Santa Cruz Dogs

So you can't adopt a pet right now but still want to help homeless shelter animals? There are so many things you can do that benefit animal shelters and rescues, for free!  FOSTER It's temporary! If you're not ready for a life-long commitment, fostering may be for you! Ideally, you keep the pet until they're adopted. Most animal shelters and rescues can provide food and some supplies for fostering their animals.  Learn more about fostering and what it takes:    https://petsandpeopletogether.org/foster-a-cat-or-dog Why is it important?    Fostering helps animal shelters to free up space in their open-door facility. Fosters are crucial for non-profit animal rescues that don't have a facility to operate out of. An animal in a foster home that's quiet greatly reduces the animals stress. They also learn house-manners and maybe even some basic obedience! You'll get to know the pets personality well and this can help them find great adopters. 

Photo credit: Dayton Daily News Yesterday on Twitter, there was a post about an adoptable dog and someone had replied with "well their adoption fees are more expensive than some papered purebreds. People would adopt more if it was more affordable!" My first thought was: That's exactly why animals are in shelters; For YOUR affordability. (Ironically, this person calls themselves a "Pit Bull advocate." See: Abuse of the term "advocate.") This brings up many points: "Papered" means nothing. It's literally a piece of paper with no value. Any so-called "breeder" can register anything, even mutts. And I'll tell you right now, if you paid $100 for a dog with "papers" those don't even prove the dog is of pure bred lineage. There are pure bred dogs in shelters. Most shelters have fees under $200. So think about what you're actually getting if you're purchasing a dog for this little with "papers...

Animals in shelters aren't seen if they don't have a photo. Animals aren't shown at their best with a crummy photo. Great photos get animals noticed! It gives potential adopters, and rescuers, an idea of what breed the dog may be, or its size. A friendly photo makes an animal look more adoptable, look happy, and friendly. A great photo makes a huge difference in the visual adoptability of an animal. Clear, bright pictures of the animals make the best impressions. Head shots are great, but people actually want to get an idea of the size of the dog. I try to take "body shots" of the dogs, to sort of get an idea of their size, like their height for example. Sometimes, a head shot of a Chihuahua can be deceiving; dogs that are labeled Chihuahua's are often much larger than the true standard Chi. An accurate photo helps when one is looking for the right dog who might not be local, and aren't able to show up at any shelter. Photos of dogs in training are a...