My husband and I were all excited when we pickup an adorable puppy named "Damon" at animal heaven shelter 251 center st manhattan (212-274-****)we got there on friday oct 30/09 we filled out an application for damon, the adoption fee was $325 which is high case but we didn't care. the shelter never cheked the references on our application and kept stalling when we called finally, we saw that the dog had been adopted out from under us on tuesday 11/03/09 .I am a cancer survivor and ret. H.S. teacher. my husband is much younger, physically fit ,and hispanic.( So What?) we are two loving people looking to give a dog a wonderful home. the shelter said all dogs have 2 or 3 people who want to adopt it (they wish)we would have taken a different puppy that no one else had asked for. i don't think people looking for a puppy to love shoul'd be treated this way. there is no excuse. i don't want anyone else to go throught this. i just wanted evereyone to know. the story has happy ending we got the sweetest male puppy at Bide a Wee and couldn't be happier. we adopted on the same day and the people couldn't not have been nicer.