Angel's Retreat

We are located in West Chester, PA and adopt to our local area of PA, NY, NJ, PA, DE, and MD. If you live outside this area we hope you consider adopting from a rescue local to you.We take our role as animal welfare advocates very seriously; this includes our own animals as well as animals all around the country. We do not adopt dogs outside of our local area (PA, NY, NJ, DE, MD) due to the high levels of euthanasia occurring in shelters outside of our area. Did you know that 2.7 million animals are euthanized every year in the United States?It is very important to us that people adopt in their local community, as any home taken up by one of our more fortunate dogs will equate to a dog euthanized in a kill shelter in their local community. All over the country there are dogs that are equally as wonderful as our dogs in rescue, and we hope you understand the importance of helping animals in your local community.The route to choose to adopt a dog should be one that is done because you want to help save a life. Therefore, this rule should make sense to all people rescuing a dog for all the right reasons. We would not be doing our job as animal welfare advocates if we did anything less for the dogs in less fortunate areas than ours. We hope you save a local life, and thank you for your interest in our rescue. Step 1: Apply for AdoptionSelect Available Dogs from the Adopt a Dog drop-down menu at the top of the screen Click on the dog you are interested in Click the grey box that says Apply for Adoption Complete the adoption applicationStep 2: Pre-ScreenThe Adoptions Team will review your application and conduct a vet check, if applicableStep 3: Phone InterviewIf your pre-screen was successful, you will be contacted for a phone interview If the dog has already been adopted, you will be notified via emailStep 4: MeetIf you are approved after the phone interview, we will schedule an appointment for you to come meet the dogStep 5: AdoptIf the meet goes well and it is a good match for both the dog and the humans, the adoption is done electronically on-siteYour new furry family member goes home with you! PUPPY ADOPTION PROCESSThe health and safety of our dogs, and your personal dogs, are of the utmost importance to us. All of our dogs have been vet-checked and are currently healthy. However, because they are puppies, they are not yet fully vaccinated (boosters take several weeks to complete) and so we need to be careful to prevent any possible cross contamination between litters. Because of this, we ask you to please follow these rules:1. You will receive a puppy ticket when you arrive2. Each puppy litter will have its own area3. We cannot mix litters4. Please observe the puppies playing and (maybe!) napping5. Once a puppy calls to your heart, hand in your puppy ticket for that puppy6. You can then hold that puppy and decide to adopt him/herYou will only be able to touch ONE puppy. This is to prevent you inadvertently passing anything from one puppy to another.Believe us, we understand your desire to love on all the puppies, but please understand this is the safest way for everyone involved. The breed of all of our dogs is always our best guess. Even if the puppy mill tells us the breed, we cannot guarantee that it is true. As such, neither can we guarantee the size of our dogs once they are full-grown. We do not take pictures of our scared dogs upon arrival as we don't want to further upset them by taking photos. If you are interested, please fill out an application to be considered, and watch the website for pictures as they will be posted when available!Many of our dogs are rescued from puppy mills. They are often very shutdown and will require a family with a lot of patience and love. Dogs like this do best with another dog in the house and without young children (under 5 years old). Please do your research on puppy mill rescues as they will need a family who is understanding and prepared to work through a period of transition with them as they learn to live in a house and around people. They will need time to trust their new family before working on training, such as house training and leash walking. This should go without saying, but we require all our animals to be trained using only positive reinforcement methods. We love our mill pups as they show how appreciative and loving dogs can be when given a chance! Whether you rescue an older dog or a puppy, a lot of dogs tend to follow the 3-3-3 rule when getting acclimated: 3 days of feeling overwhelmed and nervous,3 weeks of settling in, and 3 months of building trust and bonding with you. Please be patient and give yourself and your adopted dog the time needed to develop a life-long relationship.