1. What should I do when I find a stray dog?

 

First and formost: use caution! 

Stray or dumped animals are often afraid of people or unknown situations and may think they need to defend themselves from you

 

If possible, and especially if you do not feel comfortable with picking up the pet yourself, call your local animal control. 

Prior to approaching, if you're able to get a picture, this is the time to do it. Often times, a stray animal will run, and you'll miss your chance to get a picture. 

In the instance, (or in the case of Meike!) the pet is friendly and follows you, we recommend the following:

 

This might go without saying, but first, check the collar. Ideally, the pet will have identifcation. 

If this is the case, you'll be able to contact his/her home.

If the animal does not wear a collar our next step is to bring found pets to the most approximate shelter for the area, where it was found, so it can be checked for a micro chip.

This will cover you legally, as well as give the pet's owners (if it has any) the best change of finding him or her.

Animals are considered property in the State of Oklahoma and the finder of a stray pet needs to proof that he or she made reasonable effort to try to find a pets owner, before considering to keep it.

Let us know!  We can use our resources to post and attempt to reconnect the pet with his/her home.

The animal then will spend, usually the next 5-7 days, at the shelter, so the owners can find and claim it.  

If it has not been claimed after this time, the shelter will then make the pet available for adoption. 

 

Considering the situation, this is the best case secnario.  This doesn't exactly imply a happy ending just yet, and we'll still be sure to put in work to be sure this pet does not get overlooked or lost in the system. 

If we're able, and the animal has yet to be claimed/adopted, we would go back and take it into our program.

 

In the meantime we will post pictures and all the background information we can provide on the pet, on Facebook and Craigslist, helping to try to reunite pet and family, if he/she has one.

 

The Underdogs do not have a facility to house stray pets, yet. This is one of our long term goals, though. As of right now, we are operating only on a foster/adoption base. If we are taking in a new pet we will have to find a foster parent for it first.

 

 

I hope this information will help you a little further and we would be happy to help you with the posting of the picture and the pets information on our and other, statewide FB pages, as well as Craigslist.

 

 

2. Are you breed specific?

 

We are neither breed NOR species specific. IF we happen to run into an animal we have no previous experience with, we can always help point you in the right direction. 

 

On a related note, if anyone knows of a stray pot-bellied pig, please let us know!

 

 

3. Are all the animals spayed/neutered?

 

Each and every pet is completely vetted prior to adoption. This includes spay/neuter and vaccinations.

 

 

4. I/my family is ready to foster/adopt. What is the process for this?
 

This is one of our favorite questions!

 

Hopefully you have already looked at our page and viewed the animals that are in need of either foster care or life long homes.  

With that in mind, we always like to get to know you. So, there will be an introductory meeting, where you'll be able to meet the pet and hopefully bring your other animals to see if they get along.  From here, prior to fostering, all foster Homes must complete an online foster home application.

 

 

 

Please note, your own pets must be current with their vaccinations. We also recommend that you vaccinate your pets with a Bordetella vaccination to prevent kennel cough, a common illness with shelter dogs.