Thank you for your interest in fostering a homeless pet for Tornado Alley Bulldog Rescue. Our foster families are a vital part of our organization, as we do not have a shelter. We are a network of foster homes and we can only save as many Bulldogs as we have foster homes to put them in. By making the decision to foster, you are literally saving a life!
Our Mission: Tornado Alley Bulldog Rescue is an organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and re-homing of English Bulldogs. In addition to finding new homes for our dogs, we are also very dedicated to educating the public about the responsibilities that come with owning a dog of this breed. All too often people acquire a puppy or adult dog without understanding the maintenance required for the breed and end up finding that they cannot handle it. This is one reason why Bulldogs end up homeless. We know that with proper education and support we can better ensure that fewer Bulldogs end up in shelters and that those who have recently added a Bulldog to their family can find a place to turn when they need help.
Company Overview: Tornado Alley Bulldog Rescue (TABR) is part of the Bulldog Club of America Rescue Network, Inc. (BCARN). BCARN is a non-profit organization with IRS 501(c)(3) status. The volunteers of TABR find new homes for more than 100 Bulldogs each year. Many thousands of dollars are spent to provide medical care, food, shelter, and training while the rescued Bulldogs are awaiting adoption.
Foster Process Overview: When you foster a pet, we cover all approved vet costs, we supply food (English Bulldogs require a special diet), crate (if needed), collar, tag, leash, and a few toys (if they like toys). Typically our foster dogs are in their foster home 4-8 weeks on average while we get them ready for adoption. Our board members schedule their vet visits. We use a vet in Shawnee, OK or in Oklahoma City, OK so all of our fosters must be local and able to get to those veterinary offices. If you are able to take your foster dog to their vet appointments that helps our process tremendously; however, we also have volunteers who help transport our dogs around the city!
Our fosters do weekly updates about how the dog is settling into their home and help evaluate what the ideal home for that dog would be.
- PLEASE NOTE:
With how much interest we currently have in adopting, we do NOT allow fosters to adopt their first foster dog. Fostering is not a to skip the adoption wait list. It is an amazing and rewarding experience all of its own, helping these dogs for a short period and sending them off to an amazing home.
Training: We endorse positive reinforcement training and do not permit the use of aversive training of our foster dogs. Aversive (shock collars, prong collars, physical punishment, etc.) can have serious negative repercussions especially when used on shy, fearful or unsure dogs.
Many dogs coming in to TABR are coming from shelters, owner surrenders and breeder surrenders. These dogs often need a lot of work with their socialization and potty training. We offer our volunteers a lot of help and resources to help integrate a new dog into their home and evaluate them. However, these behaviors are to be expected with a new foster dog. Working with your foster to promote good “house manners” will help both the dog and the adoptive family adjust quickly to each other!
Medical: We do our best to treat for contagious disease in these dogs upon arrival, but on occasion they may be carrying an illness that possibly could be spread to you or a resident pet. This is one reason when approving a foster application, we verify your pets be current on vaccinations, and treated with heart worm and flea and tick prevention monthly to help prevent the transmission of common skin parasites.
All medications are provided in consultation with out veterinarians who examine the pet.
Events: We attend multiple events a year, both in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Meet and Greets and rescue events allow the public to meet our foster dogs, play with them, learn their personalities, and possibly learn how to get involved in the rescue. For a successful event, there should be several dogs at each event. While we understand not every foster parent is available for all events, we encourage fosters to have availability some weekends to bring your foster dogs to events or make arrangements with another volunteer so your foster dog can attend.
Adoption: Adoption fees range from $300- $850. This pays for the cost to bring the dog safety into the rescue, undergo vet exams, vaccinations, de-worming, flea and tick treatment, heartworm test, heartworm preventative, spay or neuter, microchip, any other necessary medications for the dog, and things like collar, leash, toys, and food while in foster care.
Potential adopters fill out a pre-adoption application (found on our website tornadoalleyok.org) which is then reviewed by a Tornado Alley Adoption Committee volunteer. We want to know things like what sort of home they have (house, apt, condo), do they rent or own, if they rent are there weight and breed restrictions, who lives in the house-pets and people, how long will the dog be left alone on an average day, is there a fenced yard, and much more! We try very hard to match the dog to the right family.
After the application is reviewed by a member of the Application Committee and if the family seems like a good match, a meeting is then set either in the foster home or at a nearby pet friendly location. If the family and foster like each other, the family wants to adopt the dog, and the foster family agrees that it is a good match, we will collect the adoption fee and finalize the adoption. The dog will then go to their new home.