Adoption Process

Adoption Requirements

• Must be at least 18 years of age.

• Must have landlord approval.

• Must have proof of vaccines for any other animals living at residence.

Adoption Process

1. Fill out our Adoption Survey. If you have previously been approved to adopt with OTAT PDX, please fill out this update form to submit interest in a new/different dog. You do not need a unique ID to fill out the adoption survey if you have never applied to volunteer, foster, or adopt with us before. If you have applied to adopt, foster or volunteer and do not know your unique ID, please email ID@otatpdx.org.

2. After submitting an adoption survey, you will receive an auto-email confirmation that it has successfully been received.

3. An Adoption Lead (AL) will screen and review your adoption survey as soon as possible. The AL will contact you regarding general approval and to answer any questions you may have. We may also discuss setting up an introduction with a dog at that time or we may circle back with you about this later. All dogs spend a minimum of one week in a foster home before they are available for introductions. All things being equal introductions are scheduled on a first come, first served basis. An important note on introduction and adoption timelines: *We give adopters 24 hours to respond to an email offering an intro. If we don’t hear from you by then we may move on to the next interested adopter*.

4. When we do an introduction with a dog, we ask for a decision on adoption within 12 hours of the introduction. If you adopt, the dog must be picked up within 24-48 hours of the introduction. We will want to confirm you can adopt within this time frame when we first offer an introduction to a dog. If you cannot, we should not proceed with an introduction until you are ready to bring a dog home.

5. Our adoption fees cover wellness exam, spay/neuter, age-appropriate vaccinations, heart worm test, deworming, and microchip.

   • Young Puppies (6 months and younger): $600

   • Older Puppies & Adult dogs (7months-6 years old): $500

   • Seniors (7 years and older): $300

   • Seniors (Humans 65+) adopting Seniors (Dogs 7+): $100

   • Dogs 7 months+ who have been adoptable longer than 30 consecutive days: $100

6. At the adoption finalization you will pay the adoption fee & any applicable deposits, sign our adoption agreement, and take a “Happy Tails” adoption photo!

7. Upon adoption, you will receive your new companion’s medical records, a copy of the adoption agreement, and information about our community partners and continuing discounts.

8. After adopting an OTAT PDX dog, you will receive benefits and support for the lifetime of the dog!

We recommend filling out our adoption survey as soon as you are ready to welcome a new companion, even if the dog is not yet available or you are just hoping to be approved generally to adopt a dog in the future. This will help streamline the process, as a queue tends to form for many of our dogs and having an approved adoption survey on file is the first step in bringing home your new family member.