Once your Adoption Application form is completed and returned to us, Sue Allery of RACE will contact you to arrange either a WhatsApp or Messenger chat with her and our frontline rescuer and foster carer, Elena Popa, in Romania. This gives you every opportunity to ask questions about the dog you are hoping will soon become part of your family. At the same time, Elena will ask questions about your family’s expectation of the dog. We aim to get things right from the start and this is an important factor. Elena will always provide photographs and videos of the dog in question so that you can see them interacting with each other, as well as with people.

Adoption Form

All being well from the chat and both sides are satisfied that this is indeed the dog that is suitable for your family, we will request a Video Home Check. Once this is received we will liaise with you to arrange a travel date.

At this stage, we will email you the Adoption Agreement and supporting documentation and also request that you send your adoption fee in order for us to start the necessary preparation for travel. The adoption fee is for England and Wales is £550 per dog un-neutered and £600 per dog neutered. This includes all vaccinations, worming, flea treatments, microchip, passport, transport with a DEFRA approved transporter and brucellosis test as well as, where old enough, neutering and 4DX Snap testing. We aim to neuter wherever possible, but there are occasions when puppies are too young (they have to be a minimum of four months old to travel). In these circumstances, we write a clause into the Adoption Agreement that the adopter undertakes to get the puppy neutered as soon as he/she is old enough. RACE make absolutely no profit from rehoming our dogs; the adoption fee simply covers transportation, legal documentation for immigration, passport, microchipping and all necessary vaccinations. The Paypal address for the fee is raceromanian@gmail.com. We ask that you send the payment as Friends and Family as this ensures that a commission is not deducted. Goods and Services do not apply because we are not selling the dogs.

As your dog leaves Romania and is finally on their way home to you, you will be added to a Transport Chat, which will keep you updated of progress and/or any unexpected delays. We ask that you adopters do not enter into a general chat on the Transport Chat, or keep asking questions, as this distracts the driver. He has the dogs’ welfare and safety to think about at all times – just as it should be. Your new family member will be delivered directly to your home by the transporter. Your dog MUST NOT be taken out from the home for at least the first 48 hours after arrival.

The transporter will hand you the dog’s passport which has the microchip number inside, together with a complete log of all vaccinations given with dates (this includes the all important rabies), as well as results of blood tests, neutering, wormer and flea treatment. You will also be handed all the other relevant documentation required. REMEMBER TO GET YOUR DOG’S MICROCHIP REGISTERED AS SOON AS THEY ARRIVE WITH YOU! This is so important as the first few days in a new environment are when your new dog could feel most scared and more likely to run away if the opportunity arises. It is so easy for people to leave gates open, your dog can scoot through an open door or in some cases escape from gardens. If the chip has not been registered to you, and your dog has just arrived from Romania THEIR MICROCHIP WILL NOT SHOW UP ON ANY DATABASE, it has to be registered first, so even though a scanner will read the microchip, they will have no way of tracing where that dog came from, meaning they will end up in kennels somewhere with the risk of being put to sleep if not claimed.
The microchip details will be inside your dog’s passport which will be handed to you by transport. This is the link for registering the microchip in the UK: www.petlog.org.uk/recording-a-pet-with-an-overseas-microchip. At the current time, the fee is £19.95 each.

You may get a telephone call from DEFRA/APHA shortly after your dog arrives home with you. This is general procedure and they will arrange to visit your home to check that all the paperwork is in order. It always is, so it’s nothing to worry about at all. They are simply doing their job.

Register Microchip

Please do read Settling In Your Rescue (below). This is to make sure your dogs will be safe when they arrive home to you and PLEASE listen to the advice our rescuer, Elena Popa, gives you as she has had many years and experience of dealing with these dogs and does understand them; please don’t think you know better - a new dog in your home, such an important member, has many needs, but the most important one is safety. Sue Allery, who runs the UK side of RACE, will also be more than happy to provide you with as much supporting documentation to help you and your new pet to settle.