Home  |  Available Dogs  |  Adoption Application  |  Candle Ceremony  |  Donations  |  Foster Journal  |  Gift Shop  |  Happy Endings  |  Health & Wellness  |  How You Can Help  |  Library  |  Nutrition  |  Our Rescue Ethics  |  Peke A Tzu Haven  |  Quarterly Report  |  Rainbow Bridge  |  Seniors  |  Special Needs  |  Video & Slideshows

Our Volunteers and Processing our Application
Peke A Tzu Rescue is an IRS 501(c)(3) non- profit rescue organization. As a non-profit group relying solely on donations, all donations are appreciated for the donations help cover administrative costs associated with processing applications which include long distance calls to applicants, personal and veterinarian references, arranging home visits and gas expense to complete the home visit.

We receive numerous Adoption Applications where applicants are only "puppy window shopping" or are not truly dedicated to adopting from
Peke A Tzu Rescue. Each application takes between 10-12 hours to process.

Our volunteers:
  • Are not paid for their time and expenses.

  • They have jobs, a family, foster dogs and dogs of their own to care for.

  • Taking time away from their personal life to process an Adoption Application is enough "donation" on their part.


  • Often our volunteers waste their precious time processing Adoption Applications for people who are not seriously interested in adopting. We have quite a few applicants who were approved and then decided that they were not ready to adopt. How do you think our volunteers felt after spending a week or more working on that application? They were so excited that one of our pupsters was going to be adopted and have a special Forever Home. Our hearts break and the tears flow as we hold our foster pupsters close and try to explain to them that their dream of their very own home is not going to come true. The fact that the volunteers took time away from their foster dogs, their own dogs and most of all their families is enough to burn out our volunteers and then we will not have anyone to process the Adoption Applications.

    Any donation will help provide some much needed funding, as well as provide our volunteer processors with more dedicated Adoption Applications. Unless you volunteer your time and energy for a charity, you may not understand the work involved in processing an application nor the dedication of the foster parents who give their heart and soul to the care of the foster pupsters. Endless hours are spent socializing, house training and teaching the pupster what love is really all about. Our volunteers give up their social life and devote their time to helping our pupsters. Our volunteers get very little thanks and often are insulted by rejected applicants who lied on their applications and wasted our time. We are bombarded with nasty emails from rejected applicants who did not even bother to read the Adoption Guidelines and were not eligible to adopt from any dog rescue. We encourage applicants to read the Adoption Guidelines before completing an application to ensure they are eligible to adopt from Peke A Tzu Rescue.



    Adoption Fee:
    The Adoption Fee does not reimburse the rescue for the expenses for the adopted dog. It only defrays part of the vetting, food, heartworm preventative, flea protection, grooming and other expenses for each pupster that is adopted. Our Adoption Fee per dog starts at $300. There may be exceptions to this policy on occasion which will be stated in the Adoption Listing. Should you question our Adoption Fee on the puppies and younger dogs please know that our hearts belong to the special needs and senior pupsters. When a puppy or very young dog arrives; we do not consider the baby as a rescue, but a blessing for they have arrived to help our special needs and seniors that are so in need. Our expenses for the special needs and senior Sanctuary pupsters exceed $2000 per pupster. We explain this to each one of our puppies as they arrive and they agree with us 100 percent. We hope that as you visit our sweet puppies, that you will feel the same way.

    We can only survive through the kindness and generosity of volunteers who continue to be dedicated to the pupsters we love so much. Adoption Fees in no way cover veterinary bills, food, shelter, transporting, personal expenses, operating expenses and the time & costs taken to nurture these dogs back to health. We are not a part of any government entitlement programs and we receive no support other than through the kindness of cash donations.

    Because the seniors and special needs are the loves of our lives, we have chosen to concentrate our rescue efforts on these pupsters. Many rescues will not take in seniors or special needs due to the huge vetting expenses and the fact that they will probably never be adopted. During their stay with us, each pupster’s vetting and all other needs is a priority. We give them the best care we possibly can for their remaining months or years. Unfortunately, some of these angels go to Rainbow Bridge before they can be adopted. It breaks our heart to know their value was never recognized and they never experienced having a special Forever Home of their very own. We cry rivers of tears over the loss of these special pupsters, but are still faced with the financial debt incurred for their food, vetting and other expenses, that is not offset with an Adoption Fee. Below is the list of the financial debt for the pupsters who went to Rainbow Bridge without being adopted. Many had been in our care for four years or longer.

    20242023
    VETTING $  0,000 VETTING$  2,241
    FOOD $  0,000FOOD$  1,460
    HW PREV $  0,000HW PREV$     720
    FLEA PREV$  0,000 FLEA PREV$  1,020
    GROOMING $  0,000 GROOMING$  1,080
    TOTAL LOSS $  0,000TOTAL LOSS$  6,521
    20222021
    VETTING $  3,810 VETTING$  4,421
    FOOD $  1,690FOOD$  1,940
    HW PREV $  1,091HW PREV$  1,161
    FLEA PREV$  1,380 FLEA PREV$  1,560
    GROOMING $  1,150 GROOMING$  1,300
    TOTAL LOSS $  9,121TOTAL LOSS$10,382
    20202019
    VETTING $  5,102 VETTING$  4,218
    FOOD $  2,281FOOD$  2,360
    HW PREV $  1,240HW PREV$  1,080
    FLEA PREV$  1,892 FLEA PREV$  1,442
    GROOMING $  2,800 GROOMING$  1,260
    TOTAL LOSS $13,315TOTAL LOSS$10,360
    20182017
    VETTING $  3,860 VETTING$  4,920
    FOOD $  1,814FOOD$  2,123
    HW PREV $  1,022HW PREV$  1,290
    FLEA PREV$  1,395 FLEA PREV$  1,731
    GROOMING $  1,390 GROOMING$  2,290
    TOTAL LOSS   $9,481TOTAL LOSS$12,354
    20162015
    VETTING $  4,218 VETTING$  5,892
    FOOD $  1,920FOOD$  4,123
    HW PREV $  1,136HW PREV$    785
    FLEA PREV$  1,521 FLEA PREV$  1,141
    GROOMING $  1,680 GROOMING$  7,900
    TOTAL LOSS $10,475TOTAL LOSS$19,841
    20142013
    VETTING $  4,196 VETTING$  8,940
    FOOD $  2,391FOOD$  5,120
    HW PREV $    539HW PREV$  1,127
    FLEA PREV$    843 FLEA PREV$  1,420
    GROOMING $  6,550 GROOMING$  8,500
    TOTAL LOSS $14,519TOTAL LOSS$25,107
    20122011
    VETTING $11,313 VETTING$10,839
    FOOD $  7,940FOOD$  8,422
    HW PREV $  1,589HW PREV$  1,648
    FLEA PREV$  1,860 FLEA PREV$  1,921
    GROOMING $12,500 GROOMING$11,350
    TOTAL LOSS $35,202TOTAL LOSS$34,180
    20102009
    VETTING $13,486             VETTING$12,168
    FOOD $11,219FOOD$  9,160
    HW PREV $  2,193HW PREV$  1,815
    FLEA PREV$  2,382 FLEA PREV$  2,065
    GROOMING $13,500 GROOMING$12,085
    TOTAL LOSS $42,780 TOTAL LOSS$37,293
    20082007
    VETTING $11,820 VETTING$14,035
    FOOD $10,150FOOD$ 7,350
    HW PREV $  1,720HW PREV$ 1,260
    FLEA PREV$ 2,064 FLEA PREV$ 1,512
    GROOMING $13,760 GROOMING$10,040
    TOTAL LOSS $39,514TOTAL LOSS$34,197
    20062005
    VETTING$ 8,921 VETTING$ 7,386
    FOOD $ 2,280FOOD$ 1,944
    HW PREV$  624HW PREV$  580
    FLEA PREV$  832 FLEA PREV$  738
    GROOMING $  600 GROOMING$  960
    TOTAL LOSS $13,257TOTAL LOSS$11,608

    This should answer any questions you may have about our Application Process and Adoption Fee. You can return to the Adoption Guideline page at Adoption Guideline

    Copyright© 2003 - 2024, Peke A Tzu Rescue.  All Rights Reserved.
    Contents of this site are the property of Peke A Tzu Rescue. Do not take anything from the site without permission.