How do you recover costs

ferocity302

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OK, I have an extremely newbie question here...

I would absolutely love to do more in kitten rescue and adoption. We do have a rescue kitty that adopted us at our backdoor a while back and blessed us with 6 babies.

How in the world do you recover the cost of all the cats that you rescue or take in?

When adopting do you ask for a fee or are they free to the adopting families? Do you go through an agency and they take care of the finances?

What if you wanted to be independent, is there resources for help?

I've always wanted to do something like this and never have had the chance to do it. Although we are kind of in a rescue situation right now, until I came here I didn't really look at it like that in my past. But, if it's something I might do on a regular basis, the food and vet cost could be high.

Any ideas?
 

trouts mom

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Wow, I commend you for wanting to do that
That is awesome!!

I hope the mods will move this to the other forum so the most experienced people will see this..I think they will be able to help you alot!

Good luck!
 

consumerkitty

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Please always require an adoption fee. "Free to a Good Home" attracts the worst sort of people (people called bunchers who sell kittens and puppies to research labs).

You could foster for a rescue group in your area. They usually cover most of the expenses.

Bless you for caring enough to do something to help these precious babies!
 
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ferocity302

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Yeah, I always worry about the "free to a good home" in any pet.

I've heard horror stories of hunters also using them to train their dogs to track. Which means they are released in the woods and found in which case it's a bad outcome or they are never found and left behind which is still a very bad outcome.

That is one of my biggest fears and why sometimes it's hard for me to let them go even if I think the home is a good one. If it's someone I know, it's not so bad but strangers scare me! LOL
 

tnkittymom

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Originally Posted by ferocity302

OK, I have an extremely newbie question here...

I would absolutely love to do more in kitten rescue and adoption. We do have a rescue kitty that adopted us at our backdoor a while back and blessed us with 6 babies.

How in the world do you recover the cost of all the cats that you rescue or take in?

When adopting do you ask for a fee or are they free to the adopting families? Do you go through an agency and they take care of the finances?

What if you wanted to be independent, is there resources for help?

I've always wanted to do something like this and never have had the chance to do it. Although we are kind of in a rescue situation right now, until I came here I didn't really look at it like that in my past. But, if it's something I might do on a regular basis, the food and vet cost could be high.

Any ideas?
Hi! This is wonderful of you to consider this. I will tell you based on my experience of doing rescue for about 10yrs. I preferred to do my own rescuing vs working with an agency, even though I was involved with several groups (not in being a member, but communication wise). I can honestly tell you that I never let a pet go for free and I never broke even with expenses, especially with cats. I always recouped some of the money that we put into them, though. The reward of knowing that I placed an animal into a loving home was the greatest reward I could get. As an example, we rescued a dog about a month ago and she went to her new home last night. I had $139 in vet expenses and I let her go for an adoption fee of $75, so you see I didn't come near breaking even, especially when I had also provided food and grooming for this dog, but it was a wonderful home and that's what we wanted for her. With cats, at least in my area, I would make even less back, because there are way too many "Free Kittens" around here.

Another thing that I highly recommend is making up a contract. In the contract I used, I always got the new owners information and I had them to sign it agreeing to take proper care of the animal and if, for any reason at all, they were unable to keep the animal, he/she must be returned to us. Now we did a lot of screening prior to adopting and I can honestly say that out of 153 dogs and cats that we placed, we only had 3 to come back and that was due to unforeseen allergies. Now I can't say that more won't come back, but as we stand right now, our stats are good.


One last thing, if your area is like mine, you will get bombarded with cats really quick and you do have to learn to say no. That was the hardest thing for me to do, but I had to be realistic. If I took in more than I could handle, then I was no better than the people out there that don't take care of their animals. I finally had to realize that we can't save them all no matter how hard we try. Believe me, the harder I tried, the more there were that needed me. Rescue work is not easy, but the rewards of knowing that you have helped an animal makes it all worth it.
Once again, thank you for wanting to be a part of rescue.
 

dragoriana

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Animal aid did that too. Anyone who wanted to foster the new kitties were provided with food/formula and any medication for the 8 or so weeks before they came back to be sold. You are very kind to want to help. Id love to do it to but the circumstances here now i cant unfortunately.
 
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ferocity302

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Our area is really bad with cats. Our humane society and animal regulation authority both are overflowing with cats.

I have heard that supposedly there was a cat rescue that had started but it was a small blurb on the news one night with not much information.

I have caught and had a feral momma spayed so I'm familiar with the Feral Cat Coalition and Alley Cat Allies.

You all here have inspired me so much! I have a friend that I know both of us have dreamed of doing this for a long time. She has been referred to this site and is very impressed. I know that if I needed a hand, she'd be the first to step up as she has rescued many herself as well.

I think I'm going to start doing some research and see what all is available in our area for resources.
 

bonnie1965

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I'm not sure where you are in Oregon, but there are several in the Portland area. I know of one member here who volunteers at the Multnomah County Animal Shelter. I know they use foster homes. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
 
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ferocity302

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Originally Posted by Bonnie1965

I'm not sure where you are in Oregon, but there are several in the Portland area. I know of one member here who volunteers at the Multnomah County Animal Shelter. I know they use foster homes. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
I'm in the Eugene/Springfield area. We have Lane County Animal Regulation and we also have Greenhill Humane Society. I've dealt with both in the past and prefer the practices of Greenhill.
 

jen

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I usually barely break even on things. But I cut out vet costs as much as possible. I examine, take vitals, do fecals/deworm, and vaccinate myself. No vets involved. I use the low cost clinic for spaying and neutering, FIV/FeLV testiing and any other problems that may come up. Each cat usually costs me a certain amount and I ask a set adoption fee of a little more then that. I do this for the occasional cat who needs extra care or work, to help with food and litter costs, and simply for anything cat related that may come up.

I am very interested to know if there are any ways I can get help with this stuff. One of the teachers I had in my first quarter of school told me all about where to go for help. She never got back with me but now that you reminded me about it I will ask her on monday...
 

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I'll just let you know what I have done (and I'm a relative newbie).]

I run a feral trap-neuter-return program through my (now ex) workplace, and they gave us a $3000 grant to do so. I'm still very involved with it, and will continue to keep TNRing even though I don't work there anymore.

I have a good relationship with the local shelter which has a low cost spay and neuter clinic, so I get the ferals spayed/neutered there, and also get them vaccinated/de-flead, and FIV/FeLV tested if they look sick, and then the shelter bills the company for all services performed which comes out of the budget.

I have caught one kitty so far who wasn't feral, and already neutered, so I got him FIV and FeLV tested, vaccinated and microchipped through the shelter, and was able to get them to bill the company again, then put him in a foster home through someone else who works there, and she decided to adopt him.

If she didn't adopt him, I had the choice of putting him up for adoption through the shelter (where they would pay all other costs, screen potential adopters and take an adoption fee), fostering him myself and taking him to adoption fairs through a local cat rescue group, where they would take an adoption fee but reimburse me for any costs, or I could try to find an adopter myself and charge a fee.

As this girl was fostering him and obviously was a great home, and really helped me out (I couldn't look after him for a week because we had people staying with us in the spare room he'd been staying in), I didn't charge an adoption fee.

I was going to get him vet checked and just charge her the cost of a vet check, but she asked if she could do it and take him to her local vet so all his records would be there. She took him in at 8am the next Saturday morning, then went and bought a heap of new stuff for him (I'd lent her a bunch of my stuff when she was fostering him), so I decided she was responsible and caring, and paying enough already for his welfare, so I wouldn't charge her. I really hadn't paid much out myself so any money I took I was just going to donate to the cat rescue group anyway.

Edit: I also did up an adoption contract that the rescue group gave me, and I edited it to suit me, and got her to sign it to make it more formal. If you want a copy to use yourself, PM me your email address and I'll send it along.
 
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ferocity302

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All of this has just inspired me so much!!

I talked to my fiance tonight and he said that he would build an outside area for the cats to play in and such. We are already doing some remodeling on the house so we are going to integrate the kitty door in to this area in our planning! So, the kitties will be able to come in and go "out" when ever they want to.

I'm so excited!! He has just as big a heart as I do. I'm so lucky to have his support.

I would love any kind of contract ideas or samples that anyone has. I also found out that one of the other rescue homes that are in the area is a lady that I knew from a previous job. I'm going to contact her and check things out with her. I might either volunteer through her or start my own as I have some ideas and I've already picked out a name for it and everything. LOL

Yes, I do dive right in when I get an idea.
 

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Good on you for wanting to help. I personally have to go with a group, as I can't do it financially and space wise by myself, but hopefully in time that might change. At the moment, I do use the rescue for most of the costs, but there are times when I pay for what I can. It might be worth going with a group initially, till you get into it, as it can be very hard at times. Good luck, and do keep us posted.
 
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ferocity302

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I have joined a group here locally and I'm so glad I did. It's just starting and everyone is so wonderful with the same goals in mind.
 

dragonfly183

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i do this and i have never recovered any costs at all. ever!!! I have learned herbal medicine for animals and how to employ it. the red Cross offers an animal emergency program which came in very handy when rescuing a kitten from a car accident last year. The internet is your friend,. Look up a sick cats symptoms on it before taking it to a vet. find a vet willing to work with you. My vet will let me come in and describe the symptoms and then he will give me options of what might be wrong and i decide which one i think it might be and then i get meds for it. very simple and usually less than 10 dollars. You also have to know when there really is nothing more than can be done for an animal, by a vet or anyone and just be there to offer comfort as it slips beyond the veil.
 
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