The Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service has found a new way to help animals find a home – without them ever setting a paw inside the animal shelter.

SCRAPS now partners with the Home to Home website that is designed to connect people looking to rehome their pet with those interested in adopting a pet. The site is set up to let people communicate directly with one another to arrange an adoption.

The site was launched several years ago by the Panhandle Animal Shelter in Ponderay, Idaho, and a grant from Maddie’s Fund, a nonprofit devoted to animal rescue, allowed the reach of the website to expand to other animal shelters across the country.

SCRAPS director Lindsey Soffes said they get multiple calls a week from people looking to rehome their pet, whether it’s because they’re moving or can no longer take care of the pet.

“We see different reasons,” she said. “It runs the gamut.”

But Soffes said the shelter often has to tell people they can’t accept their pet.

“Our focus is the stray animals,” she said. “We are only able to take owner surrenders as space allows. Rather than saying, ‘No, we can’t help you,’ we want to give them a tool. For us, it seemed to make sense.”

Being told “no” sometimes makes people lie and say they found the animal as a stray, Soffes said. But that means the animal is treated as a stray, and there’s no information about its personality or likes and dislikes.

Though shelter staff do what they can to make dogs and cats feel comfortable, it’s often stressful for an animal to be put in a cage and surrounded by people they don’t know, she said. It makes them anxious, which can make them difficult to get adopted because potential adopters aren’t seeing the animal’s true personality, Soffes said.

The Home to Home website can be accessed at scraps.home-home.org. Those looking to rehome their pet are asked to give information about the animal and post a picture.

“It’s actually a really quick process,” she said.

SCRAPS reviews the information and publishes it on the website, where those looking to adopt a new pet can browse. People can search by breed or other specifics. Contact information is included in each post so potential adopters can contact the pet owner directly.

“It puts them in touch with the person who knows the animal best,” Soffes said.

The website is not just for dogs and cats, though those are the animals currently available on the site. Other small pets can be posted as well, including rabbits, rodents and fish. The website just went live and in the first week 10 pets were posted and one of those was adopted, Soffes said. “Not bad at all,” she said.

Soffes said she hopes more people learn about the website and begin to use it. She said she believes SCRAPS is the only animal shelter in the county currently using Home to Home. “We talked to them and we wanted to make this available to the community,” she said. “It is really new for our community.”

Having the website go live now is good timing. The shelter is only doing adoptions by appointment as it tries to be open during the coronavirus pandemic while also recognizing the need for social distancing. All the animals in the shelter are posted online for people to see.

“If they don’t see a companion they like in the shelter, this is an excellent way to see who’s out there and who needs a home,” she said of the Home to Home site.