Alachua County Animal Resources

11/05/2024

Sharing this graphic with our community.🐾

Reminder to residents when calling Animal Resources.🐾

10/31/2024

"TRICK OR TREAT!" - Neo 🍬🎃 We are currently in need of dog treats and cardboard scratchers for our kitties! We welcome any brand! Donations can be dropped off in our front lobby (3400 NE 53rd Ave) Tuesday - Saturday, 10:30 - 5:30 or sent to us via our Amazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/TBJTSFM1GTNC?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2qrprNzB1G1IJKSaGw7uBKctziNct0Q4HKeZoynyhHdE5GKJE3ohmSF3Y_aem_ovvtt_gDaK3xPugkhPQhqQ

Neo would LOVE to go trick-or-treating with you! Please come visit us soon! 🐶💕🐱

10/30/2024

👑🐶FOSTER FEATURE: Charles!🐶👑
Male, ~5yrs old
Meet the gentle, goofy, and certified Good Boy, Charles! His current foster reports him as being housebroken, crate-trained, good with other dogs and children, and overall a loving and well-mannered friend that's ready to bring some joy into your life! Let's find a forever home for this sweet soul.

Contact [email protected] to set up a meet and greet!😁

10/22/2024

Ready to FALL in love? 🎃🍁 We have so many dogs who would LOVE to go trick or treating with you! Come in today to meet them!

Please enjoy these photos from their photoshoot with our volunteers!

10/18/2024

Remember Huggies, the paralyzed pibble girl in the pink wheelchair? She was adopted by her AMAZING foster family back in January, and today, her dad brought her in for a visit with the staff to celebrate National Vet Tech Week! We desperately needed her cuddles and can never thank her family enough for everything they did for us and everything they do for her everyday. ❤️

10/18/2024

This week is National Veterinary Technician Week, so we're celebrating our dedicated medical staff who always go above and beyond for every animal that enters our care. They are appreciated beyond words! 🐾❤️

Please remember to thank the veterinary technicians in your life this week!

10/16/2024

When Bambi arrived at ACAR, she was skin and bones. Finding anything she was willing to eat was a challenge, and she needed around the clock care. We knew Bambi needed to recover in a foster home, and thankfully, she found the very best one! After many meals and lots of love, Bambi was finally ready to find a forever family....but she already had. Her foster family finalized her adoption! 🥳❤️ Please enjoy her transformation and update from her family below!

"I just wanted to update everyone on our foster fail, Bambi. We made it official the day before Helene hit. She went for her check up Tuesday with our regular vet and she has gone from 13 lbs on ACAR intake to 33 lbs (and growing). She doesn't even look like the same dog. She loves her food now. She is part hobbit and likes multiple breakfasts. She knows sit and down and we are working on speak (she's very vocal). She had more good days than off days with potty training. She likes to steal things, but isn't destructive. She's quite the character. Oh and she snores worse than Grandpa after Thanksgiving dinner!"

We are always in need of fosters to help us with medical cases, puppies and kittens, or just to give an animal a much needed break from the shelter. If you would like to join our foster team, please apply online at myacar.org or email [email protected] for more information! 🐾

10/12/2024

Molly was becoming one of our longer-term dogs and was often overlooked, even though she was the most lovable little meatball and did happy tappy toes whenever someone said hi to her. After Molly found a storm foster for Hurricane Helene, her foster family helped us confirm she WAS as perfect as we thought, and this helped her land another storm foster this week. Today, her foster family came in, and when we asked them how she did....."Perfect, so we're keeping her." Congratulations, Molly! 🎊❤️🐾

10/12/2024

When you realize your foster mom just became your forever mom.... 😮😍 Nova is leaving the building! We are waiving adoption fees for our fosters, but we aren't stopping there - ALL adoption fees will be WAIVED today* through next week! Please come out and visit us, and we can share everything we learned about our adoptable dogs while they were in their foster homes!

*many of our storm fosters will not be returning until Tuesday. We are open today but will have more options next week! 🐾

10/10/2024

The sound of silence is music to our ears. We do not know the last time our kennels were completely empty, but we are overjoyed knowing our dogs slept in peace and comfort in foster homes. ❤️

If you are in the market to adopt a dog in the near future, we hope you will come by ACAR now that we have in home behavior notes on our entire dog population! We would love to match you with the best fit for your home!

Our facility is closed today as our staff is assisting with offsite emergency shelters.

10/09/2024

93 ANIMALS went into foster for Hurricane Milton. This means 93 less animals our staff has to care for to allow us to focus our efforts on the emergency shelters in town to help pets and their owners who are evacuating. This is an incredible relief, and we cannot emphasize how amazing and strong this community is. Thank you for rallying with us to EMPTY OUR SHELTER! 🎊❤️🐾

We also have 9 dogs still in foster from Helene, we processed 10 adoptions yesterday, and reunited 2 dogs with their families.

At this time, our office is CLOSED and will remain closed tomorrow as well. Storm fosters have ended for the day.

Please follow Alachua County and Alachua County Emergency Management for important storm updates. Please stay safe!

10/09/2024

🐱🌀 CAT FOSTERS NEEDED 🌀🐱 Please read very carefully if you are interested in fostering, rules will be different than for dogs. We will try to answer all of your questions in this post.

We now have a few cats and older kittens that need foster placement. We are, however, asking for a 2 week commitment for cats, and fosters will not be permitted to look around/select the cat. Our Foster Coordinator will meet with you, go over options, and assign you a cat. There are currently 14 cats in need of placement. We will update this post once we have placed all of the cats.

The cats we need to place are shy and may need some socialization and a quiet room to feel comfy in. Most have done well with other cats, but we always recommend a very slow introduction and to keep them separate at first.

You can live out of county but must have access to reliable transportation to bring them to and from appointments. All cats have been vaccinated, sterilized, or will be scheduled for sterilization soon.

We have very few staff members at the shelter currently, so we will not respond to general inquiries about fostering today. If you are able to foster a cat or one of the few dogs we have left, please stop in. We will make an updated post when we are no longer placing animals.

10/09/2024

FINAL UPDATE: We are done sending animals into storm fosters. See our final post!

UPDATE: ALL DOGS HAVE FOUND PLACEMENT! We still have a few cats!

This post contains the animals still in need of storm foster. If we happen to have returns or if this lineup changes, we will update this post AND the comment section of this post and under each picture. We will be open tomorrow between 10:30am and 2:00pm or until we place the last few dogs, whichever comes first. You can read more about the type of foster home needed for the remaining animals by selecting their pictures below. 🐶

Our office is CLOSED tomorrow for all other services. Please only stop in tomorrow if you are able to foster!

10/08/2024

We are completely blown away by the overwhelming response we received to our storm foster plea! We sent out over 60 animals today (overall total coming soon, we are still sending some out as this post is being made!). We can NEVER thank you, our community, enough for stepping up and helping us EMPTY THE SHELTER!

We do still have a very small handful of dogs that we would love to find placement for tomorrow morning/early afternoon. Please stay tuned for another update this evening as we review our population. We will post the remaining animals and hours for tomorrow soon.

We will otherwise be CLOSED all day tomorrow. Please stay safe, and thank you from the very bottom of our hearts 🐶❤️🐱

10/08/2024

🚨🌀 DOG STORM FOSTERS STILL NEEDED 🌀🚨

We still have ~60 dogs in need of storm foster homes! Rocky Road's new family decided to give him a permanent home to ride out the storm in (hooray!), but we are only asking for a 5-7 day commitment if you are not in a place to foster longer or adopt. We will be here until 7:00!

Please see the comment section below for answers to frequently asked questions.

10/08/2024

🚨🌀 DOG STORM FOSTERS NEEDED 🌀🚨

HELP US EMPTY OUR KENNELS! We are trying to place as many dogs into foster homes as possible in preparation for Hurricane Milton. We only need a 5-7 day commitment, and all supplies will be provided. We are open until 7:00 tonight and welcome walk-ins.

Thank you to everyone who has already come in! We are up to 11 dogs safe and sound in homes!

Please be advised we are CLOSED for all other services but storm fosters.

10/07/2024

🚨🌀 STORM FOSTERS NEEDED 🌀🚨

We are in urgent need of short-term DOG fosters TOMORROW as we prepare for Hurricane Milton. If you are able to shelter a dog for 5-7 days for us, please come in tomorrow between 10:30am and 7:00pm. No appointment necessary, supplies will be provided.

Please be advised our office will be CLOSED tomorrow for all other services.

10/06/2024

We are so grateful for all of our storm fosters who stepped up to shelter dogs through the last hurricane. We are still receiving so many updates and have processed even more adoptions for fosters who fell in love!

🐾 76 animals placed in storm foster
🐾 16 dogs adopted by their storm foster
🐾 15 fosters decided to extend their foster period to give dogs even more time out of the shelter
🐾 EVERY dog returned with behavior notes from in the home

As we prepare for Hurricane Milton, we are making another plea to find short-term storm fosters for dogs. If you are able to shelter a dog for a few days, please visit us when we reopen on Tuesday. We will be sending dogs out 10:30 - 5:30, no appointment necessary! 🐶

Please follow Alachua County for storm updates to keep your family prepared.

10/03/2024

🐶💕 Foster Feature - Alice in Wonderland! 💕🐶

Alice is having a BLAST in her foster home (basically a Wonderland for her), but this silly girly is ready to swim her way into an adopter's home! Please read more about her below, and if you would like to meet Alice and her foster family, please email us at [email protected] or call (352) 264-6870 to schedule a meet-and-greet!

"I'm late, I'm late! For a very important date! I have to meet my adopter.....oh, wait....it's YOU! I'm Alice, and I'm so enchanting you will believe I'm straight out of Wonderland. Being a younger lady, you get the best of both worlds with me - I still have moments of puppy energy, I'm friendly as can be and love to play with other dogs, but I'm also transitioning into a proper adult and working on all kinds of stuff - leash manners, sit, paw, down. I've been in a foster home, and my foster family is helping me learn manners, housebreaking, and even how to swim! I love putting my life jacket on and doggy paddling all around their pool. I'm so eager to do it all, and with you by my side, we can take on any evil queen, find our way together, and make lots of friends as we go. Ask to be enchanted by me today!"

10/02/2024

Over 70 of our adoptable dogs were lucky enough to ride out the hurricane in the comfort of foster homes. Many of our fosters have decided to keep their thunder buddies forever or become long-term fosters with us. 🎊🥳 For the dogs that did return to us, they are feeling well rested, recharged, and ready to find homes! We have wonderful notes about how so many of our dogs do in the home now, and we would love to help find the best fit for YOUR home today! We have confirmed cat, dog, and kid friendly dogs, housebroken dogs, Energizer bunnies and couch potatoes - so many options! Please come in and visit us today!

A special thank you to our storm fosters ❤️ Just a few of our lucky dogs pictured below!

09/28/2024

A pit of gold at the end of the rainbow! We hope this adoption update brings much needed sunshine to your week! 🌈🐶

"Tuesday, September 20, finally rolled around, and I was finally able to pick Paxon up and bring him home. That evening, we named him Arlo, and old English word meaning 'between two hills' or 'fortified hill,' for the two brown spots on his head and his muscular build. And the rest is history! Arlo has been with us for two years, and he is absolutely cherished by every member of the family. Even my husband loves those jowls now, and Arlo is the perfect combination of playful and snuggleable.

We will never forget the generosity of the couple who allowed us to adopt Arlo, and we are grateful to the shelter for making it possible for families to come together through the adoption process. The presence of Arlo in our family has been a blessing in so many ways, and we know that his little heart is happy and full of love."

09/27/2024

All Alachua County government offices, including the Leveda Brown Environmental Park, and rural collection centers, will be closed Friday. For the full list of closures, visit https://tinyurl.com/CountyClosures.

📜 For comprehensive storm information, go to www.alachuacountyready.com/incidents/helene

Todas las oficinas gubernamentales del condado de Alachua, incluido el Parque Ambiental Leveda Brown y los centros de recolección rurales, estarán cerrados el viernes. Para obtener la lista completa de cierres, visite https://tinyurl.com/CountyClosurersSpanish
📜 Para aprender más sobre la tormenta, visite www.alachuacountyready.com/incidents/helene.

09/26/2024

Hurricane Helene Update 10 – General Population Shelters Open

Alachua County has opened three emergency shelters. We encourage residents affected to find alternative housing with friends, family or short-term rentals. Shelters are a last resort.

The pet friendly, general population shelters are:
- The Martin Luther King Jr. Multipurpose Center (1028 NE 14th St., Gainesville)
- The Easton-Newberry Sports Complex (24880 NW 16th Ave., Newberry)

General population shelters do not provide cots or beds. Bring any needed bedding. When packing to go to a shelter, please bring special dietary foods, baby food, diapers (and other child necessities), prescription medications, and a small cooler of ice if refrigeration is needed, as the shelter cannot be responsible for your medications. Also, bring spare clothing, personal care items (hygiene, toiletries, etc.), spare eyeglasses/contacts, and identification.

Residents with pets are encouraged to bring basic pet supplies such as collars, leashes, crates, carriers, towels, blankets, pet medications, pet food, etc.

Animal Resources will have supplemental supplies on hand for those in need. We encourage residents to bring veterinary records indicating their pets are properly vaccinated. However, animals without such records will be vaccinated upon intake to minimize the spread of contagious diseases. Please remember that animals must be properly restrained throughout their stay at the emergency shelter for the safety of all involved residents and pets.

We have also opened a special needs shelter at the Alachua County Senior Recreation Center (5701 NW 34th Blvd., Gainesville). For information about transportation to the special needs shelter, call 352-955-2575.

Special needs shelters provide one cot per patient. Caregivers are asked to bring any needed bedding in case cots are unavailable. When packing to go to a shelter, please bring special dietary foods and any prescription medications. Also, bring spare clothing, personal care items (hygiene, toiletries, etc.), spare eyeglasses/contacts, and identification.

To aid our residents as the storm approaches, Alachua County has activated the 311 Emergency Information Line (352-264-6557 if 311 is unavailable in your area). This is for questions and rumor control. If you have a true emergency call 911.

Sign up for text alerts by texting the word ALACHUA to 888-777 to stay fully informed of any disaster related information related specifically to Alachua County.