Frequently Asked Questions

What is your adoption process?

First step: Fill out our adoption application.
(Please be sure to fill it out completely and accurately. We do run full legal background checks to ensure all information is accurate. If questions are answered inaccurately/untruthfully your app will be automatically kicked out! If filled out untruthfully you will be banned from adopting, indefinitely. Application screenings can take anywhere from 3 to 5 days so please be patient. This depends on our application load. We are only a couple of volunteers handling this entire organization. Note: We do call and speak with your vet/landlords and references so please be truthful. We check deeds for landlord information as well. Once processed, screened and approved (THIS CAN TAKE SEVERAL DAYS SO PLEASE BE PATIENT. WE WORK AS FAST AS WE POSSIBLY CAN) we contact the applicant via email with an official approval for adoption. YOU MUST KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR SPAM/JUNK FOLDER OR YOU MAY MISS US AS WE END UP THERE OFTEN. After receiving the adoption application, processing, screening, and sending out our approval email once you respond at that time we can begin to discuss the adoption and make arrangements. Once adoption is secured we have legally binding contracts that must be signed before you can take your dog home. This is filled out and signed the day you receive your animal, before leaving. If you are in Illinois and the puppy or dog you are interested in adopting is still in Arkansas, to reserve/hold for one of our biweekly pick up dates, we require a $175.00 deposit/reservation fee (This is NOT an added cost so adopters are only paying $175 of total adoption fee and pay the remaining at pickup. If in Illinois and you are interested in a foster commitment (FOR NEW FOSTERS ONLY) We require a $100 deposit that is instantly refunded when you pick up your Foster animal.

Refunds

Please know, TOTFP must ALWAYS take the dog or puppy back if you can no longer keep.

 Your adoption deposit fee is fully refundable if something serious were to happen to the puppy/dog or if our vet finds a serious problem during the exam and adopters then want to opt out. This is issued immediately. If after reserving/placing a deposit down on an animal the foster/adopter "changes their mind" they do not get the deposit back. This harms the dogs as previously stated. When reserved for pickups we take them down off all of our sites so they are no longer being advertised or receiving inquiries/applications and turn other potential adopters away. It potentially costs them a home, sometimes for long periods of time. We also have paperwork invested and spend money on them with the health exams and certifications for said adopters reservation. Please be certain before placing a deposit that you are serious. Your adoption fee can be refunded if once getting the dog home the adopter decides they do not want the dog within the first week depending on the reason. This must go before the board for approval. If approved then at that time the adoption fee will be refunded once that puppy is adopted out again minus $50.00 which is non refundable but can be used towards another dog/puppy if done so within 90 days! Your deposit for reservation and adoption fee are seperate. Payouts/Refunds begin to be sent out at the beginning of each month and can take a couple days. For your sterilization reimbursement, this is the same, cut off would be the last week prior to the beginning of the month. If sent in the last week then this would roll over to the next month. For adoption fee refunds exceptions can be made for "partial refunds" if it's been longer than one week and adopter wants to return but this is case by case and must be approved by the board

Are your dogs/puppies vetted prior to adoption?

 Yes, all our dogs/puppies leave up to date on vaccines, wormed at least twice. As a courtesy we now microchip so your animal will come microchipped. Occasionally our mc orders are backed up and they do not come in on time. In those cases we mc for our adopters at any of our adoption events held every other Saturday at Pet Supply Plus or we can schedule a time through the week to meet you and administer. All adults are already altered unless health issues or appointment circumstances prevent this and if so they are adopted out on a foster to adopt contract with the adoption being final once said animal is spayed/neutered! Puppies under 4 months are adopted out on an alter contract that must be done at 4 to 6 months of age unless adopters provide Tails with a statement from their vet stating it should wait and why. If done within the means of the sterilization contract then you will receive your $100 sterilization refund. Our vet will not do pediatric alters unless special circumstances arise. He recommends alters not be done on young puppies due to anesthesia risks but at 4 months of age or older,  large breed puppies most vets recommend this done at a year of age due to the risk of negative health effects on large breed dogs such as issues with bone/joint growth etc. Adoptions w an added alter contract are not complete and considered a "Foster to Adopt" until this is done. If you fail to abide by the  contract you would be in breech of our contract and could legally lose your dog or puppy and be responsible for any monies Tails is out due to compensation, vet visits as well as a the breech of contract fee. Being we are a sanctuary/rescue with 27 years experience working with our vet closely we give all vaccines (except for rabies) and wormer medications in house at the facility under the guidance and direction of our vet, Dr Bill Nixon 870-269-4242, Nixon Animal Hospital. This is common practice with almost all shelters and rescues. Vaccines are not regulated. We order our vaccines from the same vet med supply store that our vet orders theirs from, EXACT same vaccines and have them shipped overnight on ice. Immediately they are placed in the fridge upon arrival. Vaccines are handled 100% properly. We are very careful and follow exact protocol for storage. As stated we have over 20 years experience working with dogs/ puppies and their care/medical. Keep in mind vets are "FOR PROFIT" businesses and have extremely large markups on vaccines and all other medications. Charities are "NOT FOR PROFIT" as we are not in this to make money for personal profits, but save lives. We, nor any other shelter, could save even half the lives we do save if we were paying major marked up prices for unregulated medicines. Vaccines are around $2 to $4 a vaccine, this is what your vet pays for them. We buy in bulk the same way vet clinics do. In house medicine, under the direction of our veterinarians, save us thousands and enable us to save many many lives. :) 

Do we guarantee your dog/puppy's health?

We do our very best to make certain every dog and puppy is healthy prior to leaving. It is impossible for ANY rescue or shelter to promise perfection. Each dog does have a thorough exam along with any age appropriate testing needed to ensure their health and will always be up to date, per age, on the core vaccines. Once leaving Tails possession if within three days adopters think something is wrong (adopters must first read over the informational form in their folders we provide where we go over what is normal and what is not normal the first few days in a new home and if it is something not covered there) adopters are to contact us and we will schedule them in at our vet for a health check and cover this. If the adopter decides to go to their own vet, we cannot cover this but if at this exam, something is found to be wrong *****actual tests performed with proven diagnosis ****** we do not cover guess work with vet visits only truly tested and confirmed issues***** that we must receive paperwork on*****We, at that time, can provide any medications needed if medications prescribed are in our common stock meds we keep for our fur kiddos. (You are responsible for picking this up from us and this time can be scheduled). We have stocked most of the same medicines that vet clinics have. If it is a medication we do not have in stock we will cover the cost of that said medicine once receiving receipts along with vetting paperwork. Remember as stated above, vets are for profits and have extremely large markups on their medications. We purchase stock bottles and get it all at cost so this saves us a lot of money which enables us to save a lot more lives and help people by saving them unnecessary money. For example, there is just simply no reasonable reason to pay $60 for a two week course of medicine that we have in stock that only costs $2.00 dollars. (Again for profit vs non profit) diff causes but it makes total sense when people are made aware. :) This must be emailed to us immediately, all vetting paperwork with tests and findings so we are able to send to our vet for counsel prior to any payments/refunds being made.

Tails is to be notified immediately if any issue or concern were to arise once you get your puppy/dog home. However, we are here for our adopters for life and will always be available and help in any way we possibly can.. Once a Tails dog ALWAYS a Tails dog and we don't stop loving them just because they go home.. You adopt from Tails we become a big family and we will do anything in our power for one of our fur kiddos and our adopters. ❤️

Additional Transport Information

💥💥Adopters must be available to pick up their dog or puppy as soon as our van gets back into Illinois unless other arrangements have been made.

The day before, the day of, and the day after a scheduled transport those of us at the rescue in Ar and Illinois are totally unavailable. There are only two of us and we have full care of all the dogs on site including the office. Our vet appointments and all extra paperwork that must be done prior to a transport. In order to prepare and stay on top of everything, our transports, we must shut down.

The day before the scheduled transport we contact our adopters to make sure we have connected. This is where you will receive transport updates, ETA updates etc STARTING THE MORNING OF TRANSPORT once we leave the rescue and head towards Illinois. (WE DO NOT REACH OUT ANY OTHER TIME ABOUT THE TRANSPORT. AGAIN, WE CONNECT THE DAY BEFORE THE SCHEDULED DATE THAT YOU WILL ALREADY HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO CONNECT ONLY AND THEN THE VERY FIRST UPDATE, ETA, IS GIVEN THE DAY OF TRANSPORT WHEN WE LEAVE THE RESCUE. THAT IS WHEN TRANSPORT UPDATES BEGIN.)

The morning of transport we are unable to give any updates until we are loaded and on the road.

It is a 10/11 hour drive between Illinois and Arkansas.

Please, no texting/calling/emailing the day of transport until WE FIRST TEXT YOU letting you know we have left out.

We are not able to answer any emails or take any calls AT ALL during. Especially, the day of, as we are very busy loading dogs and do not have anyone available for chatting. It takes all hands on deck..

We assure you we keep this updated as soon as we are on our way and have information, the ETA...Once we text THEN all adopters and fosters can text all they and ask any and all questions they want ❤️. 

Please do not continue to ask times and ETAS once we have given you this information. Once we begin the updates the day of transport please do not continue asking for updates or ETAS because I stated we give the very first update when transport leaves the rescue headed towards Illinois. We then have to wait for our drivers to update us which they do about every 2 to 3 hours. Each and every update we get we will relay to you. Until we get the update because we are not the ones driving we simply DO NOT and WILL NOT know. When we do know you will know every single update. :) We all follow the transport together from the moment they leave to the time they arrive.

The last ETA update is normally around 30 minutes to 1 hour from the destination. You will know way ahead of time the EXACT time the transport will be there for pickup.

ALL information will be given there so just relax and wait for the exciting updates, once we start the updates everyone is welcome to discuss or ask any questions they may have. :)

💥 Vermont Adopters we will make the transport arrangements with HEARTS and as soon as this is scheduled we will then send you instructions and the exact date you will receive your dog. Our Director there, Veronica, will meet the van and make arrangements with you to pick up your new fur kiddo the day prior to the scheduled transport date

Deposits: Why we require new foster deposits and "Hold" deposits on adoptions.

Transports are costly, each costing well over $1, 000.00.  (If anyone would ever like to see our receipts of each transport, we are an open book, just reach out to us). There is a lot of work and money that goes into preparing them for transport and their new homes. For new fosters it is a security deposit, an assurance you WILL show up to pick up your foster when we get there. This prevents us from holding pups, which we have done in the past, turning other interested applicants down for people to only decide at the last minute that they do not want the dog or puppy or do not want to Foster after us having already invested a lot of time, work, paperwork, and money into the reservation. This happened to us way too often and due to those situations unfortunately we had to stop any holds based just off people's words without a deposit. It hurts our animals and their journey to finding new homes not to mention the reasoning listed above. This cost us money as well as time, paperwork always has to be specifically filled out in adopter or foster name with their specific information we also have to have a last health check which cost us financially each time prior to our transport. Before developing this policy we had instances (to many for comfort) where we got all the way up there to Illinois (we are 100% Foster based only and have nowhere for them to go if people do not show up, we have no facility there) and people did not show up. This put us in a very bad bind and each time ended up costing us boarding fees. People can be very dishonest and very inconsiderate of others, even animals so this is why we are no longer able to do that and require deposits. We must know you are serious. There is a lot of work and money that goes into preparing them for transport and the transport itself. The deposit must be made or we cannot hold or approve you to foster, if you're new.  Once approvals are sent out via email we highly recommend deposits because whoever reserves first gets to adopt the pup or dog. It is best to reserve right away once you're sent your adoption approval if you are sure about a specific dog or puppy. Their availability can change at anytime, even within 5 minutes. Sometimes we get multiple apps on the same animal around the same time. More than one applicant can be approved. Whoever reserves first, gets the animal due to Tails no hold policy. Reserving a puppy/dog is not a "Have to" but we cannot hold or transport for pickup without this fee unless you have signed up to be a foster for said animal. Fosters must pay a $100.00 good faith refundable deposit. This is refunded as soon as you meet us to pick up your foster, immediately/the same day. :)  This is ensures us you are serious and will for certain be there when we arrive. We cannot risk a no show as this is very hard on us when it happens not to mention unnecessary stress on the animal traveling 10 plus hours. We have no facility in Illinois, we are 100% foster dependent. Potential adopters are welcome to wait and email us the day after each transport to see what animals are still available and if we have had any fosters open up in Illinois where we are able to send a few up. If so then they would then be available for pre physical meets. We just cannot hold onto or guarantee a specific puppy will be available without the deposit