Almost Home New Mexico

FAQs

We have been asked the same questions over and over so now here are the answers to the most Frequently Asked Questions.

 

Q. Why did you start Almost Home NM?  It seems or doesn’t seem like you do or don’t make a lot of money doing this!  It seems like a lot or not much work!  What do you get out of it? You must make money or else why would you do it?

 

A.   We started Almost Home NM to give adoptable animals from shelter euthanasia lists a  

        second chance.  No, we don’t make any money from the adoptions of these animals– in   

        fact to be completely honest there are many times that vet bills must be paid out of my

        paycheck from work– I make donations regularly to AHNM to keep it afloat.  It is a lot 

        of work for no pay! My kids (and even their friends) spend a lot of their time working

        and playing with the animals in the rescue, cleaning up after them and fixing fences

        and other items the animals have broken, giving bathes, and helping with medical and

        feeding.  Still you may wonder why do it?  What do you get out of it?  We got the 

        updates from our adopters— the satisfaction of knowing that an animal that was about

        to lose its life is now in a forever home with someone to love it. That is what we get

        out of rescue.  We always ask our adopters to keep in touch and send updates.  That is

        the fuel that keeps us going!!  If it weren’t for the updates and pictures our adopters

        send us showing how wonderful and happy these rescue animals are now I don’t

        think any of us could or would continue what we are doing. 

 

 

Q. Why do you charge an adoption fee?  If you wanted to save the animals wouldn’t you just give them away so you can save more?

 

A. We charge an adoption fee to recoup the money that we put into the animals and to

            give the animals value.  If we just gave all our animals away how would we pay the

            vet bills (no the vets don’t do all the medical out of the kindness of their hearts– they

            too have bills to pay). We believe a person is more likely to take care of an animal

            they had to pay for than an animal they get for free. Yes we could be wrong– there

            are always exceptions to the rules— I personally know many people who have paid

            hundreds for their pets and still don’t take care of them and many that have a free pet

            that they would do anything for– so I guess it depends on the person. Regardless we

            still must recoup at least some of the money we spend so we can continue doing 

            rescue.  If we gave them away we would go out of business very quickly and

            wouldn’t be saving any pets at all.

 

Q. “I have no money/ I am on welfare/ I am a senior; can I get a discount?”

 

A.      Unfortunately we can’t do discounts or give animals away regardless of an adopters financial situation.  We would definitely run out of money very quickly if we started just giving everyone discounts and free pets.

 

Q. Do the animals see a vet prior to adoption?

 

A.      Yes.. Either by one of our vets or a vet at the shelter that is releasing the animal to our rescue.  

 

Q. What happens if I decide I don’t want the animal I adopted from Almost Home NM?

 

A.           All adopters sign a contract stating that if at anytime they no longer want their pet, or for any reason can’t keep their pet adopted from us they are required to return it to us at their expense.  We love all the animals we have put through the rescue and we want to ensure they are always in an approved home where they are treated like a member of the family and loved forever. We don’t want any of them to end up back in the situation they came from— on death row, homeless, and/or unloved.   Of course, if the adopter has a friend or family member that they think would love the animal they can’t keep then we will work with everyone involved and the potential new adopters will be screened and go through the same adoption process as the original adopter went through.  We would prefer our animals to stay with people they know than have to start all over trying to find them a brand new home.

 

 

Q. Why are the adoption fees higher on some dogs than others?

              

A.          Some of our animals are more adoptable than others and medical bills on some animals are higher than others.  We try to balance it out as best as possible to try and recoup as much money as possible so that we don’t go broke and have to close our doors to the many animals out there needing rescue.  If we have an animal that runs up a vet bill of lets say $1000, we need to pay it– regardless of whether that animal is worth $1000. Yes, we have spent that much and more on some of our animals— once we make a commitment to them we do everything we need to so they can get adopted.  So, that is a decision we have made— however many people do not want to pay $1000 for a mixed breed dog or even a homeless purebred.  That animal may be just the basic brown mutt and many people just don’t want to pay $1000.  So we must spread that expense to other animals available for adoption so that we can continue rescue.  People are willing to pay a higher adoption fee for a little itty bitty puppy that is going to stay small so those dogs do have a higher adoption fee to help recoup the money spent on some of our other dogs that people might not want to pay very much for.  And of course there are those instances that we do everything we can to save an animal running up a huge vet bill and the animal still passes away. For instance Shyler (we tried to save him and after running up close to $800 in vet bills was humanely euthanized on the operating table.  How do we pay that vet bill?  The vet’s not going to say we’re sorry we couldn’t save him/her, or sorry the vet bill is much higher than what somebody is willing to pay for this animal we’ll just sweep it under the rug.  No they spent their time and equipment working sometimes for hours on an animal they still need to run their business.   So yes our highly adoptable babies do carry higher adoption fees so that we can save the next baby needing rescue regardless of cost– though we try to only take in the healthy babies there are some we just can’t turn our backs on— but yes we are trying to only save the healthy babies so that we can try and keep adoption fees as low as possible.

 

 

Q. Will you adopt to me if I am: out of state/under age/ don’t have a fenced yard/have children/live in an apartment?

 

A.      We consider all of our adopters on an individual basis. We interview all our adopters and try and get a feel for them as an adopter and their connection with the animal they want to adopt. Sometimes we have to decline an adopter and sometimes we feel we must adopt to an individual who might not look that great on paper.  As an example I will use an example given to me by another rescuer when we discussed who we would and would not adopt to.  He told me that what might work for one dog might not work for another dog. One dog might need a fence where as another dog wants nothing more than to stay by his/her owners side. So we try to make the best decision possible for the animal. If someone applies for a certain animal but we don’t think it is the best match we will still want them to come out and meet the other dogs — you never know; they might change their minds and adopt a pet better suited for them that they hadn’t even considered.  We just want what is best for the

            animals in our care.  Minors must have an adult present to sign the paperwork with them.

 

Q. Are all the dogs housetrained?

 

A.      All of the animals in our care take turns spending time in the living rooms and bedrooms to ensure that they are ready to be the perfect pets for your home.  We do work on housetraining and proper behavior inside the house.  We expect our dogs to settle down when they come in, we correct them if they do something inside and out that we don’t think an adopter will want them doing (counter surfacing, scratching and ripping up furniture, etc).  But back to the housetraining we will never guarantee that an animal is completely housetrained.  It might be perfect in my house but it has learned my rules.  When an animal moves into a new home they must learn new rules and some will test their new owner to see what they can get away with.  We do tell all our adopters that the first month is the time that the new pet learns the new rules and what they can or can not get away with.  If they are allowed to pee in the house the first day, second day, third day then it becomes a habit— they must be taught from day one that that is not allowed inside the house.  Keep your new pet confined or leashed at all times and take them out frequently to ensure no bad habits develop until you are certain that they understand the rules of your home.

Almost Home NM

 PO Box 772

 Peralta, NM 87042

505-304-3384

adopt@q.com