About
What this is
FLAG Pets is an independent publication about the work of rehoming an animal, written from the staff side of the counter and organised in the order the work actually happens.
Most writing about rehoming is written for the person at the end of it: how to choose, how to apply, how to settle an animal in. This one is written about the part before that — the intake card, the walking rota, the assessment room, the foster diary, the phone call that refuses an application. Those are the stages where an animal's chances are actually decided, and they are the least described.
How it is organised
There are eight sections, and they run in sequence: intake, the kennel weeks, assessment, fostering, the match, the return, decompression, and the trade that does the work. An entry sits at the stage it belongs to. Every entry says who does the work at that point, and where a practice varies between shelters it says so rather than presenting one shelter's habit as the standard.
What it is not
It is not a shelter, a rescue, a register of animals or a referral service. Nothing here can tell you whether a particular animal is available, and there is no way to apply for one through this site. If you are looking to adopt or foster, the organisation nearest you is the place to start, and they will have their own process.
It is also not a manual. Shelter practice is local, legally constrained in places, and changes with the staff who run it. What is written here describes how the work is commonly done and where practitioners disagree.
Where to start
If you have no particular question, start at intake and walk forwards. If you have one, the register of all twenty-seven entries is the fastest way in.