Memphis Animal Services

Adoption Process If you visit us, we invite you to walk through our dog and cat rooms to view all currently adoptable pets. If you need more information about a certain pet or advice about what type of pet would be a good fit, you can ask any of our staff or volunteers for assistance. We invite you to spend time with pets you’re interested in to see who you connect with. Once you’ve reached a decision on a pet to adopt, a staff member or volunteer will retrieve the kennel card and proceed with you to the reception area where you will complete the adoption contract. There may be a short consultation session. Some pets in the shelter are ready to adopt and take home same day, and some pets can be pre-adopted or adopted and taken home later. We also have hundreds of adoptable pets living with foster families. Adoption Fees Urgent dogs & medical pets $20 Dogs & puppies of all ages $40 Dog adoption ($20-40) includes: • Spay/neuter • Microchip • Vaccinations for rabies (if old enough), distemper, parvo, and bordetella • Deworming treatment for hookworms and roundworms • Heartworm test (if old enough) • Heartworm treatment medications (if heartworm-positive and deemed a good candidate by vet) • Collar • Leash • Customized ID tag Choosing the Right Match for Your Family It’s a good idea to ask what information we have about a pet, but in many cases, we simply don’t know. We rely on previous owners and finders to tell us what they experienced with the pet, and the majority of our intakes come in through our Animal Services Officers, who have spent very little time with the pet before bringing them to the shelter. If we don’t have behavioral history from the pet in a home, we have to go on what we see in the shelter, which can be very unreliable. This is why adopting from a foster home can be so beneficial—you often have more information about the pet you’re adopting. With dogs, we do try to get them out into a playgroup with other dogs while they’re with us in the shelter—click here to learn more about that and what playgroup notes in a dog’s profile mean. If you have pets you’d like to get information on before deciding whether to plan a visit to meet them, email us at [email protected]. We always recommend that you bring all family members to meet any potential new pets. If you’re adopting a dog, bring the family including your dog(s) provided they’re current on vaccines and in generally good health. If you’re adopting a cat, bring the human family but please leave the other pets at home. Since we have limited information about how these pets are with children and other animals, it’s SO important to introduce them properly.