Adoption Process
Everything You Need To Know To Find Your New Best Friend At JHS, we’re dedicated to matching pets with families that fit their lifestyles. We take great care in finding loving, responsible homes for our animals. We offer a variety of cats, dogs, puppies, and kittens. If you don’t see the pet you’re looking for, we encourage you to check back regularly with us and other shelters. Due to the high volume of animals we receive and adopt out daily, we can’t guarantee that specific pets listed online will be available when you visit. We also can’t hold animals by phone, fax, or email. The best way to find your new furry friend is to visit us in person—you might just meet your perfect match! How Does the Adoption Process Work? We believe in an open, non-judgmental adoption process. We understand that no one is perfect, so we work to match pets with the right families to reduce the likelihood of pets being returned. Under normal conditions, the adoption process is as follows:
Adoption Fees The standard adoption fee is $100 for dogs over 4mos of age. Cats and kittens are $90. Puppies less than 4 months of age are $140 and hero pets are $180. These fees cover spay/neuter, age-appropriate vaccinations, de-worming, a heartworm test (for dogs over 6 months old), and microchipping, which helps reunite lost pets with their owners, ensuring that if your pet gets lost, they can be returned to you. You can print your Dog Adoption Application or Cat Adoption Application and bring it with you to the shelter, fax it to us at 417-623-5343, or e-mail it to [email protected]. If you're traveling from a distance and wish to have a pet held until you arrive, please complete the application, then fax or email it to us. Be sure to call and confirm that your application has been approved. Adoptable Dogs - Adoptable Cats About adoptions:
We generally only adopt one pet per adoptive family. Exceptions may be made for pets that came in as a pair, littermates (if approved for littermates) or special, unique circumstances. Under no circumstance will more than two pets be adopted at the same time. Disclaimer **All dogs over 6mos of age will receive a behavior assessment. Dogs are generally tested with dogs of their own size; and dog meets with the resident dogs are always encouraged. Although dogs may do well with other dogs here at the shelter, not all dogs like all other dogs. We do not procedurally test large dogs with cats. Our cat test should be used as a general purpose screening only to rule out overt aggression; we always recommend caution when introducing dogs to cats in the home. Recommendation on suitability of placement with children by their ages is based on behavioral observations including energy level and response to body handling. We never recommend leaving young children unsupervised with dogs, and we cannot guarantee the behavior of dogs with children, other pets or cats. Dogs are tested for food protection/aggression with people, but not with other dogs. We recommend feeding other dogs away from current pets and supervising new dogs and current dogs around toys as well. Behavior evaluations should be considered as a snapshot of the behavior of the dog at this point in time; JHS believes all dog families need to be prepared to invest time and energy into training as well as provide common sense management of their new dog. We always encourage family to do some research on the breeds or mixes of breeds prior to adoption as many can have some unique characteristics that may or may not fit into their families. Always remember that the majority of dogs at our shelter have been exposed to or may have kennel cough. Kennel cough is contagious to other dogs, please talk to your vet if you have any questions about kennel cough prior to adoption. Please ask your adoption counselor at time of adoption if you have any unanswered questions regarding illnesses and treatments of the pet that you are adopting.** |