• You must be at least 21 years old and provide valid photo identification (e.g. a driver's license).
• You must be willing to make a 10-20 year commitment to the dog/cat.
• Animals cannot be adopted as gifts unless the new care-giver is involved in the process
• You must familiarize yourself with your homeowner insurance policies since many of them have breed bans.
• If you rent an apartment or house, it must state in your lease that dogs/cats are allowed. Be aware that some places have weight or breed restrictions/bans.
• Every animal adopted from Homeward Bound must and shall reside indoors, in the adopter's home, and live as a family member and companion only. This does not mean that the dog can be kenneled outdoors and come in at night or that a cat can roam around outdoors — to us, that does not qualify as living indoors. Unless the director of Homeward Bound gives written consent, we will NOT place one of our dogs in a home that is planning on keeping their dog outside more than 25% of the time. The dog will not be kept outdoors during the adopter's working hours, or at any other time left alone outdoors while the adopter is not at home. Being a housedog means just that — it does not mean garages, dog houses (heated or otherwise), barns, kennels, outbuildings, etc. An outside shelter such as a dog house is not acceptable as residence but can be used only when needed in extreme heat, cold, or rain when the dog is let out into the yard for short periods of time and only when the adopter is at home. Dogs may not sleep outside. We will not adopt out a dog/cat to families/people that keep other dogs/cats outdoors as well, even if they promise to keep a Homeward Bound animal indoors. Please go to Can a Homeward Bound dog or cat live outdoors? to read about why we have this policy.
• We do NOT place dogs to be used solely as guard, watch, or hunting dogs.
• We do NOT place cats to be used solely as mousers or barn cats.
• You must agree to take the dog/cat to a licensed vet at least once a year for an examination and all recommended routine vaccinations and tests. Heartworm tests and a regular course of preventative medication are also required. The dog/cat should be provided with necessary veterinary care upon sickness, disease, and/or injury.
• If you already have dogs or cats at home, they must be spayed/neutered and up to date on all vet care (shots and preventatives). Your chances of dogfights are much higher if one of the dogs is unaltered, particularly if the dogs are of the same gender.
• The dog must always wear a collar with owner identification tags, rabies and license tags. If your animal is lost, a tag may be the only way to have your pet returned to you. We strongly encourage micro-chipping as well since tags or collars sometimes fall off.
• The dog is not to be transported in any open vehicle, such as the bed of a truck, unless in a secured crate
• You must not mistreat, abuse, neglect, or otherwise treat the dog/cat in an inhumane manner. You must not allow others to do so either.
• You must not de-bark your dog. This is beyond cruel and no decent veterinarian would perform such a barbaric and unnecessary surgery.
• You must familiarize yourself with our adoption policies.

• If you meet all of our adoption requirements & our policies and are interested in adopting a Pit Bull from Homeward Bound, please know that we have the right to do a home visit first before any Pit Bull is adopted. We also require reference checks (a veterinary reference is preferred).
• You must show us proof that your homeowners insurance does not have a breed ban (most places do, unfortunately). If you rent, you must show us proof that your landlord does not have any breed bans as well. Some communities also have breed bans, especially gated communities.
• Please know that Pit Bulls do best as the only animal in the house. We do not recommend that they go to a multi-dog household because they were bred to fight with other dogs. Most Pit Bulls in our program do not have dog aggression but anyone who knows anything about Pit Bulls knows the golden rule - you can never trust a Pit Bull not to fight. Usually dog aggression starts showing up when the dog is 1-3 years old. Please know that DOG AGGRESSION DOES NOT EQUATE WITH HUMAN AGGRESSION - these are two totally different things.
• For obvious reasons, we will only adopt out spayed/neutered Pit Bulls or Am.Staffs. As with every animal adopted from Homeward Bound, they must live indoors ONLY.

Adoption Fees: All animals at Homeward Bound have adoption fees, and fees vary. Please go to our adoption fee page to learn more about our adoption fees. We do have higher adoption fees than other rescues or shelters. This is because Homeward Bound will not turn our backs on special needs dogs or dogs who require expensive medical work (e.g. puppy mill survivors), such as heartworm treatment (many places either euthanize or refuse to accept a heartworm positive dog into their program). There is a price for rescuing so many special needs dogs — our weekly vet bills range from $1,500-4000 (they average out to $3,000-4,000 a week due to so many heartworm positive dogs coming in who need expensive treatment)! A majority of the dogs who we rescue require at least $300 in vet care (spay/neuter, shots, heartworm/lyme test, and other vet work if needed), and of course many test positive for heartworm since their previous owners were not responsible enough to provide it to their dog. Since we are a non-profit, 501(c) 3-tax exempt no-kill rescue, all adoption fees/donations are tax deductible. Homeward Bound accepts 2 forms of payment — cash or check.

Distance Adoptions: We do allow people from out of state and Canadian residents to adopt from us, although we prefer to adopt locally. Distance adoptions are allowed on the condition that the adopter understands that if at any time the adoption doesn't work out, s/he MUST and is responsible for making the drive to return the dog/cat. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with our return policy.

Health & Temperament: We advise on any known issues prior to adoption. However, Homeward Bound makes no explicit or implicit guarantees in reference to the health, behavior, and/or temperament of the dog/cat. The dog/cat is adopted, for lack of a better term, "as is," and Homeward Bound shall not be held responsible for any medical expenses, which may be incurred for treatment of any and all existing conditions, or any other conditions of physical, or temperament changes that may occur, including whether the animal is housebroken. Unless provided by participating veterinarian, Homeward Bound is legally unable to provide any prescription medications for any underlying health conditions (such as kennel cough) and therefore it is therefore the adopter's responsibility to have any condition(s) treated and Homeward Bound is not responsible for any costs incurred by the adopter.

Pre-Adoption Questionnaires: We do ask that anyone interested in adopting from us must fill out a Pre-Adoption Questionnaire. When you email about a certain dog a volunteer will email you a pre-adoption questionnaire. You can also fill one out at our pet adoptions. We're in the process of making this questionnaire available on our web site too.

Trial Period & Refund: There is a 3-business day trial period for all Homeward Bound animals. If you adopt the dog/cat on a Saturday, the trial period expires on the following Wednesday. If, for any reason such as landlord issues, allergies or animal personality clashes, you choose not to keep the dog/cat, you must notify Homeward Bound immediately. If notified during the trial period and you return the dog/cat by 11am the following Saturday pet adoption, you will receive a replacement certificate for 1 dog/cat of (again for lack of a better term) "equal of lesser value" valid for 60 days from date of return. This credit may be used only by you and it is not transferable. All fees are non-refundable and no cash refunds will be given at any time for any reason.

Repossession an Animal If someone who adopted an animal from us is found in violation of our adoption requirements, Homeward Bound reserves the right to repossess the dog/cat with no refund of the adoption fee. Homeward Bound reserves the right to make post-adoption home visits and/or follow up calls to check on the welfare of the dog/cat and assure that the terms of the contract are being met.

Returns: If you should ever decide you cannot keep or do not want your Homeward Bound animal, you MUST notify Homeward Bound before taking any action. You must agree that if for any reason you can no longer provide a home for your Homeward Bound animal, that you will return the animal to the Homeward Bound. You will agree NEVER to surrender the animal to an animal shelter, humane society, pound, or another rescue, nor will you sell, exchange, give to, or adopt the animal to anyone else without contacting Homeward Bound first and specifically speaking with and receiving consent from Cheryl Adams, the director of Homeward Bound. Transfer or ownership by a family member or friend may be approved but permission to do so can only be given by Cheryl Adams. Violation of this agreement will result in court costs and attorney fees payable by the adopter if necessary for to rescuer to redeem the dog.

First, read through all of our adoption requirements & adoption policies.

Email us with questions: If you'd like to find out more information about a dog, feel free to send an email. We will respond to your messages as soon as possible but please remember that we are volunteers and also have jobs, school, and families as well. We can usually respond to messages in one day but sometimes it takes us up to 3 days. If you don't hear back from us in 3 days, please send us another email because oftentimes we never received the first message for whatever reason. We can email you a pre-adoption questionnaire as well. We aren't able to make/return phone calls, sorry.

Come to our regular adoption event to meet the dog(s): We do not have a shelter or central facility to view all our dogs since they all stay in foster homes. Interested adopters meet dogs at the adoption event. The adoption event is the one-day of the week when the available dogs are in one place at the same time. We can't bring all of the dogs to the adoptions though (due to lack of space at the Petco stores), so if you are interested in meeting a dog or dogs, please do email us so that we can add him/her to the list of dogs to bring! Most foster homes can't meet people during the week. If they can meet people during the week it will specifically say that in their description. Our adoptions begin at 11:30 (although they sometimes start a little bit later if we are short key volunteers - we always are - to help set up all of the cages, put the dog descriptions on the crates, bring the dogs in from the vans, etc) and end at 4. The adoption events are always chaotic at first but there are nice places outside in the back of the store where you may spend some quiet time getting to know the pooch. If we feel you are a good match for the dog and you pre-adoption questionnaire has been approved, you'll need to pay the adoption fee (with cash or check) and sign contractual agreements between Homeward Bound and the dog's new family. We will give you the health records of the animal you are adopting from Homeward Bound.

We do require that anyone interested in a dog must fill out a pre-adoption questionnaire. The questionnaires help us successfully match the right dog to the right family. This questionnaire is simply an application, not an agreement to adopt a dog. When you email about a certain dog a volunteer will email you a pre-adoption questionnaire. You can also fill one out at our pet adoptions. We at Homeward Bound are unable to accept every application for adoption. We have specific criteria for each dog and believe that is is in the dog/cat's best interested. Applications are PROCESSED on a first come, first served basis, but are APPROVED based on what is best for the dog/cat.

We can't put holds on any of the dogs. If you are interested in a particular pooch, please come to the adoption as early as you can because usually there are other people interested in the dog as well. We do not wait for all approved applicants to come to the adoption at a certain time and then do a drawing. Rather, for lack of a better phrase, we adopt the dog out to approved applicants on a "first come, first served basis," as well as what we feel is the best match for the dog. If there are a lot of people interested in the same dog and just happen to all be there at the same time (such as at the begging of the adoption), we do a drawing from names of approved applicants. Ultimately, the decision is up to the foster parent or Cheryl Adams, the director of Homeward Bound.

Please be patient with us during adoption events. We never have enough core volunteers who come to adoptions regularly and we do the best we possibly can. We all work full-time jobs, have families, foster dogs, etc. and we devote as much of our free time to Homeward Bound as we can. The hardest thing for a volunteer to hear is that no matter how much volunteer work we do with the little free-time we have, it is never enough. If you have some suggestions on ways to improve adoptions, please spend at least 4 full adoption days volunteering with us so you can see the realities of rescue. We are more than happy to hear recommendations from people who have been doing rescue with us for awhile. We always, always, always need more adult core volunteers, (taking down/setting up crates, getting paperwork ready, walking dogs, answering questions, cleaning up messes, brushing the dogs, etc) and of course are always in need of foster homes. Donations are also always needed.

This agreement is between Homeward Bound Dog Rescue (HB) and the undersigned new dog owner ("you") regarding the adoption of the above described dog ("the dog"). This dog is adopted AS IS and all future vet work is your responsibility. Dogs have received the vaccines as stated above, but have may or may not have had a vet check as noted above and in the vaccination record. HB does NOT guarantee the health or temperament of this animal. Unless provided by participating veterinarian, HB is legally unable to provide any prescription medications for any underlying health conditions (such as kennel cough) and therefore it is your responsibility to have any condition(s) treated and HB is not responsible for any costs incurred by you.

There is a three (3) business day trial period (the "trial period") for the dog in your home. If you adopt the dog on a Saturday, the trial period expires on the following Wednesday. If, for any reason such as landlord issues, allergies or animal personality clashes, you choose not to keep the dog, you must notify HB immediately. If notified during the trial period and you return the dog by 11AM the following Saturday Pet Adoption, you will receive a replacement certificate for ONE dog of equal of lesser value valid for 60 days from date of return. This credit may be used only by you, it is not transferable. HB reserves the right to deny replacement certificate in cases of abuse, neglect and/or the animal dies. NO CASH REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON.

The dog, if not already done at the time of adoption, must be spayed or neutered by date stated above. HB reserves the right to repossess the dog, with no refund of the adoption fee, if the dog is not spayed or neutered by above date. A certificate from your veterinarian indicating the completion of the spay or neuter must be sent to the HB P.O. box below.

HB requires that the dog be housed indoors in your home, unless otherwise specified in the "Notes" column above. If you are in violation of these terms, HB reserves the right to repossess the dog with no refund of the adoption fee. HB reserves the right to make scheduled post-adoption home visits and/or follow up calls to check on the welfare of the dog and assure that the terms of the contract are being met. If you cannot keep the dog, it MUST come back to HB. HB will follow appropriate legal action against you to reclaim the dog from anyone other than person specified on this contract. HB is a private, non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to the welfare of homeless dogs. It is understood and agreed upon that no warranty or action has been made with respect to the dog except as set forth in writing of this contract. It is further understood that you and HB will abide by the agreement herein.