Home At Last Rescue

One of the premier animal rescue groups in the Bay Area.
I adopted 2 tiny kittens together and HAL followed up and stayed in touch. Then, 7 years later, I couldn’t care for them anymore and had to surrender them to the Oakland shelter.
One cat was placed right away, but the other was there for about a month. Then the shelter got in touch with HAL, who pulled the adoption records and reclaimed the cat. I found out about this when HAL called me to let me know that my fur-​baby had been rescued by them (again) and placed in foster care while they find him a home. They were calling to see if I could provide his vaccination records, so that they wouldn’t give him any unnecessary shots.
It broke my heart to have to give up my cats. But I feel so much better knowing that HAL is on the case. Now I know that everything will be alright.

My experience with this organization was fantastic. Here is what I noticed:
1. I adopted the world’s most lovable and wonderful kitten from HALR
2. Traude (the staff member who organized our adoption) went out of her way to follow up with me after we brought Spock (aka «Keeble») home. It was obvious to me that she cares deeply about these animals and she wants to see that they are loved and well matched to the right families. She went above and beyond what other volunteers at other adoption organizations will do to ensure an easy adoption and a smooth transition for both animal and owner.
3. The adoption process itself was convenient, easy and reasonably priced.
4. The animals that I saw that were up for adoption all appeared to be healthy and well cared for; the staff that I met were extremely attentive to the needs of these animals and willing to invest their time and energy in caring for them and placing them in good homes.
Cats have always been a part of my life (mostly due to negligent parents who never spayed or neutered any of them) but there are relatively few cats I have owned that I loved and cherished as deeply as this one. I have a hard time leaving the house because I just want to sit and play with him all day. I am deeply grateful to Home At Last for introducing me to my kitty. The good people at HALR are selflessly and tirelessly going the extra mile for these animals. This is a great organization, they are doing a fantastic job and they have some wonderful, wonderful animals who need good homes. Check them out and see for yourself!

We adopted 2 cats from Homa at Last that we truly love. We adopted first Delfina and found that she was a bit lonely. Home at Last worked very closely with us to find us another female cat that would be perfect with Delfina. The volunteers we worked with truly love cats and were extremely helpful in ensuring we knew the food that both cats would eat. Both cats were very well cared for before we adopted them.

Traude has kept in touch with me. Kit and Minnie, two of the cat sisters, were adopted together by a family who have two older cats. The four felines, are now happily licking, playing and sleeping with each other.
Their sister, Biscuit, who was adopted by friends of mine, is a beautiful silky soft girl who loves her dog brother. She us oh so sweet, friendly and affectionate, and is adored by her family. I’m not sure if she remembered us, but when my hubby and I came to visit, she ran up to us and greeted us like family.
The mom, Collins, is still waiting adoption. She was a very good mom, but as the kittens grew older, she wanted less and less to do with them. She is very sweet and will make a great addition to someone’s family.

I asked for information on fostering a cat from Home at Last. I received an email in return asking me if I wanted to adopt a pair of cats, but provided no information on the process, like I asked. Anyway, despite my landlord saying pets were allowed, when I asked him about cats he said there was a long-​standing building policy of NO CATS. Not my fault, I didn’t know.
So I replied to HAL and apologised for not being able to foster a cat after all (even though I never actually said I could), but said I would love to volunteer for them. The woman replied and said they don’t have a volunteer program (!!) It specifically says on the website that they really need volunteers, etc etc, so I replied and asked if I somehow got it wrong. No reply. Tried emailing the general email address and asking about volunteering, no reply.
So I learned that HAL is run by vindictive, spiteful people who get angry when you can’t foster their cats and outright lie about the existence of a volunteer program.

Home at Last is the high water mark of pet adoption services I encountered in my search for adoptable pets. Totally professional and, most importantly, totally devoted to the welfare of animals. That they could receive two seemingly bizarre poor reviews is beyond me, but I can only imagine that the «reviewers» have some sort of ax to grind. Sounds like «Kelli B» is an ex-​volunteer, based on the writeup, and someone who must have some serious communication problems…
My understanding is that HAL has actually received HIGH marks for their kitty adoption rate. I learned that their participation in the adopt-​a-​thon around June was a smashing success. Furthermore, most importantly, I have adopted two amazing cats through them at different times. Their level of detail (and care) is immediately evident to this first-​time foster «parent». Go to their 4^th Street mobile adoptions and see for yourself.

Figured I should state my piece because of some unfair reviews.
My experience working with Home At Last has been really positive. I expressed interest in fostering a cat who was to be euthanized by one of the Berkeley shelters, and it was a Home At Last adoption/​foster coordinator who did the actual rescuing, bringing the kitty to my doorstep with a carrier, bed, and toys. The coordinator, Traude, was very helpful, supportive, and responsive to any questions I had, me being a first-​time foster.
She regularly called in to check on how the kitty was doing, all the while looking for other fosters that didn’t already have cats (this particular kitty preferred households where he was the only one getting attention, and I already had two cats of my own…) so that we could help the kitty better adjust. Traude did find such a foster household, and came by to pick him up from my place, letting me know that she would also bring him to the mobile adoptions so that he’d have a good chance of finding a permanent loving home. She was also able to find another potential fosteree for me, a sweet affectionate kitty missing one eye. Many SPCA branches would find a one-​eyed cat to be «not cute» and «not adoptable,» but Home At Last is giving him the benefit of the doubt and searching for fosters while continuing to bring him (and others like him) to their mobile adoption sites. These actions are commendable.
My experience was with this one Home At Last coordinator, but I’m sure they’re all trying their best to get these animals rescued. This was a group who has stepped up many times to help adoptable animals who would have otherwise perished. I think we should give them credit for that. I mean, it’s not easy running a local not-​for-​profit group with limited resources and a few workers who must wear multiple hats under big time constraints.
I applaud Home At Last for their efforts!

I believe the animals they take out of the Berkeley Animal Shelter would have a better chance of being adopted to good homes from the shelter than from this organization.
Home at Last is not well organized, is not straight with their volunteers, uncommunicative/​unresponsive, and does not have a high level of success with their adoptions. The worst part is that they can be downright nasty to the people who work with them to help the animals in need of homes.

I adopted a cat from them about two years ago. My cat’s foster mother was absolutely wonderful. She had him for at least 6 months and knew his behavior quite well. I don’t know what to say about the other reviews — especially the dog attacking the cat and causing severe injuries to everyone — except that animals are still unpredictable and we just never know sometimes what sets them off. I myself have a large dog and two cats but it took a good solid year for me to really trust him with the cats. They are all volunteers and overall do a fabulous job of adopting.

I ran into Home At Last outside the pet store on 4^th St in Berkeley. They must know this is a prime location because they had all these cute kittens waiting for adoption. Of course I couldn’t resist.
The women who were running the kitten stand were super nice and between them all they knew a lot about the kittens: their personalities, histories, etc. It made it really easy to find out if any of the kittens would fit into our household (or at least as much as possible without a home trial). We were also required to fill out a detailed application form.
Once we cleared it with our landlord, we arranged to pick up the kitten. The foster mother obviously cared a lot about the kitten and wanted to make sure we had time to get it adjusted to its new home, asking if we could come on a weekend instead of a weekday. We then had 2 weeks for a home trial and if it didn’t work out, we could get a full refund.
Good thing because although the kitten was cute as a button, our other cat did not like it at all. So in the end we had to return him with many tears.
It was easy working with the women at Home At Last and I would recommend them to anyone who wants to adopt a cat.

I’ve read the other two reviews and while i would have written those reviews had that happened to me, i had a totally different experience with them. I was bitten by a dog when i was young so had a very intense fear of dogs, i grew up with cats and thought of myself as a cat person. i loathed dogs, i didnt even like people to let their dogs around me, i even asked my neighbors to put their dog somewhere when i came over because i was afraid of being bitten. but when we bought our house, my partner would only agree to getting a cat if i allowed him to get a dog. one week after we got julie from the spca, we had our first house visit with palo. he was a rottweiler mix and he was one year old and full of energy. he ran all ove rth ehouse, scared the shit ou tof julie and made me very anxious. the people who were interviewing us kept looking at me nervously, knowing i wasnt too thrilled to becoming a dog owner. nevertheless, after two supervised house visits, they came to the realization that jovanie would be a great dog owner and i wouldnt impede him in that process. we kept him crated for a month or two but then i started taking him out earlier and earlier and finally the cat began to like him. soon i was getting up at 6 am on the weekends to take him to point isobel and finding all the off leash parks in the bay area. now i love my dog, and i really thank home at last for rescuing palo, who was about to be put to sleep, and also for being careful about who they allow to adopt their dogs and cats. i had a really positive experience and hopefully that balances out some of the negative ones.

It absolutely pains me to give an animal rescue group a one-​star rating. However while I believe that this group has the best intentions, their lack of organization and negligence caused absolute disaster for us including the near death of our cat.
In November, my fiancé and I decided to foster a pit bull through Home at Last. Our intention was to adopt. I have two cats and I made it absolutely clear in my application and verbally that the dog must be known to be good with cats. They brought us Charlie whom they said, in writing, was «very very good with cats». On day 3, Charlie broke off the leash and mauled my cat!
My fiancé jumped in to try to break the fight up and suffered from 14 dog and cat bites. He and my cat both spent that night in the emergency room. My cat was admitted. My fiancé’s hands were so torn up, he could not use them for a week.
The incident wound up costing over $ 2,000 in medical bills for my poor Chupi who suffered a massive abdominal hernia from the attack. They would not come get the dog until we finally threatened legal action. Then, they were verbally abusive over email, blaming us and claiming that they never tested the dog with cats and that they never said they did. (Remember, I have it in writing!)
OK, I’m going to spare the reader the rest of the ugly details. As you can see, this situation was a mess. It was absolutely traumatic for our entire family, physically, emotionally and financially. Whether they lied by mistake or on purpose, the results were catastrophic for us. And to literally add insult to injury through their angry email correspondence was unprofessional beyond words.
The only reason that we have not taken them to court yet, is that my fiancé and I just want to put the situation behind us. However, if you are considering fostering an animal, please choose another organization. There are many responsible groups doing very good work. This January, we did adopt a puppy through All Creatures Great and Small and we saw a shining example of how a rescue group *should* function.
Puppy rating: two paws DOWN