Helping old dogs get new homes

Richelle Cates is a lifelong animal lover who has never lived without a pet.

But not that long ago, because her pool wasn’t fenced, she would have been denied the opportunity to adopt a dog from Frosted Faces Foundation, a California rescue organization specializing in giving second chances to senior dogs (and the occasional cat).

Due to concerns about dogs falling into a pool and drowning, “we declined all applicants with unfenced pools,” says Kelly Smíšek, Frosted Faces Foundation’s co-founder and CEO. But a new approach was coming.

The organization prides itself on making it easy and appealing for a person to give a pet a home. They’ve never charged adoption fees, and they offer free veterinary care at their on-site clinic for animals adopted through the organization.

Until a couple of years ago, though, Frosted Faces Foundation still maintained some processes that made it challenging to adopt a pet from them  — including home checks, a lengthy adoption application, a requirement that adopters make appointments to meet pets, “and holding out for what we thought was the ‘perfect’ match,” Kelly says.

“Over time,” she says, “we realized those policies often slowed or even prevented good adoptions, creating unnecessary barriers for compassionate families who simply wanted to give a dog a home.”

This realization came after Kelly and her husband and Frosted Faces Foundation co-founder, Andrew Smíšek, attended the 2023 Best Friends National Conference, where organizations gather to discuss all things related to the no-kill philosophy in animal sheltering. They learned about the benefits of making adoption and fostering faster, friendlier, and more accessible — and getting a lot more pets into a lot more good homes.

[Here’s the Data Supporting Open Adoption Practices]

Over the course of about two years, the organization adapted and refined their protocols toward a “full embrace” of making it easier to adopt, as Kelly puts it — with shorter applications, no more home checks, and conversations with people replacing strict rules about concerns and risks (like pools).

With all these changes, Frosted Faces Foundation is placing more dogs in homes each year. Kelly says in 2022, before the changes to the adoption protocols, the organization adopted out 407 pets; by 2024 that number grew to 648. That has corresponded with being able to bring more pets into their care, as well.

These are senior pets, often with medical issues, who in many cases only get a second chance when Frosted Faces Foundation is able to take them in from under-resourced shelters, give them veterinary treatment, and find them homes.

Kelly says that despite some people’s concerns that changing adoption protocols would lead to more pets being returned, that’s not what happened.

“We’ve seen the opposite," she says. “Pets are thriving, and adopters are more engaged because they feel supported rather than scrutinized.”

After a conversation about keeping pets safe around her pool, two Frosted Faces Foundation dogs, Moby and Dexter, went home with Richelle and her family — a husband, a 12-year-old son, a 16-year-old daughter (who volunteers with Frosted Faces Foundation), a Frenchie adopted from their local shelter, a cat, a guinea pig, and a ball python named Flash.

Moby came first. This big 10-year-old dog was adopted last year after charming Richelle’s son during a visit to one of Frosted Faces Foundation’s open houses.

[8 reasons to adopt a senior pet]

“So we scanned a QR code, filled in the form, had a family photo taken by a staff member, and home we went,” Richelle says.

Next Richelle decided to bring home Dexter as a birthday present to herself. Dexter had a mass on his neck that turned out to be cancer, and it had spread throughout his body.

But that didn’t stop this scruffy little guy from enjoying the heck out of his new life or his family from enjoying him.

They had walks and hikes, doggy playdates and visits to family, and movie nights on the couch at home where Dexter “liked to be near you but not on you," Richelle says with affection. “I tell people all the time that you fall in love with a pet deeply, whether or not you’ve had them their whole lives.”

Dexter passed away about three months after he went home. Richelle says they are heartbroken but would do it all again.

“My family wanted to make sure he had a comfortable home, focused attention, and lots of love at the end of his life,” Richelle says.

That’s the whole reason for making these consequential changes to the adoption process — so pets like Moby and Dexter will have all the love they can for as long as they can.

“At the end of the day, Frosted Faces Foundation exists because we believe every dog deserves a loving home, no matter their age or medical needs, and we’re committed to making that possible, one thoughtful, trusting adoption at a time,” Kelly says. “That’s our mission: to make sure every dog gets the ending all dogs deserve.”

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.