STEP 01
Tell us about your home
Email us about the dog you are interested in, or the kind of dog you are looking for. We will ask about your household, other pets, your schedule and your landlord if you rent. It is not a test — it is how we match.
Adopt
Every dog we place has already lived in a house.
Our dogs are not in kennels. They are in foster homes around Saratoga County, which means the person who has been feeding, walking and sleeping down the hall from a dog can tell you what it is actually like — before you commit to anything.
To ask which dogs are looking for homes right now, email admin@abcanimalrescues.org.
How it works
Three steps, and no pressure at any of them.
STEP 02
Meet the dog
We arrange for you to meet the dog with its foster, and to bring your own dog along if you have one. Ask the foster everything. They have no reason to oversell; they want this to work as much as you do.
STEP 03
Sign and go home
You sign an adoption agreement and pay the adoption fee, and the dog goes home with you along with its vet records and a written account of everything we know about its behavior and health.
What comes with the dog
What you get, and what is still on you.
New York sets out some of this in law. The rest is simply what a responsible adoption looks like.
What we hand over
From the vet
- Vet records for everything done while in our care
- Rabies certificate, for dogs over four months
- Spay or neuter done — or, for a puppy too young, the agreement and deposit the law requires
From the foster
- Everything known about the dog’s behavior, in writing
- Any bite history, disclosed in writing — New York requires it
- What it eats, how it sleeps, what it is afraid of
- A phone number for the foster, for the questions you think of later
What is up to you
The law
- A dog license from your town or city clerk, for any dog four months or older
- Keeping rabies vaccination current — the license depends on it
The dog
- Tick prevention all year — this is tick country
- A first visit with your own vet in the first few weeks
- A few quiet weeks while it works out that it is staying
Adopting a puppy that is too young to be spayed or neutered? New York law lets the adopter sign an agreement to have it done within 30 days of the puppy reaching six months, and requires a deposit of at least $35, refunded when your vet confirms the surgery. Your first month with a rescue dog in New York.
Where to meet them
By appointment, and at adoption events.
With no shelter to walk through, meetings happen by arrangement with the foster. We also bring dogs to adoption events in the Capital Region — in June 2025 that meant Squint and Dotti at Curtis Lumber’s Pet-A-Palooza in Ballston Spa — and announce them on the news page ahead of time.
Every dog we save is paid for by donations and cared for by volunteers. ABC Animal Rescue Incorporated is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — gifts are tax-deductible.