All Out Of State Adopters Must Provide The Following Information:

• Adopters Complete Name
• Adopters Complete Address
• Adopters Phone Number
• Veterinarians Name
• Veterinarians Address
• Veterinarians Phone Number

You must be at least 19 Years Old to adopt

If the adoption involves shipping the pet out of our state, then the minimum age of that animal for adoption is four months old. This will allow for us to have that animal spayed or neutered prior to it being transported out of our control and will add up to a week to the adoption process.

No Adoptions Prior To 10am

View Full Policies/Details For Out Of State Adopters Below...

Adopting a pet is a very personal event, which generally takes meeting the potential animal in person. Our preference is for potential adopters to meet the pet at our shelter or adoption location in person. And if you are looking for a dog and already have one, we want you to bring your dog to meet its potential playmate. Reality is that not all dogs get along, so better to find that out before an adoption than after you bring a new pet home. Besides, having the two dogs meet on the neutral territory of our play yard is a much better way for them to meet so your dog doesn’t feel as threatened by an “intruder’ to its home.

But we have done some very successful adoptions to families in other states and have pets in wonderful homes all the way from Colorado, to Connecticut, to Florida and Texas.

If you are not local to our shelter and interested in one of our pets, here are some wickets we need you to go through to get to the point of adoption:
- Email or call us to let us know which pet you are interested in. Tell us how this pet will live (in or out, pet alone all day or with family members, etc)), what other pets you have, whether your pets are spayed/neutered and current on their immunizations and heartworm preventive, what type fencing you have, children in your household or who visit routinely, etc. Feel free to bury us in information about you, your family, your living situation, your pets, etc. More info is always better than too little.
- We will need your complete name, address and phone number and the name of your veterinarian with their phone number for a reference.
- We will need you to be o’k with a possible home check and work those with rescue or shelter organizations in your area to do those.

So now we are at the point where we have all agreed that you will be a great home for one of our pets, what next?

Actual Adoption - We can do the adoption telephonically and you can make the payment using a credit card. While the basic adoption fee is $85 for dogs and $65 for cats, shipping a pet to a new home across the county will entail more costs. At a minimum we will need to add $10 for a rabies vaccination (we have to take the pet to a local vet for this) and $20 for a health certificate (required for pets going to other states and must also be done by a licensed veterinarian). More than likely you will need to add another $10 to cover the cost of a collar and leash for your pet and anywhere from $30-$175 for a crate depending on the size of the pet of you choose to have us purchase one for you. And last, it is generally volunteers who drive the pets to the airports which is four hours round-trip, so in this day and age of such high gas prices we need to add another $40 to cover their gas/vehicle use expense.


Transport – This goes hand in hand with the adoption so you know if you truly want to go through with the adoption and so we know you are prepared for the costs of getting the pet to you since the costs and making all the arrangements must be done by the adopter. Working the transportation piece is primarily the adopter’s responsibility. The most efficient method will generally be to move the pet by commercial airlines (for us either the Birmingham or Atlanta airports), but ground transport is another possibility and you can, of course, drive to us to pick up your pet. The adopter is responsible for contacting the airlines and making the arrangements, but must also talk to us to make sure we can work getting the pet to the airline from our end. Travel time from our shelter to the Atlanta airport is three hours and to the Birmingham airport is two hours and don’t forget that pets generally have to be to the cargo department two hours prior to the flight. Please don’t set up a departure time that necessitates someone from our end having to depart their home at 2-3 am. Within reason and our ability with staff or a volunteer we will be happy to facilitate linking the pet up with a transport or even getting it to an airport. Here are a couple of cautions on air transport: as airlines have found that the intrinsic value of our pets has significantly increased, most have tightened their shipment rules to protect the pets. Most airlines will NOT ship a pet if the air temperatures on the ground anywhere along the route are over 80 or 85 degrees Fahrenheit which means shipping a pet from our area of the country during the summer is going to be a challenge unless they offer evening cargo flights. Some airlines also restrict shipment of certain breeds, so you will need to check out each airline’s rules. The American Kennel Club has compiled some great information on the airlines and pet shipment which you can access at this web link: http://www.akc.org/pdfs/canine_legislation/airline_chart_0406.pdf

Besides the shipment cost to the airlines, one other cost you will probably need to plan for is for an airline certified crate large enough for your pet. It is generally cheaper to pay us for the cost of the crate (we will go purchase it for you and provide you a receipt) than to ‘rent’ one from the airline. This crate will then be yours when your pet arrives so it can also be transported from the airport to your home safely and then yours for crate training purposes if you so choose.

As a recap, here is an example of the costs you might incur to ship a medium dog:

Adoption Fee $85
Rabies Vaccination $10
Health Certificate $20
Collar & Leash $10
Large Crate approx $60 Total paid to our shelter – approx $175
Gas/Vehicle Use Expense for driving pet to airport $40
Total paid to our shelter – approx $215

Airline Shipping Cost $150-$200 Paid to airlines


With effort and planning it is entirely possible to adopt a pet from afar. Please just be prepared for the process and lots of back and forth communication. We will call you when the pet is safely in the control of the airlines personnel and ask that you contact us when your pet has safely arrived so we can all breathe a bit better knowing that your pet is with you safe and sound.

Hope this has helped and we look forward to placing our pets in loving and lifetime homes no matter where they are located.