The Colony Animal Services — Local services in The Colony

I feel that I owe everyone thinking of adoption from this shelter my story so you can make an informed decision. Twice I have ignored the facts and brushed my experiences with this shelter aside thinking the problems we had with our animals after adoption were regular shelter problems. I don't believe that anymore.

We first adopted a cat from The Colony Animal Shelter in December 2017. They absolutely knew which cat we should get, and for that I am so grateful. So grateful that I let it blind me. Our cat came home and immediately fell ill. He was sneezing and couldn't breath. He had a common respiratory infection cats can get from shelters. $100 later, he was all fixed up, so I thought nothing of it.

In March 2019 we adopted a dog from The Colony Animal Shelter. He, too, was ill. He had some sort of gastrointestinal issue, which cost $250 to treat mere days after leaving the shelter. Great dog, so I again shrugged it off.

The straw that broke the camel's back was this past weekend when we adopted a kitten, who we later discovered was crawling in fleas. My other cat and my dog have now been exposed to fleas. I have fleas in my house. One would think the very first thing they would do is treat the animals for fleas when they come in. They don't. There's nothing on his paperwork saying he was treated. Nothing.

Nothing is also what I got in return when I tried contacting the shelter. No response. It cost a whopping $450 to treat all of my animals and my house today, so I need you all to know that the adoption fee may be low, but the cost of doing business with this shelter can be much higher and absolutely was much higher for me after three adoptions from them and three subsequent illnesses.

The only reason I've given two stars is because of the animals. My three are wonderful, and for that reason I have to give the shelter some credit for helping me find them, but in closing i would add that even the veterinarian today was astonished that the cat was never even inspected, let alone treated, for fleas. He was so crawling in fleas that I don't doubt every cat in there has them. I'd think twice before...

There are not enough stars to give this shelter and employees. They go above and beyond to help. Mark is amazing and will go out of his way for others. My puppies had gotten out during the day while I was at work, by the time my daughter notified me the shelter had closed. After searching the neighborhood for 3 hours I didn't realize they could be at the pound, I called and had to leave a message, I hung up the phone and began to worry like a mother that had lost her child. The after hours emergency contact phone number provided was The Colony Police Department which I did not want to call, I assumed they had better things to do than help find missing dogs so I began to think outside the box and emailed every employee on the website hoping for the best hoping someone would check their email that evening, sure enough 3 employees replied within an hour or less, they informed me that they did have my boys and they were being well taken care of and that I could pick them up first thing in the morning, I was relieved however 2 hours later Mark called and said that he would be willing to meet me at the shelter that evening. Who does that? So all you pet owners and animal lovers please support and donate to The...

So I won’t give this place a one star, because they led me to my precious baby.

However, I’m disgusted with them. I called the day before I adopted my kitten, and they told me that they would call me if she was adopted before I was able to come in for my appointment with her. Which is fine, most shelters are first come first serve. After making my appointment and visiting with the kitten, I asked if I could see a dog that was also available, and the girl at the front told me that I couldn’t because someone had an appointment to look at the dog....

What...?

So they’d told me that it was a possibility for the kitten to get adopted before I could see her (and i had an appointment), but they were basically holding the dog for someone else... I don’t feel like that’s right. Especially since the girl the day before had told me there was no guarantees my kitten would still be there...

Also, the outside of the shelter has overgrown plants and is not appealing to look at. I literally thought I was at the wrong place. They could also improve the inside of the building as well, it’s really run down and old. I’ve never been to a shelter that charges so much to adopt an animal... But I guess it’s different...