The District Hound by CDR

by Meredith Raimondi, Director

Hunter, the first rescue dog I met

Since I started volunteering for City Dogs Rescue, I developed my love of hounds.  When I began to learn more about animal rescue, I found out that hounds have a terrible plight as they are rampant in kill shelters.  City Dogs Rescue is proud to be a resource for hounds in need of rescue because many rescues do not take hounds.  There are many misconceptions about hounds and City Dogs Rescue has a goal to change the stigmas that hound dogs have especially in cities.  

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Alumni Watson in DC's Dupont Circle

We are proud to have rescued almost 50 hound mixes since we started in September 2011. Over 40 of these dogs are now placed in forever homes throughout the Washington, DC metro area. One of our Directors Darren said, “I look forward to the day I am out for a walk or at the park and I see a city filled with CDR-rescued hounds enjoying wonderful lives here.” 

City Dogs Rescue has many great partnerships with shelters from Virginia to as far away as South Carolina.  One of the sad truths is that many hounds at risk of euthanasia are right in DC’s backyard of Virginia.  Hounds are often dumped after hunting season for reasons like "I'll buy a new one next season" or "She wouldn't hunt".  The females are often used for breeding and thrown away.  There are so many rural shelters where hounds wait for weeks and months without a single chance of adoption.  It is always so amazing to me that sometimes we will “pull” a dog to safety with our rescue and within minutes of being posted on our website that dog will have an adoption application.  

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Georgie's Shelter Photo

We have really enjoyed working with different shelters to be a resource for dogs in need. This December, I came across a photo of a dog named Georgie at a shelter I had never heard of in Dinwiddie, Virginia.  I contacted the dedicated volunteers at the shelter and they told me Georgie had no local interest and asked if we would be interested in rescuing him.  We posted for a foster and two of our alumni parents stepped up to say they would foster Georgie.  When we found out we had room, we were also able to save his buddies Linus and Charlie too.  These three dogs were tagged for rescue within minutes of the scheduled euthansia.  

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Georgie was scared when he got to DC

When Georgie arrived to City Dogs Rescue, he was scared and overwhelmed.  He seemed very shy and uncertain about what was going on around him.

With the holidays coming up, I decided I would try out my first foster dog.  Enter Georgie the Redtick Coonhound.  Georgie seemed like a nice, quiet boy who needed some love. When he first arrived, he was a little apprehensive, but he spent every waking minute snuggling with on the couch.  

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Now that it has been three weeks since he came to our house, he is much more independent and is testing his boundaries like the puppy he is! Georgie loves playing at the dog park more than anything in world. He enjoys playing with toys and likes to explore what is edible in the house.  He is always following his nose! Despite what I've heard about hounds, he is very quiet inside the house.  When we get outside, he is very talkative guy who likes to bay and howl at the dogs he meets on the street.   His favorite place in the world is the dog park where we go every day and he is always excited to make new friends. He is not shy at all anymore in the least!

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Georgie is not so shy anymore!

I am having a blast with Georgie and have decided that he has found his forever home. I look forward to many fun adventures with Georgie in the years ahead and I am so happy to start the new year with a new dog.

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For all the hounds like Georgie looking for homes, we at City Dogs Rescue have decided to make a commitment to always try to help these hunting dogs (in addition to rescuing other breeds) that are stranded in kill shelters.  Please understand, of course, that we are a small rescue and have a limited number of fosters at any one time. 

To save more hounds and other dogs, what we need most is most fosters.  Please check out our Foster Page and apply to foster using our Online Application. 

Please visit and “like” our new page “The District of Hound by CDR” to help us in our mission to network and rescue hounds in need!