Understanding Pet Statuses
Pet statuses are organized into logical groups that represent different phases of care:
Intake
- Intake: Initial processing, newly arrived at the shelter
- Medical Hold: Animals requiring medical evaluation before regular care
- Surrendered: Pets given up by their previous owners
Active
- Available: Ready for adoption and can be seen by the public
- Fostered: Currently placed in a foster home
- Hold: Temporarily unavailable (for various reasons)
- Recovery Period: Recuperating after surgery or treatment
- Pending: Adoption is in process but not finalized
Other Statuses
- Stray: Found animals waiting for potential owner claims
- Quarantine: Separated for disease prevention or observation
- Medical Treatment: Undergoing ongoing medical care
- Lost: Pet registered as missing
- Escaped: Pet escaped from the shelter's care
- Returned to Owner: Reunited with original owner
Outcomes
- Adopted: Successfully placed in a permanent home
- Deceased: Pet has passed away
- Euthanized: Humanely euthanized
- Transferred: Moved to another organization
Administrative
- Archived: No longer active in the system but records are preserved
- Other: Miscellaneous status not covered by other categories
Changing a Pet's Status
- Go to the pet's profile page
- Find the current status badge (usually next to the pet's name)
- Click on the status badge
- A dropdown menu will appear with available status options
- Select the new status
- The system will update immediately
Status Restrictions and Rules
Certain status changes may be restricted based on the pet's current situation:
- Fostered pets with active foster assignments cannot be changed to other statuses until the foster assignment is ended
- Adopted pets with adoption records cannot be changed until the adoption is canceled
- Archived pets can only be unarchived (cannot change directly to other statuses)
- Pets cannot be changed to Archived if they are currently Adopted or Fostered
Status Effect on Visibility
A pet's status affects where and how they appear in the system:
- Available pets can be made visible to the public (with photos)
- Archived pets don't appear in regular searches but can be found with filters
- Fostered, Medical Treatment, and other statuses show the pet is unavailable for adoption
- Only Available pets appear in the public adoption gallery by default
Status Filters
When viewing your pets list, you can filter by status:
- Go to the main Pets page
- Use the Status dropdown filter
- Select one or more statuses to view
- The list will update to show only pets with the selected statuses
Your status filter preferences are saved for future sessions.
Status-Based Actions
Different statuses enable different actions:
- Available pets can be marked as pending adoption
- Fostered pets show foster parent information
- Pending pets can be converted to adopted
- Archived pets cannot be edited until unarchived
Managing Pet Counts
Your subscription determines how many active pets you can have in the system:
- Archived pets do not count against your active pet limit
- You cannot unarchive a pet if you've reached your active pet limit
- The system will warn you if you're approaching your limit
Status History
The system keeps track of status changes:
- Go to a pet's profile
- Click the History button
- View a chronological record of all status changes
Status Badges
Status badges use different colors to make identification easier:
- Green: Positive outcomes (Available, Adopted)
- Blue: Processing stages (Intake, Fostered)
- Yellow/Orange: Attention needed (Medical Treatment, Hold)
- Red: Critical situations (Escaped, Lost)
- Gray: Administrative (Archived)
Quick Tips
- Use bulk actions to change the status of multiple pets at once
- Set up automated notifications for specific status changes
- Reference the status dashboard to see how many pets are in each category
- Use status notes to record specific details about a status change