As a former board member and foster home coordinator I wanted to try to give you a formal explanation of how the MLRR adoption process works, as many of you have expressed interest in meeting several dogs on this forum and I don't want you to get frustrated in any way.
If you have had your home visit already, hopefully the MLRR volunteer has gone over this process with you, but if not, I hope this will help.
Once you have applied to adopt a dog, an MLRR volunteer will be in contact with you to set up a home visit. This might not happen in a few days or even within a week as we need to find a volunteer that lives near you and that has the time to visit with you and your family. So, if you haven't been contacted yet, and are still waiting for your home visit, please be patient as we operate strictly by volunteers and we want to meet with you, but we just need to find the time in our schedules as well.
After your home visit is done, that's when the hard part starts...the waiting
MLRR goes by a priority system that is sometimes deviated when a special needs dog is up for adoption. That priority system is set by the date of your home visit. At all times there is a waiting list for MLRR dogs, but the time does vary, so the length of time you will wait to meet a dog will also vary. It could be a week or two, depending on how open your preferences are, or it could be up to a month or longer, if you are more specific about the type of dog you want. For example, many people want (approx) 2 year old yellow females, so if that is what you are looking for, then it will take much longer than say someone who is more open to age, gender or color. The more open you are to age, gender and color, the faster your priority date will move up the list. Also, if you are open to a special needs dog, ie. one that needs training, is heartworm positive, has separation anxiety, then you will also move up the list faster as many people are not able to deal with those types of issues (oh, a heartworm positive dog is really not that special needs as it is NOT the death sentence that some people seem to think it is-but many hw+ dogs stay in foster care longer as they are overlooked due to their current health issue).Since our adoption list runs anywhere from 10 to 40 families at any given time, there will always be some type of waiting period. The dogs that you see on our site now, while you may very much want to meet, are probably having adoption appointments with families who have already been waiting to meet their new family member. So, if you do express interest in a specific dog on our site, please know that our placement coordinator is aware of your selection and has definately made note of it. BUT there is a very good chance that the dog you want to meet may be adopted before you make your way to the top of the list. However, please do keep sending in the emails and noting your interest on the forum, because you just never know if someone might be on vacation or for some other reason doesn't respond to their email or phone call introducing them to a dog. As foster home messages go unanswered within (normally) 48 hours, we will move to the next name....because there is such a long list of families wanting to meet dogs. So sometimes your interest in a dog will prove fruitful, if the families ahead of you do not respond.
I hope this helps explain our process a little more. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me, your home visit volunteer or anyone else associated with MLRR, we are always here to help.
