The Cleveland APL is a great place to adopt a pet (or a few!). Lots of dogs, lots of cats, and…read moresometimes there are gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, etc. I think the best way to adopt a pet here is to become a volunteer, get to know the place and the pets, and adopt when it feels right. If you cannot do this, however, the APL helps potential pet parents by arranging meet and greets, filling you in on a pet's 'person'ality, or by recommending the best pet for you based on what you are looking for. For example, in March, my husband and I wanted to adopt a husky on their website, but since we said we were looking for a fun but calm-ish dog that needed help getting adopted, they were able to point us in the right direction to our wonderful Pitbull-Terrier mix, Remy.
We also frequently volunteer here and can verify that it is a great place to be. There are many ways someone can volunteer (ie, cat adoptions, dog walking, dog photography, etc). We volunteer as dog walkers - with this experience, I can say that shelter dogs are usually loving dogs and deserve a second chance. Many people are hesitant to adopt shelter dogs, or avoid Pitbulls (a common shelter dog) or other 'aggressive' dogs. This is merely a stereotype and is inherently wrong. I have walked many well behaved, smart, fun, chill, and safe dogs - the whole spectrum and have never had a problem. If you are worried about a dog, however, be sure to look at the color code: blue basically means stuffed animal - you will never have a problem here. Green is pretty good, and may have minor behavioral 'needs improvement' areas (ie, very excitable, pulls a little). Yellow dogs are good dogs, but may require a lot of energy and positive reinforcement training. Red dogs are 'staff-only' dogs, or are dogs that have not been behaviourally examined yet. Also be sure to always read a pet's information card.
The only improvement area I see for the APL involves background and/or home visits for all adopted animals, which is not currently done for most, if not all, cases. It seems possible that animals in poor situations could easily return to a similar or to the same situation. I adopted a cat from the South Euclid Humane Society and they had this policy in place, which I felt was very worthwhile and good for the animals.