Home to Home Adoption: The Shelter-Free Way to Rehome Your Pet

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Are you in a situation in which you need to rehome your pet? We’re so sorry to hear that. Home-to-home pet adoption is an excellent alternative to surrendering your animal to a shelter. This method limits the stress on your pet and ensures it goes to a loving person or family. Keep reading to learn how home-to-home adoption works and what you should consider before doing so.

What Is Home-to-Home Pet Adoption? 

Home-to-home pet adoption is a modern and innovative approach to connecting pet owners who need to rehome their beloved animals. It allows them to connect with potential adopters directly without the pets ever having to enter a shelter environment. This approach aims to reduce the stress and anxiety often experienced by pets when transitioning to a shelter. Also, it offers a more comfortable and seamless experience for both the animals and their owners. A lot of shelters assist with this process. 

In addition, there’s a website dedicated to direct rehoming called Home to Home™. They facilitate these direct connections through social media and networks. Current pet owners are able to showcase their pets with detailed descriptions and photographs, while prospective adopters can search for their ideal companion. 

By enabling pets to move directly from one environment to their furever home, trauma associated with surrendering pets is reduced. 

Is a Home to Home Adoption Better Than Adopting From a Pet Shelter?

Deciding between a home-to-home adoption and adopting from a traditional pet shelter depends on individual circumstances and preferences. Obviously, animals in shelters need a family too. Adopting from a shelter provides an opportunity to rescue animals in need and support the important work shelters do for homeless pets. Plus, it frees up space in shelters for more animals. So, we’re certainly not recommending avoiding shelters or rescue organizations. 

Home to home pet adoption offers a unique advantage by allowing animals to transition directly to another person in situations where someone needs to surrender their pet. This approach works well for people who don’t want to give up their pet but need to due to special circumstances such as housing changes, medical issues, economic burdens, etc. It helps ensure a better match between the pet’s personality and the adopter’s lifestyle since the person surrendering the pet can share their story. 

On the other hand, shelters often provide medical care, behavioral assessments, and a controlled environment for interactions. Ultimately, both options contribute to finding loving households for pets, and the choice between them depends on the adopter’s preferences. Every pet deserves a family.

What Are Reasons for Rehoming a Pet?

There are various reasons why pet owners might find themselves needing to rehome their beloved animals. Changes in living situations, such as moving to a new place that doesn’t allow pets or experiencing financial difficulties, can create challenges in providing adequate care. Personal health issues or the inability to manage a pet’s specific medical needs might also necessitate rehoming. In addition, life transitions like marriage, divorce, aging, or having children can lead to changes over time that one didn’t anticipate. 

It’s important to note that pet owners who choose rehoming often do so with the best interests of their pets in mind. There’s no shame in finding a new family for your pet if it’ll be better off in a different situation. Aiming to ensure it receives the care, attention, and environment it deserves should be a top priority.

Pro Tip: Sometimes people rehome senior dogs because they’re not able to keep up with their needs or medical issues. Adopting a senior dog can be very rewarding if you have the time to do so.

How Do Home to Home Adoptions Work? 

How home to home pet adoptions work usually depends on the situation. It could be that you know a friend or family member who will take your dog or cat. Or word of mouth through your community or place of employment. But for the purposes of this article, we’ll use the Home to Home organization as an example. 

Home to Home is an online, interactive platform. You can post pets in need of a placement and find them to adopt or foster. They also network with shelters to ensure every dog or cat is loved and cared for. 

The steps to rehome a pet on their website are first to select a participating shelter near you so that more people in your area see your listing. But if there’s not a shelter, you can still upload photos and create a profile. Once you’re approved, it will be published and shared throughout their network. You receive a direct email from anyone interested in your pet and you have the ability to respond privately. Listings are published for thirty days and then automatically removed. Or if your pet is rehomed, you can manually remove the listing. 

You can also find a temporary foster home for your pet through the Home to Home organization. In doing so, you’ll be in charge of each step in the process versus having the help and advisement of an animal shelter or rescue program. 

What Questions Should You Ask When Doing a Home to Home Adoption? 

When doing a home to home pet adoption, be equipped with appropriate questions no matter if you’re rehoming, adopting, or fostering. Let’s take a look at the most important information to gain during the process. 

Health Records

Ask for health records. Having them is extremely beneficial. Sometimes dogs or cats won’t have up-to-date information, but ask for whatever they do have. You can also request the name of their veterinarian and then contact the vet to obtain records for the animal. 

Behavioral Issues

Determine if the person you’re adopting from can identify any known behavioral issues. For example, if you’re adopting a dog, ask if it’s potty trained. Other information to gain includes if it has separation anxiety, if it’s a chewer, whether or not there are certain things it destroys in the house, how it gets along with other pets, or if it’s a good leash walker. 

Current Routine

Be sure to ask in-depth questions about the pet’s routine. The more you can minimize the stress of a transition the better for both you and the animal. Keeping a routine is a vital step in that process. If you’re adopting a dog, find out if it’s crated, how many meals it has a day, and when it typically eats. When adopting a cat, ask about mealtimes and if it’s an indoor-outdoor cat how often and when it likes to go outside.

Meet and Greet

Meeting your potential pet in person can reveal a lot of things. Ask if you can do a meet and greet before committing to the adoption. While a dog or cat may be timid during an initial reaction, you can usually tell if it will be a good fit for your household. We do recommend meeting in a public place, taking someone with you, telling someone where you are, and taking precautions when doing a meet and greet with a stranger.

Rehoming Agreement

A rehoming agreement puts in writing the transfer of ownership. If you go through an organization like Home to Home, they provide an agreement. But if you’re doing the rehoming process on your own, we still recommend putting in writing that you are the official new owner of the animal and the previous owner no longer has rights to the pet. This is a safeguard for you and is in the pet’s best interest. 

Can You Foster a Pet Home to Home?

Yes, you can foster a pet home to home. There are no laws or reasons you can’t temporarily house your pet with someone else whether it’s to wait for adoption or because you’re unable to care for the animal for a period of time. 

Suggested Reading: Fostering is a great way to help an animal. In fact, we wrote an article all about it. Check out the beginner’s guide to becoming a foster dog parent.

Keep Pets Out of Shelters With Home to Home Adoption

Home to home pet adoption is an excellent way to keep pets out of shelters. It helps them transition better, minimizes the risk of disease, and prevents overcrowding in shelters. Rehoming is never easy but it can be a lot smoother when the pet simply goes from one environment to another. 

Have you considered adoption by means other than a shelter? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.