ADOPTION PROCESS

Cross Our Paws’ adop­tions begin with fill­ing out an adop­tion appli­ca­tion (must be over 23 years old to apply) fol­lowed by a tele­phone inter­view and home vis­it if we feel the appli­ca­tion is a good match for the ani­mal. All our res­cues are cared for in fos­ter homes and in order not to be too dis­rup­tive to our vol­un­teers, we pre-approve all appli­cants pri­or to a meet and greet. Our adop­tions start with a one to two week tri­al fos­ter to adopt peri­od to ensure that the ani­mal is a good match for your family.

Cross Our Paws Adop­tion Questionnaire-Application

Cross Our Paws gen­er­al­ly lim­its the adop­tions of our “spe­cial needs” ani­mals to the Low­er Main­land area so that we can assist with any issues that may arise. It is also a pol­i­cy if you have a yard, it must be secure at least in the rear. We do adopt to apartment/condo dwellers if stra­ta per­mits and the dog is suit­able to be in a mul­ti-fam­i­ly com­plex liv­ing arrange­ment. As we are all vol­un­teers we try to reply as quick­ly as pos­si­ble to all inquiries but it may take up to 48 hours to do so. To fol­low the adop­tion sta­tus of our adopt­able dogs please keep check­ing our Petfind­er site for updates and new res­cue posts.

Cross Our Paws requests an adop­tion dona­tion for all our res­cues as we could not res­cue with­out it. Your dona­tion will vary depend­ing on the ani­mals care and vet expens­es and age.  Your dona­tion will go towards help­ing pay for any vet­ting, care and oth­er mis­cel­la­neous expens­es we may have accrued while the ani­mal has been in our care. If the dona­tion exceeds the ani­mal’s vet­ting, care and trans­port, the remain­ing amount is always applied to oth­er dogs in need of res­cue and care. IMPORTANT NOTE: All pup­pies MUST be spayed/neutered no lat­er than 6 months (pri­or to puber­ty) at the res­cue’s vet which is presched­uled and manda­to­ry. Adopters are notified/reminded in advance via email of their alter­ation date. Fail­ure to com­ply will void the fos­ter-to-adopt agreement.

ADOPTION FEES

Pup­pies (under 1 yr) — $650 — $750
Dogs 1 to 7 years — $550 — $650
Senior dogs 8 years and up — $250 — $400

Kittens/cats under 2 years — $395
Cats  2 to 8  years -$350
Cats senior over 9 years — $250
Bond­ed pair of kit­tens — $700

Guinea Pigs — $20 or $35 for bond­ed pair
Rats — $15 or $25 for bond­ed pair

All dogs & cats come with the fol­low­ing at time of adoption:

Vac­ci­na­tion Cer­tifi­cate for basic  “core” vac­cines (please review core vac­cines for BC)

Proof of alter­ation — Spay/Neuter Certificate

Tat­too/Mi­cro-chip

De-worm­ing (if required)

Grooming/Shampoo Bath — de-flead if needed

Any history/information avail­able from fos­ter home or shelter

To down­load our appli­ca­tion, please click the link below or email us at crossourpaws@gmail.com

Please note: If you have applied for a spe­cif­ic dog and are curi­ous about the adop­tion sta­tus of that dog, please check the ani­mal’s Petfind­er bio. Updates will be post­ed there on a reg­u­lar basis. We thank you for your appli­ca­tion and ask that you con­tin­ue to check his/her Petfind­er bio as it will be post­ed there first if the dog has an adop­tion pend­ing. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, because our res­cue is 100% run by vol­un­teers, it is some­times dif­fi­cult for us to con­tact every appli­cant about the cur­rent sta­tus of the application/animal. Thank you for your understanding!

Cross Our Paws Adop­tion Questionnaire-Application

Before adopt­ing please con­sid­er the time and com­mit­ment that goes into car­ing for a pet. There are med­ical, food and train­ing expens­es etc. and more impor­tant­ly your pre­cious TIME. It’s also impor­tant to con­sid­er the breed of dog you are apply­ing for as well to ensure a great match for both. Many of our dogs are great with kids but some dogs are not suit­able to live with chil­dren which is some­thing to con­sid­er when apply­ing. If you are not famil­iar with the breed of dog you are inter­est­ed in research the breed before mak­ing your final decision.

To ensure you and your canine com­pan­ion are hap­py and con­tent and your dog knows what you expect of him/her enroll in obe­di­ence train­ing as soon as pos­si­ble (how­ev­er, don’t expect the above). Cross Our Paws Res­cue has many won­der­ful canine train­ers to rec­om­mend in your area.

Unless oth­er­wise stat­ed all adop­tion dona­tions are non-refund­able and goes towards cov­er­ing our vet­eri­nary and sup­ply costs.


 

About that fence — GSRBC (German Shepherd Rescue of BC) explains this policy so well:

GSRBC requires that if there is a yard, it must be secure­ly fenced for our adopt­ed dogs. Excep­tions to the fenc­ing pol­i­cy are occa­sion­al­ly made for “senior” dogs (age ten or old­er) and only on a case by case basis depend­ing on the needs of the indi­vid­ual dog.

GSRBC along with oth­er res­cue orga­ni­za­tions have adopt­ed this pol­i­cy to ensure the safe­ty of our res­cued dogs. We are rou­tine­ly quizzed on the rea­son­ing behind this pol­i­cy and have list­ed some of the most com­mon argu­ments we hear. With respect to Res­cue dogs in spe­cif­ic, we believe a fenced yard is nec­es­sary to ensure their long-lived hap­pi­ness and well being.

This does not mean that you have to have a yard in order to adopt. Some of the very best homes our dogs are liv­ing in have no yard at all, and there is no risk of them being out­side and off leash with the dan­gers of traf­fic, theft, etc.

Respons­es we some­times get:

I’ll train him/her not to run off.”

By nat­ur­al instinct, dogs live and love to chase things. A dog will run after just about any­thing that moves, just for the fun of it. Deer, squir­rels, birds, opos­sums, cats, and even a plas­tic bag float­ing in the wind rep­re­sents a row­dy game of chase to most fun lov­ing dogs. If there is no bound­ary (fence) to stop the dog, the game will con­tin­ue into the next city.

He/She will love us and nev­er want to leave.”

Most dogs are very social ani­mals they love every­thing and every­one. They will run up to any­thing to see if it will engage in a game or give a lov­ing pat. They are heed­less of things like a road­way with cars in between them and the chil­dren they see­ing play­ing ball across the street.

I’ll keep them on a leash at all times.”

Every­one deserves a safe place to run free, exer­cise and play. Pic­ture life con­stant­ly on a leash, nev­er being able to chase and pounce on a ball or just run some laps for the fun of it. With­out safe, secure bound­aries to romp in, a dog will become bored, hyper and destruc­tive. Dogs require exer­cise to main­tain healthy bod­ies and joints. With­out the abil­i­ty to run and play freely, they can become obese and out of shape. Reg­u­lar exer­cise keeps them fit and healthy.

I’ll take them to obe­di­ence class and teach them to heel.”

Even the most well trained dog still needs free space to do their own thing unen­cum­bered. Dogs are taught to “heel” (walk polite­ly by your side on a leash) and most dogs will do so very nice­ly. While this is fun for the per­son walk­ing the dog, it is not fun for the dog as their only means of exer­cise. Life would be very bor­ing if you had to spend your entire life walk­ing right beside some­one with­out ever get­ting to go where you want­ed to go, smell what you want­ed to smell, etc.

I’ll get a dog out of the pup­py stage so they won’t need to run.”

The old­er they get, the less exer­cise they require, how­ev­er, all dogs, be they 6 weeks or 16 years old love a dai­ly romp and the abil­i­ty to just kick up their heels a bit.

I’ll use elec­tri­cal or ‘invis­i­ble type’ fencing.”

As stat­ed before, most dogs love to chase things. Many excit­ed dogs will for­get about the shock or decide the shock is worth the fun and chase the deer, ball, child, etc. right out of the yard any­way. What they won’t do, is come back into the yard when it’s over because, now that the excite­ment of the chase is over, they know the shock is com­ing. In addi­tion, there have been reports of dogs “freez­ing” at the trans­mit­ter line and get­ting repet­i­tive­ly shocked over and over again.
This type of fenc­ing only affects the ani­mal wear­ing the spe­cial col­lar. It does not keep things out of the yard. It won’t stop oth­er dogs, ani­mals, peo­ple, etc. from com­ing into the yard and harm­ing, attack­ing, or steal­ing the dog.

The effec­tive­ness of the ‘fence’ is depen­dent on many variables:
The bat­ter­ies in the col­lar and their state of charge,
The dog keep­ing the col­lar on and in prop­er posi­tion and,
The pow­er sup­ply to the wiring remain­ing intact.

Any of these can go dead, be lost or inter­rupt­ed at any time with­out warn­ing, and ren­der the ‘fence’ use­less. Elec­tri­cal con­tain­ment does have mer­its and is very effec­tive at keep­ing dogs out of for­bid­den areas such as flowerbeds, gar­dens, cer­tain rooms/areas of the house, etc. elec­tri­cal con­tain­ment does not suf­fice as a pri­ma­ry bar­ri­er fence under COP pol­i­cy. We’d pre­fer it if our dogs did not get “shocked” at all.
Last­ly, let’s face real­i­ty, even the most dili­gent own­er has bad days, bad weath­er or is just too rushed.

Exam­ple #1: It’s mid­night, cold and rain­ing and the dog has to go out­side to potty…are you real­ly going to get dressed and take him/her for a walk?
Exam­ple #2: You’re hor­ri­bly sick in bed, the dog has to go out…the last thing you can pos­si­bly do is get up and take them out, nobody else is there…
Exam­ple #3: The alarm did­n’t go off, you’re late and you have a big meeting/test/etc. to give in 30 min­utes, there’s just no time for a walk…

So, just this once, you let them out “just to go and come right back while you stand there and watch…” Then, a squir­rel runs by, the dog takes off after it and you’re in no con­di­tion to chase it. Dog runs into street, and gets hit by car… OR Dog runs off and you can’t find it.

GSR­BC’s fenc­ing pol­i­cy is for the ben­e­fit and well being of the Dog. It is not meant to imply that all homes with­out fenc­ing are not capa­ble and dili­gent own­ers. Expe­ri­ence has taught us that dogs do best in fenced envi­ron­ments. A num­ber of dogs are sur­ren­dered to GSRBC because the own­ers don’t have fenc­ing, or have moved to unfenced prop­er­ties, and felt their dogs were not hap­py or doing well in that envi­ron­ment. GSR­BC’s sole inten­tion is to pro­vide the best, safest and most lov­ing home we can for our dogs in need. All dogs deserve a safe area to be able to run and play in.

A fenced yard is NOT a sub­sti­tute for exer­cise, and no dog should be left out­side to live there!