My name is Harbor!

We warmly welcome all contact from families who are interested in our animals and try to respond to e-mails and phone messages the very same day that they are received. We are striving to make customer service our passion for both the people we come into contact with as well as the pets in need.

Our adoption fees vary with the amount that we have invested into each animal we take in. These originate from various areas including shelter 'pull fees' or vet bills and include the costs we incur for spay/neuter, regular vaccines, dental work (if needed), grooming (if needed) etc.. These can range anywhere from $175.00 to a 500.00- depending on the situation. (A low price-such as $175.00-would not generally include much vetting but there are times that we get pets who are already vetted but have just become homeless for one reason or another.)

You will be happy to know that Come To The Rescue DOES NOT MAKE ANY SORT OF A PROFIT ON OUR ANIMALS and the adoption fees reflect only the amount of money we have already spent on them in terms of housing, vaccines and any other needed medical procedures.

Please know that as it is our ultimate goal to place our pets into appropriate,loving and life long homes, we do ask that our prospective adopters are in a financial position to afford the care of the pet they are interested in.

Our adoption process is a simple one which is carefully designed to try and ensure that we connect our available pets with the most appropriate homes..

The first step is usually a phone interview (or email exchange) which serves to give us a sense of our prospective adopters and the sort of companion(s) they are seeking. We also use this as a time to chat about the pets that we currently have in foster, reviewing their personalities and other details that may be important to a future family to know/understand.

Once the initial connection has been made, we then have the family contact the foster home(s) where the pets are currently living. Arrangements can then be made for a visitation. (Depending on the animal(s) involved this could take place either in the foster home, at the potential new home or in an appropriately neutral 'third' location.)

When the family has met the pet -and if they continue to be interested in adopting him or her- we will then perform a veterinary reference check if they have- or have had- other pets in the family. Usually, this only involves a quick phone call to the veterinarian's office.

We then make arrangements to perform an informal 'home visit' to see where the pet will be living. This is a wonderful opportunity for all family members to interact with their newest member as well as for any additional questions to be answered. In the case of cats- in particular- we like to take this time to help the family get the kitty settled in and comfortable.

Often, the home visit will involve the animal coming along but other times it can be done remotely through photographs of the interior and exterior of the home. This decision will depend on the individual situation/circumstances involved.

When approval has been given, we will then discuss whether the family would prefer to officially adopt the pet outright or whether they would prefer have the pet in their home on a trial basis.

Please Note: Both of these decisions will involve the signing of legally binding contracts although adoption fees/checks will not be cashed in the case of a Trial Adoption. The agreed upon adoption fee will be cashed in the event that the family decides to keep the pet and ultimately completes the Official Adoption Contract.

We encourage you to contact Marla Swartz- our director- if you are interested in meeting any of our wonderful companion animals.

Phone 1: 517-548-1780
Phone 2: 517-294-4514

email: marlas2468@yahoo.com

Come To The Rescue is a very small, independent rescue group that is run and supported by folks who are passionate about saving the lives of animals who have otherwise been 'thrown out'.

Most of our pets come from unfortunate situations which include being found as starving strays and from hoarding homes and high kill shelters. Additionally, we will try our best to re-home animals (particularly seniors) whose elderly caretakers can no longer afford to keep them. As we are a very small group, we only take in as many pets as we can comfortably house within our own homes. This means that we do not practice 'warehousing animals in crates' as (sadly) some other groups do. We also try and keep the numbers low in our foster homes so that the animals being sheltered do not become stressed or ill due to overcrowded situations.

Many (but not all) of our pets often come to us bearing both physical and mental scars from their former lives. Some of these, as you can imagine, can be very extreme. But we do our very best to work with each animal individually in order to help them begin the healing process. This usually involves providing grooming, vetting, training and, most importantly, enormous amounts of both love and patience.

Because the only goal of our group is to continue to save/home animals in need, we do not ask for remittance beyond what we have spent on the animals for the above items. We will accept donations offered from families who would like to help us help our animals as long as they understand that -due to the fact that we are not a 501c3 organization- those donations can not be used as a tax write-off.

Our vetting protocol follows the American Veterinary Medical Association Guidelines set out for both dogs (puppies) and cats(kittens). This includes all of the 'core' recommended vaccines and several of the 'non-core' ones as well. In addition to typical (and age appropriate) vaccines, we routinely worm our pets as well as keep them on regular heart worm/flea/tick medications in order to ensure that everyone remains as healthy as possible. We also work closely with our adopters to ensure that they complete vaccines or procedures that (due to age or illness) were not completed at the time of adoption. This, along with a spay/neuter contract/addendum is included in our adoption contract.

Our animals are housed in our homes and made to feel as though they are part of our family until they become adopted. And, for many, this is truly a novel experience. But it is made even more special when that ideal home is found and an otherwise discarded critter becomes a family's most devoted and lifelong companion.

Adopters are always welcome to visit our foster homes at any time when they are interested in our animals. We love having families come by and meeting the pets in a 'home environment' means that the animals are introduced to potential new owners from an area of comfort- as opposed to huddling in a crate in a pet store setting.

Our foster homes are devoted to our pets and we love watching shy/timid animals simply blossom in an atmosphere of friendliness, respect and love.