NEAR receives upward of five to ten applications per day. Sometimes we get behind. Sometimes we get VERY behind. Our case load is probably the most common reason for communication delays.

We have also found that our email responses end up in peoples' spam folders. We have done everything possible to ensure our email is not mis-identified as spam, but it still happens occasionally. Always check your spam folder if you don't get a response from us.

Many times we find people don't fill out the adoption application completely or properly. It should go without saying that we ask the questions on our application for a reason. If a potential adopter doesn't think enough of the process to provide the information we ask for, then it's not a huge leap to assume they might have the same blase attitude toward an adopted pet. For this reason, an incomplete adoption application may not receive a response from NEAR.

NEAR reserves the right to refuse an adoption for any reason at any time -- even at the point of receipt of an application.