A pet item is the animal-level intake record inside a surrender. It keeps the submitted details attached to the case while your team decides whether the animal should connect to a pet profile.
Information Collected Publicly
The public surrender form collects:
- Pet name
- Species
- Breed
- Age
- Urgency
- Reason for surrender
- Medical notes
- Behavior notes
At least one animal is required. Each pet name can be up to 255 characters, on the public and staff surrender forms alike. Public submitters cannot search your pet records, link an existing pet, or create a pet profile.
Pet Item Statuses
Each animal has its own status:
- Draft: Submitted or saved, but not yet reviewed.
- Reviewing: Under staff review.
- Accepted: Approved for intake.
- Declined: Not approved for intake.
- Linked: Connected to an existing pet profile.
- Converted: Used to create a new pet profile.
Review an Item
Open the surrender profile and find Surrendered Pets. A card can show the animal's name, photo, details, urgency, reason, medical notes, behavior notes, current item status, and linked pet.
Use Accept or Decline to record the decision for that animal. These item decisions are separate from the surrender's overall intake stage and decision.
When the last open item is linked, converted, or declined while the intake stage is New, Reviewing, Scheduled, or Approved, PawPlacer asks Mark this intake completed? Choose Mark Completed to set the stage to Completed and record the completion date, or Not now to leave the stage as it is. The stage never changes on its own.
Link an Existing Pet
Use Link Pet when the animal already has a profile in your account:
- Open the surrender profile.
- Find the animal under Surrendered Pets.
- Select Link Pet.
- Choose an available pet and save.
The pet list shows the 50 most recently updated pets; type a name to search the rest. Pets already linked to the surrender are not offered.
You can also choose Link Pet for an item while adding or editing the surrender.
Create a Pet Profile
There are two staff workflows for creating a pet:
- On the surrender profile, use Convert to Pet on an unlinked item. PawPlacer creates a pet profile from the submitted item and marks the item Converted. A simple age such as "3", "6 months", or "1 year 6 months", or an age word such as Puppy, becomes the pet's age; other text, such as "about 3", is not copied into the pet's age; fill it in on the pet if needed. A species, sex, or size that matches none of the pet form's options, such as the public form's Other species, is left blank for you to choose. The owner's medical notes, behavior notes, and item notes stay on the surrender and are not copied into the pet's public description or health, so write the description yourself before listing the pet. The item keeps what was submitted.
- On the surrender add or edit form, choose New Pet for an item and complete the embedded pet form. The pet is created and connected when you save the surrender.
The embedded form follows your current pet form template. You can choose New Pet only when your access and account capacity allow another pet.
Work With a Linked Pet
After an item is linked or converted:
- View Profile opens the pet profile.
- Edit Pet opens the normal pet edit form.
- The surrender continues to show the intake connection.
Maintain ongoing medical, care, and profile information on the linked pet. Use the surrender item as the intake record.
If a linked pet is moved to Deleted Pets, the item keeps the link and the edit form names the pet with an In Deleted Pets badge. The surrender can still be edited, and a restored pet stays attached. A pet in Deleted Pets cannot be newly linked to an item.
Add or Remove an Item
Select Add Pet in the Surrendered Pets panel to open the surrender edit form. Every surrender must retain at least one pet item.
An item can be removed only while it is unlinked and has not been converted. This prevents the surrender from losing its connection to an existing pet profile. On the edit form, a saved linked item's Remove stays unavailable until you unlink the pet and save; a converted item always keeps the pet created from it.
Avoid Duplicate Pets
Before converting an item or choosing New Pet, search your Pets list. If the animal already exists, link it instead.