Homechecking
As we show on this website, there are many ways to help an unfortunate animal on its way to a new forever home. Meeting a potential new family for a cat, dog or rabbit who has had the worst start to life has to be one of the most rewarding though, as you can so easily imagine the lovely future they could have with these caring people, if the environment is right of course.
When people get in touch because they are interested in re-homing an animal from us, we initially chat with them on the phone, then if all sounds ok we allocate a local person to visit them. We never give anybody one of our animals without thoroughly checking they are both in a suitable situation and that their homes are right for the animal in question, and always need help with this essential task.
We have a full questionnaire to go through so you don’t need to think of the questions yourself, and we always have people interested in carrying out home checks come along with one of our experienced volunteers first. That way you can see how it’s done, get a feel for what to look out for, and importantly what should set off alarm bells. Once you’ve gained the confidence to go out on your own, we are sure you will find it as rewarding as we all do.
Again all the My Forever Home team carry out homechecks, and there is nothing quite like seeing how keen a family are to save an animal, especially the dog who has been rescued from a ‘put to sleep’ situation in a pound. As with the fostering ‘animal auntie’, we do keep in touch and it is just wonderful to see a previously stick-thin and nervous animal thriving in their new life! Our chief homecheck guru Natalie, who has done absolutely dozens of these, says “It has brought happy tears to my eyes many many times.”
We are aware that some rescues do not carry out home checks but we believe this to be an essential part of animal rescue and that it’s quite frankly irresponsible if they are not done; the rescue could be putting an animal into a worse situation than they came from!
If you feel you would like to help complete the journey to a happy life for a lucky animal in your local area, please get in touch today. We look forward to hearing from you.
