Online Pet Adoptions

Thanks for the responses!

For one I'm a little nervous about providing my full name and home address to a complete stranger for a "money order" to adopt him.  I've been watching a lot of tv lately (thanks to my post IM recovery) and I have seen that you never know

Secondly, to me it almost seems like a "business", just buy a pet and have your personal pet courrier take are of the transportation details.  Skippy is neutereted so it's not like he can be used for breeding purposes.  He's a mutt also so it's not like he has papers and would be a high demand dog as a full blooded dog might be.  But what I do worry about is people who use dogs for fighting or research labs- although I'd like to think they get those dogs from the pounds but who knows.   I know it sounds far fetched but that problem does exist. 

I have a connection with a local animal resuce agency, and I'm going to ask them about it.  What I can do is list him with a local rescue agency (which I talked to one lady and she said she'd pot him online with all his info and pics and would help me find him a home but I havent' heard back from her after sending her all that inf) and they will ensure they interview the family and do a pet home inspection to ensure the house/yard is pet safe.

I was just wondering if any else has been in this situation- on either side.

Oops- DP

I will agree as well that it sounds like a lab trying to pick up an animal for testing.

I once met a guy who answered classifieds for free animals to be given away. He always said he was getting the animal for a relative. In reality he was selling them to a lab. He made pretty good money at it since it was his full-time gig.

The form letters definitely should send off alarms - it does sound like a lab buying up specimens.

Don't give up on the rescue folks - most of them are volunteers and pretty overworked, but doing everything they can. 

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! Please! DO NOT give Skippy to any of these online form letter people. He will likely wind up as a lab experiment! This will make him quite unhappy, if not dead or maimed.

No shelters close to your home will take him? Is there no Humane Society close by? Animal Rescue place? No kill shelter? Anything???

Can you keep Skippy? You seem to really care about him...... 

I am not at all familiar with online pet adoptions. However, I just want to say that if I were searching for a dog and went online, my initial email to you would not be as canned as the ones you are receiving. More than likely, I would introduce myself, tell you where I live, why I want the pet, and a little about my family (i.e., the people the pet would be living with). If I didn't go into that much detail, my first email would be brief, just asking for a photo and to see if he's still available, and then I would later follow up with more information about myself and ask questions to see if Skippy and I are a good match. Never ever would I discuss payment and transportation in my initial correspondence. A pet is part of the family...not a thing that you buy and transport. Just my two cents.

Good luck finding the perfect owner for Skippy. Although, I think he probably already has the perfect owner!

Edited to add: I would also want to meet Skippy in person before agreeing to adopt, and I would never adopt a pet so far away that it would have to be "transported" to me. Either I am picking up the pet, or the owner is delivering it to me. There won't be any couriers, etc. involved.

I used an on-line Jack Russell rescue program that screened prospective adoptive dog parents, and ultimately found a local couple in San Francisco to adopt my dog.  Before I agreed to let them adopt my dog I insisted upon meeting them first, and finding out a bit about how much space they had for a dog, if they had time for him, etc.  The couple invited me into their home to see where my dog would be living.  They were really cool folks, and invited me to remain in contact with them and to drop by and visit the dog whenever I wanted.  There are nice people out there who'd love to adopt your dog.  It might take some time to find them, though.

That's really squirrely.  I hope you find a good home for Skippy soon, it doesn't sound like the responses you've gotten so far will be that good home! 

When I was looking online at Petfinder for a dog for our family, it took a lot of time and patience!  Most of the rescue orgs that have or foster dogs are VERY selective of where the dogs go and what kind of families the dogs are placed with.  I had one turn me down because we are working for 6 hours a day and away from home.  They didn't want a dog alone that much.  I had another turn me down because we have a young son, and I was looking at a large breed dog.  I had a third turn me down because the dog I was interested in was very shy and had no experience around children.   (I now have a Shepherd who is wonderful with my 3-y.o. son.) 

Won't the foster group you got him from help you with the screening?  Maybe you could take a look at the "applications" some of the foster/resuce groups have through the petfinder website.  You could easily copy one into a word document to send it to interested email applicants.  That should filter out the wierdos!! 

Good luck!!