Sheltering Love, One Paw at a Time
We rescue, shelter, and care for animals in need—helping every paw find safety, healing, and a loving home.
Our Generous Sponsors and Donors
Our Commitment to Animal Welfare
We work to protect every animal’s well-being through rescue, safe shelter, medical care, and responsible adoption—always with compassion and respect.
Turning Compassion into Action
We turn kindness into real help—rescuing animals in need, providing care and recovery, and guiding them toward safe, loving homes.
Pets Successful Rescue
Food & Product Donations
Dedicated Volunteer
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
These are guiding principles for CDCK management, staff, and volunteers to help set priorities, steer conduct, and make decisions.
Adoption Services
Find your perfect companion through a simple, caring adoption process.
Foster Programs
Offer a temporary home and help pets heal while they wait for adoption.
Pet Donations
Your donations provide food, medical care, and shelter for rescued animals.
Nursing knowledge
Our blogs offer practical care tips to help your pets grow up healthy and safe.
Who is City Dogs & City Kitties Rescue?
City Dogs & City Kitties Rescue is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is a “rescue” not a “shelter.” We are made up of a network of volunteers (most with full-time jobs) who foster cats and dogs in their homes. Since most of our available animals are living in private homes, we cannot arrange a visit without an adoption application and an appointment with the foster family.
City Dogs & City Kitties Rescue has saved over 13,000 dogs and cats since we started in 2011. Every one of them has left little paw prints on our hearts, and we remember all of them fondly. We have an active alumni community and we’re so grateful every time someone chooses to join the City Dogs & City Kitties family.
City Dogs & City Kitties Rescue rescues adoptable cats and dogs in overcrowded and high-kill shelters, where resources are severely limited. We offer a lifeline to as many of these wonderful animals as possible. Sadly, many of the cats and dogs that City Dogs & City Kitties Rescue takes are just days — and sometimes hours — away from being euthanized for no reason other than lack of space. By finding these animals permanent and loving homes in the DC metropolitan area, we can enrich lives of humans and their pets. We welcome your help in any capacity, through volunteering, fostering, adopting, sponsoring and/or donating.
Bentley: Our first rescue
Stuck in a rural Georgia shelter, this sweet, friendly, 1 year-old lab had less than 24 hours to get pulled or he was going to be killed. Local rescue organizations were not able to help him.
After hearing about the situation, the organizers of City Dogs Rescue decided to get off the sidelines and see if they could make something happen for this pup. One spent countless hours on the phone to coordinate the help of local rescue organizations, the other raised funds through friends on Facebook, and the other had secured a place to foster. At the 11th hour, through a combination of luck and persistence, Bentley was pulled from the shelter, treated by a local veterinarian (and neutered), boarded until he was cleared for transfer, and then transported to City Dogs for shelter and a new life.
Within a very short time of being in DC, he met Melissa, his wonderful future owner, while on a walk around Dupont Circle (he was quite irresistible with his “please adopt me” bandana). Amazingly, his life was transformed from an anonymous dog with only hours left to live to a happy, healthy pup enjoying a great new life in DC. We were able to help Bentley and we wanted to do the same for other dogs in similar situations.
