Dog rescues

[Menora]

I have a dog and for some time I have been trying to adopt another. I have no small children living in my home (although they visit but I can put a dog away) a secure garden, WFH regularly, live in the countryside, can pay adoption fees etc.

I have a cat and this seems to be the barrier. Or maybe it’s something else! I am unsure

I kind of stopped looking through the lockdowns because I thought that was making it worse but now my search has started again I either get no response or a no due to the cat. They don’t even call me back ever again if they do get a cat tested dog.

Is this a case of just persevering, wait for things to calm down, are rescues still overwhelmed by requests?

Have you tried any of the foreign rescues? I found the UK ones have very few dogs available at the moment. We’ve just adopted a retriever cross from second chance golden retrievers having scoured uk rescues for months. They rescue dogs from kill shelters and the streets in the balkans. Loads of different rescues on fb not just breed specific. We have a cat and they always say if the dog is cat tested.

I’ve just applied to a Romanian dog shelter U.K. based division, hoping to hear back

I had one phone interview that asked me how much I walked my dog. I laughed a little and said he’s so lazy, I take him out once a day I would love to take him twice but he’s 8 now and not always up for it if it’s raining out - she said well you can’t have one of our dogs as they are young and need walking so I don’t think you are suitable. I replied yes I know, I would leave the older one at home? . I mean I know that 2 of different ages will have different needs - they are 2 individual dogs. One might like rain the other hate it

I think the UK ones are only just starting to return more to normal operations. Many weren't transporting and only homing locally. Some also couldn't cat test as use a volunteer's pet rather than on site and limited fosters, but also if you've loads of suitable applicants that don't require cat friendly then there isn't really a need to bother.

I expect in next couple of months with more people that were WFH going back or job losses that will likely end up more dogs in rescue.

What sort of dog are you looking for? I've seen some cat trainable sighthounds during my own browsing so sure are others about.

Have you looked at Many Tears? They've got a good reputation and specifically look for people with an existing well adjusted dog to take on ex breeding dogs.

I'm not sure about the cat testing situation at the moment, but at least you'd be halfway there

Yes, some rescues couldn't cat test because of covid, others would use various methods to get a dog and cat acclimatised before they go home, such as swapping blankets, which also wasn't possible during lockdowns. These are starting to ease, but dogs who rescues are confident could live with a dog-savvy cat, are so high in demand still at the moment, you may be one of 100 families applying for that same dog and you may all have perfect homes.

Foreign rescues are pretty popular at the moment, but are not without their problems and there are as many horror stories as there are success stories. If you wanted a cat-friendly foreign rescue you would need to find a one that uses foster homes before they are sent to their forever homes, too many foreign rescues hand over dogs as soon as they're transported over :( at least if they were fostered they could actually be cat-tested and do blanket swaps and you'd know for sure, basically the same as what UK rescues do anyway.