The people here are truly, truly animal lovers. We recently adopted the sweetest little Shepard/Lab…read more(Kat, now Charlotte), they went it to Iowa and rescued Charlotte and her sister from a breeder who was going to put them down. I could not recommend them any higher either for adoption or doggie daycare. Nick V.

My husband and I lost our old English mastiff a few weeks ago and wanted to get a puppy from a…read morerescue. After searching many places, I found SADR had 3 Great Dane mixes available. Long story short, we picked up out our new pup on Thursday evening and on Sunday morning we had to euthanize him because he was too sick from pneumonia, Giardia, dehydration, and malnutrition. So in the same month we lost Bo, we adopted, fell in love with, and accumulated a huge vet bill, just to have our sweet puppy die. Do not "adopt" from here. It's a scam that will break your heart and your wallet.

This was the third time, I have used Valley Pet Aftercare for the cremation of my beloved dogs. I…read morewas so numb the first time that I was just a slobbering mess standing at the counter. My girl Jasmine, was my baby and the first animal I lost in my adulthood. Tim, the manager held my hand and just let me cry my eyes out. Reassuring me through the entire process. He was kind enough to finish the process, so I could take her home that same day. Four weeks later, I found myself standing back in front of Tim having lost my second girl, Maxine. I was a bigger slobbering mess the second time around. Once again, Tim exhibited such compassion and warmth when giving me a large chuck of his day. He listened as I talked about how my girls made this world a better place. He handed me tissues as I cried my heart out and vowed to never get another pet. I was unable to find an urn that said "I'm Maxine or I'm Jasmine" in his store. He told me that when I found the perfect urns, he would transfer the ashes into them. Fast forward eleven years and another dog later. I found myself in front of him, once more. I went back to him, when I found out my Chopper girl became ill. I wanted to prearrange my services. I figured that would be the only way, I wasn't going to be a slobbering mound of mush. I arranged for transport from the vet office, two set of paw prints, the cremation and placing the ashes in an urn, that I purchased else where. I had special requests for Tim, I wanted my girl back in the same day and I only wanted Tim to process her. Tim was the last person to touch my girls, Maxine and Jasmine and now I wanted the same for Chopper. All of my request were meet with a quick, "Yes, I will do that." Tim was amazing. He remembered me and my girls. He also remember the promise to transfer the ashes, when and if I'm ready and find something that I like. I stopped by to prepay for the services and got to meet Jaime. Jaime is the assistant to Tim. He was very kind and compassionate as well. When the dreaded time came, I called Valley and left a message. The call was returned with a few minutes, even though it was after hours. I am very happy that my experience was handled by a company and people that I TRUST. I will forever be indebted to Tim for his kindness, compassion and empathy, in helping me through the three worst experiences of my lifetime.

Their website says that "there is simply no room for error!" That's the biggest BS. Please avoid…read morethe extra grief and go elsewhere. My dear pet Bruiser lost a battle to a pituitary tumor and I was absolutely devastated as any pet parent would be. My veterinary clinic had pointed me to this place, so my husband gave them a call (because I was too distraught to even talk) and we went to drop off Bruiser's body. I wrapped Bruiser in the towel that he was sleeping in the night he passed, and my husband and I drove to Valley on Saturday the 7th to drop off his body. The facility shares space with the Valley Boarding Kennel. When we walked in, we weren't even sure if we were in the right place. My husband filled out the paperwork and the guy behind the counter (I believe he was the guy who does the cremations) asked which urn I wanted. I chose a mahogany urn (they didn't even have this in stock, which they didn't let me know, but I'll get back to this later). The guy said they also offer paw prints, but that small animals' paw prints don't come out too well. That was strange because I've seen plenty of others get their small pet's paw prints imprinted perfectly fine. My husband said we'd pass on the paw print, whatever... I was still too distraught to argue about anything. Bruiser was still wrapped in his towel, and the guy asked if I wanted to take it with me or leave him with it. I said I'd leave it with him, but stated that I wanted the towel back with Bruiser's cremains. The guy said "absolutely". Lies. A few days pass, and I've been crying my eyes out every single day. Monday night, I ask my husband to call Valley and tell them to get Bruiser's paw print, if he hasn't been cremated yet (I assume he hasn't been since we haven't gotten a call yet). First thing Tuesday morning, my husband calls them to let them know. Some girl on the phone says that Jamie, the guy who does the cremations, is not in yet, but that she would relay the message to him first thing. Lies again. My husband gets a voicemail from this Jamie later in the afternoon saying that the cremation had just finished, but that he had gotten the message about the paw print too late. And the guy had the nerve to restate that small animals' paw prints don't come out too well anyway. Yeah, that makes a grieving pet parent feel SO much better. They were also waiting on the mahogany urn to come in, but said it should be in by the end of the week. Friday comes, still nothing. No phone call from them. My husband works nearby so he went to Valley almost a week after we'd dropped him off because I couldn't stand having Bruiser's remains there any longer... and mind you, their website states that "typically, we will be able to reunite you with your pet within 2-3 business days." They still didn't have the mahogany urn, so then Bruiser was put in another urn that I don't like. Another blow to a grieving pet parent. The staff member that my husband dealt with that day was a different one from the one we saw when dropped off Bruiser. He was sympathetic for all the trouble and issued a full refund for the services even though he had nothing to do with the issues we had. Then my husband realized that Bruiser's towel was not included with the cremains like I had asked. He was told that they would keep looking and would mail it to us. When I looked through the papers that came with Bruiser's cremains, I saw the identification tag that specifically said "would like towel back". THEN HOW THE HELL DID I NOT GET IT BACK?! Almost two weeks pass with no package. I called them yesterday and got the guy who gave the refund on the phone. He said Jamie, who handles all the cremations, was gone for the day. He also said that he thought Jamie had handled the issue, that he would give Jamie another call, and that I should try calling when Jamie gets in at 8:30. So today, I called and got this Jaime on the phone. He claimed that he had left a message for my husband that the towel had been burned with Bruiser. Lies AGAIN. The only message he left was his previous message to tell us his excuse that he didn't get the message to get Bruiser's paw print. He said himself that he was the one who wrote the note "would like towel back" but had forgotten to remove the towel before cremating Bruiser. I hung up, but called right back because it just bothered me so much that this guy seemed to have zero sympathy or regret for what happened. I had to let him know that giving a refund (which he himself hadn't even given) doesn't make what he did okay. He was trusted to save something with big sentimental value, and he made a HUGE mistake and didn't even sound sorry about it. His excuse was that when pets arrive wrapped in a blanket/towel, they typically get cremated together. But there's no excuse when he himself wrote a note to save it, but didn't. Disgustingly untrustworthy and unprofessional.

Great experience yesterday at Dog Star Rescue in Bloomfield. We brought our mini poodle there for…read morephotos with Santa, Dee usually has anxiety with new people & places, but the friendly staff made her feel at ease. Santa was awesome, and I must say, he is the most authentic looking Kris Kringle I've seen in a very long time. The digital photos were sent to us before we had even left the building, and all that for only a $20 donation (and we know it is going to good cause). We'll definitely be back next year if they are having Photos with Santa again.

We adopted Bimbi 2 days ago. We were told he was great with people, children, cats and dogs-a…read morefriend to all. He was a stray from NC. We were told he did great in his foster home. We took him home, played in the yard, took him for a nice long walk. When dinner time came, he was ravenous and just about inhaled his food. He also tried to get our food. The next day, after he ate and his bowl was empty and he had walked away from it, my husband went to pick up the bowl and he growled and lunged at him and bit his hand. A half hour later, he took him outside to pee and was coming back in through the garage and Bimbi tried to grab a bag of bird seed. When my husband tried to push it away with his foot, he clamped down hard on his foot. It was a good thing he had shoes on! We contacted Dog Star and told them we wanted to bring him back that day. The woman tried to make us feel guilty, saying he just hasn't settled into his new home yet. He was great with the foster home. We told her he has food aggression, and she said he was merely food motivated. She said the foster home crated him during their mealtime. We weren't told this before the adoption and if we had been told it would have been a big red flag. We said we were uncomfortable having him in our house and afraid of him. She said the surrender team would reach out to us, but they are all volunteers and it could take 1-2 weeks! We said we wanted to bring him in that day. They finally called and said to bring him in at 5:30 and someone would meet us there. We signed him back over to them and left. 2 days later, he is back out on the website as an adoptable dog who is a friend to all! Steer clear and don't trust what you are told about the dogs. We have been dog owners for 30 years and never had anything like this happen. It makes me sick to think what could happen to another dog, child, cat or person who comes near his food, or is eating food in his presence!

I went to the CCC in March to adopt a pair of bonded siblings I spotted on their website. The space…read moreis a squeeze and on the weekend I visited, there was chaos from all the visitors milling around in the small space. Still, the busy volunteers were very kind and explained the adoption process clearly. I was able to visit the kitties I was interested in and saw many other cuties too. Their application process starts online on their website. Applying there first and then bringing the printed approval email makes everything go smoother. Once I figured that out, I got the bonded cats on my return visit very quickly and now, about four months later, the two cats are doing very well in their new home. They're healthy, had no problems at the vet check-up, and will be celebrating their two year birthday in August.

I came to CCC in hopes of adopting a kitten and came out with two 3 year old littermates. The…read moreadoption process was quick/easy and I cannot imagine my life without these two girls! Fast forward 5 years later and my girls are thriving with their canine siblings. Most definitely recommend

Calm, Peaceful Dog Area: We stopped by to brighten the animals' day, not to adopt. I hadn't been in…read moreyears since I moved out of the area. I was instantly struck by how quiet and peaceful the dog area sounded while I signed the visitor's log upon entering building. Typically on past visits, the loud sounds of multiple dogs barking could be heard from main entry door. I was told by the reception desk that the dog area is not available for visits- that they noticed during the pandemic (no visitors) that the dogs were calm and peaceful, so they changed the visit policy for the dogs' best interest. Can't argue with that- the calm silence was absolutely astounding, and the ideal atmosphere for any dog adjusting to their new, hopefully short-term environment. Call ahead to check the policy for your potential adoption visit- I didn't ask about it. We did see a private visitation in progress for a potential adoption, in one of the small visitation / consultation rooms off the main hall when we walked to the cats and the small furries adjacent to cat zone- happy to see that most cat spaces were empty. All cages / holding spaces looked very well maintained, and animals healthy, which was consistently my experience when I used to visit often when I lived in the area.

Some of the staff was helpful, allowing access to view adoptable animals. One of the female staff…read moremembers who works the front reception area is a very rude and outright nasty individual, she should look to work behind the scenes as she lacks the proper people skills to help the adoption process be more successful. She was also very misleading with the needed adoption info. My wife and I traveled here twice within a day to have interaction with the dog we wanted and our kids at the shelters request. Each way was an hour and a half drive, we were told after we filed the proper forms and meet with the consultant there that upon further review they would not adopt the animal due to the fact that one of my kids was eleven and the puppy could only go to a home where every child was over twelve. This would have been useful info that would have saved me the three hours of round trip driving. What makes it worse is that the mean employee was informed by me the prior trip of my children's ages, at which point she stated that there was no problems and as long as the dog got along with all family members we could take her home with us. They allowed us to spend time withe dog starting to form a bond with her, and then dropped the bomb on us. I would recommend another humane society location over this one any day of the week!!!!

Sarah is an amazing trainer!!!! She took the time to demonstrate each skill and helped us at every…read morestep. She was so patient with us and our two puppies. We highly recommend her for anyone looking for dog training.

Our family was impressed with the training we received from Sarah at K9Elite! She was timely,…read morethorough, and more than patient with both our puppy as well as us human clients! She delicately showed us that we had as much to learn as our newly adopted puppy Bubba did! She informs you exactly what to expect before each lesson, asks if there are any particular struggles you'd like to work on and happily fits them in the course. We were given paper copies of each lesson with detailed items to work on as "homework", which was fantastic given our families' opposite schedules, we all had something concrete to read and see where exactly Bubba was at in his training if one of us was not able to attend class. We went from having an overly hyper, semi-destructive puppy with no boundaries to a playful, mentally and physically challenged pup who is now understanding that there are rules and rewards for following them. Highly recommend!

i brought my dog here, after a couple visits he started to get seizures and wasn't doing very well,…read morei had to bring him to the vet several times for his issues. I asked the community and the people i know that go there if they had the same experience, and they did, the main lady who does the grooming, she had been hitting the dogs which caused my dogs seizures. Do not ever go to this lady if you want your dog to live a happy, healthy and long life. I don't even know how they're still open to be honest. Love your dog and don't go here.

Sharon has groomed my mini schnauzers, Lady and Belle over the past thirty years. You wont find a…read morebetter groomer, and she's a wonderful, caring person. I drive an hour to get to her because no one else has her skills with a Schnauzer cut.

Sadly a scam. I had high hopes but this woman is a grade A swindler. I had asked Dawn to…read morecommunicate to my dog Sally that Sally's job was not to try to protect me and then Dawn started to talk about how my dog was sorry she bit people. My dog has never once bit anyone Dawn just misunderstood what I was saying and clearly was trying to fake having a "gift".

Dawn is terrific and has helped me communicate, work out issues, feel closer and have a better…read morerelationship with my cats. For instance, when a vet was recommending expensive dental surgery, my cat told Dawn (and me) she her teeth felt find. Dawn has also taught me that I can and do communicate with/understand my cats in many ways. The most obvious is when they are hungry, like a certain food and not another. Also, they tell me when they want to play, rest or cuddle. They tell me if they like certain friends or not. I'm sure you can list ways your animal does communicate with you! This is not magic - Dawn just has more training and experience than I do.