Vanessa Galasso

Review of Labrador Retriever Rescue of F...

I'm not sure if I just had bad luck or bad timing-...

I'm not sure if I just had bad luck or bad timing- I hope either is the case because I had high hopes choosing this rescue and I think the work they do is amazing. My boyfriend and I applied late August and took our time making sure we had a great application. We have been talking about adopting a dog for about a year, as we know this is a life long commitment to our new furry family member. We submitted the application and waited and didn't hear anything. We were fully aware of the notice on the website which says to call them if you can't haven't heard from them in 7 days. I think we waited about 2 weeks just to make sure we gave enough time, as we didn't want to bother anyone since we did realize this is volunteer based. So we waited and then finally I called and left a message as well as sent an e-mail to their help desk. I did receive a call a few days later from someone stating that my payment for the application had not gone through and they also saw I lived in an apartment so that could be why no one had contacted me. So my question was why didn't anyone tell me my payment hadn't gotten through? I had my bank statement to prove I paid it. And why didn't anyone at least ask about my apartment lease contract which states I am allowed to have a dog?

I ignored this and continued with the process. The person that called me stated they will have someone call me soon. I waited about another week, no one called me. So I called again. Then I was called and they told me they escalated it and asked a volunteer in my area to do a home visit soon. The volunteer was great and contacted me promptly to do the home visit. She did the home visit and we passed right away. But then I was left without knowing who my adoption counselor was. So I looked on petfinder and sent a few messages to pets from this rescue I was interested in. The fosters just referred me to speak to my adoption counselor...which I didn't have. I again, sent an email and left a voicemail. I heard back a few days later and was told my adoption counselor was the person who conducted my home visit. The volunteer was not aware of this and she tried to be as helpful as possible but by then I was just tired of it.

I went with another rescue and found our new furry best friend. I completely understand this rescue is volunteer based but please don't continue to let potential adopters like this fall through the cracks...you're preventing the dogs from finding their future forever homes.