About
The cats have finally claimed their due!
Exactly twenty years after owners Pam McAlwee and Ross Underwood opened the Gourmet Pizza Deli (later home to the Lost Dog Café), the wags and woofs are joined on the Westover sidewalk by purrs and meows at The Stray Cat Café.
Our Story
The Stray Cat Café opened its doors in May of 2005, furthering the tradition of fine food and drink in a friendly neighborhood atmosphere. The Stray Cat Café menu features quality burgers, healthy salads, a selection of platters and the kinds of sandwiches that made Lost Dog famous.
Felines dance on the walls at the Stray Cat Café in vibrant paintings by local artist Jessica Lovelace. Admire the art as you munch on some catnip dip and enjoy a drink at the full-service bar. While you’re there you can take pleasure in knowing that you are also supporting a good cause. Together the Lost Dog Café and the Stray Cat Café help support the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation which rescues and places over a thousand abandoned dogs and cats each year. All of the cats featured in framed photographs on the wall are rescued cats and some are still available for adoption. To learn more or to make a donation, visit the foundation’s website at www.lostdogrescue.org or ask your server for a brochure.
Mission
Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation helps homeless pets find their way to loving homes through rescue and adoption.
Vision
A world free of homeless, neglected or abused pets.
The Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation
The Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation (LDCRF) was incorporated as a 501c3 not-for-profit organization in 2001 when Pam McAlwee and Ross Underwood, a couple of Arlington, VA restaurant owners, decided to formalize their efforts to save homeless pets in their community. They purchased 63 acres of land in Sumerduck VA and began building The Lost Dog Ranch, a kennel facility for homeless pets with plenty of outdoor space for dogs to run and a cage-free building for cats.
Since 2001, LDCRF has saved the lives of more than 28,000 homeless pets, most of whom were facing the threat of euthanasia at over-crowded municipal shelters.
Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation is overwhelmingly a volunteer-run organization with a small paid staff providing direct care to animals at the Lost Dog Ranch. Many other animals are cared for in a network of volunteer foster homes and some cats are housed at Petsmart Cat Adoption Centers.
Every weekend, LDCRF holds off-site adoption events at local PetSmart and PetCo stores and places more than 2,000 dogs and cats per year for adoption.
Values
LDCRF was founded with the belief that through an open, friendly adoption process we could match great people with homeless pets and send those pets to their new homes without unnecessary barriers. To that end, we have done same day adoptions with two-week trial periods since 2001, and continue to look for ways to remove barriers that prevent adoptions.
We also believe that a rescued pet is a spayed or neutered pet, with no exceptions other than life-threatening medical conditions. We are very proud that every pet adopted through LDCRF since 2001 has been spayed or neutered prior to being placed in the hands of the adoptive family.
LDCRF makes a lifetime commitment to the animals we rescue and will always accept those animals back into our care should the need arise.
At Lost Dog we like pets AND people and we hope to make the adoption process positive and fun for adopters and volunteers alike.