Moving and Reserving Animals

A large part of the administrative duties you will need to perform with Animal Shelter Manager revolve around the movement and reservation of animals.

To start with, it is best to explain how the movement system works; each movement record represents a leaving and returning transaction. You may only have one (or no) movement records current - ie. The animal cannot leave the shelter in two different ways without being returned first. The special exception to this is reservations - since they are not actually a movement, but usually precede one, any adoption movement can hold information about the reservation that preceded it (since reservations do not physically move the animal to and from the shelter).

Any method by which an animal leaves the shelter requires a movement record. The only exception is death, which is handled through the animal death tab.

Some common situations are listed below, along with what you should do:

1. A new owner reserves the animal
   Create a new movement record and fill out the reservation information. If there is a previous record with a reservation on and no movement, then fill in its reservation cancelled date (unless your shelter allows different people to reserve the same animal, in which case the system is happy to do this).
2. An owner phones up and cancels their reservation
   Find the movement record and fill out the reservation cancelled date.
3. An owner adopts the animal after reservation
   Find the reservation record and fill out the adoption movement information.
4. A volunteer fosters the animal
   Create a new movement record and fill out a foster movement.
5. An animal is returned from fostering
   Find the fostering movement and fill in the return date.
6. An animal is returned from adoption
   Find the adoption movement and fill in the return date.