Adoption Info

Because adopting a pet is an important decision for your entire family to make, we suggest planning an hour or longer for your visit. We offer all of our adopters one-on-one attention when adopting a pet, so please plan to arrive early, especially during peak adoption times on weekends. At times, we may have a wait before we might be able to work with you, but we promise to make it worth your patience!

We suggest bringing all family members who live in your home to meet your new pet. If you plan to adopt another dog, we also suggest bringing your dog from home to make sure they will get along well.

At the ARL, we consider ourselves to be great matchmakers! Your adoption process starts by gathering information about the type of pet of you’re looking for to help you think through your desired personality traits of pet you’re hoping to adopt. Then, our adoption counselors work one on one with you to introduce you to pets at the shelter who they think would be best suited to you and your family. After you have spent some time with your selected pets, your adoption counselor will go over everything we know about your pet’s medical, personality and behavior history (including any notes that his/her previous owner may have made). If your adoption counselor and your family think a pet is a great fit for you and your family, unless otherwise noted, you will be able to take your pet home that day.

We’re pleased to offer a happiness guarantee! While we always do our best to make sure that our pets find great homes and our adopters find great pets, in rare instances, some pets and families find that they may not be the perfect match. If this happens, we offer adopters the opportunity to return their pet without worry of judgement or criticism.

Because we are constantly managing an ever-changing population at the shelter, we are unfortunately unable to provide an alert service. However, our website is continuously updated throughout the day as pets become available for adoption or as they find homes. While it’s not 100% accurate, it’s your best place to check each day to see who’s available and ready to find a new home!

DUE TO COVID-19 OUR ADOPTION PROCESS IS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

So that we have a fair and standardized procedure in place to give everyone an equal opportunity to adopt pets at the ARL, we do not offer a reservation service. Each day, we place a sign-up sheet outside of our lobby at 9AM. When we open (1PM on weekdays; 12 noon on weekends), we will begin seeing guests in order of who is listed first on the sign-up sheet. If a guest has not returned to the shelter by the time his/her name has been called, the next guest on the list will be attended to by an adoption counselor.

Your guess is as good as ours! So that we can focus on helping animals in our community, we do not place “orders” for pets, and we have an ever-changing population of pets in need who come through our doors each day. The best way to see who is available is to check our website and our social media sites as we often promote animals like puppies a day or two before they’re available to adopt.

Yes! All pets–including kittens and puppies–are spayed/neutered, given all current vaccines, microchipped and medically cleared before they leave the shelter. In addition, all adopters receive a $250 Healthy Start certificate to VCA Hospitals, as well as a certificate to other area participating veterinary practices to get your new pet a first check up as soon as he or she becomes a part of your family!

Adoption fees are listed on our website HERE.

Yes they are! Plus, all pets receive a microchip to help you reunite just in case they ever become lost.