Adoption Procedures

Athens Canine Rescue (ACR) is a nonprofit dog rescue in Athens, Georgia. We do not have a physical shelter, as all of our dogs live in foster homes until they are adopted. Everyone who works with ACR is a volunteer.

ADOPTION FEE:
Our adoption fee is $150 per dog.

OUR DOGS ARE:
Up-to-date on shots/medications
Treated with monthly flea/tick and heartworm preventatives
Microchipped
Spayed/neutered*

*Each dog is spayed/neutered while in ACR’s care if determined of age by a veterinarian. If the dog is adopted before 12 weeks of age, we will schedule the surgery for the adopter once the dog is old enough. The surgery will be done by the veterinarian that the dog saw while in ACR’s care.

APPLYING:
Adoptions are not on a first come, first serve basis, and we typically receive several applications for each dog. We work very hard to match the right dog with the right family. If you decide you are interested in a particular dog or need a recommendation, please fill out the adoption application. Once it is received, it will be forwarded to the dog’s foster parents for review. If your application “fits” the dog applied for, an ACR representative will contact you within 48 hours to set up a time to meet.

VISITS:
We will typically do two visits with you, so it is important that you live in or near Athens. We try to keep all of our adoptions within 30 minutes of Athens. The first visit is for you to meet the dog and their foster family to be able to ask questions, etc. Or, you can come to one of our monthly Adopt-A-Pet events at Pawtropolis [directions]. These are usually held the 2nd Saturday of every month from 10:30 am-12 noon. This is a great time to visit with all of our available dogs at once and to talk to the fosters directly about a dog’s personality, etc. The second visit is in your home. After that, if all goes well, the foster will bring the dog to your house to start the one-week trial.

We offer a one-week trial period to all potential adopters, to give you time to decide if this is the right dog for your family. You may return the dog at any time during the one week. If you do return a dog, please let us know if there are issues we need to work on or any important observations you made. We will hold your $150 check during that time until you decide the adoption is official. If your dog is due for shots/heartworm preventative/flea preventative, etc., during the one week, we will be happy to take care of this at one of our vets.

Please let us know if you have any questions regarding our procedures before submitting your application.
You can contact our adoption coordinator at adopt@athenscaninerescue.com if you have trouble with the application. We are happy to help in any way we can.

Thank you for thinking about adopting a dog from ACR!

Click here to continue to adoption application.

Click here to read the adoption procedures on Athens Canine Rescue's website.