---
title: "WhiskerMatch Glossary: Holds, Review Gates and Other Terms"
description: "Plain definitions of WhiskerMatch terms: reviewed animal record, intake record, hold, review gate, Work board, audit trail, foster update and drafting help."
canonical: https://www.whiskermatch.com/glossary
markdown_url: https://www.whiskermatch.com/glossary.md
generated_from: "canonical page server-rendered HTML; the HTML page is authoritative"
last_modified: 2026-10-07
last_updated: 2026-10-07
publisher: "Veldarium Technology Systems LLC"
---

Glossary

# The words we use, defined once.

Plain definitions of the rescue and adoption words you meet when you adopt, foster, find an animal or help community cats, and of WhiskerMatch's own terms.

## Rescue, adoption and community-cat words

The language shelters, rescues and TNR groups use, in plain terms. General meanings; local rules and each organization's policies can differ.

- **Stray hold**
The period a shelter keeps a found animal so its owner can reclaim it before it becomes available for adoption or transfer. The length is set by local rules and can be only a few days, which is why owners of a lost pet should visit shelters in person, often. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/lost-dog)
- **Owner surrender**
When a person gives their own animal to a shelter or rescue. Unlike a stray, there is no hold period for an owner to reclaim it, and the organization usually asks for the animal's history.
- **Microchip**
A tiny implant under the skin carrying an ID number that a vet or shelter can scan. It is not a GPS tracker: it leads back to an owner only if the registry holds current contact details. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/found-a-pet)
- **Foster**
A person who cares for a shelter or rescue animal in their own home until it is adopted or ready to go back. The organization usually stays responsible for the animal and its vet care. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/how-fostering-works)
- **Foster-to-adopt**
An arrangement where a foster placement can become an adoption if it works for the animal and the household. The organization sets the terms and makes the decision. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/how-fostering-works)
- **Transfer (rescue pull)**
When one organization takes an animal from another, often a rescue taking an animal from a busy shelter. The animal's records should travel with it.
- **Adoption pending**
An application for this animal has been approved or is in its final steps, so the organization is not taking new applications for now. On WhiskerMatch it also takes the public listing down. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/how-pet-adoption-works)
- **Bonded pair**
Two animals, often siblings or long-time companions, that an organization asks to keep together because they rely on each other. They are usually adopted together.
- **Decompression**
The settling-in time an animal needs after a move to a new home or a shelter: quiet, routine and few new experiences while it learns that the new place is safe. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/first-week-adopted-dog)
- **Resource guarding**
When an animal stiffens, growls or snaps to keep a person or another animal away from food, toys, a resting place or a person. It is common and usually manageable with a professional's help; a profile should say if it has been seen. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/first-week-adopted-dog)
- **Special needs**
An animal with a medical, behavioral or disability-related need that shapes the right home: daily medication, a mobility aid, deafness or blindness, or a known fear. The need describes care, not worth. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/special-needs)
- **Community cat**
A cat that lives outdoors without one owner. Some are friendly, some avoid people. Many are looked after by neighbors who feed them. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/what-is-tnr)
- **Feral cat**
A cat that has had little or no contact with people and avoids them. Adult ferals rarely adjust to living indoors; trap-neuter-return is how they are usually helped. A stray, by contrast, is a pet that has lost its home. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/stray-vs-feral-cat)
- **Colony**
A group of community cats living and eating in the same place, often with a caregiver who feeds them on a schedule. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/what-is-tnr)
- **TNR (trap-neuter-return)**
Humanely trapping community cats, having them spayed or neutered, vaccinated and ear-tipped, and returning them to the place they live, so no new litters are born there. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/what-is-tnr)
- **Ear tip**
A small straight cut across the tip of one ear, made during surgery, showing from a distance that a community cat has already been neutered and vaccinated. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/guides/what-is-tnr)

## WhiskerMatch terms

What the product's own words mean, written to match what it does today.

- **Reviewed animal record**
The one record per animal that a shelter or rescue keeps in WhiskerMatch. Intake facts, foster updates, care notes, applications and the public profile attach to it, each with its source, an owner and a review state, so the next person does not have to rebuild the story. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/product)
- **Source material**
The original evidence behind a fact on the record: an intake form, a foster's message, a photo, a vet record or a staff note. It stays attached so a reviewer can see where a claim came from.
- **Source trail**
The visible history of which source each fact came from, who added it and when.
- **Review gate**
A point where work waits for a named person before it can move on. Intake records and public profiles both pass one: nothing is published or finalized until someone with that permission reviews it. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/trust)
- **Owner and next action**
The named person responsible for an animal's next step, and what that step is. Showing both is how a handoff stops depending on who happened to see a message.
- **Hold**
A recorded reason an animal is paused, such as a medical question, a legal stray period or a missing document. A hold can name what has to be true before it is released, and a person releases it. Open holds show on the Work board as blockers.
- **Unknown stays unknown**
Missing facts are shown as missing, with a reason to ask, rather than guessed or filled in with reassuring wording.
- **Intake record**
The first version of an animal's record, created when it arrives. Facts that are not known yet are left blank and flagged rather than guessed, and the record waits for a named reviewer before it is treated as reviewed. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/animal-intake-software)
- **Work board**
The shelter's view of every animal's owner, blocker and next action in one list: animals with no owner, open holds, overdue foster check-ins and medical follow-ups, applications waiting for review, and intake reviews waiting. Staff can assign owners in bulk; the board shows the work, people decide it.
- **Audit trail**
The append-only history of consequential changes on a record: who changed a status, approved a review, published a profile or moved an application, and when. It cannot be edited from the product. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/trust)
- **Foster update**
An observation from a foster home (behavior, health, routine, photos) recorded on the animal's record with its source and an owner, instead of living in a text thread. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/workflows)
- **Applicant review**
How a shelter or rescue moves an adoption application through its stages, with the missing items, the reviewer and the stage history visible. People make every approval or decline decision.
- **Care story**
The structured context for a special-needs, senior or medically complex animal (daily routine, foster observations, open questions) kept on the record so it travels with the animal. It is not a diagnosis. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/special-needs)
- **Organization-owned public profile**
A public animal profile that a shelter or rescue drafts, reviews and publishes from its own WhiskerMatch record. The organization decides what is published and when.
- **Drafting help**
The one AI-assisted feature: a first draft of public-profile wording prepared only from facts a reviewer already entered. A person edits, saves and reviews it before anything is published. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/ai-boundaries)
- **Human decision**
Approving or declining an applicant, placing an animal, publishing a profile, and interpreting medical or behavior information. In WhiskerMatch these are always made by a named person; software never makes them. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/trust)
- **Placement**
Moving an animal into an adoptive or foster home. WhiskerMatch records placements; it does not choose them.
- **Illustrative record**
A fictional example animal or record used on the public site and in the demo to show how the product behaves. It is labeled wherever it appears and is never customer data. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/demo)
- **Fixture mode**
The Discover setting in which clearly labeled example profiles are shown, because no outside listing source is connected. Example profiles cannot receive applications.
- **Provider-backed listing**
An adoptable animal shown in Discover from a connected outside listing source, attributed to the shelter or rescue that listed it and linking back to that organization's own listing.
- **Discover**
The adopter-facing view for getting to know animals. Published, reviewed profiles from shelters and rescues that opted in come first and can take a real application into that organization's queue. Other animals appear only from a connected, attributed listing source; otherwise Discover shows labeled examples or nothing. Saving interest is not an application. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/discover)
- **Saved interest**
Marking an animal in Discover to come back to. It stays in the visitor's browser, is not sent to a shelter, and is not an application.
- **Lost & Found report**
A description of a lost or found animal with an approximate area. Where Lost & Found is switched on, a report is published with a private manage link and messages are relayed without showing contact details; otherwise it is a draft kept on the visitor's device. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/lost-found)
- **My Pets**
A free preview for pet owners that keeps a pet's vaccines, visits and notes in their own browser. No account, no sync, no upload to WhiskerMatch, and no medical advice. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/my-pets)
- **Founder-led early access**
How shelters and rescues start with WhiskerMatch today: $20/month per organization with no per-seat pricing, one workflow first, run beside existing tools, with the founder doing onboarding directly. [More →](https://www.whiskermatch.com/pricing)

---

About WhiskerMatch: WhiskerMatch is workflow software for animal shelters and rescues that keeps one reviewed record per animal across intake, foster care, adoption review and public profiles, with people making every placement and publishing decision.

## Sitemap

See the full [WhiskerMatch sitemap](https://www.whiskermatch.com/sitemap.md) for every public page, or [llms.txt](https://www.whiskermatch.com/llms.txt) for a short summary.