My Nonprofit Reviews

I hope this review finds anyone who has the misfortune of having to rehome their dog/ Forgive the length (I usually try to be brief), but in a situation that can be so remarkably difficult, I hope some of the level of detail provided will ease some of the pain & nerves.

Our dog of four and a half years bit our 15 month old daughter - resulting in a stitch to her head & laceration on her eyelid that has thankfully healed. It wasn't an isolated event - we had a previous scare & a hand full of minor incidents. While our dog by no means was aggressive in nature, his high levels of anxiety mixed with a perpetual need to be in the mix of things proved to be a poor mix for a home w/ an increasingly mobile toddler. We made the decision to rehome our dog - a decision that was both easy to make, while remarkably painful.

The obedience trainer that we had used had connected us with NE Paws - and I genuinely can't say enough nice things about them. To say they went "above & beyond" our expectations would be a disservice to the amount of work & empathy that was shown.

The foster mother (Lauren) connected w/ us on a video conference call the day we reached out to them - even though she was on vacation seeing her daughter & grandchildren. She was incredibly kind, understanding & patient - as she listened to my wife & I blabber through tears explaining the situation. On that call she committed to staying in constant contact, giving the dog a great transitional home and allowing us to be apart of the adoption process - and she absolutely delivered on each and every front.

We dropped our dog off at the foster's home - which honestly seemed more like a dog resort. Plenty of space inside & an enormous fenced in backyard with a ton of space, toys everywhere, a plastic kiddy pool, etc. The foster mother's husband (Gary) proved to be just as kind as Lauren, walking us through all the sorts of things they do w/ the dogs including walks, hikes, trips to the beach, etc. They also discussed their overall approach to fostering - a week of observation before listing the dog, including some boundary-testing so they could get a full understanding of what would and would not be a good home for the dog. Once the dog was listed we could be involved (if we wanted), and they would have no reservations about declining an application if they didn't see it as a fit.

We were sent home with a hug & words of encouragement from Lauren, as well an entire box of kleenex that we absolute most certainly needed. We were told to reach out to her w/ as many updates as we needed, and a smiling photo of our dog was sent to us via text even before we were home, shortly followed up by an update on how he had done on his first walk.

The week of observation we were sent plenty of photos & text updates. When NE Paws felt they identified a good fit for our dog, Lauren reached out w/ a few follow-up questions she had to make sure it would be an ideal fit. We'd connect with the gentleman who wanted to adopt that week to address any outstanding questions he had. Afterward, Lauren reached out to us to make sure we didn't have any outstanding concerns with the adopter, while relaying to us that she'd made it clear that it'd be important for us to stay in contact w/ him.

Re-homing your dog is an awful process. NE Paws can't make it not painful - but it'll be immediately clear that you are in as capable of hands as possible - and you will be consistently re-validated throughout the process of that.