepared to put the work in, and it IS work! Even a foster pup won’t know YOUR rules, where their new loo is, or what it’s like on walks in your area.
If you ask for a puppy with no funds/no name then we can’t start a process as we have little to no money for their care yet.
For every donor sending one ticket to help with costs (£3) or a name for the draws (£1) there are 100 people wanting to adopt. And as the adopters only pay travel and legal costs, it’s simple maths. We will RUN OUT of money and not be able to save ANY dogs if we don’t have funds in for them FIRST. Also dogs with no name are NEW, need to decompress, and have not have their vacs or DP test, 4DX and a health check. We NEVER declare a dog ready to adopt without those, and they COST MONEY.
Why can't I start/complete a process for a particular dog I have decided that I want? Lots of reasons. For a start, just think how entitled you sound... But the obvious one is you’re not the right fit for that pup.
Either you or your kids have no dog experience
or you're not looking into it enough before deciding on a DOG FOR LIFE
or you can’t walk a high energy dog enough, or it is a dog we can’t officially cat test- these are just some examples.
We character match too and if the pup you’ve set your heart on for example is quiet and shy but you want an outgoing bouncy dog for example then that adoption application has failed from the get go. In these cases an application can be started for another dog for who you are a better fit. We will advise you in what pups best fit your situation but we CAN’T if you don’t TELL us your situation in your first message. OUR wish list for the right humans for our pups are our priority, not the other way round, especially when you first PM as we don’t know you.
We DO NOT DISCRIMINATE against adoptions from LGBT+ persons, BAME persons, single persons, people in rental accommodation (you will need written recent proof of being allowed a dog though), or persons with disabilities.
We do have an over 21 years old only rule and also do not allow adoptions to people in flats above the first floor with no direct access to a secure garden for toilet and recall training. We have matched dogs as support dogs for people with a wide range of conditions, with the right support network. You however must be provably a UK resident and/or citizen at a fixed long term provable address. Or see above about having no names/funds/vacs. If you ask to adopt before they even have a name you’ve not read their album info and we don’t have time to explain 100 times to people who can’t even read album info for themselves. (Again, different process applies with certain disabilities and so on.)
If you can’t read basic information then you will not cope with the paperwork that comes with adopting a dog so if a proxy signatory is needed we need to know FROM THE FIRST PM. So if you are acting on behalf of someone who is not FB savvy or other issue this also needs to be disclosed FROM THE FIRST PM as the process is different then. However, if you ask for a dog before a health certification (i.e before their application opens or before they have a name) we will assume you are frankly irresponsible or trying to short cut our legal and medical processes, and therefore not somebody who we want to adopt to.
Or you get angry at us for not replying ‘fast enough’ when we’re closed and it says on the page every time and day we (the FB PAGE or emailing hours) are closed. Would you talk like that to the RSPCA or Dogs Trust? No? Then don’t do it to us. We are all volunteers so a dozen PMs at 3am getting more and more p*ssed off that we’re not replying immediately will NOT get you a dog.
Or you have got to the stage where you’ve provided your ID and address details but fail our preliminary checks to ascertain you are who you say you are, do not live where you say you live, or lied/omitted information in PM and/or at house check.
Why can’t I just pay you money so the dog is mine right now, even though they’re not ready so only I can have that dog, even before you know I’d be a good human for that dog, provided I pay?
SEE ABOVE about health checks, legal process and house checks! We DO NOT do dodgy/hasty backyard adoptions. ALL we ask from DONORS and NOT adopters are £1 name tickets and £3 sponsor tickets so donations are spread fairly. If to you the fact that we WON’T TAKE your money and INSIST of full health and legal processes before we open an adoption process means we’re a scam, feel free to leave our online platforms/unfollow and not return. Our dogs are living breathing creatures and as we also so not income discriminate, do not appreciate people with more money than others trying to ‘buy us’ and shortcut and evade our processes/waiting list just because they’ve seen a 'cute puppy’. We also reserve the right to stop an application process AT ANY POINT, even after a house check or adoption, if the team feel that:
any rules have been breached,
or we get inappropriate messages sent from your FB account or email account to our team's personal PMs/emails or the page,
or lose confidence that an adopter is right for a particular dog, or any dog.
So, it’s not about you, it’s about our dogs. Till we have talked to you and can match you to the best pup for your circumstances, then asking stuff like this when you first PM us is not appropriate. And again, reams of these PMs and emails mean we have to wade through them all to find the adopters and donors we’d actually like to talk to. If you’ve had an answer you don’t like, or no answer at all then the some or all of the above is likely why.
We would list some of the dogs no longer with us but the blog cannot upload that many photos... so here is a brief, sad end of one little boy who never made it to three months old...
