Animal Friends with Benefits Program

Taters, a senior terrier mix, was the inspiration for our Animal Friends with Benefits Program. She spent over five years in foster care while being treated for a severe allergic skin condition that required a special prescription diet and oral and topical medications. Caring for an animal with ongoing medical needs – whether it’s a dog with a seizure disorder or a senior cat with kidney disease – can be expensive, and often discourages potential adopters from offering a loving home to an otherwise wonderful companion. Since medical treatment can be financially challenging for some adopters, we created the Animal Friends with Benefits program to help animals like Taters have a better chance at finding their forever families. Love should have no barriers, and this innovative program gives the animals that need the most help have the opportunity to live out their lives as cherished companions. At any given time, we have 3 - 5 animals in our care with health issues that will need medication and ongoing veterinary supervision for their lifetime. People living in Monterey County, CA can adopt a designated Animal Friends with Benefits dog or cat at no charge, and AFRP will provide a lifetime of free medical support for that animal, including medications, lab work and exams at our AFRP vet clinic.

Visit our adoptable dog and cat pages to read more about the animals in this program.

Interested in opening your heart and home to an
Animal Friends with Benefits dog or cat?

Please read more about our adoption process and fill out an online Adoption Application.

If you can’t adopt, but would like to make a donation to help more medical animals find loving homes, please click here.

Compassionate Choice Adoption Program

From time to time, AFRP waives adoption fees for the cats and dogs that have been with AFRP the longest. This program brings attention to the animals that are most in need of adoption, and when these pets go home, it enables us to free up space to rescue more dogs and cats in need of help.

Though our cats and dogs are never in danger of being euthanized because they have been with us too long, the sooner they can find their forever home, the better. There is no place like home! By reducing or waiving the adoption fee, we hope to reduce the time a harder to place animal spends in an adoption center or foster home.

Adopters are required to go through our careful screening process to ensure a good match for both the pet and the new family. We take into account a person’s home and lifestyle, and match those with the animal’s social, exercise and training needs. We make every effort to make the most appropriate match.

Please consider making a Compassionate Choice by adopting a harder to place cat or dog. You’ll be saving two lives - the animal you are adopting, and the animal we can rescue to take it’s place!

Adopt a Cat with FIV

It’s time to think positive and give FIV+ cats a happy and healthy future! After three decades of misinformation about Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), increasing numbers of compassionate animal lovers are giving FIV-positive cats the chance to find the loving homes they deserve. At any given time, AFRP has five to ten FIV+ cats in our adoption program. We feel strongly that they are wonderful companions that deserve a chance to have loving, livelong homes.

Since the mid 1980’s, many cats that tested positive for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus lost their lives because of fear and misinformation about the disease. Many experts thought that FIV-positive cats should be immediately euthanized or kept isolated from other cats. Happily, a recent veterinary study has confirmed what rescuers and cat lovers have known all along: there’s no need to fear FIV. A long-term study conducted by Dr. Annette L. Litster of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has proved that FIV-positive and FIV-negative cats can live together peacefully without risk of transmitting the virus.

Here’s what we know about FIV:

  • It is a feline-only lentivirus. It is so slow to progress, that most FIV+ cats die of old age instead of FIV related illnesses.
  • FIV cannot be passed to humans or dogs, and it cannot spread to other cats through casual contact or by sharing toys, food, water or litter boxes.
  • FIV is only transmitted to other cats through a deep bite wound, where blood and saliva mingle. Rarely, FIV can be passed from a FIV-positive mother cat to her kittens.
  • Caring for an FIV positive cat is simple. They should see their vet regularly for physical exams and lab work, and when they are sick, FIV cats should receive immediate care.
  • FIV cats should always be spayed/neutered, live indoors-only and avoid exposure to infectious diseases, including avoiding raw food diets.
  • FIV-positive cats can live long, healthy and happy lives.An FIV diagnosis should not be a death sentence. It is not necessary to rehome a cat that tests positive, and it should not prevent an FIV+ cat from being adopted.

Thanks to your support, AFRP has been able to help hundreds of FIV-positive cats in our community find the loving homes they deserve. You help us prove that every life counts, and every animal deserves a forever home. Visit our Adoptable Cats page to meet our FIV+ cats available for adoption.

Can't adopt?
Consider sponsoring, fostering or fostering an FIV+ cat that is waiting for a home.

Double the Love Adoption Program

Sending a pair of kittens home together is one of our favorite things. That’s why we hope you’ll consider adopting two kittens (under the age of six months) for a low $200 adoption fee (single kittens are $150). 

Experts agree, it’s a great idea to adopt kittens in pairs!

  • Kittens need interaction with other kittens for healthy social development.
  • Kittens adopted in pairs will still interact with humans, but will keep each other occupied and entertained when you are busy or away from home. 
  • Kittens bite and wrestle with each other, which is natural behavior. You are less likely to be a target of this rough play when you have a pair of kittens.
  • Kittens adopted in pairs play with each other and are less likely to annoy an older adult cat living in the household.
  • Kittens adopted in pairs give you twice the unconditional love!
  • Adopting a pair kittens actually saves four lives - the two you adopt and the two we can bring into our rescue program to take their place.

 

Ready to adopt a pair of kittens?

Read more about our adoption process and visit our adoptable cats web page.