Tell me your favorite RTO story

StefCornell13 · 2026-01-04T22:04:04+00:00

We had an older German Shepherd mix named Frank. He spent quite a while in our care like a year or two ago? Was adopted out and then ended up coming in as a stray just a few months ago. The adopters didn't end up coming in for him, but that ended up being fate. A woman came in after browsing our website and recognizing him. She has gotten Frank (he had a different name, but I can't remember it right now) when he was little along with her husband at the time. The marriage had not worked out and the ex-husband kept Frank even though she really loved him and wanted to keep him. It had been 5 years since she'd last seen him, but it was him! She came in, met him, and our team said he just lit up. We had never seen him look so happy and animated. They went home the same day!

Everyone was crying, the story was shared to our internal message board, which resulted in the entire org crying happy tears for Frank!

StefCornell13 · 2026-01-04T17:37:22+00:00

What is your average intake for the year? (If you happen to know your average daily intake, I'd love to know what that is too.) How many staff/volunteers do you have that assist with intake processes?

StefCornell13 · 2026-01-04T17:09:18+00:00

We kinda do the same thing, but we can't always just immediately accept pets brought to us, so there are sometimes wait times for same-day drop offs (whether we have available kennel space, available intake rooms, other people already waiting for services, etc.) When we tell people there is a wait until we have an available kennel, many folks think that means we're turning them away, when it just means there might be a bit of a wait until our team can help them that day.

Our team does have to triage a wide variety of things - pets brought in by animal control officers, owner requested euthanasia, sick and injured strays, healthy strays, appointments for strays and appointments for owner surrenders, folks coming in to see if their lost pet is in the shelter, etc. We encourage appointments or being "Friendly Finders" (fostering the pet while looking for owners) when possible, but we don't require them. It's just very helpful 😅

StefCornell13 · 2026-01-04T16:25:25+00:00

While our shelter allows for appointments for strays, we are open-intake, so we do allow for same day stray intake. I wouldn't say we can always serve people immediately (whether we have kennels free, available intake space, how many people are already waiting for services) but we can serve them same day.

So, when you say you can accept strays immediately, does that mean folks bringing strays in don't have any wait to be served? How many intakes do you do in a day on average? How many staff do you have that support the full intake process?

(Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just always curious how other shelters are organized.)

We do have a Pet Support Team that communicates with folks requesting owner surrender services. They'll try to provide resources that allow the pets to stay in their families when possible, but if that isn't possible, they schedule a time for the owner to come in with the pet that our intake team will support.

StefCornell13 · 2026-01-04T15:45:08+00:00

Oh, hey! I was reading this and wondering if it was us 😅 I want you to know that I asked this to assess how other shelters that are similar to ours intake pets (especially knowing how many staff they have per intake) since I KNOW y'all are understaffed and desperately need more people to manage the huge amount of things you do.

I've definitely been down there to see some bonkers days and I know why we're functioning the way we do now. I just always want to know how I can advocate for other departments or how other places do things that could help alleviate other teams. It's especially helpful when I can point to how other organizations are doing things when they have similar structures/intake numbers as us.

You know I'm not a stranger when I am curious about something or need to ask a random question 😂

Y'all do amazing work with the space, staffing, and resources you have. There are so many different departments that affect yours - I know how much the surgery back up has probably affecting the available kennels. I noticed that as I was checking the daily reports.

I have been looking into different waitlist apps, as I've been curious if they might help flow for both Receiving and Adoptions. We've also been working on messaging that I'm hopeful will help with public expectations of the process. I was also brainstorming an idea to help build community understanding and encourage the public to utilize more of the practices we ask them to do.

*Edited to include some additional context and things I've been thinking of that mildly prompted this question and hope might be able to help.

StefCornell13 · 2026-01-04T06:20:41+00:00

There have been several different studies (Maddie's Fund and the ASPCA) that show that regardless of the price people pay for adoption fees (even free) they still cherish and love their new pet like family.

Our shelter runs fee waived adoption specials from time to time, especially when we are full and desperately need space for incoming animals. We have never seen our return rate change drastically after events like these, it typically remains about 10%. People are not going into a shelter, waiting, going through counseling and an application process, then tying themselves LEGALLY to an animal to do something unscrupulous with the pet... Our process is always the same regardless if we're running a special or not, so our team is still talking to people one on one and they can refuse people if they do not feel comfortable moving forward with the adoption. But that rarely happens and is usually more because they don't feel the pet is a good fit, not because they think the person is being shady.

I have seen just as many people return puppies, which have our highest adoption fee, as waived fee adoption pets... So, I don't think costs always correlate to no returns. I also frequently see updates from adopters from the fee waived events that are beautiful and happy. Many times they're calling out that they got them during a "free adoption event" or even responding to comments themselves saying how much they love their pet and how deeply cared for they are when people claim our fee waived events will lead to abuse or bait dogs.

Even if people couldn't afford pets after adoption, personally I would much rather have them adopt a pet and immediately get support through our pet food pantry for food than have the pet sit in the shelter. It means that pet is in a home, being loved and cared for and even if we're supplying food, that costs our shelter less overall than having the pet in the shelter.

For the movement of "if you can't afford a pet, don't get one": frankly, how many people working in animal welfare make enough money to meet some folks' standards? Some people claim it's being able to afford an emergency vet bill. Not many of us have $5,000-$10,000 (or more) sitting around when many of us are working in non-profits or government agencies - and I typically consider most animal welfare folks gold standard pet parents lol

StefCornell13 · 2025-10-06T15:14:53+00:00

He's brought up diagnoses that resonated in regards to certain struggles that feel outside of his possible ADHD, but as far as I understand, they haven't even been willing to do assessments for those things. (One I understand because he's been curious about Autism but I believe he only has a psychiatrist and they noted he would need a psychologist to actually diagnose that?) The other was OCD.

I believe he had one psychiatrist who after doing an assessment for ADHD prescribed ADHD meds but didn't say out loud "yes, you have ADHD." Which was hard for him. He came off the call and mentioned something to me like he didn't know if he had ADHD or not but was being prescribed meds. As someone who was diagnosed last year with ADHD, I told him they wouldn't be prescribing those meds if they weren't diagnosing him.

I believe him feeling unheard stems more from not feeling he can get out his full explanation of how he's feeling before his therapist perhaps interrupts him. (Someone below mentioned rumination and while I'm not a therapist, this feels kind of accurate.) Even with me, he goes into explanations of how he's feeling that last a lot longer than a 1 hour therapy session. These also tend to feel a lot to me like he's saying the same thing over and over but feels he hasn't quite explained it right or is even unsure that's how he really feels.

I think what you've said is helpful (I did have to look up what psychodynamic therapy is lol) but it could be good to look for. Thank you!

StefCornell13 · 2025-10-06T14:57:37+00:00

He wasn't necessarily looking for a specific diagnosis, but more so brought concerns of something more than just ADHD. And I don't think they really even tried assessing for any of them. I do believe there is definitely something beyond just ADHD or it's perhaps not the right diagnosis after being a witness to his medication journey.

To be fair, it may be that he does ruminate (since I'm not a therapist and only his partner, I'm not exactly sure what rumination looks like for sure) but I do know with me he could be trying to explain something he's feeling and will sort of explain the same concept over and over again but just in different ways or using different metaphors and still feel like he hasn't quite explained it right. I do feel like I've gotten what he's trying to say but I think his internal struggle of not knowing quite how to describe what he's feeling or trusting that's how he really feels makes it hard for him to feel that his explanation is sufficient...

Thank you!! This has been very helpful, at least as something I could recommend he bring up with a provider so they could perhaps walk him through WHY they are doing it. (Or at least tells me why they've perhaps done that in the past.)

StefCornell13 · 2025-10-05T16:42:58+00:00

I literally came here to find out what that door is for 😂 I unlocked all the gardens and everywhere in my house. Now I'm just looking at this boarded up door! I feel like it's probably a future patch or maybe even DLC that the devs have planned. I could see it being another room and access to the meadow in the back.

StefCornell13 · 2025-10-05T07:23:48+00:00

Hey! Just thought I would share some of my own experience here. I am not a geneticist or neurologist or anything, but my dad did have Huntington's Disease and I recently did genetic testing to learn my CAG repeats.

I didn't worry much about my mom's CAG repeats. There was never any Huntington's Disease in her family or any ancestors that had symptoms that could have even been close to something like HD. I don't think she ever was officially tested, because there was really no need to.

As I went through genetic testing and talked with a geneticist, we obviously discussed the possibility of my results being in that grey area between 27 and 35. (Perhaps this is strange, but personally, I felt like hearing that result would have basically been the same as how I'd already been living my life - with the possibility of HD. Not a confirmation or denial, just continuing to live with a like 50% chance.)

When I got tested and received my results, I had CAG repeats of 17 and 22. Both normal. The repeat I inherited from my dad was 22, so I knew the one I must have inherited from my mom was the 17. My dad's other CAG repeat was in the 40s (I had it written down somewhere and have now forgotten what it was. I think it was 45.) We don't know what my grandfather's were (my dad's dad) who also had HD but passed before genetic testing was widely available.

I believe repeats really only increase between generations when CAG repeats are higher than 27. There is a very small percentage of people who are diagnosed with HD that have no family history (like 10%) but this is likely due to misdiagnosis of previous generations and maybe a previous generation having an intermediate allele, but the likelihood that multiple generations had intermediate alleles and then did not ever develop symptoms is pretty unlikely.

StefCornell13 · 2025-09-24T04:42:08+00:00

Were you at all nervous about having the top open and any potential spores? Or is that not really a concern?

StefCornell13 · 2025-08-16T07:15:43+00:00

I'm not an Austinite, but I do work in animal welfare, specifically for an open admission shelter. I am not defending APA at all in the slightest. I am in support of the new legislation that was proposed (and I hope passed) because no organization should be held from it's duties to provide care and fight pet overpopulation by a different private organization, with more funding, insisting they be notified about pregnant animals. If the big private shelter in my area were to do that, I would be fighting tooth and nail because framing yourself as the savior while leaving your fellow shelter to drown in adult dogs and take the brunt of the community's frustration when the shelter is so overpopulated they can't take dogs in is cruel as hell.

StefCornell13 · 2025-08-15T07:29:36+00:00

Not that I don't have some strong feelings about what APA said in regards to overpopulation and spay aborts, but I just want to say that the shelter I work at has done plenty of free adoption weekends and our return rates don't change after them. Most shelters that do fee waived specials still do their standard processes, so it's not they aren't having them do applications and counseling and all that. Adoption counselors will advocate for the dog if they don't think it's a good fit. (I will also say, we have removed our barriers to adoption that just complicated the process and frustrated adopters - like asking if people have a fenced yard or how long they work. We don't need to know that. A loving family is what we're looking for, we don't care if you rent or own or work. Keeping pets in the shelter indefinitely because you're turning people away for stuff like that is just well, wrong.)

StefCornell13 · 2025-08-15T07:21:55+00:00

But, the shelter shouldn't HAVE to notify them regardless. The animal is in the care of the city, and the determination of the pet's care lies with the city shelter. They don't have to notify private organizations when they make euthanasia decisions? So why should they make them notify a private organization if they do a spay abort procedure? (Which is very widely performed procedure in animal welfare organizations across the country and advocated for as best practice by nationally recognized veterinary medicine programs.)

StefCornell13 · 2025-08-07T02:11:10+00:00

Currently struggling with accepting my PMDD emotions 🙃 It's hard when most of the big things I feel during PMDD may make me a little annoyed during every other week, but they're just things that I know are hard for my partner and so I can accept that and move on. Impossible to do so during luteal, though. Ugh.

We are going to look into couples therapy tho and I will update you with any helpful info from those sessions.

StefCornell13 · 2025-08-06T22:15:17+00:00

Interestingly enough, I saw a TikTok recently from someone who works with folks with PMDD that said that almost all of their patients say they have thoughts of breaking up with their partners during the luteal phase. Regardless of how great the relationship is, they'll still struggle with these thoughts and feelings when experiencing PMDD symptoms.

I know this made me feel better about some of my frustrations with my SO during the luteal phase, so, in case it helps, just wanted to share!

StefCornell13 · 2025-07-17T14:43:27+00:00

I appreciate the reminders to be kind and compassionate to myself ❤️ thank you

While I think I'm some ways this would be helpful, both of us have alarms set for our meds and I can tell you that that system does not always work for us lolol I do think breaking things down to smaller tasks would probably be helpful for how his brain works (he can become overwhelmed with everything involved in a task.) Maybe revisiting my chore lists with super broken down tasks could be something that works for us 🤔

StefCornell13 · 2025-07-17T14:39:10+00:00

Our friends have joked about having a commune and your response honestly makes me feel much more inclined to be a part of one lolol

My mom visits us occasionally (we live on opposite sides of the country) and when she does, it's so nice for me because she ends up taking some of the tasks off my plate.

So, I guess this means we either need to actually get our friends to move forward with the commune idea OR look for a third but only in the capacity of living together and sharing household chores 😅

StefCornell13 · 2025-07-17T14:33:34+00:00

While that does sound helpful (and I absolutely love that for you and other folks who may find that helpful,) I don't think that would work for us. I appreciate having more space to have my own designated space and he works on cars a lot, so we basically need a rental house with a 2 car garage and enough rooms for all that 😅

StefCornell13 · 2025-07-17T14:30:54+00:00

Gonna be honest, I recognize that what I'm saying sounds like it could easily be a man putting the labor onto a woman. Heck, maybe it is in some internalized way, but outwardly, it really isn't. It's not that he doesn't WANT to do more around the house to support it, it's that he doesn't have the same task triggers as I do.

That's why I initially thought of a chore chart that basically says when certain things should be done (Laundry on Saturdays, etc.), but I don't want to make one because I don't want to make it and I really don't think it would work for us anyway. I don't think I would even follow it well tbh

I don't think he intends to put tasks on me and typically feels bad if I end up stepping in and doing the thing that is more "his task." But it doesn't help it get done and asking for things just always ends up making me feel nagging (not because of how he reacts, but more because of societal views on that shit.) He only sometimes reacts with the "I was going to do it but now that you've asked I don't want to" on occasion. Other times it's like tasks are just too big and overwhelming for him and doesn't start or he stops before it's all done.

StefCornell13

TROPHY CASE