We house all strays brought to the shelter by the Animal Control Warden and those found by citizens of Portsmouth. The shelter also houses those pets that their owners no longer want or can no longer care for. Our shelter can house about 85 dog/puppies and 50 cats/kittens every day. The shelter has redeived more than 1700 animals since January 1, 1997 (as of August 1). The design of the building allows us to have a recieving area for strays, a kennel, an isolation area for sick animals, a visitation room and a cat room. The shelter has an exercise yard so the animals may be allowed out of their holding pens daily (during good weather).

The most common question asked is, "How long do you keep the dog/cat befor putting it to sleep?" As executive director, I refuse to have a time limit on how long an animal has to stay here. We are here for adoption and will keep an animal here as long as we have space, it is healty, not aggressive and is reasonably expected to be adopted. Virginia State Code (3.1-796.96) prohibits us from directly sdopting outside of the adjacent political subdivision of the Commonwealth (Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and Suffolk). Adoptions outside of these areas requires special circumstances but are available.