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December 2024 by Diane K.
I enjoy volunteering with the, cat, adoption, events because the, other, volunteers ae friendly, and, engaging. I experience the helpfulness of everyone setting up for the event. I, also, enjoying interacting with the, potential, adopters. Most of all, I am inspired by the the, adoption, process when seeing how excited, and, happy, the, new, guardians are.
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November 2024 by Juliette N.
We adopted our dog in April of this year. The foster, Terry was wonderful. The whole process was smooth. Terry found us a trainer in my area as well. The process was great start to finish & we were lucky enough to adopt our sweet Ginger!
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October 2024 by Lynn H.
ARF has the nicest people!! I had had a poor experience during an adoption somewhere else and was so happy to have met the people from ARf. They are so kind and giving. I'm getting my first dog from them and I'm excited to see it through.
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September 2024 by Eliza Wren
Filled out an application for two kittens and was approved to meet them at an adoption event at a Petsmart. We were told to show up first thing and we would be put aside to meet with them to decide which we were bringing home or if we were to decide to take both. We get there first thing and are told the kittens were adopted already?? What?? Anyway this happened a couple years ago, but we are searching for another cat and when it comes to seeing cats available through this rescue we will not consider.
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August 2024 by gail Niksic
I was torn about leaving a negative review since I know the organization is run by all volunteers. However, after adopting our dog 7 months ago, I decided to voice my opinion how we felt the dog we adopted was in the foster home for too long. She would have benefited by being adopted sooner and get acclimated to her new home. The answer we were told " she was not ready." We feel this was a disservice to the dog, as she only had one human contact in over a year. I think I kind of know this since our dogs were therapy dogs. I know the benefit of early behavioral training. I was disappointed that I was dismissed pretty quickly when I shared our opinion this week.
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July 2024 by Phil Dame
Nothing beats the feeling of saving an animal
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June 2024 by Mickey Long Arms
Amazing animal shelter, large and great selection of adaptable animals. Iincredible staff. Def reccomend if you wanna adopt, work or volunteer!
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June 2024 by Butters Nut
Great place to adopt, wonderful staff, helps the community, large selection of great animals to adopt, def reccomend if you're looking to add a furry addition to your home!
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May 2024 by Vince Gurak
After sending in a application 2 weeks ago I am still waiting on some kind of response from this place. You see all these ads wanting you to go to shelters and save these poor animals from waiting on a answer then paying in some cases ridiculous prices it’s probably easier to adopt a child then to get a dog from some of these shelters.
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April 2024 by EV NA
OK, so the idea in principle is great: help animals in need, however the method of delivery involving the human help is rather lost as you are left with a negative feel after dealing with the people in charge. You want to help but even after calling several times you realise the different women who answer the phone would rather listen to the sound of their voices rather than pass the info onto somebody else, as they ask you: 'call x, y, z'. They basically only want you to foster, drive at the weekend and stay with the dog/cat at a certain PetSmart when actually cannot do this due to different medical problems etc. If you want to adopt, you have to pay $$$ or $$$$ for a pet, I have never seen anything like this anywhere in the world. Then there are the lists, basically banning certain people from adopting because 'they are bad people'. Dealing with the old women in charge is way worse. But they refuse to realise that, blaming it on others. Then you realise you are stuck like in a 'regime' with no light at the end of the tunnel. Is it worth it?
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February 2024 by Erica Smith
There was one dog we were interested in, but by the time we put our application in for him, he was already adopted. However, they had another chihuahua that they had so we decided to meet with him. He was full of energy and absolutely adorable! After spending a little time with him, we decided to take him home. Since then, it has been nothing, but pure joy with him. He is very loving and listens well, for the most part;) Couldn't have asked for a better addition to our family. There are only two things that I wish could be better; first if you haven't already put in an application ahead of time, the first dog you are looking at with whatever rescue you're looking at, you most likely will not end up with. That is a problem with all rescues, not just ARF. I understand the vetting process, but don't get your hopes up on your first choice of dog because you most likely won't get it. Doesn't mean you won't end up with another great dog, just know and understand the process. Second, they said he was a 5 pound chihuahua, he was actually 8 lbs. For most people, 3 pounds is not a big deal, but when you think you are going to look at a 5lb dog and he is 60% larger than you expect, that is a big difference. We already had a 5lb chihuahua at home, so we were looking for something close to her size. However, I will say, that when we saw this adobable chihuahua and looked into his eyes, we just couldn't say no to not bringing him home. He has been a joy ever since, but if they actual weight of the smaller dogs could be more accurate, that would be quite helpful. I still gave 5 stars because he was obviously loved and cared for by his foster mom and is a great dog!
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January 2024 by lab
We adopted two young cats from ARF-IL. They have given us so much love laughter and joy. Thank you, Ann, Susan and ARF-IL.
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January 2024 by BC Chicag0
Great folks!
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November 2023 by Linda Bradley
We saw a dog on ARF's website that we were totally interested in. Saw that they were having an adoption event at PetSmart in Downers Grove that weekend, so we decided to stop by and talk about adoption details. And the dog we were interested in was there!!! We fell in love at first site. Talked at length with many of the volunteers on-site, and went right home and filled out the application. This was a definite special needs puppy mill rescue, and we were up for the challenge. Enlisted neighbors to make sure we had a strong support network.Got a call from one volunteer that our application looked great. I realized after the fact that I should have asked more questions, such as timeline when we could pick our girl up. So I called her back, and was told there were two other approved applications for the same dog. That can happen, what matters is that the dog gets a great home. Selfishly, we know "us". She could never have found a better home. But that's what everyone thinks, right?My issue is with the method by which they delivered our denial. Congratulations! Your application is approved! A line later? The dog you wanted was adopted. Pick another dog. Yeah, that's not how it works with us. Dogs are living creatures, full of personality - not interchangeable commodities.We went from thinking we were adopting through ARF, then planning to foster and volunteer as well. To never wanting to work with such a callous organization again.
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November 2023 by Joliet Commercial Photography Sandra Rust
Wonderful experience
