They review the application, which is pretty extensive, before I even get names. I get the names if the people request a meet & greet and their application has been approved. The foster makes the final decision on who adopts unless we think the dog would be better off in the public adoption. Some fosters might make house visits, but we do not. We do ask extensive questions during our meet & greet and ask more via email and phone. I feel very comfortable with the families we've placed our dogs with. So far we've been able to place them with families/couples that have someone who works from home, or is a stay at home mom. We want our foster dogs to have their best life. We keep in touch with all of our families via facebook, email and text and sometimes the fosters come back and stay with us when the owners are out of town. Our resident dog loves this because they are bigger and play better now that they are older.

Dogs that don't find a home before the end of the 3 weeks go into the public adoption. It is not easy to get one from the PA, so people don't do it on a whim. It's like an NFL draft. People get there at 5:00am to get their name on the list for the 11:00 draft. And it costs $450. You also sign a contract that you will not give away nor sell the dogs or cats, which are microchipped. If something changes with your situation, or you decide that you don't like the dog for some reason, you are required to give it back to the rescue. Seems like out of 1000+ dogs/year adopted, about 10-12 are returned to WTAR and rehomed.

In any case, all of the dogs from WTAR are from dire situations in Mississippi and would suffer and be killed one way or the other if left there. Even if they didn't have the perfect life here, it's much better than where they came from.