to welcome to this episode of adopt tell today we are at the animal rescue league of boston we're going to be talking to mike about the pets that are available for adoption or also me talking about how to introduce your new pet to pets that are to live in the home with you so stay t good for a ten year old she is very energetic very happy she's one of those dogs were she actually has a smile on her face she is just enormously cute and she actually knows tricks as well with other dogs ok so she would ideally be the only pet in the home ok because she wants all the attention for her wants to say hello and yes she would she would she would do well with young children as well great anything else we should know about her c she has been here for busy a little over a month all religion is surprising yeah and and they were stray cats community cats and the animal rescue league does have a program for community cats where we work with residents who are monitoring colonies we help  and actually get six to seven hundred communicates come through our doors every year so obviously they're a little scared but they're just a little bit under socialized that they're there were probably the st people that they've ever come a contact with so they're a little scare little shy but given their age once somebody takes them into their home that will change very quickly and you know we definitely shown signs of being friendly so that's why they're a production you know that they're about to make great pets and we say undersocialized we mean with people with giving yeah yeah yeah so it it really just it's going to take a little bit of number socialized cat or kitten it's it's important to just give them time i think a lot of people i want to cat four i want to sit on the couch and have a cat sit on my lap band and just be all you know kodaly and action and all that with other socialized cats it will happen but it will just take some five so when you do get them home and support and just to kind of give them a little space if they hide under a bed or the couch or something for a little bit no big deal and just kind of feeling things out you know it's really you amazing in terms of like other cats they seem to like each other but because they're kids when they may be ok to going to a home that already have a pet and that it's possible i mean especially when they're there see on it certainly acclimate them to othe r animals in the home but especially with cats it's one of those that you don't really get to see it until you bring them all right it's tough to you know when they're here being in a this week so are they spayed neutered and all that yet or does that happen on happening soon ok usually with cats about eight to ten weeks so i believe they are getting spayed neutered extremely friendly and just in our little interactions here are very social which many rabbits actually are and i think a lot of people don't understand how great a pet rabbit can be yeah i've never had a rabbit with us as like an interest yeah i mean they're there they're social they're they're friendly they do like to play in and for a lot of people arrive it actually makes sense depending on your living situation so these two were actually surrendered all because of their land or no thanks so whether or not i don't know what the situation was whether or not pets were allowed in the building or something of that sort what a landlord decision was what brought them t said unfortunately it's open we do find quite a bit and we do have surrendered animals but when it comes to rabbits really they're there like any other pet i mean they just need you know they need space they need room to play  i mean because that's what they really they're not meant to just sit in one place and that sort of thing and many rabbits can be held there and you know you can sort of the couch and then spent some time looking i mean they're just they're they're great they're that typically kind of a case by case but i mean bunnies can be a litter box trained in there they're very neat they're very clean and they're just you know they're they're just a lot of fun overall they're different ye they're we do see quite a high number of rabbits doesn't just have to be around easter time we do see yes we usually have a pretty big influx throughout the year so ok and again i mean they  ok everyone so today our topic is going to be talking a little bit about how you can bring home your pets from the shelter to your house and how you can introduce those pets to pets that you already have in your home and how to do that with as little friction as possible hopefully before so can we start by talking about bringing a new dog home and introducing them maybe to another dog that's already in the house because i'm sure that the process is different for different sure saying yeah i mean so  starts with a conversation so our philosophy is you know we need to get a sense of what kind of animal you're looking for and what your lifestyle is if you do have other animals in the home and kind of how everything all will meld together to make that perfect match i mean because really at the end of the day that's what we're trying to do we want to we want to match the adopter with the perfect animal for them that suits their family their needs and their overall life so especially when it comes to when it comes to dogs if you do have another dog in the home we do require that you bring the dog to actually have a meeting here at the shelter and again the shelter environment it's not it's not one hundred percent it doesn't give you the full picture of everything because again it is a strange environment for your dog and it's still a strange environment for the dog who is already here so but it is a it is important for them to the the dogs to to meet face to face to see if there's any immediate for action or fear or if one would try to dominate over the other that sort of thing so it's really trying to get a sense of if there is a potential for them to get along and once the animal does go home we do check in specially early on just to see how everything's going if there's any questions we can answer because again i think that with any animal if you introduce a new animal to the mix and you know animals have personalities just like we do there could be some some jealousy some hostility right and you never one hundred percent know how it's going to go until you actually get the animal in the home so it's important to kind of take everything into account and to see not only how the new animal will act but how the existing one will act to sorrow it's just something you really have to think about yeah and think hard before you actually commit to the animal i mean just because it's not you know we always tell people it's a lifelong commitment and we understand if the animal needs to come back but at the end of the day we don't want to animal to come back we want them to stay in their home and be happy so yeah it's really it's really a conversation  if you know say ones and ones an elderly dog and you bring you know you bring a puppy into the mix so you know the puppy is going to get all the attention it's going to be a lot more energetic than the than the elderly dog the elderly dog may see the puppy as a threat because again they just you know if you're spending all your time and energy with the puppy in the old early dogs kind of pushed out or yeah you have a cast aside you know the animal may react to that so you know i think more often than not that's not the case so you know i think the majority of the time these interactions for sure everyone involved yeah i mean i think it's really just spending as much time with the two of them together ok just kind of make all the activities together no you don't take one for a walk you can both and  you know when you're playing you involve both of you kind of get to see what each dog likes to do and i kind of mix the two together and i think it's just it's just important to you know to show both of them that you're an  important part to our family and you know we love both of you not just one because you're new or you because you've been here longer and it's just really just getting everybody together at the same age and how about dogs  very different from cats but i will ask you before we move on to cats because i know cats like to have their space all right so with dogs is it recommended that they each have their own kind of area of the house to kind of get used to each  like that so yeah it's definitely a good idea to give each their own space yes great and then also would you feed them at different times or at the same time but in different rooms yeah i mean feeding schedules i think if you get them both on the same one it can be a little dicey at st you know cats are definitely i think more independent than dogs busy and they have strong personalities and really the whole entire home pretty much that you know they're how they're just like you know i think well you know personally when when my wife and i got married her dog and my cat and putting them in the same space together what was challenging and it was really again trying to get the two of them together which was difficult because the cat really didn't want any part of it and spent a lot of time under the bed and in that sort of thing right it's just postings you have to presents and eventually they start to feel more and other out so when it comes to two cats you know again i think it's when you have a an elderly cat and you bring home a kitten that could go two ways you know that the elderly animal could be more nurturing and kind of parental to the kid or could go completely the other the other direction which is they see them as something that they don't want to it might not be a good idea to bring another cat right into the home right but you know if they're if they are accepting to that then i mean it it can be a great pairing i mean we see right now would you say ok so is it easier some dogs and cats to gather right we're talking can be really difficult what do you find that it's easier to bring a cat into a house with a dog into a home of the dog is possibly a little bit easier where again i mean cats are territorial and you know they really see the entire house is there some you see they see you as the are really they are just kind of they're the king and queen of their everything they oversee so i think when you do introduce a dog if it's done slowly if you allow them to kind of was there and they were they were great together so you know we can certainly can certainly work right so there's lots of combinations and you have a puppy with a cat or get in with a dog or into dogs or whatever so obviously case by case basis kind of talk with you guys about what's going on at home and kind of see what you can work out are there any other there's clearly no hard and fast rules on what you should do but any other last tips that you can think of to kind of make that transition i just think it's so important just to ask many through all that where if you know really know what you're getting into we're going to approach it the right way and then you can definitely be definitely be as smooth as possible right so be patient all boston dot org yeah there's just there's a lot of resources there so we're here to help thank you so once thank you for talking about this thing it's really important and a good thing to keep in mind and so with that thank you so much for watching this episode of adopt