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Adoption Process

Adopting Your New Best Friend

Applications are not processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Our goal is to make the best rescue match taking into consideration the dog's background and your family's needs. Every dog is different: personality, temperament, energy, comfort with kids and other animals, medical needs and more. We consider all these factors when making a furever home match. We are very careful about the placements we make. We do our best to match the right dog with the right adoptive home because we want this to be the pet's permanent home, which is also why our adoptions start off with a 2-week trial period.

If you are willing to wait for the right animal to be matched to you,
you are an ideal candidate for Saved By Fate Dog Rescue. As our low return rate proves, these precious dogs are well worth the wait.
First adoption

OUR PROCESS

1. Apply

We appreciate you wanting to bring a dog into your home. In order for us to find the right pet for you, we need you to submit an adoption application. Please make sure that you read the entire biography of the dog you’re interested in before applying!

2. Review

First, homeownership will be verified, or we will call your landlord/property management company to obtain approval for the applicant to adopt. Then, we will contact your current veterinarian for a reference, and finally, we will contact 1-2 personal references.

3. Home Visit

Once your application review is complete, a Saved By Fate Dog Rescue volunteer will contact you to schedule a home visit. We conduct home visits to ensure that the residence and property is safe and fit for a dog. Although we do not require fences for every dog, applicants with completely fenced-in yards will be preferred. It is preferred that all household members be present during the home visit. This includes all pets.

4. Meet & Greets

Once approved to adopt, the foster family of your preferred dog(s) will be in touch to schedule a meet and greet. Except in cases of young puppies, the adoptable dog must meet the hopeful adopters' current pet(s) before starting the 2-week adoption trial period. Please note: No individual meet and greets will be scheduled until an applicant is fully approved, however, anyone can meet our adoptable dogs at our public events.

Adoption Policies

  • Saved By Fate Dog Rescue will only consider applicants who live within a 6-hour drive of Lexington, Kentucky, unless the applicant has been referred to SBF by a board member or the adoptable dog's foster family. We do not have the means to transport or conduct home visits outside this radius.
  • Saved By Fate Dog Rescue does not place female dogs together if they are within 3 years of age. This policy was put in place after multiple instances of females in the same home reaching the age of maturity, and one or both became aggressive with each other, causing fights. The SBF adoptions team does everything in our power to ensure that our dogs stay in their forever homes and are not returned to us so that we can focus on saving the lives of more dogs.
  • Saved By Fate Dog Rescue does not adopt out puppies from the same litter or of the same age due to the high risk of "Littermate Syndrome."  Puppies the same age – whether they’re related or now – can develop a bond so strong that it causes behavioral issues. Sometimes this causes difficulty with training, when the puppies become such a distraction to each other that it prohibits them from learning from or listening to their leader. Other times, they become aggressive with each other as they age (more common in females). Click here for more info.
  • All dogs are spayed/neutered, microchipped and up-to-date on all shots before adoption. Our dogs' microchips stay registered to Saved By Fate Dog Rescue but we allow each adopter to request that their contact information be added to the registration.

After an application is submitted, a member of our Adoptions team will be in touch by email within 72 hours. Please do not reach out to Saved By Fate Dog Rescue before then. Our volunteers process applications as quickly as possible, but the dogs need us too!

If at any point during the application process, you adopt elsewhere or wish to withdraw your app, please let us know ASAP.

Ready to Adopt?

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Dog Adoption Application
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