Why are we so picky about who adopts our dogs?

We put a huge amount of time, love, and expense into each little fluff in our rescue. We designed to filter out undesirable adopter situations. Unfortunately, some good adoptive families may get filtered out in our approval process. However, our commitment is to our dogs, not the potential adopter. Our goal is to make sure our dogs will never again find themselves in the horrible situation from which we rescued them.

What is the cost to adopt one of our dogs?

The adoption donations/fees are based on the age of the dog. All but $75 is a tax-deductible donation. Under 6 mos – $500-$600, 6 mos to 1 yr – $450, 1 – 2 yrs – $400, 2 to 3 years – $350, 4 and 5 yrs – $300, 6 to 7 years – $250, 8 and over – $150.

Why are the adoption fees so high?

We do not profit from the donations and our volunteers are not paid for their service. Adoption fees are put in a pool and used to help cover the basic medical expenses and boarding costs. Each dog we take in spends several days at our veterinarian’s office where they are given a full examination including blood work, vaccinations, heartworm test, heartworm preventative, fecal test and wormer if necessary, treated for fleas/ticks if necessary, spay or neuter surgery if the dog is not altered, and a teeth cleaning if needed. Adoption fees sometimes don’t even cover these basics. Any additional medical needs have to be paid with donations.

Why are we always asking for donations, shouldn’t the adoption fees cover everything?

LSSTLAR believes that every dog deserves a second chance at life (which possibly may be the first chance to ever experience love). Therefore, we rescue dogs in any condition and many of the dogs we get are in need of extensive medical treatment. Adoption fees only cover the basics mentioned above.

Also, many times our dogs have to be boarded until a foster home opens up. This is not the ideal situation but it’s sure better than being put to sleep at the animal shelter.

How can I contribute to the on-going work of LSSTLAR?

We can always use new volunteers to foster our dogs until they go to their forever home. If you are unable to foster but would still like to volunteer, we need help with other activities such as transporting dogs, pulling approved dogs from animal shelters, taking pictures of our new dogs, etc. If you would like to learn more about becoming a volunteer, please click on the “Apply to Volunteer” link located on the left side navigation bar of this page.

Please donate if you are able. It’s tax-deductible. Subscribe to our newsletter and check our website often to keep up to date on our needs. We always have dogs that are in need of medical treatment above and beyond the basic medical care that our adoption fee fund pool can provide. In times of an abundant amount of needy dogs at the shelters, we need extra funds for boarding until foster homes open up.

We can always use free or discounted services such as grooming, or printing of our pamphlets, business cards, calendars, etc. If you are a printer or other business owner and can help provide us with some of our necessary services or products, we will list your business on our “Business Partners” web page.

Please contact us if you have any other questions.