Intake | Hope For Pets Rescue

The Intake Process

Welcome to Hope for Pets Rescue! If you've been sent a link to this page, that means you recently reached out to us to surrender an animal, and we have agreed to work with you to find a good home for the pet in need. The purpose of this page is to outline our intake process and guide you through the steps necessary to get the animal into our system. If you have any questions along the way, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. You can email us at contact@hopeforpetsrescue.com, or text us at 903-309-3796.

Please keep in mind that our acceptance of your animal into our program is likely contingent upon your agreement to foster the animal until it has been adopted. The adoption process can take as little as a week to as long as a year. We need you to be aware that these things don't always happen overnight! Please be prepared to foster for however long it takes. We do not keep spare foster homes open and will likely not be able to remove the animal from your custody prior to adoption.

STEP #1 - SURRENDER INQUIRY FORM: There's a good chance you have already completed our Surrender Inquiry Form, but if you haven't, you can find it here. Please submit the Surrender Inquiry Form and then return to this page to continue to Step #2.

STEP #2 - COLLECTING INFORMATION & MEDICAL RECORDS: There are several documents that need to be completed before we can take custody of your animal. We'll need each of the following items completed and/or sent to us before we can finalize the intake process.

Medical records - Please email a copy (or have your vet send a copy) of all medical records for your animal to us at contact@hopeforpetsrescue.com. You can also text a picture of the records to 903-309-3796 if that's easier for you. Please make sure to include a copy of your rabies certificate and tag from the most recent rabies vaccination. If you have never taken the animal to the vet, you may skip this step.
Intake Questionnaire - Whether you've owned this animal all its life or it's a stray that wandered up yesterday, you will know more about this animal than we do. We need you to share as much information with us as possible to help us get to know the animal and ensure that its new home is a good fit. Please fill out our Intake Questionnaire, and then return to this page to continue the intake process.
Release of Ownership - We'll need you to sign over custody of the animal to use before we can adopt it out. Please send a completed and signed Ownership Release Form to us at contact@hopeforpetsrescue.com. Then return to this page to continue the intake process. You should be able to fill out the form digitally on your phone or computer.
Say CHEESE! - We publish our adoptable animals on several adoption websites, social media sites, and through other networking avenues. The key to getting good attention and faster adoptions is GOOD PICTURES! We cannot stress enough how important it is that the pictures you provide to us are of good content and quality. We need at least one "full body" picture, and one close-up picture of your pet's face. Here are a few tips:
- Make sure the background is free from distractions, messes, etc.
- Try to let the picture show your pet's personality.
- Have the animal look straight into the camera, especially for the close-up picture.
- Show the animal in a relaxed state - curled up on the couch or playing with its favorite toy outside.
- When possible, send fun videos as well. Potential adopters love videos!
- When in doubt, send several pictures. We'll pick the ones we think will work best.
Surrender donation- While we charge an adoption fee when we rehome animals, it doesn't fully cover our operating costs. Unless we've told you otherwise, a $100 surrender donation is requested before we can complete the intake process. You can make the surrender donation here. If you are unable to make the surrender donation, please let us know. Once done, return to this page to continue!

STEP #3 - FOSTER PAPERWORK: As mentioned before, we generally ask that you foster the animal until adopted. If we have already discussed some other arrangement with you and you won't be fostering for us, you may skip this step. Otherwise, please first review our Foster Handbook and complete our online Foster Application to help us gather a little information about you. Then, please send a completed and signed Foster Contract to us at contact@hopeforpetsrescue.com. If you have already fostered an animal for us before, you may skip the Foster Application and only complete the Foster Contract.

STEP #4 - INTAKE APPOINTMENT: The final step in the intake process is to assess the health of the animal and complete any necessary vetting. We'll need to schedule an intake appointment at Kimbrough Animal Hospital in Longview for a health exam and to get any necessary vaccinations. We prefer that you provide transportation to and from the appointment. A member of our rescue will likely meet you at the appointment to insert a microchip and make sure everything is taken care of. Please send us an email to let us know a few days/times that you are available to take the animal to the intake appointment. We will do our best to schedule the appointment at a time that is convenient for you.

*If you are able to provide us with documentation showing that ALL the following vetting has already been completed, we can skip the intake appointment:

The animal has been spayed/neutered;
The animal is up to date on rabies, bordatella, and DHPP (or similar) vaccinations;
The animal has been heartworm tested in the last 6 months; AND
The animal is current on heartworm prevention.

You can send us one email with all of the requested information, or one email for each step. We know there's a lot involved in our intake process and we hope to make it as easy on you as possible! Once all of the above items have been completed/received, we will send you a confirmation email letting you know that the intake process has been completed and that we're ready to list your animal for adoption. Let us know if you have any questions, and we'll watch for your emails and completed forms. Thanks again! We look forward to working with you!

THINGS TO REMEMBER!!!

Once you sign and return the ownership release form, the dog(s) will officially be in our program. At that point, you are not permitted to sell them, adopt them out, give them away, etc. without them going through our full adoption process. They may not be housed by anyone other than you without our prior consent. If you fail to comply with this, you will be responsible for the full adoption fee for each dog. Please have any interested parties contact us directly.
We may give you a chance to provide input on some decisions we make (adoption decisions, etc) but the decision will ultimately be made by our board.
We will invite you to bring the dog(s) to local adoption events. We try to have events once per month, weather permitting. We may occasionally have more than one per month or skip a month.
We do a lot of out-of-state adoptions through partnerships with other rescues. All partner rescues are reputable and abide by our minimum requirements for adopters. We may list your dog(s) for adoption with out of state partner rescues unless you ask us not to.