Thank you for your interest in adopting a rescued Rat Terrier! All New Rattitude dogs are spayed/neutered, up-to-date on vaccinations, heartworm tested and on preventative, dewormed, and microchipped. All adoption fees ($200 for adult dogs and $250 for puppies under 6 months old) go directly toward the care of our rescued Rat Terriers.
Step 1 – Application: After you submit an adoption application for the dog you are interested in, you can expect a confirmation reply by email within 24 hours. If you do not receive a confirmation, or if you have general questions that aren’t answered in our Adoption FAQ section, email the Adoption Team at Adoption@NewRattitude.org.
Step 2 – Foster Parent Dialog: Our Rat Terriers are located in private foster homes, so you cannot just “drop by” to visit. But by submitting the adoption application, you’ll be put in touch with the dog’s foster parent, who can give you more info about the dog, answer questions, and even arrange a visit if distances permit. Please reply to the foster parent’s email so that you can have a good two-way dialog to mutually determine whether your household is a good match for the needs of the dog you’ve applied for. If you are concerned about anything, be candid with the foster parent.
Step 3 – Reference Checks: While the foster parent is helping you get to know the dog better, our Adoption Team will be at work processing your application. To avoid delays, please make sure to answer ALL questions in the application and provide correct contact info for your references. It will also help greatly if you let your references know that you have listed them, and encourage them to take our calls &/or return messages.
Step 4 – Interview: After talking to your references, your assigned Adoption Coordinator will contact you by email to set up a telephone interview to discuss your expectations, experience, and household situation. If you are concerned that the dog you applied for might not be a good match for your household after all, let your AC know. It may be that a different dog would be better for you, and your AC can help you find another good candidate. You would not need to submit another application, as long as the first one has not been closed out.
Step 5 – Home Visit: A Home Visit Coordinator will find a volunteer from the rescue community to come to your home to perform a safety check and confirm that it is appropriate for the dog. We require that all family members be at home during the home visit so that everyone has an opportunity to understand the commitment of
Step 6 – Decision: Many factors go into an application approval decision. Some of these are discussed on our Adoption FAQ page. If there is a good match between your home and the dog for which you’ve applied, we will approve the adoption and send you a contract. We reserve the right to refuse an applicant at our sole discretion if we believe that the home situation isn’t compatible with the needs of the dog. If your home would be a safe, loving sanctuary for a rescued Rattie in general, but the particular dog for which you applied wasn’t deemed a good match, your AC would work with you to find a different dog that was a better fit — perhaps one who is not yet profiled on our website.
Step 7 – Contract: After you sign and return the adoption contract (you can preview the terms and conditions here) and pay the adoption fee, the adoption is official and your new family member will soon be with you.
Step 8 – Travel Home: If you are located close enough to the dog’s foster home, you make arrangements directly with the dog’s foster parent to pick up the dog. If you are located more than 150 miles from the foster home, you may request that our New Rattitude Transport Team coordinate arrangements to get the dog to you; a $75 mandatory Transport Fee to help cover the cost of a required health certificate will be payable by the adopter to NR. Distances up to 600 miles are generally done by a ground transport, with the adopter expected to drive the last “leg” (normally at least 60 miles). Distances over 600 miles generally require that the dog be flown by commercial air. All cost of commercial travel is the responsibility of the adopter. A required flight certificate, travel crate, and the flight itself can be expected to cost $
$350-$500. Click HERE for more details. Dogs should ALWAYS be safely secured during travel. A secure travel crate is by far the preferred method but, if there are compelling reasons why a crate cannot be used, a safety body harness specifically designed for travel and tethered securely to the vehicle, is an acceptable alternative.
Our organization is composed of hard-working volunteers whose only reward is seeing these wonderful Rat Terriers placed in loving “Furever Homes.” It is a lot of work and we do it in our spare time because we love the Rat Terrier breed, not because we are paid. (We aren’t.) Please be patient with us if we do not move as quickly as you would like.