As pet owners, we often find ourselves in conversations with friends and acquaintances who are thinking of adopting or who have just adopted, and most of us are eager to offer our advice and pass on tips that would have been helpful, instructive, and reassuring to us back when we were newbie pet parents.
This is fine, as far as it goes, but the problem is that such info is incomplete, not organized, won’t all be remembered, and not everyone will face exactly the same challenges. We’re usually only a phone call or email away if anyone needs on-the-spot help, but why not help them help themselves with a new rescue owner guide? Here are some excellent PDFs that you can download and save and share with anyone who needs a helping hand.
Commonsense Guide:
A commonsense guide to selecting a dog or cat gives helpful advice on choosing what sort of pet to look for, and where.
Adoption:
Adopting a cat is a simple one-pager from the Nova Scotia SPCA that covers the points potential owners should review before deciding to adopt a cat, including projected costs (the Canadian dollar and U.S. dollar are roughly equal, so this should be fine).
Care Manual:
Care cat manual is a very good, extremely thorough guide from an Illinois animal rescue that discusses almost every aspect of successful cat ownership. The first two pages can be disregarded since they are about adopting from the agency.
Adopting a Rescue Dog: The First Seven Days cover the pre-adoption period, beginning a month before adoption, and continuing through the first seven days of having a new rescue dog at home.
Adopting a Rescue Dog is another helpful manual for new rescue ownership, from a canine psychologist.
So! That’s a good beginning, and enough to give any hopeful but inexperienced new owner some reassurance, and help them to plan for their new family member.
