- Joined
- 12/9/20
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As someone who has done so much fostering......so much....
Maybe I can shed some light? Or at least make you feel better.
In many cases the phone numbers just go into a voice mail bin. Then some volunteer or board member has to listen to them, and get them where they need to go. For instance, I often had interested adopters tell me I got back to them three weeks or a month after they called. Well, sorry. But you called the listed number, left a message, which then had to get paired up with your application which then had to get approved, which then had to go to the foster coordinator, who then identified that it was me who has the bird you’re interested in. And hey, we’re all volunteers. We sometimes have to eat sleep and poo too. Depending on the approval process, it can take weeks! Especially when checking references. Because then everyone is playing phone tag.
Now, there are some bad sides to adoption applications. I’ve had people who gave me the complete freaking heebie jeebies get approved to adopt a bird I was fostering in my home— against my wishes and judgment. Some rescues will only base approval on the foster’s say when the potential adopter comes to meet the bird while others it goes to vote at each board meeting. And I have witnessed board members deny perfectly wonderful families to adopt birds based on utter crap. A 22 year old woman was once refused a large cockatoo purely on the basis that the odds were great she would probably get married and have kids sometime this century and this bird had been just given up for that same reason. The result? They allowed a single man to adopt him. Well, man got married and new wife returned the bird to us.
Rescues are sometimes complicated. I encourage you to reach out to a board member other than whom you’ve already spoken to, and ask if they had any concerns about your application. Be honest and tell them you feel that you are getting passed over. They may have something simple for you to fix, or they may come right out and say they don’t feel you’re requesting what species they’d choose for you.
Maybe I can shed some light? Or at least make you feel better.
In many cases the phone numbers just go into a voice mail bin. Then some volunteer or board member has to listen to them, and get them where they need to go. For instance, I often had interested adopters tell me I got back to them three weeks or a month after they called. Well, sorry. But you called the listed number, left a message, which then had to get paired up with your application which then had to get approved, which then had to go to the foster coordinator, who then identified that it was me who has the bird you’re interested in. And hey, we’re all volunteers. We sometimes have to eat sleep and poo too. Depending on the approval process, it can take weeks! Especially when checking references. Because then everyone is playing phone tag.
Now, there are some bad sides to adoption applications. I’ve had people who gave me the complete freaking heebie jeebies get approved to adopt a bird I was fostering in my home— against my wishes and judgment. Some rescues will only base approval on the foster’s say when the potential adopter comes to meet the bird while others it goes to vote at each board meeting. And I have witnessed board members deny perfectly wonderful families to adopt birds based on utter crap. A 22 year old woman was once refused a large cockatoo purely on the basis that the odds were great she would probably get married and have kids sometime this century and this bird had been just given up for that same reason. The result? They allowed a single man to adopt him. Well, man got married and new wife returned the bird to us.
Rescues are sometimes complicated. I encourage you to reach out to a board member other than whom you’ve already spoken to, and ask if they had any concerns about your application. Be honest and tell them you feel that you are getting passed over. They may have something simple for you to fix, or they may come right out and say they don’t feel you’re requesting what species they’d choose for you.