Adopting a pet isn’t as easy as it sounds. Most people think all you have to do is pick a pet, pay for it, and that is all. Well, it’s a lot harder than that depending where you go to get you new pet. Sometimes you have to fill out paper work and go through a back ground check. While other times, all you have to do is find the one you want, contact the person, and pay. I plan on using my personal experiences to help make this process easier for others, and also give a few helpful hints along the way.

Adopting a pet isn’t as easy as it sounds. Most people think all you have to do is pick a pet, pay for it, and that is all. Well, it’s a lot harder than that depending where you go to get you new pet. Sometimes you have to fill out paper work and go through a back ground check. While other times, all you have to do is find the one you want, contact the person, and pay. I plan on using my personal experiences to help make this process easier for others, and also give a few helpful hints along the way.
First off, you have to figure out what kind of pet you want.

Do you want a cat, dog, snake, or bird? What size pet is good for you and the home you live in? Once you have answered those questions you can continue with looking for a pet. Keep in mind if you have a small home you don’t want a large pet. There wouldn’t be enough room for your pet and that can cause them problems. Also, know what you want but keep open minds just incase you can’t find the one you wanted in the beginning.
Now that you have an idea of what you want you can start looking. There are many places you can go to find that perfect pet for you and your family. Let’s start with some online sites. When my spouse and I were looking for our dog we used petfinder and craigslist. They are both decent sites to find pets that may not be found in shelters, like snakes and so on. Each has several pros and some cons.
Let’s beginning with craiglist.com, it’s easy to use and well know for the buying and selling of items. This website provides a large selection of animals for you to choose from, and it gives you a location of where the pet is. We found several great pets on here and they were all relatively inexpensive. They also had a few pets that were listed as free to a good home. Be very careful though with these listings. Even though this site is great for getting pets for a decent price there are also some scams. People could steal animals and sell them on here or list them as free, so make sure to ask questions about the animal before you agree to buy it. A few other pros to this site are; there are brief descriptions for each animal, prices are listed next to each listing, and it’s easy to get into contact with the owners. While this is a wonderful site, it also has its cons. There will be some posts that have incorrect information about the animal. Most of the time it’s a small detail or they were confused about the breed of an animal. This is something I wouldn’t be worried about, but it is a good thing to keep in mind. Another con for this site has to do with the history of the animal. In the descriptions that people write they don’t always include all the information you need to know prior to buying a pet. For instance, if you are a parent and have other animals you would want to know if the listed animal is good with children and other animals. Keep in mind, just because they don’t tell you does not mean you can’t ask them. Usually if you contact the owner and ask they are more than happy to tell you more about their listed pet.
Another site that I highly recommend would be petfinder.com. This site allows you to look at several different animals and also gives you the name of the shelter so you can physically see the animal. All animals on this site are well looked after in each shelter. They give you plenty of information on each pet and some on the shelter. If you need more details you can email or call the shelters listed. Prices for each pet are not generally listed in the descriptions so contacting the shelter is always a good idea. While there is a large selection of animals, my spouse and I noticed most of the dogs listed had heart worms. This is not a major problem but, it is also not suggested that you adopt one if you can’t afford the proper medication to treat this.
While using the above website we were lead to two different shelters near our home. The first one was a humane society adoption center. They had a tad smaller selection than the online methods. When going to shelters like this one you can be sure that all the animals there are well looked after and well fed. The selection (if you are looking for a dog) ranges from small puppies to large adult dogs. You can find information about each one on a paper connected to each cage. It will tell you the breed, age, gender, health condition, if it is good with children and other animals, and any behavioral problems it may have. Once you have found a pet that you want to adopt you will have to let them know. After that they will have you fill out about two pages of paper work asking for general information about you and your home. Depending on the Humane Society your pet may come with a small bag of food. Also, make sure to have a vet picked out for you new pet prior to adoption. One other downfall is that adopting a pet from here can be a bit expensive.
The last shelter I have to talk about is Animal Control. If you are like me you may not have known you could adopt a pet from here. They have a surprisingly large selection of pets here, and they are all well looked after once they enter this shelter. All of the workers are very friendly and willing to help with anything you need. Like the Humane Society, all the dogs’ information can be found posted on a piece of paper connected to their cage. One of the great things about this place is there is very little paper work and all you need is a valid photo ID. Depending on the state or town there may be a small fee for adopting your new pet. After you do the paper work and get everything worked out they will take your new pet to the vet to be spayed or neutered prior to leavening the shelter. After all that is done they will call within a few days to let you know that you may come and pick your pet up and take him/her home. Unlike the Humane Society you pet will not come with any food. We found this place to be the best for us to adopt our new dog Baby. She was very well taken care of and we have had no problems with her.
 A few tips to keep in mind while looking for a pet is always have an open mind. Just because you know what breed of animal you want doesn’t mean they will have it available. You will also need to have a base line for what you’re willing to pay. People may find the perfect pet but for the wrong price.
If you are interested in viewing the websites mentioned above follow the following links. http://www.petfinder.com/index.html and/or http://jonesboro.craigslist.org/pet/.
 

Jessica_08

Jessica_08 is a writer at Expertscolumn.com.

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