Our Rehoming Process

What happens behind the scenes at Four Paws One Heart? Well, rescuing a dog or cat is just the beginning. The journey from Egypt to the UK starts long before a potential adopter gets in touch, and each dog will be with us for a minimum of four months. Here’s how it works…

1. We rescue the dog. You’ve seen the pictures of the black market, of dogs on the streets of Cairo, of fighting dogs chained up, of puppies living on roofs. This is only the beginning.

2. Once a dog comes into our care, they go straight to one of our trusted vets for a health check, and any injuries, illnesses, or traumas are treated. This can take a day, or it can take months. At this stage, the dogs are also microchipped, vaccinated for common diseases (parvo, distemper, flu) and rabies, and treated for worms and ticks.

As standard, we run the following blood tests:

• Analplasma
• Erelichia
• Babesiosis
• Brucellosis
• CBC (Common Blood Count)

We generally also request our vets to perform X-rays, ultrasounds, and an ECG test at this stage in order to get a full picture of the dog’s health.

3. If we think the dog might be a candidate for rehoming in the UK (sadly, some dogs are too old or sick to travel, and these dogs will live out their days in Egypt), we’ll start the testing process for travel. This takes a minimum of four months. After the rabies vaccine, we have to wait for the dog to develop antibodies (this is the part that takes time), and then their blood is tested at a DEFRA-approved laboratory. There are no DEFRA-approved laboratories in Egypt, so the blood has to be tested in Europe, usually in Germany as this is the easiest location to transport it to. We use a specialist agent for this part. His whole job is to arrange the transport of animals from Egypt to all over the world, and he’s able to navigate the complexities far better than we can!

4. Once a dog is healthy enough, it will move to our base on the outskirts of Cairo. The farm is a much nicer environment than the vet clinic for long-term dogs, as they have space to run around and even a swimming pool! By now, we’ll have got to understand the dog and its personality, which helps us to find them the right home. We’ll know whether whether they get along with other dogs, if they might be able to live with cats, or whether they’re chilled enough to live with children.

A note on cat testing: We can carry this out on request. If we have any reservations about a dog’s temperament around cats, we will not rehome them with a cat.

5. The dog is ready to look for its forever home, and we’ll list it on our website and social media pages. If you’re interested in adopting, you can find our application form here.

6. We review any applications to see if they’re suitable for a particular dog. We don’t have blanket rehoming criteria, but at a minimum, we’d expect a potential adopter to have:

• Somewhere to exercise the dog regularly.
• A garden with fencing appropriate for the dog, or (if you live in a flat) a park or green space nearby so they can go to the toilet.
• A plan for care if you’re out of the home (e.g. daycare or a dog walker if you’re at work).
• Permission from your landlord to have a dog if your property is rented.

We’re really careful to match the right dog to the right adopter—we want this to work as much as you do! We want all our dogs to find homes, but they have to be the right homes. For example, we’d be unlikely to home a high-energy puppy to live in a flat with a dog walker popping in once a day.

7. We get to know you, and most importantly, talk to you about the dog you’d like to adopt. We’d rather be upfront about any issues because we want every adoption to be successful. There’s no point in hiding problems because although we love our dogs a lot, we don’t want them coming back again 😅

8. We’ll carry out a home check. Wherever possible, we visit in person, but sometimes these are done via video call.

9. You’re a match! Now we start the process of arranging the dog’s journey to the UK. Your adoption donation contributes towards this. The dog will need another health check, and travel documentation is issued. The dog is also treated for tapeworm just before travel. There are two routes to the UK—Cairo to Heathrow, and Cairo to Paris. They cost around the same if a dog is travelling individually, and take around the same length of time due to the additional bureaucracy at Heathrow. We can also rehome dogs to Ireland.

The dogs travel the Paris route with an agent, so we generally wait until we have several dogs able to travel together in order to keep the cost per dog down.

10. Once we have a travel time and date, we’ll work with you to arrange the pickup. We like to have a rescue representative present at this stage to help ensure everything goes smoothly. Pickup will usually be from Surrey, or we can sometimes arrange to meet you at a different location.

11. After adoption, we love to stay in touch, and of course we’ll try to help if you have any questions or issues. On the rare occasions that adoption doesn’t work out (this doesn’t happen often, thankfully!), we will arrange for the dog to come into one of our UK foster homes so we can find a more suitable home.