How are you assessing your adoptees?

When I had my own rescue in CA years ago, I would take whatever time was needed to assess the animals in my care to determine the best kinds of homes they would thrive in. I had no special technological skills to do this, however it got done. Sometimes it would take over a year to determine a certain animal's outcome. That didn't matter however, as I figured that the better I hit the nail on the head, the better the chances the newly placed animal would remain in that chosen home for the remainder of its natural life.

In fact only one dog came back during those 16 years. It was because I neglected to do an initial home visit to determine if the home was suitable, not because of a mistaken assessment. The home was not suitable, and the Adopter had lied to me regarding that. Lesson learned.....I never let that happen again. But that's another post for another day.

All I did was focus on the animal during normal routines and experiences throughout the day. Basically I let nature take its course. Barring actual fighting, for when it did occur I naturally nipped it in the bud right off. In the meanwhile I watched and learned, and noted the patterns developing.

For example; we had a female Scotty named Beatrice who tormented her own adult daughter relentlessly. When she wasn't doing that she was peeing or pooping in the middle of our bed. She was clearly sending, "I'm unhappy," messages to us as well as fighting for her spot in the world with her daughter. At about the age of 5 years she was adopted by a single mature woman who had a great deal of experience with Scotties, and had no other animals or humans living with her. This dog had not one behavior problem with this lady from day one, and lived to be 16 years old under her care.

We also had a female Chihuahua named Lucy. We had estimated her age to be about 8 or 9 years. She was quite set in her ways. She had no behavior problems, but she was not thriving in our home. She wanted to just sit in your lap all day, or at least be right by you at all times when you sat down. As our house was busy all day at the time, and noisy as well, she was disturbed by all the activity, and could never relax. On top of that she didn't like children and was nippy with them.

One day a family brought their elderly mother who was wheelchair bound to see her. This lady had had a little dog who had since died about a year before of old age. I asked her if I could put Lucy in her lap. She was frail, but confident, and said, "Yes," in a strong voice. We all stood around and watched as Lucy looked up at her in her cautious way. The lady reached out very slowly, but not fearfully and began caressing Lucy's head and body. Lucy closed her eyes and bowed her head down, and I kid you not she was smiling. In the next instant Lucy was curled up in her lap as contented as she could be. Tears were rolling down my face. I knew it was a perfect match.

Do you have stories to share? Please do...someone might need to hear about it. They might be stuck in finding that perfect home for one of their charges.