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. Administrators 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.
When a pet has an active foster assignment, the dialog explains whether the new status keeps or ends it and allows an eligible one-time choice.
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.
- Unfoster normally returns a currently Fostered pet to Available.
- 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 Relationships to review placements and people; use status for the pet's workflow state.
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.
- Returning a pet to an in-care status is blocked when the account has reached its in-care pet limit.
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.
The account's pet limit counts non-deleted pets whose assigned status is in care, including pets on an inactive in-care status. It does not count the number of status definitions. Moving a pet to Placed or Out of care, or deleting it through the supported soft-delete flow, frees an in-care slot.
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 Administrator 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 Managers 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.