Over the last year, I or me and my family, have gone into the AWLA a few times in search of a dog…read moreor cat; whichever fits our lifestyle the best and normally we go to the "cat room" and visit with the cats and then am taken back by volunteers to meet whatever dogs are available. Normally the 2 volunteers that take me back are not chatty with me (but are with each other) and neither really seem interested in helping me - I believe Diane and Mattes. Nice enough people but they just seemed a bit annoyed or bored or both, seemingly every time we were there. That all changed the last time I was in, which was a few weeks ago and had 2 different people help me. They were volunteers Valerie and Lisa (purple hair). They both seemed excited to show me the dogs (and Valerie had helped me in the cat room - although there were only 2 cats and one was adopted!). Those two ladies were funny, cheerful and and answered all of our questions. Ended up not adopting but they said that was OK - I could come as many times as I wanted until I found the right dog (or cat).

I had a very beautiful experience at at the animal welfare league of Alexandria. I also got to…read moreadopt a very special, unique and beautiful dog named Layla at the time but has since been renamed Daisy. Daisy and I are still getting to know one another and are having quite a fun time doing so. She is such a sweet hanf

Incredible experience from start to finish…read more I recently adopted a puppy from here, and the entire process was seamless. The staff was so helpful and accommodating -- they worked around my schedule and made everything feel smooth and stress-free. What really stood out to me was the follow-up. They checked in to make sure the adjustment was going well, which meant so much. You can tell they truly care about the animals and the families they're placing them with. I absolutely love my puppy -- she has been such a wonderful addition to our family. I'm so grateful for the support and kindness we received throughout the process. Highly recommend!

DO NOT USE THIS RESCUE! I have been trying to get in contact with them to receive vaccination…read moredocuments to pass onto my vet and they STILL have not provided me with anything. I was told I would receive it in my email upon adopting, and that they would mail hard copies in the next week (still havent recieved 4 weeks later). My vet got in touch with the rescue this evening and were informed my dog, that I adopted April 10, will need all her vaccines again since they expire May 23. STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS RESCUE...they should NOT be adopting dogs out knowing all the vaccines expire in 6 weeks without informing the new owners!

Wonderful Shelter with extremely caring veterinarians, onsite staff and volunteers! The animals…read moreare always treated with tender loving care. If there's the slightest indication of a health issue, the lil' guys are treated immediately. There is no better Shelter in northern Va.

My husband and I saw a dog we were interested in meeting and possibly adopting so we reached out…read morethrough Instagram to get more details. We got a quick response, which was nice. They let us know that based on the dog's profile, they recommended that we do a meet and greet with any family dogs we already have at home. So we get ready, load up our pup, and go to the center. When we walked in, we felt like the vibes were pretty off immediately. The front desk staff seemed to be pretty unfriendly, barely addressed us, and barely made eye contact with us. But we moved on and I tried giving them some grace... We then told them which dog we were interested in meeting and they let us go back to the kennel for a first glance. We came back out and when we asked for a meet and greet, the one worker seemed super hesitant in even allowing that. Lots of "ummm, yea, I guess you can" vibes. My mother-in-law waited in the lobby with our pup and they led my husband and I to their yard for a visit which went well and I asked if I could switch out with my mother-in-law and were told that it'd be best not to have the dog meet too many people in one instance since it has a "stranger danger" personality. What if the people after us wanted to meet him, would they have turned them down because it was "too many people"??? We then asked to have our pup meet since our meeting went well and were met with more hesitation. We let the staff know that we also have kids at home and they recommended that we come back with them so the adoptable pup could meet everyone at once instead of letting our dog meet in that moment.... we thought that was odd since we were already there and prepared. My husband was already over it and left and I went back in to ask if the dog we were interested in could be adopted that day or before we were able to come back. They let us know that they couldn't guarentee he'd still be there. Never once did they really walk us through the process or even offered that we could essentially put the dog on "hold" until I kept asking more questions. They finally directly us to a QR code that went to an interest form. I filled out the whole thing and then they were like, "oh, BTW, its a nonrefundable $50 fee/donation to put an animal hold on". So... fine.... because we really wanted to make sure he was still there when we came back. Fast forward to the next day, we bring our kids and our dog back in. They then tell us they they're going to have our dog meet their dog 1st and if that goes well, we can introduced the kids. What the actual crap since we already had our dog in the day before! So the meet and greet with the pups didn't go the best which isn't anyone's fault. We understand and recognize that is out of everyone's control and don't fault the staff for that interaction. One of the other workers who wasn't there the first day tried helping and made some suggestions to have us adopt and older dog but at that point we were ready to go. We were so frustrated with the entire process. They wasted our time, weren't upfront about the fee/donation, and the staff either didn't understand the process themselves OR they really didn't want it to actually work out with us from the moment we walked in there. We've adopted from Wolftrap Animal Rescue twice and had wonderful interactions. We also visited the Lorton Animal Shelter and everyone there was really kind and friendly so I'd recommend others going through one of those other agencies instead. We just hope our nonrefundable $50 donation goes to good use...

This organization is serious about rescuing dogs and kitties. The community of fosters and adoption…read morealums is warm and generous with their support of fosters and adopters alike. Had a very positive experience with CDCK!

I give one star because there is no zero to choose from. I haven't seen a rescue or shelter so…read moredifficult to deal with. I am 100% sure they kidnapped my cat from my community and hostage her for donation and selling as a business rather than a non profit organization. Pure intention matters! I have donated to multiple organizations monthly base, raising fund for good purpose, money is not a problem for me. However, I don't want to reward bad behaviors. The missing time for my cat and the one they posted online matches and the very detailed stripes pattern matches. It's questionable that one employee said she from North Carolina, another one said she from West Virginia. I have my cat since she was born, I can recognize this cat from eye contact. Well, if you know your children, you know them by the spirit, right? I sent them many details to JUST take a look, they refused. It's not built to help ppl or animals at all. I will show how my cat look like and how sick she is now in their foster home. I'm deeply saddened and worried about her. She is territorial as a cat does. She has been a happy cat in her own home, wtf they think this is a rescue. Now I have to either kiss their ass or be assertive to fight against this negativity just to get her rescued from these horrible ppl. F that! If they don't practice as ethical as it should be, this is a big big issue! I put the photos of how my cat looked before and how she looks now in their foster homes(one with name caption) I am seriously furious and frustrated about this. If they couldn't give me an explanation why they made it so difficult to meet the cat. I have to say I will use my popularity and influence to the extreme to make things right!!!

We just adopted a dog through AHOTO. Everyone on the organization that we interacted with was kind,…read moreprofessional, responsive, and very knowledgeable. We highly recommend them!

I adopted my cat through AHOTO. They asked me to foster and it was obviously a fail. The…read morecommunications and support were great. Natalie is very attentive to all their cats and kittens and super helpful with adoption. She knows which cat to pair which human with, and is always spot on. I would 100% always adopt from them.

I can't say enough about the positive experience we had at XO Pups. From the time we walked in the…read morestaff was super helpful and patient. They answered all of our questions and did not pressure us to make any decisions. We fell in love with a German Shepherd puppy and brought the little guy home. XO Pups includes a new puppy starter package that includes a lot of the items needed to make sure his transition to our home goes as smooth as possible. Serene and Daniel provided the best customer service and were wonderful to us. We are so happy we made the trip to XO Pups and I highly recommend a visit I'd you are searching for a new family friend.

I'm honestly amazed this is legal. There were about 20 dogs confined to tiny cages all day with no…read moreinteraction. I saw three dogs go to the bathroom in their cages, and they were forced to sit in their own urine and feces, one even ate its own waste. Several dogs had no water available. Many looked sick, dirty, and neglected, and they appeared to have come from puppy mills. I truly hope LCAS is aware of what's happening here and is actively working to improve these animals' conditions.

I found this organization when I was ready to adopt after the loss of a senior cat, and was mainly…read moredrawn in by being able to go in to meet the cats and by how close it was to my home. The people that work at this location were all wonderful and I greatly enjoyed speaking with them. They deserve endless praise. I put in a general application and followed up to ensure I didn't need to submit anything further, and was informed that I was approved and asked to come in to complete the process. I replied that I was making sure everything was in order and that I had a foster in the home until the end of the week (for sure leaving over the weekend) and would have space after that point. I asked a few follow up questions about a particular couple of cats that I was instructed to ask by the adoption counselors. My egregious mistake was either following up in less than 7 days, or it was that I had dared to foster with another organization. Based on the emails that would follow, it seems that it's unacceptable to contact any other adoption organization or to foster (even though there's no information on fostering through KSC?). So I was approved around March 9 and it's now the beginning of May and I've finally gotten them to say that I am being turned away, with no stated reason, after an initial approval. In the meantime, whomever was emailing me was incredibly rude for the sake of it. I asked for clarification about an ambiguous wording on dogs and was told that this cat's rule on dogs is clearly stated and that she must go home with another specific cat from the shelter. Unfortunately, the adoption counselors had also thought wording was ambiguous and told me to clarify. And they weren't aware of her messing to go home with a specific cat. In fact, they told me she'd been there years and clearly wanted me to take her. Unfortunate that this person would rather keep a cat for years in that tiny place than adopt out. Additionally, there were constant comments that were an obvious attempt to take a moral high ground but didn't make sense as a reply to an email, and it quickly became clear that they were trying to insult me and insinuate that I am not capable of caring for a cat. I inquired about one not yet medically cleared and they made comments about how "expensive" her condition could be. My resident cat was on the same ear drops and the combined household income is far above what is necessary to care for medication. Lol we both work in healthcare. The scrambling to find any reason to deny my application after having approved it was impressive. And unlike some other reviews, it seems that no one was able to dig up any even minimally negative information that could be used to deny my application after the fact. It's unfortunate that poor attitudes kept a cat or two out of a good home. If you read the other negative reviews, know that they're real. I had plenty of pleasant interactions until suddenly they weren't. You'd think I insulted them by contacting other organizations, or that a couple extra emails is actually a burden. They seem to not truly be about the cats at the top level.

I said goodbye to my 16-year-old cat at the end of December, but it took some time before I was…read moreready to open my home to another kitty or even pair of kitties. We saw adorable five-month-old sisters on Petfinder, filled out an application, and King Street Cats got in touch quickly. We set up a time that worked for the foster family, went out to Alexandria, and waited in a small closet-like room for them to arrive. I think it's wise for shelters to have a place where you can interact with cats you're interested in. While we were there, they put two other kitties in the room with us, but they weren't interested in us. The two girls we were interested in, Jacintha (whom we renamed Lilah, which is Hebrew for night) and Zaneta (whom we renamed Harley, after Harley Quinn), were as friendly as the listing indicated, so we decided to go through with the adoption. Since we were already pre-approved, filling out the final paperwork and paying the adoption fee was quick and efficient. If you want to adopt a cat from (or any organization), I recommend filling out an application before going. KSC is an all-volunteer organization with a small shelter in Alexandria. They have set weekend times for seeing cats, or you can set an appointment. They were clearly busy caring for the cats at the shelter, so knowing what sort of cat you're looking for is wise. They also remind you to bring a carrier with you when you go to adopt. I recommend throwing a toy in the carrier to distract the cat during the drive home. The only thing I don't like is that KSC is the primary name on the microchip all cats who leave the shelter have. But the adoption was overall a good experience, and our kittens are very happy in their new home.

This review is specifically for the agility class...which is AMAZING! I literally can't say enough…read morepositive things about the agility class! My pup LOVES it and the instructor Sherri is SOOO patient and so good with the pups. She tailors the exercises for the different skill levels so it's fruitful for everyone. I know my pup is...different (he's part husky so he likes to talk) and Sherri never makes me feel bad about it. The Level 1 class is difficult to get into because it's sooo popular but so worth it!

Have been going here for years and love it. The workers are fantastic and they will work with you…read moreif you need something specific with your pet. We love our time with them.

Lucky Dog Animal Rescue (LDAR) was recommended to me by a trusted area groomer. She suggested I…read moreapply online before the adoption event, and I'm glad I started the process before arriving so that I was pre-registered, so to speak. The event was well attended so I recommend arriving early and checking in with a volunteer (green tent) so you get instructions for navigating, selecting, and adopting. You want to be first on the list to adopt your dream pet. Due to the great turnout, and the number of foster parents there with the dogs, I couldn't find the dog I originally arrived to adopt. Keep an eye on the LDAR website for the most up to date list of dogs and cats. I found out the day before the event that another wonderful pup had be transferred to VA, and so I inquired about him as soon as I arrived, which gave me priority. The whole adoption process took about four (4) hours - about half of that was due to shopping for my new bestie. The lines can get extremely long during adoption events because the store is open to the public and a hundred or so adoption guests the day I visited. There was a small wait (30 minutes) to have my application reviewed, and for the pre-interview. Then about 30 minutes before I found out I was approved to adopt the puppy. There's another wait to go through adoption counseling (30 minutes - where you should shop for appropriate items such as a martingale collar, leash, name tag) and the counseling took about 30 minutes (I had questions). The process was seamless and LDAR has been great about following up with me since the adoption. I also received a number of online resources that helped me acclimate my new little guy, and house train him within a week! The volunteers are transparent about the fine print, so it's important to know what you are responsible for. LDAR, thus you, might not have all the details on the pet's health and temperament. No take backs! With that said, an adopter will be on the hook for vet bills to ensure the safety of the animal. After our first vet visit, a few days after adoption, I did learn that my pup had a few things we needed to take care of, but this comes with pet ownership. I would recommend LDAR to anyone who is looking to adopt a pet. Visit an event and ask questions to see what it's like.

Lucky Dog has a great adoption process. There are definitely a lot of steps to go through but it is…read morereassuring that they are doing due diligence and you are getting a great dog! I adopted a 10 week old puppy about a month ago and he has done amazing. The fosters that are part of Lucky Dog are priceless and really help dogs get settled as they wait for a forever home. I highly recommend adopting a dog through them!!