Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation

So I want to give these guys 10 stars if I could! They are FAR superior than ALL OTHER rescue organizations. First of all, they spay and neuter all the puppies. Secondly, the cost is more reasonable than other organizations. They do interview and get to know the potential adopters and don’t make your life insane in order to adopt a dog.
For Josh: ALL rescue groups require that you give the pet back to them if you move or have to surrender; while LDCRF gives a two week period for you to bring the pet back for any reason. I just adopted from another rescue and it cost me an arm and a leg, the dog is not spayed and unfortunately, my current rescue puppy is not having it at all. So, I lost almost $ 500 for nothing to the other rescue — they won’t even give half of it back since my reason is that another dog in my house is having troubles adjusting. And when I asked… they simply don’t care. They’ll then re-​adopt this dog for another $ 500 (ALL CASH, BY THE WAY! — do you know what it’s like to obtain $ 500 in cash these days???). It cost me $ 20 in withdraw fees at ATM machines because my bank does not allow anymore than $ 200 per day in cash withdrawals. So, they’ll make about $ 1,000 on this dog and I have nothing. So, if you think that LDCRF is expensive — try adopting from other organizations. It’s highway robbery and I will NEVER adopt from this other organization and I will not donate a dime of my money to their organization.
As far as being able to come «snoop you out» as another poster mentioned — LDCRF makes the adoption process so easy that I feel like they have the right to check in on the animal. All other rescue’s to the same thing, by the way.
Not to mention that $ 300 is more than reasonable for a spayed/​neutered/​vaccinated dog. AND to allow a two week refund period for you to be sure that the dog does not have any adjustment issues, that is beyond reasonable as far as I am concerned. I have adopted THREE dogs from LDCRF and they are the best out there. HANDS DOWN.
For those who have posted negative reviews — go read the policies of other rescue organization and then post your opinions. Know what the other organizations do before you spew off — many of the policies are strict and the same across the board for a reason: to protect the animal. LDCRF is very trustworthy and the ranch is the best idea that anyone has ever come up with.
They care very much for the dogs. And I have three shining examples as to how great LDCRF is. I donate once a quarter to charitable organizations and I give a great percentage of those donations to LDCRF.
Get the facts about other organizations before you post your rant about this one.

This a great foundation doing a great thing. I am so happy I have been able to find an organization like this so close to my home. I’m new to this area, since Feb. I’ve been so caught up in other areas of my life i haven’t been able to adopt my own canine ccompanion yet. This foundation makes me feel like I have many dogs now. Soon I will adopt my own, definitely a rescue but even so I will continue to volunteer with this organization so many other dogs can find homes as well. This is an AMAZING foundation and they should be proud of what they do.

This organization is absolutely awful and has its mission all wrong. If they are out to alienate potential families, they’re doing a great job. We fell in love with a dog the rescue had at a fair in Fair Lakes and wanted to adopt him, but, we discovered that the foundation is not concerned with putting these dogs into loving homes, but more in padding iron-​clad contracts with arguable property and privacy right violations. You essentially lease the pet from the foundation, and they reserve the right to stop by your home any time to make sure you’re taking care of what is legally still THEIR pet to THEIR arbitrary standards. If at any point you move or would like to give the dog to another home for some reason or another, surprise, you don’t have that right! Not in the totalitarian state of Lost Dog and Cat Rescue! You have to give it back to them so that they can profit hand over fist off of the pet again — that’s right, it’s well over $ 300 to adopt from them, alleging that they need to be reimbursed for the costs of care thus far. What garbage. That’s what donations are for.
We love the dog, but we simply cannot agree to LDCRF’s absurd terms that do everything to alienate potential adoptees. They care less about putting dogs in great homes and more about having you by the stones for the rest of your life and being able to snoop on you at their pleasure. They are an untrustworthy organization and guise pure nosiness and profiteering as «caring» when they don’t care one bit about what should be their mission.

I do not recommend this organization to anyone looking to adopt. They are very rude, unprofessional, and don’t give a shit about their animals or letting people adopt sick puppies. I recently had to give back the most sweetest puppy ever because I found out that she had highly contagious mange (at the event we were told she had mange, but the foster played it down and said it wasn’t serious) that any human or animal could contract, and she had a serious parasite that humans could contract as well. I only found out how serious all this was AFTER I brought the pup to my own vet. I have an older cat, and when my vet told me that my cat could die if I didn’t catch either one of the problems soon, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself. My vet was even in shock at how sick this puppy was, and kept asking where I adopted her from. On top of that, the foster I got her from was a total bitch, and told me that my vet knew nothing, and hers did. Well if her vet knew everything, then why didn’t they catch the parasite? Her vet was also giving the puppies a deadly dosage of medicine for the mange, and she bitched at me for letting my vet throw it out, and said the medicine I replaced it with would take longer. So glad to hear the organization is willing to drug up young puppies just to speed up the process so they can be adopted. I will never be going through this organization again.

What a terrible adoption agency. Their screening process is a joke and they know nothing about the animals they are adopting out. We found out after we got our dog that she had a bacterial infection AND kennel cough. When contacted they claimed not to know, even though she sounded like she was hacking up a lung. They also offered no compensation. Finally, they told us she was okay with other dogs. Wrong. She is very jealous and attacks them if brought in contact. Maybe they didn’t notice because she was too sick to act out when they had her.

I have mixed feelings about Lost Dog especially after the recent adoption event we attended. We adopted our current dog (a loving, 3-​legged mastiff/​boxer/​pitbull mix) from Lost Dog, and the foster who was taking care of him was absolutely fantastic. She even took care of him for a few extra weeks while we were getting married and going on our honeymoon, so that we could have a smooth transition with our dog.
Recently, we went back to try and adopt a 2^nd dog, so that our current dog could have a friend. When it was clear that the dog we wanted to meet wasn’t going to work out (no fault of Lost Dog, just different personalities), we thought it’d be good to stick around and see if there’d be another dog we wanted to meet. The volunteers were extremely rude to us, and wouldn’t let us come near the other dogs and treated us as if we were being a nuisance. How are we supposed to know how our dog would be with other dogs if they are not allowed to meet? We have to see if the dogs will get along, otherwise it won’t work! It’s just common sense! I’m very unhappy with how we were treated at the event. I recommend that you talk with the fosters in the system, who are great, rather than just show up at an event randomly. If you’re adopting a 2^nd dog, be sure to stand your ground when they try to prevent your dog from meeting other dogs.

I adopted my cat a few months ago. I love him to pieces and he is my whole heart. The adoption process was TOO simple. I’ve worked for rescue my entire life. I did a visit at the foster’s house and after five minutes of interaction they told me I could have him. They didn’t do a home visit, nothing. They were so quick to get him out the door and to get my money, I don’t think they would have cared who took him.
He was in with a cat who was rescued from a hoarding situation, which I am assuming where he picked up his lovely ear mites, which have cause SO many problems for my baby’s ears– Several ear infections, medications and hundreds of dollars later, he is still having issues from the mites. They told me he had been seen by a vet… Records indicate that he hadn’t been seen since he had been in the care of the rescue. So, I had to pay out of pocket (almost $ 500 now) to take care of his ears. I also found out that he’s almost three
He’s allergic to grain, which they failed to tell me… So another vet visit later because he was itching so bad and had so many hot spots… just to find out he needed to be fed a different food than what he came with.
The litter box he came with was filthy. Couldn’t even rinse it out.
I will say that Echo was very nice when I spoke with her on the phone– I’m just not happy about the vet bills that could have been avoided had they took him to the vet like they should have.

Update: since leaving this review I was contacted by Susan who is on the board of Lost Dog Rescue with a nasty email and by another Unilocal member who was at this event and informed me a puppy in this litter died and all others adoptees were sent a notice that the other puppies may have the parvovirus virus. I believe she too posted a review on Unilocal.It’s nice that this organization sends nasty grams if you verbalize your experience. Very happy we adopted our puppy elsewhere.

Cannot recommend this organization. Puerto Rico pups DIED! To begin with, they do nothing to really pair a dog with their prospective owner, the «interview questions» are rushed through and not specific to proper match making. The «names out of a hat» process we ended up with was far from adequate in assuring that the right pup goes to the right family. We received a notice 2 weeks after adoptions that one of the litter mates to our pup had been diagnosed with Parvo virus and had died :(Our pup was also sick and the ensuing nightmare is one I would not wish on my worst enemy.

We love lost dog! In fact, our dog is an adoptee from the organization. The process was impeccably organized & professional. Our dog’s foster mom was so helpful in the uncertain first few months & we still keep in touch with her today, sending Christmas cards and pictures of Moe. If we choose to extend our canine family, we are starting with Lost Dog first! Wonderful wonderful organization.

We had a great experience adopting a new puppy recently from Lost Dog. The volunteers were super helpful and the adoption process was very easy as others have said. We literally walked out of an adoption event with a puppy in about 40 minutes. We had been looking for a dog for quite a while (we have cats, young kids and not much dog experience which are often strikes against you with many rescue organizations) and we had had some weird experiences along the way, but Lost Dog was fantastic. I was so surprised when we actually left with a dog because I expected a long, drawn out process, that I had to scramble to buy food and some other basics and then come back later for more stuff. We love our puppy. Thanks Lost Dog!

I have adopted from Lost Dog before, and I have fostered with them before. I also used to volunteer at their events. They are very well-​organized, have many different adoption events, and they’re good at answering questions about the many different animals they have available for adoption.
However, the long and short of my complaint with Lost Dog is if you adopt an animal and there is a problem, it is YOUR problem.
Here’s one example (of several) I have. My boyfriend and I fostered this wonderful dog, and the family that adopted it had to pay out the nose to fix a malignant tumor discovered only a few weeks after the adoption. When I was later at an adoption fair, I asked the woman sitting at the table whether Lost Dog was willing to take the animal back for free in that situation, or whether their vet would work with the family to reduce some of the costs. I was honestly just asking for the information, not because the family (or I) was upset. The woman pretended to be distracted by a movement behind me during the middle of our conversation to avoid answering the question. Um, yes, I’m still standing right here, five feet in front of you! I emailed about it twice as well, and no one responded.
Adoption fairs with adorable puppies are fun and fabulous, but if that puppy has a health issue (FYI ours still pees like a girl because it was neutered far too early, per our vet), good luck getting help from Lost Dog. Their goal is to get the animal out the door. This is sad especially because many of the people who need to return animals or deal with issues aren’t doing it because they’re ignorant or not willing to do the work — they need genuine help from an organization that has the resources and claims to care.

We adopted our bullador (American bulldog/​Lab mix) when she was 11 weeks old from Lost dog and could not be any happier. She is a darling dog and would never ever think of getting rid of her. They always have an event at Petsmart right up the street so we stopped by and then what do you know we were dog owners.
I will say that lost dog and cat rescue has some of the laid back adoption process that I have seen. If you go to an event you do an in person interview and you pay for the puppy and off you go. There was no home visit or other policies that were required. The foster mom was amazing and sent us all types of puppy pics later on so we would have baby pictures of her.
If we were to adopt again and Lost Dog had puppies we were interested in we would go with them without hesitation.

My husband and I stopped by an adoption event just to look at the adorable pups they had and ended up leaving with a sweet puppy. We were totally smitten with the pup and thought for sure he would fit in well with our current dog, a two year old rescue. We were assured by the volunteers that there was a two week grace period if things didn’t work out.
Sadly, the older dog wasn’t a huge fan of sharing with the baby pup, so we contacted the rescue to return him less than 24 hours after taking him home.
PROs:
— super easy adoption process. We walked in and walked out with the puppy in less than an hour.
— the volunteers. We met a wonderful woman who was so patient while we weighed our options and never once pushed us in either direction or seemed annoyed. The woman who helped us with our paperwork was also fantastic. The amazing volunteers we did encounter and the ease of process give it a three star rating.
CONs:
— the volunteers. I know I put this in the pros, but one volunteer was not the most pleasant to us when we went to return the puppy. We made arrangements to return the puppy and were told most any time was fine. We suggested early afternoon. My husband was tied up at work and honestly, it was a bit emotional to return the pup, so we got a late start getting out to drop the puppy off (we also didn’t realize we’d be driving to a home 45 + minutes away). Half way there, we got a phone call from the volunteer calling him «inconsiderate» and scolding him for being late — despite my husband’s apologies. I understand that we should have called but I found the volunteer’s behavior to be inappropriate.
— return process. We have to go an adoption event to get our refund which doesn’t sound like a lot of fun after a pretty emotional experience.
Needless to say, if we look to introduce another pup into our home, I don’t think it will be from this rescue and I don’t think id recommend them to friends given the types of people you have to interact with.

I may be a little biased here, since I have recently starting volunteering with LDCRF, but I truly feel this is a great organization. All of the volunteers really care about the animals and work hard to find them homes –but also work hard to make sure they find them the right homes. I have volunteered at the dog adoption fairs on Saturdays at Fair Lakes for the last month and at the cat adoption events in Reston on Sundays. I also volunteer one evening a week taking care of the cats who are kept at the Reston PetSmart. I have had a great time working with the animals and the LDCRF team, and have gained some important knowledge about how to better care for my three little kitties at home. The team has welcomed me with open arms, and I look forward to supporting them for a long time to come.

We have had Cookie, our Jack Russell Terrier mix, for two weeks now and we absolutely love her. She was one of the Chip pups named Doritos and came home with us at a healthy 9 pounds, 9-​weeks-​old. Her brindle coat and puppy stature get all the attention from people, which she takes in politely. She is almost done with potty-​training and making improvements on how to heel on the leash.
Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation (LDCRF) are wonderful people. I highly recommend anyone considering adopting a rescue dog/​cat to go through them. They are dedicated, proactive, efficient, and most importantly, put the well-​being of the pets first. Every weekend, they have adoption events at Petsmarts scattered across the DMV area. Potential adopters have a chance to meet the animals and talk to staff, volunteers, and foster parents. If they are completely sure about it (and believe me, the staff will check!), they fill out an application then go through an interview before taking their pooch/​kitty home that day, on the spot.
Three things that put me at ease were: (1) the health of the pets, (2) transparency, and (3) the thorough adoption process. All dogs and cats were happy and healthy; they had their first round of shots and were spayed/​neutered. The staff shared all information about the animal including medical records, the parents (if known), how the animal came to the shelter, how it is doing in the foster home, pre-​existing health conditions (if any), behavioral or psychological issues (if any), etc. In return, they made sure adopters were ready/​capable of owning a pet and that it was a good match between adopter and animal. By being professional all the way, I felt comfortable knowing the pets came from and were going to the right places.
We have renewed hearts for rescues, because of LDCRF’s great work. Our Cookie is a lot of love as well as work, but we would go through everything again for her!

I got my year-​old Chihuahua mix from these fine people.
I came to an event at the PetSmart in Seven Corners. Lo and behold, I found the little furry love of my life on that fateful day. His medical history shows that he was a weak little puppy and had kennel cough and I think pneumonia – which is bad enough for a dog, but downright deadly for a teeny tiny one. They took good care of him though, because when we got him he was a healthy, happy, bouncy little guy. He has had absolutely zero health issues since.
The one thing is that he is very attached and I believe has anxiety. I think this is common in many rescue dogs – and probably amplified by the fact that he’s a small breed. He’s quite timid around other dogs, but loves people. Thanks Lost Dog!

My husband and I are proud to be supporters of LDCRF. We have volunteered, fostered, and adopted through their amazing organization. We have them to thank for our forever dog, Chelsea, a beautiful greyhound-​pointer mix that they rescued from a shelter in WV over a year ago.
Before we adopted, we met with several organizations in the area. Although we were approved for other adoptions, I did not reach a comfort level until working with LDCRF. Their volunteers are friendly, dedicated, and truly good people. In no way did I feel interrogated when we were interviewed in the adoption process, as was the situation with some other groups. LDCRF fosters and event volunteers treat and train their dogs and cats as if they were their own family — with love and TLC — so they are best prepared to be matched with a forever home.
LDCRF saw the loving potential when they rescued Chelsea as a dirty, underweight stray. Two year old Chelsea recently passed the Canine Good Citizen Test, and we plan to work with her to be a therapy dog. Over the past year, she has brought us so much love, joy, and laughter, and we are so grateful to have worked with LDCRF to give her a forever home.

Lost Dog Rescue is the best. We have two Lost Dogs, and have volunteered with Lost Dog Rescue frequently.
First, yes, Lost Dog Rescue is basically a no-​kill rescue effort of last resort. They go to crisis situations and rescue dogs and cats. That is why they are so cool. They rescued hounds that had had their kennel burn down around them. They rescue dogs from puppy mills. They rescue dogs from other terrible situations. Yes, that means some of the dogs are not pure bread perfect dogs — but they are wonderful loving dogs.
You can spend a lot of time with a prospective dog at an adoption event. Lost Dog Rescue offers a two week trial period. If for any reason you and the dog dont work out, bring it back. No questions asked. Just bring it back.
Lost Dog Rescue works through the use of a tremendous amount of volunteers. They have a great staff. They have some regular volunteers who are fantastic. And they have some volunteers who — well — dont know what they are talking about; they are just dog loving volunteers after all. Make sure you talk to an actual Lost Dog Manager if you have any issues. They are at every event, and they will talk to you.
Lost Dog does not sell dogs and cats. Period. There is an adoption fee that covers the farm where the dogs stay and the medical expenses.
The dogs and cats (and other animals) are kept at a farm. The farm is regularly open to the public for events — sort of alumni events where the dogs go running about.
Lost Dogs gets dogs that they do not necessarily know much about. They create a file on each dog and will tell you what they know. But they will tell you (and they tell their volunteers this) that they dont know everything, and what they do know is based on short term observations, and observations of their volunteers and their fosters. They may not have complete records because there was no records from where a lot of these dogs came from.
Lost Dog has been in operation for over a decade. They have adopted out 1000s more dogs then the local shelter and other groups, because Lost Dog was willing to work hard and set up adoption events that others are just now following. Lost Dog has a large network of volunteers, fosters, and supporters. They have been expanding because they are effective at getting unwanted dogs adopted. They got dogs out to prospective owners, while the animal shelter just waited till people came to them.
Finally, in the Arlington adoption events, there is usually a wait list to volunteer — because Lost Dog is such a great group, they garner tremendous support from the community.

I had a really great experience with adopting our dog, Mochi, this time last year. And she is such a joy in our lives. I emailed a few times with one of the coordinators to ask about a few of the dogs and they were always prompt to reply and very friendly. It felt a little mail-​order-​bride-​ish seeing the dogs we had selected to meet at the event in Arlington. But it was nice to meet a few dogs and see who fit best with our energy. The volunteers are pretty amazing too… I really liked our dogs ‘handler’ for the day as she gave us space and cleaned up any accidents on the floor.
Mochi came home with kennel cough but the vet said she was healthy besides that. During her month at LDCRF, she had been fixed and tested for heartworm, lyme disease, parasites and a host of other things. Her record showed that she weighed 10 lbs on her arrival to the shelter and when we got her she was up to 20 lbs.
You have 2 weeks to decide if you want to keep the animal, after which you can still return him/​her but you don’t get a full refund. While I agree with some of the comments that it’s a BIG rescue organization and it might be less personal to the animals and humans compared to a small mom/​pop foundation, I have to say this group does a tremendous amount of good for animals that would have ended up euthanized. I almost cry to think of our Mochi not in our lives. Thank you Lost Dog!