I have not fostered or adopted a cat or dog from Calaveras Humane Society - so I cannot speak to that experience. What I can speak to is all of the good that they do in the local community to help create awareness about animals in need. They do so with a creative sense of humor - which further propels inspiring animal stories into public circles. Recently there was the most adorable story of five puppies born to a mother dog named Ms. Pickles at Calaveras Humane Society. The puppies quickly went viral and were nicknamed the "baby gherkins" You can follow more about their story here - https://www.facebook.com/CalaverasHumaneSociety . Pretty soon a loyal following of people were glued to the continual fun updates about the 'gherkins' as they grew and were getting ready for adoption. Calaveras Humane Society had their official adoption day slated for this past Saturday - May 30th. Five groups of dedicated 'gherkin' parents to be - camped out for days outside the Calaveras Humane Society - for the opportunity to bring home a lil 'gherkin' puppy. By Saturday morning, when they were officially able to adopt their respective adorable 'gherkin' puppies - they were a little family of passionate animal lovers - who I suspect will all stay in touch as their 'gherkins' get older. You can check out the touching photos of the puppies and their new owners here - https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1502170261950295&set=pcb.1502170358616952 Another time in which I was moved by Calaveras Humane Society's quick wit and honest approach to raising awareness for animals in need - was a straightforward FB posting for a sassy cat named Rosie. They didn't hold back when they disclosed that Rosie was a "jerk". Rosie ended up getting adopted by a lovely woman - who even shared a fun update about Rosie's spicy personality later on CHS' FB page. Please see Calaveras Humane Society's posting for Rosie below (shortened slightly to fit this review). You can find the full version on CHS' FB page: "We're going to be perfectly candid here, in a way you won't usually hear from shelters or rescues who are trying to get a pet adopted: Rosie is a jerk. Yes, you read that correctly. We could try to be cute about it, and say things like, "Rosie is a diva princess." And yes, she is. But she's also a jerk. Some cats have an internal timer ("You may pet me for five minutes before I become overstimulated and swat the crap out of you"). Rosie's internal timer ranges from point-two-five seconds to a few minutes or more. It turns things into a rather interesting game of chance: Am I gonna get slapped now? Or just soon? Because oh yes indeed, rest assured that there's gonna be some slappin' happenin'. Rosie has a few people here that she's extremely fond of. She slaps them too. A true cat lover, someone familiar with the feline mind, will appreciate Rosie. The meek or non-cat-savvy need not apply. Please share to help us find that special person who says to him/herself, "Oh my goodness, THAT is the cat for me!" .... A few fantastic things about Rosie: She has amazing, silky fur that she keeps impeccably clean and shiny. She's almost five months old and playful and so much fun. She's ridiculously outgoing and friendly, and loves to be admired..." The Calavares area has a lot of animals in need. No rescue or animal non-profit is perfect and many have to contend with limited resources and staffing. That being said - I appreciate that Calaveras Humane Society strives to keep amazing animals who need homes - top of mind for the greater community. They do so by having fun with their social media presence and staying true to the personalities of both the animals and the community(ies) that they serve. Trust. read more

My niece called looking for help for her dog that was attacked by a coyote this morning. The director Dede was extremely rude and ended up hanging up on her. Dede informed her the if she was a senior citizen that they could help. My niece informed her that her mom is over 70 and lives in the house also with the family dog. She replied oh no you already said it was your dog. When my niece tried to explain that it's a family dog she hung up on her. This woman has no business being around animals if this is how she treats people. Non profit or not she needs to go. read more

I adopted a kitten from Calaveras Human Society and I am very happy with her. She was very small, fitting into my hand, and very gassy (I switched out and no problems since). When I adopted her, the staff told me that she had her shots - feline leukemia and rabies - but would have to return in 2 weeks to be spayed. They gave me documentation to sign stating that I would return the kitten, and I saw that I was signing that I "received" copies of her medical records, I stopped and asked about that. The woman said they were making copies of everything and it would all be in the folder. Unfortunately, I did not check the folder. There were no medical records in the folder. For the spaying procedure, Calaveras Humane Society wanted the kitten for 4 DAYS. For 3 of those days, they keep her caged at their facility. They drive her 60 miles to their vet in Jackson where she would be spayed and get her shots at the same time (I found this out later). She would stay at the vet one night, then another 60 miles return trip and the 45 minute trip to my home - all after surgery. A That seemed very stressful for a kitten that barely weighed 3 pounds. Even though part of the fee was to cover this surgery, I decided to find a local vet who would do the surgery. I talked to 3 vets about arranging to get her speyed and all of them insisted that a kitten be 4-6 months old. I made an appointment with a vet, and they asked me to bring her medical records to prove how old she is. I wrote an email to get the records and never heard a word. I then called the Calaveras Humane Society. The woman who answered the phone told me that my kitten did not have her shots after all. All she had was a flea medication. Five days later I still did not have the records and called again and left a message. I got a call from the "director" at the Calaveras Humane Society. She said they don't release a kitten's medical records until after they are spayed. Then why tell me that they were going to be copied and put in a folder at the time I paid the fee for the kitten? After 10 days, I did finally receive the records which let me know that my kitten was actually 12 weeks old when I adopted her and she didn't even weigh 3 pounds. She was given flea medication and a medication called Strongid. This is a very strong medication designed to eliminate parasites (worms) and could damage her digestive system. It was not administered by a vet but by a "care technician" at the Calaveras Humane Society. It causes indigestion. She is much healthier now. read more

BBZZZTT. Wrong answer. I hear you Sister. Four years later and nothing's changed. I probably should have been tipped off by the ridiculous prices in their thrift stores. I told the lady that's supposedly pricing everything - `If you are going to charge eBay prices - have the staff and training enough to become an eBay Trading Partner, put it up on eBay and expend the effort to deal with the eBay and PayPal processes like everybody else. Shelter and the rest of their programs is still a place where women abound who think their own experiences and their processes and their rules are the only valid ones around. Nope. Thanks for playing. Next! Can't handle anybody else's viewpoint from people and organizations that have been doing it a lot longer than them and have helped tons more people than them. ``We've helped hundreds of people deal with feral cats this way and we have hundreds of donors and other people that agrees with our methods''. Really? I didn't have to Google the web for even a half hour before finding better programs helping THOUSANDS or tens of thousands of people relocate their feral cats to cat sanctuaries (most in former artists communes in the hills above Palo Alto and San Mateo - and doing it for a lot longer than them. And when I called the half a dozen I found, two of em got back with me in under an hour saying 1 they had plenty of A) their own traps they didn't charge a deposit for, B) guys driving all over Northern California for pickup C) donated spays/neuters by veterinarians D) spaces in their cat sanctuaries without having to pay a $5,000 fee (they're next on the Yelp Review List) for lifetime care or ear tip their cats or force people on fixed incomes to take them back on the property and have to feed them forever. 2 I shouldn't be surprised at the treatment I get from these womens programs since they are in competition with the much more wide-reaching, well-funded and well-organized mens programs through the e.g. Kiwanis Elks Moose Raccoons Oddfellows Masons Lions etc. So if you are adopting, go on Craigslist or Facebook or etc and save a cat or dog from being sold into science or caged up and catching kennel sickness etc - and if you are dealing with feral cats -go to one of the lodge-based programs who do a lot better job. read more

CHS is awesome! Their professionalism, warm heart for animals and well-run facility set the standard for animal rescue. Their kind and knowledgeable staff make sure that they are successful at caring for and re-homing many wonderful family pets. Look no further ... Adopt from CHS! Support CHS! Donate to CHS! read more

I hate to give a bad review on the place that is supposed to do good. This place is a joke, and will waste your time. My family and I attempted to adopt two older cats to be part of our family and also catch the mice around our house. They said they needed a home inspection and could be out in two weeks, so we said OK, even though I thought that was a bit long to come out. I opened my house and property to the inspection lady and she told us that there would be no problem and she would be more than happy to bring the cats and that somebody in another two weeks will call us on when that time will happen. End of story, after a month of waiting we were called and told that our house is too close to the street, which it's not. I live with a fair amount of property around and a lot of area to explore for them and a safe spot for them to sleep at night. What a waste of time and disrespectful. Again, we were wanting older cats, that from my experience don't get adopted often, not kittens. read more