Much Love's Adoption Process

the adoption process

Much Love's mission is to place homeless animals into loving homes and families. We take special care to match the right home with the right pet, ensuring a lifetime of love for both the pet and the adopter. To ensure the best matches are made, we have a system that has proven effective in determining the best homes for our animals.

Whether you are looking for an active dog to hike the hills with or a mellow cat to lay in your lap, our interview process helps us determine which animal will best suit your lifestyle, wants and needs. We do the best we can to match your desires in determining an animal's temperment, activity level and the animal's socialization with other animals and people.

After an animal has been selected, you are asked to complete an application that tells us about you and your lifestyle, training beliefs and background with animals.

If the application is approved, we conduct a home check for every potential adoption, ensuring the animal will be living in a safe environment. Because of this policy, we only adopt animals to those living in the greater Los Angeles area.

A contract is signed by you and Much Love issuing the transfer of the dog to you. A $175 adoption fee for dogs, $200 for puppies and $125 for cats is paid to Much Love and then the animal is yours to love and get love back from.

If you are unsure that the animal you want is going to fit into your lifestyle, a great option we offer to potential adoptive parents is to foster the animal for a week before finalizing the adoption. Once the procedures listed above are completed, you have the opportunity to "test-drive" your possible new pet to see how you adapt to one another and how it adapts to it's new environment. If for any reason the animal doesn't fit into your lifestyle, the animal is returned to us and you can try out another one that might fit better. Just like dating before marriage, you sometimes try out more than one!

After adopting a Much Love animal, if at any time you are unable to keep the animal, it is stated in the adoption contract that the animal MUST be returned to Much Love. The animal may not be transferred to friends or family, nor taken to a shelter. Much Love will always take back an animal that was originally owned by us.

how can I meet the Much Love animal I would like to adopt?

Come by one of our adoptions! Because we don't yet have a permanent facility, Much Love conducts weekend mobile adoptions.

If you are unable to come to one of our mobile adoptions, please contact us to set up a meeting.

why can't I take an animal home with me the same day I meet it?

Because we strive to adopt animals into the safest and most suitable homes, we have strict policies to determine the best situations for them. Therefore we have an application process and require a home check. Because we are 100% volunteer run and without a permanant staff, most often we can complete this process within 3 to 4 days once the application is approved.

why do you do homechecks?

Home checks are essential to determine the animal will be living in a safe envirnoment. For example, if the dog you are looking to adopt is an escape artist, we want to ensure your yard has tall fences, gates are locked and there is no way to dig out. Another example is if you are adopting a cat, we check to see all windows have secure screens so there is no fear of kitty getting away out into the world where it's chances of survival are significantly reduced. Along with these things there are plenty more most people wouldn't be aware of that could pose a dangerous threat to your new pet. Due to the fact that Much Love is entirely volunteer run and we do not have a a permanent staff, we can only do homechecks within the greater Los Angeles area.

can a foster parent adopt the animal he or she is fostering?

If during the course of your fostering all has gone well and no incidents have occured, of course! In fact we hope that you fall in love with the animal while fostering him or her and that you have created bond that will last.

how do I get the animal's medical records?

Once we have received your contract and adoption fee, we process it through our system and copies of the contract and medical records are mailed to you. This usually takes about three weeks or so. If you do not hear from us, please feel free to contact us.

what if I don't have a veterinarian or don't know how to train my new animal?

With each adoption, we supply you with a recommendation list of our favorite veterinarians, dog walkers, trainers, pet stores and more. If you ever need more references, please contact us.