Pet Status Management | Documentation

How Statuses Work

Pet statuses are organization-defined workflow labels. Each status has:

A care state of in care, placed, or out of care.
A public-eligibility setting.
An option to end an active foster assignment when a pet enters the status.
A group, color, and display order.

Manage the definitions in Settings > Pet Configuration.

New organizations include workflow states such as Intake, Available, Fostered, Hold, Medical Treatment, Adopted, Deceased, Euthanized, Transferred, Archived, and Other. Admins can rename and organize statuses while system roles continue to support the dependent workflows.

Change a Pet's Status

Open the pet profile.
Click the current status in the header.
Select the destination status.
Add notes or an outcome date when requested.
Review the foster-assignment notice.
Confirm.

Moving a pet that has already left care to another outcome status, such as archiving a deceased or transferred pet, keeps its recorded outcome date. The status dialog starts from that date instead of today, and Archive in the action menu, which asks for no date, keeps it too.

When a pet has an active foster assignment, the dialog explains whether the new status keeps or ends it. For a status that keeps the pet in care, choose Keep foster active or End foster for this change.

Status and Placement Are Separate

Adding an interested adopter does not change pet status.
Creating or confirming a foster assignment changes placement, not the workflow status.
End foster on a foster assignment ends it with a return date and an optional reason, and moves a currently Fostered pet to the in-care status chosen in its dialog, which defaults to the status the pet had before the placement. Open it from the foster row in the pet's Placements tab, or from the active assignment on the foster's profile.
Completing an adoption changes the pet to Adopted and completes an active foster assignment.
Returning an adoption changes the pet to the configured available status.
Entering a status configured to end foster care completes the active assignment unless the change explicitly keeps it.

Use the pet's Placements tab to see its fosters, adopters, surrenders, donors, and transports; use status for the pet's workflow state.

When a Foster Brings a Pet Back

Record the return with End foster:

Open the pet's Placements tab and click End foster on the active foster row. You can also open the foster's profile and click End foster on the pet's active assignment in Assignments.
Set the Return date. It starts at now and cannot be in the future or before the placement started.
Add a Reason and notes if useful.
For a Fostered pet, choose its New status; it defaults to the in-care status the pet had before the placement, or Available.
Click End foster.

PawPlacer completes the assignment, keeps it in the foster's assignment history, and moves a Fostered pet to the chosen status. To move the pet to a different foster home instead, use Transfer on the same assignment. See Assigning Pets to Fosters.

Restrictions

PawPlacer protects workflow history:

A pet linked to an adopter must use the adoption flow to become Adopted.
An adopted pet with an adoption record must be returned or corrected through that adoption workflow.
Archived pets use the restore action to move back into care.
Volunteers cannot archive a pet or restore an archived one, including by choosing the Archived status or archiving pets in bulk.

Out-of-care pets remain available as full records. Their care state controls counts and list scope; profile editing is controlled by the user's permissions.

If an Adopted Pet Still Appears In Care

First open the pet and confirm its current status. Adding an interested adopter or attaching an applicant does not complete an adoption. Use the adoption workflow so PawPlacer creates the outcome, moves the pet to the protected Adopted status, and ends an active foster assignment.

If the pet is already labeled Adopted but still appears in the In Care view, ask an Admin to review Settings > Pet Configuration. A separately created status may share the word “Adopted” while still being configured as in care; the protected built-in status has the canonical adoption behavior.

Public Visibility

Only a status eligible for public discovery can support a public pet. The organization must also be public, the pet must have media, and the individual pet must be marked Public.

List Filters and Bulk Editing

On Pets, use the In Care and Past views for care state and the multi-select Status facet for exact statuses. Pet Editors, Volunteers, Privileged members, and Admins can also select rows and choose Bulk Edit Selected when several records need the same update.

History

Status changes and their notes appear in the pet's History section. The profile header and alerts show the current state and immediate blocking context.

Hold Until and return to owner

Select the Hold or Stray status to set Hold Until. This date creates a calendar reminder for staff to review the pet; it does not automatically release the hold. Changing to a different status clears the hold date and reminder.

Use Returned to owner when a stray animal leaves care with its owner. Record the outcome date to preserve its stay and outcome history. This differs from returning an adopted pet to the organization, which uses the adoption return workflow.