Dog & Kitty City is a small shelter, with limited space for both dogs and cats. As a no-kill shelter, we do not euthanize harder to adopt animals to make room for new arrivals, but rather any animal coming into our care has a home for life. As such, many of our current pets are sanctuary animals.

Shelter overcrowding is an invitation for illness and disease due to stress and contagion that cannot be contained in tight quarters, so we must limit intake as best we can. Space constraints are a real problem, especially true in winter, when we must, by law, provide indoor space for every dog in inclement weather.

Whenever possible, we will support volunteer rescues, but it is not always feasible to take in these animals. If your request to surrender an animal is denied, please do not pressure the Shelter Director to change her mind. It hurts us all to turn a needy animal away, but we cannot save them all.

Intake requires the advance approval of the Shelter Director. Of course, some intake is involuntary, when people simply dump the animals at the shelter. We never refuse sanctuary to these throwaways.

Because small dogs (under 15 lbs fully grown) are easier to house, a small dog might take priority over a large pup, but our decision is not based on preconceived notions of “adoptability.” We always request a surrender fee to help defray basic animal care.