ADOPTION APPLICATION
Please copy the following questions into an email. Answer each question and send to moshpitrescue@gmail.com:
What pet are you applying for and why did you choose this particular pet? (Leave blank if not applying for a specific animal.)
Your Name
Address (note MPR is in Grand Rapids, MI and a we are a small volunteer rescue requiring a home visit we only adopt locally in the West Michigan area).
Email Address
Phone Number
Your name on Facebook and a description of your profile picture/cover photo so we can find you.
Name of the Vet you plan to use. If you do not have a vet currently we can make recommendations. Please note we will not approve any vet that still performs outdated inhumane elective cat declawing.
How many people live in your home and what are their ages?
Are all members of the family in agreement about getting a pet?
Are other children around frequently who do not live in the home?
How many other animals are in your home?
Why do you want to get a pet or get another pet?
Why do you feel the pet you applying for is a good fit for your home? Have you read this pet's full bio?
Where will the pet sleep? If the answer is “in your bed” are all people sleeping in that bed in agreement about sleeping arrangements?
If adopting a dog, describe your plan to contain the dog. Does your yard have a fence? Do you understand leash laws and agree pets will be leashed when off your property or not otherwise contained?
Do you agree your pet will be an inside pet? No outdoor cats/doghouses/chains/etc. No indoor/outdoor cats.
On a scale of 0-10 how likely are you to allow a cat outside without a leash?
Are you able to pay for routine daily expenses, routine vet care and if needed do you have a plan to pay for emergency vet care? What would happen if your pet had an emergency on a Saturday night at 10pm?
Do you have reliable transportation?
Do you agree to provide fresh air, food, and water to your new pet? If smokers live in your home, will you provide fresh clean air for the pet to breathe? Please confirm you do not feed grain free as a grain free diet is generally not advised.
On a scale of 0-10 how likely are you to ever declaw a cat?
Have you ever declawed a cat, cropped a dog’s ears or docked a dog’s tail? If so, please provide an explanation and assurance that you do not plan to ever alter an animal unnecessarily again. (If you are strongly concerned about a cat scratching - please consider adopting an older cat in foster where we can provide reasonable assurance about a cat's scratching. Kittens are probably not a good fit if this is a huge concern.)
Are all other pets in your home fixed? If not please provide an explanation and a letter from your vet explaining.
Do you understand pet adoptions are for life? Not until you move, have a baby, etc? Consider your life in 5 years/10 years/20 years will this pet fit into it?
MPR pets cannot be given away to anyone else, even family members. Do you understand that if you need to rehome your MPR animal you must contact us and work with us to ensure that animal is safe, loved, and vetted for life?
Has your landlord approved the pet you plan to adopt?
Do you have any vacations planned in the coming months? It's important (especially in dog adoptions) that you be home and with your new pet as they adjust to your home. If you do regularly vacation, where will the pet go/who will care for the pet while you are away?
Do you understand upon adoption, your new pet will need time to adjust? Will you be patient with your new pet as they learn where to sleep, eat, pee, and learn they are safe and loved? The first few weeks can be an adjustment and an adventure - are you ready to commit to loving your new pet through this transition?
Please provide any other information you feel we would need to know to determine if an animal is a good fit for your home.
Do you understand that MPR does not do spay/neuter contracts or otherwise allow our animals to leave the foster home not spayed/neutered? This policy is effective 2/1/2023. If the animal you are considering is pending a spay/neuter and you are the perfect forever home we will make every effort to spay/neuter ASAP so that the animal can go home to you ASAP.
Do you understand and agree to a non-refundable adoption fee of 200/dog, 100/kitten and 75/cat payable upon adoption?
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
At MPR we try HARD to avoid absolutes. Limitations such as “no kids under 10” or “must have a fence” turn away potential adopters and each dog and home is different. Instead we prefer to talk to potential adopters, visit their home, talk to their vet, and learn if an animal matches to a possible forever home.
While we try to avoid absolutes, there are a few things that are mandatory:
1). All members of the family and any frequent visitors MUST KNOW ABOUT and be in agreement with getting the pet. Your landlord must know about and be in agreement with you adopting a pet. Anyone who comes to your home frequently must know about and agree with accepting this pet into the home. No surprises or presents.
2). Adopters must be able to contain a pet safely. MPR does not adopt dogs to homes where the containment plan is “we have trained our other dogs to stay in our yard and so far it’s worked”. MPR has reunited too many stray dogs where the owners stand in front of us and SWEAR their dogs knows better than to leave the yard - REALLY?? - because we just found it running in traffic and you’re lucky it’s alive. Some dogs need a fence - period - if they are going to be successful. Other dogs would be fine on a leash or a lead. Some dogs want/need more exercise.
While it’s case by case each dog, there always must be a plan to contain a dog to the property.
Additionally adopters must agree to leash in public/off their property as is the law.
We are sensitive to this issue because we have scraped up dead dogs from the road - dogs that were failed by humans sometimes accidentally and sometimes negligently. Thank you for understanding we must be comfortable with the containment plan prior to adoption.
For cats, containment planning includes talking a look at your home, are there open windows or spaces a cat could hide, are all members of the family understanding of new caution needed when opening doors, etc.
3). With RARE exception, MPR does not adopt outdoor cats or indoor/outdoor cats. Adopters must agree that any cat coming from us will be an indoor only pet. If you are looking for an indoor/outdoor or barn cat, please contact us and we will put you in contact with a barn cat program. Without exception, MPR adopts indoor only dogs. Absolutely no chains or outdoor dog houses. MPR dogs are to be kept inside and treated like family members.
4). Adopters must be able to pay for daily expenses such as food, routine vet expenses such as maintaining vaccines and heartworm preventative, and must have a plan for emergency vet expenses. What would happen if your pet has a medical emergency on a Saturday night at 10pm when the regular vet is not open? Before committing to a pet, please be sure you understand the expense and are willing and able to commit to properly caring for that animal. Adopters must also have reliable transportation in case of a vet emergency.
5). Adopters must agree not to unnecessarily alter a MPR animal. With rare exception, declawing cats, ear cropping dogs, or tail docking dogs would not be allowed as these practices are outdated, inhumane and cruel. If you wish to adopt a declawed cat, we can look for one that needs to be rescued that is already declawed. MPR will help teach you how to cut your cat’s nails if needed or there are youtube instructions.
Additionally effective 8/29/2021 we will not allow adoptions where adopters plan to use a vet that performs elective cat declaw procedures. Cat declawing is so completely outdated and against modern cruelty fear free vetting practices, if a vet is performing it, it's not a huge jump to assume they are not a cruelty free fear free modern humane practice and we want better for our adoptables (and every cat).
If cat scratching is a huge concern please consider adopting an older cat vs. kittens.
6). All other pets in the home must be neutered/spayed and vaccinated unless proof can be provided a vet has advised against it (for example if an animal is too old or too young).
All other dogs in the home must be on HW preventative and any dog adopted from us must be on HW preventative its whole life. (If you don’t understand why, google pictures of what heartworms really look like and you will understand why we would never want that for an animal we loved/fostered/adopted.)
7). MPR adoptions are intended to be for life. If you move, we expect you to make arrangements to take your pet with you. That said, if you find yourself in a situation where you need to rehome a MPR animal, contact MPR immediately. The animal must be surrendered back to MPR - they can not be rehomed. No MPR animal will ever find itself back in a shelter. We have made promises to these animals and we intend for them to be loved for the rest of their lives. If a family member plans to adopt the pet from you, they must go through our same adoption process and be approved through MPR.
8). MPR does check vet references. When submitting an application, please include the name of your vet and please contact your vet to let them know MPR will be calling and is authorized to discuss your current and past pets.
9). Please pre-clear any adoptions with your landlord if applicable prior to contacting us. There is no point in asking to adopt an animal if your landlord won’t allow it. Please be prepared to provide the name of your landlord if applicable for verification. Some insurance policies ignorantly discriminate against some breeds of dogs and until the companies writing these policies change their outdated incorrect views, many landlords are stuck with ignorant outdated breed restrictions.
10). Adopters must be prepared for an adjustment period as the new animal adjusts to their new home. Please remember that your new pet’s entire world just changed. Pets need to relearn where to pee, re-learn to trust that they will always have food and water, re-learn where they can sleep, re-learn they are safe. It takes AT LEAST 3 days for an animal to decompress, it takes 3 weeks for an animal to learn a new routine, it takes 3 months until they have figured out they are home. Adopters must understand, be willing to be patient, and give a new animal the chance to relax and adjust.
11). Adoption fees are payable at the time of adoption and are non refundable. Please do not make this awkward for our fosters/adoption coordinators we want to love dogs not haggle money. We do not do payment plans or negotiate adoption fees this is not a used car dealership - these are animal lives and we take this seriously.
If you cannot afford an adoption fee, how would you pay for a vet bill? We also have a hard time not taking it as a personal smack in the face to the work we do here when the first question a potential adopter asks is “how much”. The first question should be “is this animal a good fit for my home”.
12). Upon adoption all future vet bills become the responsibility of the adopter. MPR will make every effort to ensure excellent communication between adopters and MPR about what has been done at a vet, what has not been done, and what needs to be done at whose expense. If at any time upon adoption you find yourself in a situation where you’re unable to properly care for your pet, please contact us. We will make every effort to help as we care about these animals and would never want them to suffer.
We are proud of our reputation as a rescue that provides post adoption support when we are able and we strive to provide the absolute best vet care to our foster animals.
13). Adoptions will come with post adoptive support. Depending on the dog adopted, most MPR dogs will come with an in home consultation prepaid and scheduled or a prepaid Adult 101 Basics class. Mosh Pit recommends A Dog's Life GR, A Pleasant Dog, Better Together Dog Training, LLC and Love and Pet,LLC.
14). Mosh Pit Rescue will not adopt to anyone planning to use Coit Animal Clinic or Jenison Animal Hospital. If these are your vets, you will either have to transfer to a different vet or you cannot adopt from us (there are many other rescues and resources to adopt from).
We see post after post on Facebook such as "can anyone recommend a vet that won't break the bank". We want our adoptable animals to receive the best, most modern, care both in foster and post adoption - not "the cheapest care possible". If cost of care is a huge concern please reconsider adopting a pet. Pets are expensive!
Please consider if a vet office is clean, if staff are treated professionally, if vets are using computer systems, if their practice appears modern current and fear free, if their appearance is professional etc. when choosing a vet.
15). We are a small volunteer based rescue in Grand Rapids, MI - and we do require a home check meaning before adopting from us - a volunteer from MPR must physically come to your home to ensure your yard is as stated in your app, there are no gaps in fences, and the interior of the house is sanitary and appropriate for the pet being adopted. Because if this, we tend to adopt locally to West Michigan/Grand Rapids and do not typically do out of state adoptions.
Additionally our vet partners and trainer partners are all in the GR/West MI area and it’s more difficult for us to provide post adoptive support if needed if the adoption is further away. It’s not that we NEVER do longer distances - but in general - our adoptions tend to be local.
Our Contact Information Is: Mosh Pit Rescue - moshpitrescue@gmail.com - 616-915-8186 (text only) - www.facebook.com/moshpitrescue.
Please remember we are a 100 percent volunteer run rescue. All of our volunteers have jobs/lives/personal pets/families they are juggling and we do the best we can to reply to messages in a timely manner, but we get hundreds of messages a week.
Adoption fees are typically $200/dog, $100/kitten or $75/cat. Adoption fees help ensure adopters have enough cashflow to pay for an animal and help us continue our mission. They also fund post adoptive support where needed. Each animal we take in costs us well over the adoption fees to vet, spay/neuter, vaccinate, microchip, house, feed and otherwise care for.
Kittens - MPR covers vet visit #1 and #2 and adopters cover vet visit #3 at 16 weeks (when kittens are old enough for Rabies).
Adoptable animals can be found here:
https://www.petfinder.com/member/us/mi/grand-rapids/mosh-pit-rescue-mi1080/
Step 1: A phone call where you and a volunteer from MPR will talk through any concerns noted above. If that goes well, we will contact your vet for a reference check to ensure all other dogs/cats in the home are fixed and dogs are kept current on a heart worm preventative (Interceptor Plus / Heartguard). We will ask about other pet’s vaccine records to ensure pets are being adequately cared for. If applicable, we will contact your landlord for verification you can have the pet at your home.
Step 2: Meet and Greets - meet the animal at the foster home or in a public park.
Step 3: Usually at this point, we would bring the pet to your house and the animal stays. Some animals need more of an adjustment period and others need less. Please be prepared to discuss the plan for acclimating your new pet patiently into your new home.
Step 4: If needed, set up a post adoptive training class or in home consultation with a trainer and arrange any future vet visits to complete all necessary vaccines etc.