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    Border Tails Rescue

    3.8 (48 reviews)
    Open 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
    Updated 2 months ago

    Services - Border Tails Rescue

    Animal shelters

    Pet adoption

    Border Tails Rescue Photos

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    My girl and her son reunited, thanks to Border Tails
    Jami R.

    Yelp removed my review that has been up for 2.5 years, claiming I'm either an employee or related to one, but neither of those things are true. My only affiliation with Border Tails, is that I adopted my dog from there in April 2021, and I am forever grateful to them. I also feel very protective over them, because I've seen how much they help both dogs and people, and there are some really crazy things said about them that don't even make sense. I haven't personally experienced or witnessed anyone, especially Harleigh, being rude. However, even if that's true, you're rescuing a dog, not eating a five course meal in a fine dining restaurant. I didn't choose my dog from here because I had any expectations of customer service. If that's how you choose where your dog is from, I think you should probably ask yourself if your dog is really the priority. Anyway, my dog was found as a stray in Arkansas with another Mom dog, and two litters of puppies. Both Moms were Heartworm positive, and had intestinal parasites. Border Tails paid for two Moms, plus eight puppies to come to Chicago, for spay and neuter for all of them, vetting, deworming, and even covered the full Heartworm treatment for the two Mom dogs, which would have been thousands of dollars that I didn't have! Border Tails even went to bat for me when we had some issues with the Heartworm treatment clinic. In addition, we got to reunite with the other Mom dog, as well as one of my dog's puppies, thanks to Border Tails connecting us! Say what you want, but Border Tails is adopting out way more dogs than other larger and more established rescues, so they are obviously doing a lot of things right. Does that mean they are perfect? Doubtful, as I have yet to meet any human that is. But that's no reason to avoid them. They do give a disclaimer that they can't guarantee that the dogs are healthy. But I know they do their best to get the dogs healthy. At least they are honest about it. My family has had to put down two pets within the first year and a half of getting them because the rescue was dishonest (this is another Chicago area rescue that shall remain nameless). I've also heard so many horror stories about rescues lying about the dogs being Heartworm positive, intentionally not testing them, or cheating out on paying for the treatment. This is not what Border Tails does. They are also attached to a well established vet now, so they can literally walk the dogs next door for vet appointments. I will never be able to repay Border Tails for everything they have done for me. I dream about the day I can adopt a second dog. Even though I have moved out of Illinois, I will absolutely come back to BTR to adopt again, because I know how much they care about both their dogs and their human adopters. The negative reviews on here really make me angry. I wish you could see in BTR what I see in them.

    He was 4.2 pounds and no one wanted him because of an eye condition that we haven't had any issues with yet.
    Megan B.

    I am OBSESSED with Border Tails Rescue. I can't save enough good things about Border Tails. They have the best staff and dogs (incredible variety of ages, sizes, breeds). I adopted from them about 6 months ago, and have had the best experience. The staff truly works so hard and cares about each dog. They are helpful, responsive and you can tell the entire shelter cares about ensuring you and your adopted pet are set up for success not just before, and during the adoption process, but long after too. TLDR version: you'd be an idiot not to check out BTR, seriously.

    as you see there is no hip socket. he was born like this.
    Mark G.

    we rescued Dino (ripp) last year from btr. we first noticed at a very young age that he bunny hops everywhere. they said it was normal and he was in great shape. well we noticed a few weeks later that his left hip wasnt looking right. so we took him to our vet for a look at it. found out right there that he was born with out a left hip socket from birth. so we talked a few times with izzy and they decided to have there specialist look at his and perform a fho ( btr had agreed to pay for this surgery completely) well we drove 2 hours to the surgery center and they declined the surgery because he was to big and to young for it and recommended a total hip replacement surgery when he got near 2. Well we had been in constant contact with izzy about this and they suggested rehab on dino. (they had agreed to pay for the rehab) so after the first consulation with the rehab they sent the bill to btr which they paid, but wanted us to immediately pay them back for it. i have pictures of his xrays which i will post on this. if you are thinking about rescuing from them spend the money and get them xrayed so you wont be shocked when we have to shell out 20,000 to get his hip fixed. they lie and backtrack and blame us for his injury.

    Phillip B.

    Ok so I'm reviewing this place because the owner and I did have a conversation. After careful review while I'm not going to fully rescind my other review, in the end they made it right and I would give this place another look down the road and would recommend to others to give it an honest review and look

    Our sweet Olympus (formerly "Harvey Wallbanger")!
    Di D.

    We finalized our puppy's adoption today (Olympus formerly Harvey Wallbanger) and we are so happy we adopted through Border tails! Our entire foster to adopt process went smoothly and the staff here was super friendly and caring throughout. We got a thorough walk through to meet all of the available dogs when we first came to visit and we were given play time with our puppy to get to know him before making a decision The dogs here are very well taken care of and I am so grateful they have such big hearts to help so many pets find loving homes! I'm hoping to foster in the future when my puppy is older and i will definitely go through Border tails when that time comes! Thanks again to everyone at Border tails for all that you do!!

    Pantera (fka: French Toast)
    Andrea R.

    Border Tails Rescue is amazing. I was looking into a puppy from a litter and emailed them about it. They were quick to call back and make an appointment for me to go in. I was in and out of there with the puppy in less than an hour. They went over everything with me to foster-adopt the puppy and they made the process extremely smooth! I will definitely rescue here in the future again!

    My new furry friend!

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    Harleigh G.

    Thank you for this kind review!

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    Harleigh G.

    Thank you for this kind review! We love having you on our team.

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    Harleigh G.

    Thank you for this kind review!

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    5 years ago

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    Harleigh G.

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    4 years ago

    Highly recommend :))) Professional and has a passion for animals

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    Page 1 of 2

    Ask the Community - Border Tails Rescue

    What's the procedure (requirement)to take a dog to give unto adoption to you guys?

    Hi Zurdo! We are sorry to hear you might be facing the difficult & heartbreaking decision of surrendering a dog. We understand that unfortunately situations do arise that make families unable to keep or continue to provide care for their pups.… Read more

    Don’t See Your Question? Ask Away!

    Review Highlights - Border Tails Rescue

    After just a few volunteer visits, I have nothing but the utmost respect for the staff there.

    Mentioned in 3 reviews

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    People searched for Pet Adoption 500 times last month within 15 miles of this business.

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    Red Door Animal Shelter

    Red Door Animal Shelter

    (70 reviews)

    West Rogers Park

    I've been volunteering for Red Door for close to 25 years. The staff is very caring and dedicated…read moreto giving the utmost care to the animals. They take in animals that need a lot of vet care and make sure they get it and are healed. I've always seen great care and cleanliness at Red Door. I've adopted "many" rabbits and had a dumped cat under my deck that needed to go somewhere and they took him. This place is totally amazing! I've always been treated with the utmost kindness. I've seen them treat everyone like this. Thank you Red Door for your persistent dedication to saving animals! I've seen guinea pigs, ducks and dogs that go into foster homes. Hand punch and chest thump to YOU!!

    My experience here was as a volunteer. Every time I came in to help, I was made to do common room…read more(the main rabbit and cat room). It was always filthy, many of the fleeces were covered in so much fur that I was worried about the rabbits getting a blockage, water bowls were often fully empty or had literal soap suds in them. The volunteer coordinator suggests you "spot clean" the litter boxes, though often they are so saturated that the pellets they use as litter are disintegrated. It put a bad taste in my mouth that staff was not following the basic "contact time" instructions on the bottles of Rescue when they claimed they wanted to kill bacteria. They kept a sick cat with giardia in a cage first thing when you walked in. He had a sign that said not to touch him, but not what he had. I saw senior staff repeatedly handle iso animals with no gloves. I saw them put iso laundry right into a pile with the other laundry more than once. I found a wet pile of laundry with feces (or litter, according to the literal president -- not sure that's better) stuck to it sitting on top of the dryer. I was written up for making staff "feel bad" about not knowing how to disinfect stuff when they claim to have vet tech experience, and for not being nice enough about the "litter" on the wet pile of laundry. I saw other volunteers regularly mix in BnB laundry with shelter laundry -- with what I would consider a homeopathic amount of bleach. They were not chastised for doing laundry incorrectly. In fact, they were allowed to train me on laundry. I tried to report a possible historical ringworm infection to the staff just so they knew to be mindful to check themselves and animals for sores, but instead got met with bizarre legalistic stuff about how I might as well be suggesting that I could have gotten it from "invisible space aliens" (that's from the president directly). Look at these photos and tell me if you think it's insane to think someone could catch a fungal infection here. I was then banned -- again, the stated, written reason being that I disagree with their veterinary practices and they've been doing this for 26 years blah blah blah. Ok. I'm really worried about how much else has been swept under the rug in 26 years, then. The president was so cruel to me when banning me that I immediately went to urgent care for medical clearance. The NP was grossed out and suspicious when I told him I got yelled at for trying to let them know about a possible exposure. Staff here does nothing but bully people if they trust you enough to let their true colors show. I have personally heard them do it about sexual orientation, weight, and ethnicity -- they even had rabbits with antisemitic names they got from Seinfeld (they are not Jewish themselves). They stood silently by while a senior volunteer made fun of my sexual orientation the first time I met her, even. They do not have a pride flag hanging anywhere. I wish they would change that, because maybe there would be fewer homophobic and transphobic comments. Though everyone here reflexively "punches down" so much due to their low self esteem that it seems they can't even keep track of what they say. Just know that if you have a certain skin tone, everyone here older than 40 with a sensible haircut has an opinion about your hair being "unprofessional" if you do anything but make it as straight as possible. I grew up in a hoarded house, and I have to be honest. That's what this shelter feels like and part of why I wanted to help. They cannot keep up with the animals at all, especially not while running HareBnB. Over the holidays, for maybe 3 full cumulative weeks of the year, volunteers handle everything in the shelter except paperwork and isos. No one is properly trained -- in fact, I trained several people after doing common room only ONE time. But these photos were taken when BnB wasn't busy. This is what their performance looked like when they had one more staff member than they do currently and very few BnB guests. And I heard the president and VP talk about buying more BnB space as a potential for the future! I don't have a rabbit currently, but if I did, I would not trust BnB. I am telling everyone I know with rabbits not to board at BnB. For a while, they were the only game in town, but now you can do better. I had already stopped finding joy in volunteering, because as soon as I would come in, the volunteer coordinator would sit at a computer and pretend to look at spreadsheets. That would devolve into hours of me hearing her talking and laughing while I did what would've been her assigned work. No thanks. As you can see, there's clearly enough to be done that we both needed to be working at the same time. I would love to see them change ownership and find a crew really dedicated to the mission instead of dedicated to doing a bit less than the bare minimum. It seems like this shelter used to be good, but maybe it was just the quirkiness of a bunny shelter.

    Roll Over Animal Rescue

    Roll Over Animal Rescue

    (6 reviews)

    ***If you're looking to rescue from here BEWARE***…read more I adopted a puppy from this organization in 2019. Unfortunately after years of trying to correct behavioral and paying hundreds of dollars trying to correct this nothing worked. I reached out to Marsha Perry in 2020 to inform her of the problems and she simply told me to look into training (which we already had spend hundred on). In March of 2024 I reached out to her again to tell her I had tried everything and couldn't keep the dog anymore. Marsha said "ROAR has not been doing dogs for many years and has transitioned to mostly cats". She also said "can't he be kept in a cage or in a separate area of the house?" She became extremely vile, unresponsive at times and simply refused to help. At the time do adoption we were told they would take the dog back NO QUESTIONS ASKED, should "life happen" and we could keep him anymore. Clearly not the case. I continued to reach out to other rescues in the area and unfortunately a few months later my husband lost his job, we had to move in with family and their senior dog gets severe anxiety around other dogs. So keeping our behavioral complex dog was not an option. I reached out to a shelter in desperation and explained to them everything that Marsha had said to me. I even showed them emails and they were APPALLED! They were happy to take him in and take care of him. A few days later Marsha emails me with a very nasty tone "I can't believe you thought this was a better option for him." Ummm...you left me no choice! Please stay away from this organization. Not only will they NOT honor signed contracts, the owner Marsha will harass you, belittle you and be flat out be nasty to you. I have reported this organization. These people shouldn't be allowed to continue to foster animals. I can only imagine how they treat those poor animals.

    Well they let me adopt my best friend so I'd say I loved it ! Please adopt don't shop!!!!!read more

    All 4 the Love of Cats - Cat Adoption in Palatine, Illinois

    All 4 the Love of Cats

    (5 reviews)

    CAT LOVERS BEWARE...DO NOT adopt from this person Sarah!!!!! If I could give her a negative rating,…read moreI would!!! She makes one of the happiest things to do the most heartbreaking and miserable experience!!! My son and I had recently lost both of our sweet cats (Lucy and Ricky) within 4 months of each other due to cancers and heart issues. All we wanted to do was fill our home again with the love of a new cat. We fell in love with one sweet kitten and wanted to take him home so badly! She then proceeded to tell us we could not adopt one single cat because he was a brother to another. So we considered taking both, but she refused to see us or even let us see and hold the cats unless we took a pair. She said that we were wasting her time! She told us they were brothers, but with no proof. All she kept saying is that they were bonded...don't let people sucker you into taking two cats that way! She didn't care at all about the welfare of the cats. Then she proceeded to tell us that the cats were $260 a piece, when it is posted on the website that the adoption fees were $150 per cat! She vindictive and money hungry and is not at all concerned for the wellbeing of the cats!!! It's very sad for people to use their control over something like that when an animal could have a wonderful life in a warm and loving home!

    Got one star because it is impossible to give zero. I called the number for the Niles store, but…read moregot no answer. However, I immediately received a text from that number asking what I was calling about. No call back, no request for ME to call again, this person insisted on handling everything through text. Marvelous. When I said I was interested in adopting, I was curtly asked which location, and was informed that the hours posted are NOT necessarily the hours available, and that they NEVER do same-day adoptions. (Perhaps they wanted to run a background check on me - I don't know.). When I questioned why, they said something about too many returned adoptions. I'm not sure I follow the logic on just how making me wait would make me more inclined to keep the cat, but whatever. So, I then asked what options we had for arranging an interview/adoption, and their response was "What is your hurry? Adoptions are a 20-year commitment." As if I didn't already know that. This ain't my first rodeo. I can understand their desire to make sure their cats find good homes, but immediately assuming, and even accusing that I would NOT provide a good home is not the way to do this. I responded by telling them I found their suggestion more than a little insulting, but played along and explained myself and the housing situation the new adoptee would be encountering. I have heard nothing back since. I don't think this person is serious about finding good homes for the cats entrusted to their care. I suggest looking elsewhere.

    Border Tails Rescue - petadoption - Updated May 2026

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