Shaggy Dog Rescue

Went through the application process, was cleared by my vet, sent pictures of my yard and fence, and all sounded good for me to adopt. Then she (the "founder"} called and rudely told me I was disapproved because I didnt already have a dog - they only place their dogs in home with other dogs for companionship. No other explanation was provided. There is nothing on their website to indicate this restriction; and I indicated in my application that I did not have a dog right now. And they want people to make a donation? NEVER.. If you are looking to adopt, go somewhere else!

The Founder, KATHY , is extremely rude right off the bat,l and lacks compassion. Someone must have hurt her so bad in life.
When you contact someone to adopt you need to ask questions, right? The organization is supposed to be helpful, right? not jump to conclusions and judge you off assumptions and ignorance? I had a simple question if my past pet records were able to be used and she just blew up out of nowhere. This shows she lacks emotional intelligence which is very scary because she is working with vulnerable shelter dogs.
These are real emails from this lady: (I sent her my dogs records, includes a rescue I found when she was 3/4 years old already diagnosed with lymes, all my medications and preventatives were purchased outside of the vet office, with receipts but I do not want Kathy owning any more of my information, and my vet was aware. she was completely out of line for mentioning the day I had to put my 13 year old dog down.... She throws in my face I "just" decided to euthanize her?!?! how dare she assume that. she would have required insulin shots and she already stopped eating. Actually, my vet was the one who said she wouldn't make it in the ER. "So much for looking after her for 10 years!" So ignorant and unprofessional. 10 years is a long and successful amount of time to have cared for a dog, actually.

(Mind you I literally said I unfortunately cannot do anything else about it since my mom was main owner on the records so best of luck to find the dog a home, ending the conversation...)

But then... she decided to find things to nit pick about, jumping to conclusions and assuming the absolute worst. All of my pets and families pets had heartgard and flea collars. Bought outside the vet because of sky high prices at vet offices. Bold of her to assume "NEVER" . Like as if she knows!

This is Kathy everyone:

reading through roxy's records she was never on a heartworm preventative , the vet recommended it every year she went in there is no record of you buying any she had lyme disease several times which means she wasn't kept on a flea/ tick preventative on a regular basis either and when the vet said she needed 24 hr care at an emergency vet you decided just to euthanize her, because she had diabetes so much for looking after her for 10 years !
Kathy
Founder
Shaggy Dog Rescue

What an awful, ugly thing for a human being to say.
Do not use this organization!!!
Please Kathy, get mental health help.

we are all fully aware of what is needed for adoption. You don't go bashing on someone personal life and assume they never did what they were supposed to do. In fact nobody even asked for her opinion. She doesn’t know anybody’s life. No wonder there are so many shelter animals, people like KW make it impossible to adopt. Well Kathy, I hope you find help for yourself one day soon. (Although looking at other reviews you’ve been like this for years)

Similarly negative experience following the application process. Kathy was gratuitously unfriendly when I sent a follow-up email 2 days later. I was not approved but, I am unclear why. I only sent a follow-up email because it was a weekend and I did not know if the 48 hour response window was inclusive of weekends.

"Please read the response below carefully. That is not what the response reads, It says IF you were approved."

I was friendly and hopeful - after all, I wanted a dog on listed on Petfinder. Kathy's response, tone and outcome, was disappointing to say the least.

If I could give zero stars I would. I am a high school math teacher who has trained and raised 4 dogs from puppies right over the rainbow bridge. My family of 4 lives in an established home on 4 acres in rural Maine and treat our animals like family members--with only the best of vet care, food, and love! We take our animals camping, hiking, on road trips, etc. We hire a sitter in our home when (rarely) we go away. We have a large 4 acre parcel of land that is not fenced, and 20 ft by 20 ft fenced in area that is accessible straight from the house only.

Recently, we applied to adopt a small terrier mix. We received an initial e-mail that said "We see Cali in your future!" Because it seemed like we were approved, I shared this with my children who were ecstatic! They began planning for Cali's arrival and making beds in each of their rooms. After not hearing anything else for 3-4 days, I again inquired about the status of our adoption and received an e-mail that we were denied without proper explanation. Here was the response, "I am sorry. But we did not approve your application We require a fully fenced in and secure yard for our dogs when an adopter has children we do not approve of electric fences Thank you for wanting a rescue" (Great grammar)

I was confused because I made it clear that we did have a fenced portion of the yard and the description of the dog said no children under ten. My children are 12 and 13--a budding animal shelter volunteer who wants to be a vet, and an outdoorsman who is a rank away from Eagle Scout--very responsible, and hardly a danger to a dog. They have both been raised with large breed dogs since birth. I e-mailed to explain to Kathy that she was in error...we do in fact have a fenced yard. I even offered a personal letter of reccommendation from my vet and other character references.
Her response, "You are not approved." That's it! One sentence. So cold and unprofessional. She is now refusing to respond to my request for a proper explanation.

Needless to say, my children are devastated. I didn't want to give them false hope, but that initial e-mail seemed so promising. This woman crushed their hearts. She is so rude and impersonal, I can't even believe she runs a successful shelter. Sadly, I don't think we will ever go the rescue route again. I feel so wronged and insulted by this process that we will more than likely look for a breeder who respects our values and dedication to our four legged family members.

The others who reviewed her must be single, work from home, and live in Fort Knox...otherwise they would never have been approved by this woman.