Central VA Friends of Petersburg Animal Care and Control

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Central VA Friends of Petersburg Animal Care and Control

Volunteer-based crew helping the animals of Petersburg, VA find forever homes. Please follow, like and share to help us spread the word!

Central VA Friends of Petersburg Animal Care and Control is an all volunteer group of people that strive to better the lives of the animals being housed temporarily at the Petersburg Animal Care and Control (PACC) municipal, city run shelter. There are thousands of animals in the state of Virginia that are homeless for a multitude of reasons. We have simple goals.

1. Assisting the animals in the

care of PACC find their forever families by informing the public and rescue groups about the animals. We do this by publicizing the animals with photos and giving as much information as we can about each animal's temperament. Again, we are volunteers and not professionals. We can not guarantee any assessments made by our volunteers based on limited interactions in an environment that may be uncomfortable and unfamiliar to the animal. We will not be responsible for assessing the age, health or temperament of animals.
2. Enriching the lives of the animals through human contact. This may include walks, play time or simply sitting with each animal.
3. Educating the public about the needs of companion animals in order to live side by side with their owners in the community safely and happily

We are not employed by the city of Petersburg or by PACC. We can not make any decisions about the availability of any animals. We can not set up appointments nor can we decide the outcome of any application for adoption. We can not pick up stray animals and do not know if a lost pet is at the shelter. We can not enforce any laws set forth by the city of Petersburg or the state of Virginia regarding companion animals. We will do our best to keep this page updated with animals available for adoption but we are not at the shelter on a daily bases and may not know when new animals come into PACC or when animals have been adopted and have left the shelter. Thank you for visiting this page and considering adoption!

09/09/2026

Her stray hold ended weeks ago. She’s officially looking for her people now.
Here’s the thing about French Fry.
Offer her a hand and she doesn’t sniff it politely and move on. She leans. All 35 pounds of her, straight into your leg, and then she just stays there. Like she’s been saving it up.
She probably has.
🐾 Female brindle, about 2 to 3 years old, 35 lbs
💪 Compact and sturdy, fits homes a bigger dog wouldn’t
❤️ Affectionate in a way you feel in your shins
🌿 Happiest outside with someone to be outside with
✨ Takes in every bit of kindness and hands it right back
Being straight with you: she’s a work in progress on a couple of things.
Other dogs are hard for her on leash. She hasn’t had a real introduction to one yet, so we can’t tell you how she’d do sharing a home with a dog. We can tell you that walking past one takes work right now, and her person should plan on doing that work rather than assuming it’s done.
She can also get a little mouthy when she’s excited, so she’s looking for a home without small children while she learns her manners. Older kids who know how to give a dog space are a different conversation, and we’re glad to have it.
None of that is who she is. It’s what she hasn’t been taught yet.
Who she is, is the dog leaning on your leg.
She’s got an awful lot of love saved up and nowhere to put it.
Could that be your house?
📧 Email mailto:[email protected] to meet French Fry at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

09/08/2026

Minnow is five months old.
She is also, already, a big dog.
Not going to be. Is.
She came off Halifax Street with no name and no history, which means everything we can tell you about her, we learned by watching her.
Here’s what we watched.
She comes over. Every time. She takes a treat like it’s made of glass. She sits when you ask, and then she stays there looking up at you, waiting to find out what else you might want.
Black with a white blaze down her chest and four white feet she hasn’t grown into. Ears still flopping forward. A tail that gives away everything she’s thinking.
🐾 5 months old, 35 to 45 pounds and still climbing
🐕 Wants a dog friend, the calm confident kind
🦴 Shepherd mix, so plan for a big adult
🤝 Gentle with treats, sits when asked
☀️ Sweet and playful, all day long
What gets you in person is the way she handles another dog. Put her next to a pushy one and she goes quiet and careful. Put her next to a steady one and she’s nose to nose in the grass, tail swinging, copying everything it does. She’s looking for a friend.
Being straight with you: we haven’t had her around cats or kids, so those stay open questions and we’re not going to dress them up. And she is a puppy. House training, chewing, and somebody with patience for the next few months.
But the hard part with a puppy is usually not knowing who you’re getting. Minnow already told us. She likes people, she likes dogs, and she would rather be near you than anywhere else.
She has a lot of growing up left to do. We’d rather she did it in somebody’s house.
📧 Email [email protected] to meet Minnow at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

09/07/2026

Jojo has spent her life outside.

Her owner hit a rough stretch and made the hard call to surrender her. So now Jojo is looking for the one thing she has never really had. A door that opens for her.

Here is what makes her easy. She loves other dogs. She has lived with kids. She has lived with cats.

Three of the biggest questions an adopter asks, and Jojo answered all of them before she ever got here.

She is brindle and white with a wide blaze running up between her eyes and a freckled pink nose she will put directly into your camera. When she sits down in the grass and grins at you, you can see exactly what she would look like on your couch.

🐕 About 3 years old, female
🐾 Loves other dogs
👧 Has lived with children
🐈 Has lived with cats
😌 Submissive, gentle, easy to be around

What gets you in person is how soft she is. She does not crowd you and she does not jump. She rolls over in the grass and just lets the whole day happen to her.

Being straight with you: Jojo came in with flea dermatitis from living outside, and her skin is under treatment. It is a fixable thing, not a forever thing, but she will go home needing a few more weeks of care to get all the way comfortable.

No project, though. No bad habits to undo. Just a sweet girl who has been outside long enough and would like to come in.

📧 Email [email protected] to meet Jojo at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

09/06/2026

🐾Linus and Lucy are four months old. Littermates, though you would not guess it looking at them. He’s the deep red fawn one with the black nose. She’s the pale cream one with the pink nose. Same crumpled little forehead, same white feet, same expression of a dog seeing the world for the first time.
Each one of them can be somebody’s only dog or a companion to an existing dog.
🐶 Four months old, one male (Linus) and one female (Lucy)
🤝 Good with other dogs
🌱 Young enough that whatever you want to teach them, you get to teach first
🏠 Available separately
✨ Ready to meet you now
What gets you in person is watching them figure the world out. Everything is new. A leaf blowing across the lot is new. Your shoelace is new. They tip their heads at all of it, then come back to see what you think about it.
Being straight with you: they’re four months old, and four month old puppies are puppies. House training, chewing, and a lot of “not that, this.” They haven’t been around children or cats, so we can’t tell you how either one would do. What we can tell you is that they’re easy with other dogs, and there is nothing fearful or complicated about either of them.
Puppies this age don’t usually wait long. But the home that takes one of these two gets to decide who that dog becomes.
Could that be you?
📧 Email [email protected] to meet Linus or Lucy at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

09/05/2026

Yesterday you met Nemo. This is his dad.
Marlin is three. Nemo is one. They came in together as an owner surrender, and they can go home together or separately, so none of this is a package deal unless you want it to be.
Here’s what’s different about the older one.
Nemo is still becoming somebody. Marlin already is. Three years old, fully grown, out the other side of adolescence. No size surprises left, no personality still under construction.
White from nose to tail. One black patch over one eye, one black ear, and a pink nose covered in freckles. He is smiling in every photograph we have of him. There isn’t one where he isn’t.
🐾 3 years old, pit shepherd mix
🐕 Very dog friendly
🏡 Fully grown, with no adolescent surprises left in him
🎓 Knows sit and works happily for a treat
👨‍👦 Nemo’s dad, adoptable together or on his own
Now the honest part.
Marlin is friendly right off. He’ll come say hello, he wants to be near people, and none of that is the thing he’s working on.
What he’s working on is confidence, and with him that comes out as anxiety rather than shyness. He isn’t a dog who hangs back. He’s a dog who worries.
A shelter is a hard place to be that dog. Concrete, noise, strangers, and no way to know what’s coming next.
So he doesn’t need coaxing. He needs a calm house and a routine he can count on, and he needs someone who understands that the version of him you meet here is not the version you get to keep.
Another dog would help too. He’s very dog friendly, and so is Nemo. Draw your own conclusions about where the kid got it.
What we can’t tell you: he hasn’t been around cats or kids that we know of. No promises in either direction, and slow introductions would be the way to find out.
Nemo is going to make his case in about four seconds.
Marlin needs somebody willing to look past a bad room and see a good dog.
Could that be you?
📧 Email [email protected] to meet Marlin at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

09/04/2026

Nemo’s tongue does not fit in his mouth.
That’s the first thing you notice. It hangs out the side of his face the whole time he’s moving, and he grins his way through an entire walk like the walk was his idea and it’s going great.
About a year old. Pit hound mix. White, with dark patches over both eyes like somebody handed him a mask on the way out the door.
He came in as an owner surrender with his dad, Marlin, who is looking for a home too. They can go separately, and Nemo is completely fine on his own. But these two already know how to live together, so if you’ve got room for both, that door is open.
With other dogs he’s easy. No posturing, no stiffness, no drama when somebody new walks up. He’s just glad you’re there.
🐾 Less than a year old, pit hound mix
🎓 Already knows sit
🍗 Very treat motivated, so teaching him anything is a pleasure
🐕 Very good with other dogs
⚡ Higher energy and ready for a real walk
Somebody taught this dog to sit before he ever got here. That counts for something. He watches you, he waits, and the second he works out what earns the treat, he is all in.
What gets you in person is how polite he is about it. He’d rather warm up to you than bowl you over. He comes over on his own terms, and when he decides you’re his, you’ll know it.
Being straight with you: he hasn’t been around cats or kids that we know of, so we can’t promise you anything there. Slow introductions would be the way to find out.
That’s the whole list. No project, no repair work. Just a young dog with a good start and a lot of walk left in him.
Could that be with you?
📧 Email [email protected] to meet Nemo at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

09/02/2026

Turns out Foxie is a house dog.
She moved into a temporary foster home a couple weeks ago and took to it like she had been waiting for the invitation.
She house trained herself in a matter of days. No setbacks, no mess, no long project.
She sleeps where the people are. Given the choice between the far end of the couch and the six inches next to you, she takes the six inches. Every time.
And look at her. Brindle all the way through, dark stripes over darker, a white patch on her chest, and a face that gives away everything she is thinking.
🐕 About 2 and a half years old, 47 pounds
🏠 House trained, and fast
🛋️ Not a high mileage dog. A daily walk and a couch is her whole ask
🐾 Great with calm, easygoing dogs
💛 A snuggler who picks a person and stays
What gets you in person is how little she asks for. She is not pacing. She is not spinning at the door. On a walk she keeps checking back on you, like she wants to make sure you are still enjoying it too.
Being straight with you: she has never been around cats, so we cannot promise you that one. Her vet believes the slight difference in the way she moves is an old injury. She is pain free and it does not bother her day to day. It just means she is not your ten mile hiking partner. She is the one already asleep on your feet.
Here is where you come in. Her foster home is wrapping up soon, and Foxie needs her next place. That could be another foster spot. It could also be the real thing.
She already knows how to live in a house. Somebody just gets to keep her.
📧 Email [email protected] to foster or adopt Foxie at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

09/01/2026

Navajo came out of the kennel for pictures today.
Which means he’s officially on the adoptables list, and the thing you need to know about him takes about four seconds to learn.
You crouch down. He walks over. He leans his whole weight into you and stays there.
No cowering. No flinching. No taking three days to decide whether you’re safe.
Navajo did not have a good first year. We’re not going to get into it here. What matters is that nobody would blame a dog who came in the way he did for being wary, and he decided not to be. Somebody is getting a dog who chose to stay soft.
Brindle and white, a stripe straight up the middle of his face, brindle spread over his ears and eyes like a mask somebody drew freehand. Big serious eyes that don’t match the rest of him at all.
🐾 About 1 year old, pit mix, about 45 pounds
💛 Sweet and gentle with every person who reaches for him
🤍 Leans in for love and stays as long as you’ll let him
🐕 Not formally tested with dogs, but the early signs are good
✅ No medical issues, still filling back out
What gets you in person is the leaning. You get down to his level and he presses his shoulder into your knee, sighs, and settles. For as long as you’re willing to keep scratching. He is not a dog who takes convincing.
Being straight with you: he hasn’t been around cats or kids that we know of, so both of those stay open questions and we’re not going to dress them up. With other dogs the early signs look good, but we haven’t run a proper introduction yet, and we’ll do one with your dog before anything gets decided. He’s also still putting weight back on. Nothing is wrong with him. He just needs a few more months of somebody feeding him on time.
What he isn’t is a project. No months of undoing anything. Whatever he came out of did not leave him broken. It left him a year old, gentle, and extremely interested in you.
So if you want a dog who is going to lean on you, come meet him. He’s ready now.
📧 Email [email protected] to meet Navajo at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

08/31/2026

If you already have a dog at home, this post is for you.
Diana on her own is quiet. Head a little low, hanging back, taking up as little room as she can.
Diana with another dog is a completely different animal.
Tail up. Ball flying. Whole body wagging. She plays until she flops into the grass and rolls over for a belly rub, and she does every bit of it gently, because she’s soft with every dog she meets and she has never once been the one to start something.
🐕 Incredible with other dogs, and endlessly gentle about it
🤎 Brindle and white, about 1 to 2 years old, around 40 lbs
🎓 Already knows sit
🏠 Appears to be house trained
💛 Submissive and easy, never picks a fight
Here’s the honest part, and it’s also the whole pitch.
Diana needs a home that already has a dog in it, and a confident one. That isn’t a limitation we’re apologizing for. It’s just what she needs in order to be herself. If you’ve got a steady, self-assured dog who would like a friend, Diana will slot in without a power struggle and without any drama.
40 pounds. Past the puppy chaos. Knows the basics. Wants a friend.
Could that be your house?
📧 Email mailto:[email protected] to meet Diana at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

08/30/2026

Yoshi is five months old.
Which means the stretch of her life where everything sticks is happening right now. And right now it’s happening in a kennel.
She’s a Plott hound. Brindle all the way through, dark with copper running under it like light through a banked fire. Ears she hasn’t grown into. Four white toes. Legs that are frankly a bit much.
She’s going to be a spectacular looking dog.
But that isn’t the thing about her.
The thing about her is that she’s sweet. Nobody handed her that. She came in as a stray with no name, no history, and nobody’s notes on who she’d been. That’s just who she is.
🐾 5 months old, under 25 pounds and climbing
🐕 Good with other dogs
👧 Good with kids
🦴 Plott hound, so plan for a big athletic adult
🎓 Right in the window where everything you teach her sticks
What gets you in person is how fast she commits. She leans into your knee, and if you sit down she’s in your lap, grinning, tail going, entirely done pretending she’s playing hard to get.
Being straight with you: we haven’t had her around cats, so that one stays an open question and we’re not going to dress it up. And she is a puppy. House training, chewing, a class, a schedule, and somebody with patience for the next few months.
But here’s the thing about puppies. The hard part is usually not knowing what you’re getting. With Yoshi you already know she likes dogs, she likes kids, and she likes people. That’s the part you normally have to gamble on.
She has a lot of growing up left to do. We’d like her to do it somewhere with a couch.
📧 Email [email protected] to meet Yoshi at Petersburg Animal Care & Control.

Address

1600 Johnson Road
Petersburg, VA
23805

Website

https://www.petfinder.com/search/pets-for-adoption/us/va/petersburg/?shelterRescue=2cbef9af-e5f7-4b20-91cf-81ac0b4cdccd&

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