Charlie’s Place

After visiting a SLEW of shelters to try to find our family dog, I have come away with some mighty strong opinions of the various facilities around here. Lemme tell you about Charlie’s Place.
We were greeted by a woman who almost seemed to insist that we give her our ideal breed before she’d let us back to see the dogs. From the get-​go, we haven’t been looking for a *breed* we’ve been looking for a *personality.* She didn’t seem to get that, but finally gave in and let us back. Once in the kennel area, we met another woman who asked what kind of dog we were looking for, and we described the personality we desired. At least she got it, and introduced us to several dogs who she thought might be a good match.
All of the dogs have inside and outside pens. Outside, they’re provided shelter, food, and water – seems like one of the happier places to be a shelter pup. Their inside enclosure is heated.
The kitties have it good, with both indoor and enclosed outdoor access.
In the end, our family dog wasn’t at this shelter, but it was still a good experience, overall.

Geez, Thanks for nothing.
We had been looking for a miniature schnauzer as a companion for our terrier mix Stanley. After browsing animal shelters in the Denver Metro/​Surrounding areas we spotted an adorable 4 year old Schnauzer at the Clear Creek Animal Shelter. He was 4 years old and his profile said he was good with dogs, cats, and CHILDREN! He seemed like he would be a great fit for our family. We figured that «Boots» wouldn’t last long at all as he was a purebreed and simply adorable.
I sent an email to Sue Peterson who was listed as the contact on his adoption profile on
. I inquired to get the specifics of the adoption process through their organization. She informed me that you had to have a visit with animal you wanted to adopt before you could fill out an application.
Boots was not in the animal shelter itself but was being held at a grooming facility. We called the grooming facility to see if anyone had come to see Boots yet. The woman at the grooming facility informed us that no one had been there to meet him yet. This was important as I had explained to Sue through our emails that we lived in East Denver which is just over 50 miles one way and takes about 45 on a good day with no traffic to drive up to where the shelter is located.
So we packed up Stanley and our son and drove the 50 minutes to have a meet and greet with Boots to see if he would be a good fit. Boots was a pretty timid little guy but after a few minutes he came out of his shell and played with Stanley and sat in my sons lap without a problem. So we drives the 7 miles to the actual shelter to meet with Sue and fill out the application.
Upon arriving and filling out the application she asks if we want to take him home today. GREAT we thought! But then she says oh wait let me check my email. It turns out there was another couple who were interested in adopting him and she was going to take applications through Sunday plus he was scheduled to be neutered the next day. She said she would call us on Sunday to let us know if we were going to be the ones who were going to adopt him. It was getting late on Sunday so we decided to call to see what his status was.
Well it turns out they decided to give Boots to the couple that showed up Sunday because they didn’t have any children and that was their deciding factor. I’ve no doubt in my mind Sue would NOT have called to inform us that we were not going to be allowed to adopt Boots. He had already gone home with the other couple.
If the the staff at Clear Creek didn’t think this dog would have been good in a home that had children, how about you NOT put «Good with Kids» on their adoption profile? We certainly wouldn’t have driven 100 miles round trip with our son to visit a dog that we would have no chance of adopting anyway. Sue told us to bring our child with us for the meet and greet and we got to listen to him cry and cry because we didn’t get to take Boots home with us that very day, even though she offered him to us but then… oh wait… never mind.
So…if you have kids and want to adopt a dog from the Clear Creek Animal Shelter. BEWARE! They might put «Good with Kids» but if someone with out kids shows up you can kiss that dog good-​bye!