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    Ruff House Rescue

    3.7 (183 reviews)
    Closed 12:00 pm - 5:00 PM

    Services - Ruff House Rescue

    Community Service/Non-Profit

    Pet adoption

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    Reviews With Photos

    Jessica M.

    So in early October, my boyfriend and were looking to adopt a dog. One of my coworkers who volunteers at Ruff House recommended me to look here and also my boss adopted from here as well. We looked online and on their Instagram to see what dogs they have available and filled out an application. The process: within 48 hours we were contacted by a volunteer who conducted a phone interview asking about our home life, jobs and experience. As first time potential dog owners, I was nervous and had a bunch of questions that were answered. After that a home volunteer came later that week to check if our home was safe and asked where the dog would sleep. After that, we were invited to come to Petco in Levittown to check our dogs. We found one that we like but we were going away on vacation - but they don't hold dogs. It kind of was a little hectic to figure out who was going to be at Petco and which dogs we wanted to meet to make sure they were there. The events are only held at Petco in Levittown on weekends because the shelter is way too small. Adoption day: we wanted to meet 2 dogs on Saturday and reached out to the adoption counselor that morning and she was unsure if they were going to be there. So I've learned it's better to ask beforehand or just go to the event with an open mind. The dog we were hoping to meet was adopted right before we got there so I was bummed. My boyfriend really liked one dog who was in her crate and I was hesitant. They offered us to take the dog out of the crate with a volunteer to see how she was in a situation that was too crazy with all the other dogs and tons of people. She was snuggly instant and just wanted to be loved. I'm glad we came with an open mind and ended up adopting a dog who wasn't on our radar. We were required to buy a collar and a double side tag there. We also weren't told how to pay before the event but luckily they took Venmo. You can pay with cash or credit card with an addition fee. Thank you Ruff House for bringing us Stormie! My one piece of advice is don't be so fixated or fall in love with a picture. Go to the event with an open mind and find the connection and the right fit for you and your family!

    BUYER BEWARE* Not quite what we hoped for to be honest, so me and my wife along with our 4 year old daughter brought home a puppy (5 month old) so they say, their descriptions are not correct, the ad also said 8lbs he was 20lbs we had him weighed, we went and met him on a Saturday and we took him home, while we were there we noticed he had a bit of limp on his back left leg, they told us it was from the neuter surgery he had and it would go away, well fast forward a few days and it got worse he could barely walk on it but that's not why we brought him back, he just turned out not to be the correct dog for our family, he showed aggression towards me and our daughter but not my wife which is ok he was protective and I get it , so we ended up bringing him back again he just was not the right puppy for us, I was told we could look at other dogs and that our 630$ fee was transferable to another pup, so we were looking and they have some golden retriever/lab mixes we were interested in when we saw them on an instagram story they posted , 3-4 month old (not much different from the age of theone we brought home, but a bigger size dog with aggression is completely different from a smaller puppy nibble from playing) well now I'm being told the owner thinks that a younger puppy is not for us which is not the case, we want a smaller puppy to be able to play and grow up with our daughter in a happy forever home, the owner is basically acting as if she knows what's best for our family, meanwhile my wife has had dogs her whole life and my daughter knows the rights and wrongs of being around one, and we are basically being forced to only see dogs they want us to see, I have reached out to the owner and what a shocker no response, so now we are out of a dog and I am out of 630$ for the dog plus everything we bought to give the dog a happy and healthy home all in all around 1100-1300$ on food toys a bed etc. I would highly highly recommend looking for a dog somewhere else, the one we took home did not bite but he was very aggressive towards our kid, he would snarl and bark at her when she would do simple things as walk by,he was just not meant for kids, and of course they put him back up on their website without the proper information! anyone being a parent would have had some concerns themself, something just did not sit right with us, as you can see from these messages, as anyone knows this isn't like buying a piece of candy, you are looking to pick and choose a dog that best suites your family and life! This is also not the owner I am speaking with I don't know her name but through the messages back and forth she has been great and I understand she is just relaying the messages, which another thing the owner herself should have reached out but hasn't and won't, don't be like us and ignore the bad reviews, do not give this place your time or money

    Diane sent me a text last night. responded and she immediately blocked me. So I figured I'd post the text message here! Hi Diane. Thanks for checking in on the two dogs we bought from you. Yes bought for $922.I submitted an application for a lab mix I saw online. I never heard back. A month later I saw another dog posted. I asked if you were behind on applications I was waiting to hear back another dog. Lance. He wasn't adopted. I filled out another application. Lance had heartworm. Someone came to our house to do a home visit. Walked all around my house and wanted to know if I was hiding any pets upstairs? Umm, no? Huh? Kicked my fence, video recorded us told us the food we have to feed a dog. Also asked us about our vet that we use. She knew the vet and said I should really go to yelp and look them up. I mean, your yelp reviews are all amazing! Right? Tells us to get all of this done. Tonight. There's an adoption even the following day. We fixed whatever she wanted us to fix. Showed her it was done but she didn't really seem to care. The next day we go to the adoption event. A volunteer greets us. I tell them the two dogs were interested in. When I spoke to the person on instagram I advised that I may be interested in taking both dogs. The volunteer tells me these two dogs don't get along. She's surprised that I'm surprised. No one told us they don't get along. They take them out and they seem to get along. We are sent home with two dogs that day to foster. A teenage volunteer mentions how she's glad. That Lance is going home. He was bought and returned once. I should have listened to this red flag. I asked why? She said the people said he went after their child. But you know we don't believe them. They just didn't want the responsibility of having a dog and changed their mind. She mentioned it to another volunteer who seemed annoyed that she would tell us this information but confirmed those people were lying. The one dog hadn't been seen by a vet yet. I'm surprised he was fostered out without seeing a vet. He was marked as not neutered. He was clearly neutered. I have to make an appointment for his 4DX. He ended up having heart worm as well. He wasn't neutered. But that had to wait until after his heartworm treatment. When the one dog was on Doxycycline he got terrible diarrhea. We had to sleep on the couch so we could let him out every 2 hours. And sometimes he didn't make it. So we were cleaning up poop all the time around the house. I felt absolutely awful for him. I kept contacting the foster phone for medicine for him. Finally, after a week I was given medication. Which I had to go pick up myself. A week! A couple of months go by and the lab mix, Lance starts growling and showing his teeth at my husband. He was not able to go by him. I contact Ruffhouse who tells me he has no history of that. He obviously does. We were told about it. I was contacted everyday that I needed to adopt them. I was hesitant to adopt Lance because of the issue with my husband that day. But I did love them so we adopted them. One day, I came home from work. Let Lance out. A couple of hours later I let him out again. He completely turned on me. Snarled growled and showed his teeth to me. Chased me for the back door. I was corned inside my house. I was able to squeeze myself into my bathroom and slam the door shut. I contacted every phone # I had for Ruffhouse. The foster # I was blocked (my friend lives in Las Vegas and was able to call and get right through). Everyone said someone would call me back. No one did. The following day I called Ruffhouse every hour on the hour hysterically crying. This was so devastating to me. But I needed help and I was no longer comfortable keeping Lance and having him in my home. I signed a contract that I couldn't rehome or bring him to a shelter. So I needed someone from Ruffhouse to get him. 24 hours I was ignored. Again I could not keep him. I was no longer comfortable. The person who kept answering my phone call each time told me someone will call me back. Finally at 6 pm I spoke with my vet. I explained the situation. He called Ruffhouse himself to see if anyone wanted to take this dog back and he was told "we spoke with the family" No one spoke to me. I was ignored!!!! The vet explained that if I was not comfortable and if I was nervous that if he did go back to Ruffhouse they would turn around and adopt him out again, the best decision would be to unfortunately have him put to sleep. With tears streaming down my face I held him while he took his last breath.i could never forgive myself if Lance mauled a child. And I wanted his ashes anyway. I loved him. TWO DAYS later I get an email from Joanne Tully saying Diane had asked her to contact me and ask how she can help me. Two days later! I have asked for my $150 neuter deposit back and have also been ignored. I had to cut a lot out of this to make it fit.

    Sari W.

    My fiancé and I had an amazing experience with Jodie from Ruff House rescue. We applied to many dogs from many organizations and did not hear from anyone and thought we might have to do another round of applications in hope of getting a dog. We then got a call from Jodie following up on our application for Cutes (now Archie) we had done two weeks earlier, she had recently brought him home from Ruff House to her home as her new foster pup. She reviewed our application, and spent time getting to know us over the phone. We all felt we were a good match for Cutes but we would not know until we could meet. She invited us to her home and was clear that we were not committing to the dog and we could spend as much time playing with him in her office as we needed to make our decision. You could see how much Jodie loves dogs, she had a senior foster in addition to two dogs of her own in her home. They were all happy, healthy and extremely loved. We loved getting to know Jodie and hearing how Cutes was her 70th foster over 7 years. She told us to keep in touch and we have sending updates and photos over this first week. We are madly in love with Archie and couldn't be more grateful to Ruff House and Jodie for picking us to be his parents.

    Danielle C.

    We cannot thank Ruff House Rescue enough for matching us with our new adoptee Yem (previously Lilo). We had a size requirement because of our apartment building. Ruff House Rescue volunteers thoughtfully guided us to find a dog that fit this specification. I love how they try to match the right dog with your family's needs. They were extremely responsive. Once we were approved to adopt, the process moved really fast. If anyone is getting antsy post submitting the application, I implore you to be patient! It will happen! I found that they have many more dogs for adoption than other rescue orgs in the area, which is a large reason why I would suggest adopting with them. Thank you Ruff House Rescue!

    Keri R.

    Thanks to Ruff House Rescue rescuing Scout from the streets in Texas, we have a new little bundle of joy in our lives. They made the adoption process smooth and easy. They covered all the important details and answered all the additional questions i had even post adoption. They made all his medical history easily available on an app which makes things much easier when having to make vet appointments. We couldn't be more grateful to RHR for allowing us to be Scouts new family. Thank you guys

    Nga C.

    A friend recommended this place so a few of us came to volunteer. The location is lovely and very relaxing so walking dogs around this neighborhood can be a treat. As for the dogs, they seem to be treated very well considering their circumstances and the amount of dog space that this place can hold. Their shelter and dogs also seem pretty clean, organized and not over crowded. My only suggestion though are the staff. They're a bit rough and not very friendly. They also don't communicate very well when we arrived and had us waiting around for a while before telling us what to do. Though the rewards for helping and volunteering is always priceless so if I have to deal with human personalities then so be it. Their dogs are definitely a treat. Super cute and will definitely put a smile to your face so yeah give this place a change, check them out and help out if you can!!

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    Stefan F.

    IF YOU'RE A PERSON OF COLOR AVOID. I rarely ever write Yelp review and for me to do so for a pet shelter is unexpected. I applied for a puppy yesterday and at 10 PM at night I received an odd e-mail about me not being eligible due to covid and my location. Please note the screen shot that I'm about a 10 minute drive from this shelter. This shelter asks for your social media information and, as I have nothing to hide, gladly shared it with them. To my surprise my Instagram account is blocked from this page. It's unfortunate that an organization would use the pandemic as a shield for racism. In between cleaning up cat urine, I hope whoever made this decision reflects on their discriminating practices.

    Great organization to adopt from!!

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    6 months ago

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    6 months ago

    Adopted 3 dogs from them over the last 15 years.....amazing volunteers, beautiful dogs and a wonderful Director! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!!

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    8 months ago

    Best way to find your furever friend. we volunteered to foster and it was a great experience! So great, that we went back for more!

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    8 months ago

    friendly dogs and staff. you can see they are well taken care of. volunteers were very helpful in helping us find our dog

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    6 years ago

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    3 years ago

    Rude and overwhelmed staff. it's sad. Too many dogs and not enough help for helping them

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    4 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    5 years ago

    I won't boar readers with details just a warning stay away from this group of overzealous rescuers

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    9 years ago

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    Page 1 of 5

    Ask the Community - Ruff House Rescue

    Review Highlights - Ruff House Rescue

    Melissa and Diane are generous and kind , and ensure that each rescue dog goes to the best home possible.

    Mentioned in 36 reviews

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