Dogs are often framed within adoption systems as companions to be selected, rehomed, and successfully placed. However, adoption is not a single transaction; it begins an evolving relationship shaped by housing, financial capacity, behavioural needs, institutional procedures, and unequal access to support. This project emerges from the need to reconsider these systems through a queer ecology, care ethics and more-than-human design lens.

Grounded in animal welfare research, conversations with those involved in rescue and adoption, and critical design inquiry, the project explores how an intervention in the adoption process can make the commitments of dog guardianship visible before, during, and after adoption. Rather than designing for dogs only through human assumptions, it advocates designing with their embodied needs and lived experiences in mind. The project contributes to broader discussions of animal-inclusive design by proposing care as a shared social and design responsibility.