Below are some of the questions that ARFP is frequently asked. Click a heading to go to that section of questions, or click an individual question to see information about it. If you have a question that you don’t see listed here, please feel free to contact us.
About ARFP
Are you affiliated with the animal shelter?
ARFP is a private 501(C)(3) non-profit animal rescue group. Although we refer people to and network with other organizations like the animal shelter, we aren’t affiliated with them.
Do you get funds from federal, state, or local government, or from United Way?
ARFP doesn’t get any funds from federal, state, or local government, or from United Way. We operate solely from donations made by people like you.
Where do the animals in your program come from?
The dogs and cats in our program are homeless pets that people have found and called our rescue line about.
Adoption Process
How does the adoption process work?
After you decide which dog or cat you want to adopt, you’ll fill out an application. One of our trained volunteers will go over the application with you and ask you a few questions. If you rent your home, we’ll contact your landlord to make sure that it’s okay for you to have a pet — or another one if you already have one. If you currently have any pets, or have had one in the past year, we’ll contact your veterinarian for a reference, also.
After the 48 hour waiting period, during which we complete these reference checks, a volunteer will contact you to schedule a day and time to bring the pet to your home. The volunteer will go through your house with you and point out anything that could be a danger to the pet.
If you’re doing a babysitting trial period before finalizing the adoption, the volunteer will have you read and sign a babysitting contract. At the end of the babysitting period, the volunteer will contact you to see how things are going and if you want to go ahead with the adoption. If so, he will make arrangements to have you fill out the adoption contract and pay the adoption fee.
If you aren’t doing a babysitting trial period, the volunteer will have you read and sign the adoption contract when he delivers the dog or cat to your home, and will collect the adoption fee at that time.
I live outside the delivery area but fell in love with one of the pets in your program. Can I still adopt if I offer to pick him up instead?
We’re thrilled that you’ve decided to adopt a pet, and just as happy that you love one of ours as much as we do. However, since part of our adoption process includes a home visit by a trained ARFP volunteer, we’re sorry that we can’t have you come pick up the pet instead. But with the millions of homeless pets throughout the United States, we know that there’s a wonderful one in your area that would love to be part of your family. We recommend searching on Petfinder.com, where you can search by region to find adoptable pets in your area.
You Found a Stray
I need to find a home for a pet. Can you take it?
Because we have a limited number of foster homes, unfortunately we can’t bring all homeless animals into ARFP. If you’ve found a stray and need to find a home for it, please call our rescue line and leave your name, number, mailing address, and a brief description of the pet and the situation. If we have an opening in a foster home and can bring the dog or cat into ARFP, a volunteer will call you back. Otherwise, we’ll send you information about how you can find a good home for a pet.
Why do I have to call the rescue line? Why can't I just bring the pet to the Next Step Adoption Center?
The volunteers at the NSAC are part of our adoptions team — they help people get to know the pets in our program and find the right one for their home and lifestyle. NSAC volunteers aren’t members of the rescue team and don’t know if we have available foster homes, so they can’t take in any animals brought to the NSAC.
I called the rescue line, but I just got voice mail and no one called me back.
Since ARFP is an all volunteer organization, our rescue team members also work fulltime regular jobs, so we use a voicemail system to answer rescue, adoptions, and administrative calls. We receive more than twenty calls a day on the rescue line, and our volunteers only have a couple of hours in the evening after work to answer them, so it can take us a while to get back to everyone. In some cases, if we don’t have an opening in a foster home, our volunteers will instead mail you a packet of information about finding good homes for pets.
