Letter from the President

Dear Friends of RAIN,

Our goal at RAIN is to save lives and find new homes for our rescued animals. Whether you adopt from us, a shelter or another rescue group we are glad that you are considering adoption to save a life. There are so many animals that will never find their permanent, loving home. By adopting an animal in need, you save a life.

So what makes RAIN unique? What is that RAIN animal difference?

Our foster animals live in our homes just like our own animals. They are not caged or kept isolated in a separate room, they run freely through the house, playing with our pets and family. They sleep on the couch and sleep on the bed (some even make it under the covers at night!). We believe that part of our job is to make our foster animals ready for their new homes by first making them part of ours. Most of our foster homes have dogs, so our foster cats and kittens get used to dogs and often times become very comfortable with them. Others, never really warm up to dogs, which lets us know that a home without dogs might be best. Some of our foster animals live with kids so they get used to being picked up frequently and perhaps get used to a bit more noise than those foster animals that don't live with kids. And all of our foster animals live with cats.

We work on teaching cats to use scratching posts, not our furniture! We work on basic obedience with our foster dogs so that they come with basic, needed skills. We housetrain and litterbox train so that accidents won't happen! We work with veterinarians who provide excellent care of our foster animals and who we also trust with providing care to our own personal animals.

Sometimes we get a cat in that absolutely doesn't like other cats, we work with them slowly to acclimate them to other cats and most of the time are successful at getting them to a point where they can live with another cat or two. Usually we try to find them a home without another cat or one that has a mellow cat that will let the new one live in the home without problems. But we can let you know that. We know if they take a day or weeks to adjust to a new home or if they will go to a new home and act like they have lived there their entire life! We know if they get overwhelmed and run and hide when company comes over. We know if they are afraid of the vacuum cleaner or other noises. When you adopt, your new pet comes with a complete health record, giving you the dates of all their vaccinations, tests, treatments, etc. They also come with a resume! Yes, a resume. Our foster homes fill out the pet's resume so that you know their likes and dislikes and so you have as much information on your new pet as possible to make the transition to a new home easier.

We work hard on matching the right home for the right animal to help ensure that the adoption works out and that the animal and human are both happy. Sometimes, we might make suggestions during an adoption, not to dissuade you away from a certain animal, but to have you consider one that we feel will be a better fit. Our volunteers have years and years of animal care, foster care and adoption counseling experience. We can help you find the right match for your family or yourself.

We might make suggestions such as not adopting a single kitten to a home with an cat that is over 7 years old. Why? Well, that spunky kitten may just be too much energy for a cat that has been used to having a life with no other cats or with another older cat. So what might we suggest? Get two kittens so those two kittens can play with each other and will leave the older cat alone. Does it work? Most of the time yes, every situation is different, but at least we can use our years of experience to help make life easier for you, your own animal and your adopted animal.

We might make a suggestion to adopt two kittens together so they can keep each other company when you are away at work. Because we know our foster animal's personality, we know if they are very needy and need to go to a home where they have another animal friend to play with. Some cats don't do as well being alone all day waiting for you to come home from work, while this sounds more like a dog trait, it also happens with cats. We have had more than one cat be returned for being too needy, too friendly! And we have solved the problem more than once by having the person adopt a buddy for the other cat.

For some animals finding their new, loving home might happen quickly; for others it might take longer. With RAIN our foster animals are safe in their foster homes until that perfect match takes place. And when you adopt from us, it allows our foster homes to go to animal control and save more lives from death row.

All of us at RAIN think of the animals in our foster homes as ours...until you make them yours by adopting!

Thank you for adopting,

Karen Robb, President

"Rescued animals have much more love in their heart than you will ever know; just look into their eyes and you can see it in their soul." K. Robb