Nismo and Adopting Your Furever Pup!

This is for someone curious about the Dog rescue/adopting process. I thought I knew the steps but there was some I did not know and some tips and knowledge I wish I had prior, so here is my experience!

I've known I wanted to adopt a puppy since I've moved out on my own, but I needed to make sure I had enough time to support the pups and myself fairly. I also needed to make sure he/she had a safe space and enough space in my living environment to make it work as well as make sure I could take on the financial responsibility of them too.

This took time, 5-6 years to be exact. You'll never feel fully ready to be frank with you. There is always things you will wish you have but as long as you can feed them, walk them, love and care for them that's what matters. It is a huge commitment especially with your time, potty training is a lot but rewarding and watching them evolve is amazing.  

I have always been a huge believer in adopting animals from rescues rather than shopping for them from breeders, just because there are so many cute animals in need of loving homes that need our help. So I went to petfinder.com and found Angels For Mistreated Animals (AMA for short) and they had helped rescue a liter of 7 pups that were unfortunately extremely malnourished. They named each pup after the Stranger Things cast dubbing them the Stranger Things Puppies. We had put in application for this liter and at another rescue named Mutt Mafia for a female pit-bull name Nola who was about 4 months old so roughly the same age as the Stranger Things pups. We wanted the dog as a puppy so we can really train them to be friendly, loving and caring towards all.

Nola we fell in love with she was so cute in her photos and we drove about a hour to go see her but she didn't make it to the meet and greet. This actually turned out to be a blessing, she found her furever home. We, of course were heart broken but we did get great news the same day about two pups being available from the Strangers Things liter and our application was approved! Now I personally was a little upset and sour about Nola so I did not want to get overly excited about the Stranger Things Pups because I feared getting my heart broken again.  So Kevin took the reigns a bit, he got all the photos and spoke to the wonderful ladies at AMA for days until he set up what I was told was a meet and greet.

Tip One: Put multiple applications out there if this is your first time, I'd say 2-3 but more if you are looking for a specific breed of dog especially a puppy.  

When we spoke with AMA this was right before COVID, so they usually do foster to adopt to make sure that the animal is a good fit, they will also do a home inspection to check to safety (make sure the animals cannot escape or run away), as numerous rescues do they ask that the animals get spayed/neutered which they will pay for with fostering as well as micro-chipping and registration for the animal. 

Well the morning of  our meet and greet Kevin said we have to go to the pet store and get some puppy stuff because we are going to foster one names Steve. Now I was a little confused and shocked so I don't know if it fully registered but we went to PetSmart and got everything

Tip Two: Ask for the puppy coupon book at PetSmart! its $20 but it'll save you so much money right away and you can get it as many times as you would like!

What we got:

• Crate
• Playpen
• Puppy pee pads
• Toys (his first teddy bear)
• Tennis balls
• Treats
• Dog food 
• Dog food bowl
• Water Bowl
• Harness
• Collar (it was too big, if your unsure grab 2 sizes and return one)
• Leash
• Poop bags
• A Sweatshirt

We came home and set everything up for him, we were so excited and just hoping everything worked out because I was too hopeful at this point to not come home with a puppy. Once that was good we made the hour and a half trip to the city and met both pups from the litter, Max and Steve.

The current foster parent had one pup of her own and was foster the two brothers. They handed me Steve right away and I fell in love. He was so cute, cuddly and we bonded instantly but there was a little guilt I had felt about leaving his brother and Kevin saw it on my face. He had told me that the two brothers were left and we talked about adopting both of them prior to driving down there but we knew it was not feasible at that time. However we did agree that if max was not adopted after 6 months we would revisit the situation to see if we could manage both pups.  I'm happy to say Max was adopted a short time after we got Steve (who we named Nismo, it is a car reference) and Max is doing great!

Tip Three: Don't bite off more than you can chew,  Understand its like having another mouth to feed, also vet bills are real, shots are necessary and emergencies do happy, animals are like children they don't mean to get into stuff that's bad for them but it happens.

We are so grateful to AMA, Anna there was absolutely wonderful she answered all of our questions and made this process so easy. We fostered Nismo for about a year before fully adopting due to Covid the process did get slowed down but there was not really a rush to get the paperwork done. We never were worried about finishing the process and always kept in touch with AMA. He still got all of his vaccinations, micro-chipping and neutering done as well.  They really helped inform us about different foods, snacks and techniques for training, While the first few weeks while potty training was definitely sleepless its been all cuddles and sweet dreams since! Nismo was the perfect addition to our family and we are so lucky he chose us as much as we chose him. If you Live in New York and are looking for a new addition to your family please let Angels for Mistreated Animals help you find your new cuddle buddy!

Tip Four: Donate anything your pup grows out of to your local shelter!