I have a friend whose dog died shortly before his wife died. Being lonesome, he went to a shelter and was told that at his age he could only adopt a dog ten years or older. My friend is living on a modest income and went he brougt a dog home he had to take her to a vet just about every third day. The dog died within about two months. So this elderly man was forced to endure a third loss within about four months while incurring huge vet fees and long driving times. This WW II vet was put through all of this even though his daugter had agreed that if anything happened to her father she would adopt the dog.
We’ve adopted from an agency whose contract goes so far as to have you give permission for them to “drop in” unannounced and check on the pet in the future. I don’t have a problem with that. So many people “adopt” pets for nefarious reasons — training attack or fighting dogs, for one.
We rescued three feral kittens in August, and tried to find good homes for them. Nobody who responded to our ads seemed to be good potential owners for various reasons. So now we have seven cats instead of our original four.
I just got done adopting my 3rd dog. The first dog I got from Bideawee in Wantagh NY. He was an older rescue Sheltie Terrier mutt that lived with my family 13 happy years. The process was quick and painless. They did call my references to make sure I wasn’t lying. The next dog I got from North Shore Animal league. This was a bit more involved but we got a Black Lab mutt. A bit more intrusive but we made it fine. We had him for 11 years.
After he was gone we decided to get another dog. Since I moved off Long Island Bideawee and North Shore were a trip so we decided to go local. We used Petfinder and heard of a Massachusetts group holding an adoption event at a local Tractor Supply. They had 15 puppies for adoption at $600 apiece. We thought we arrived early only to find we were number 33 on the list to see the dogs. We left empty handed and the rescue left with $9,000.00 for a day’s work. We went to our local shelter and it was sad. All the dogs were older and most were Pitt Bulls. We did not want to have a short relationship with an older dog and I did not want a fighting breed. We then went to another rescue and got the third degree for a dog we thought would be good.
We eventually ended up at North Shore again. We adopted a female Jack Russell puppy. The adoption cost us $300.00. They did have a question process and some of the people turned down were pretty mad leaving the place. How could they, who do they think they are, that type of remarks. Looking at the reactions you could see they probably shouldn’t have a pet.
If you want to adopt just look around, ask around. Out there is a some dog looking for a good home.
When I visited a local rescue/shelter I wandered into the feline free range room and big older tabby cat wandered over and jumped up in my lap and went to sleep. Well, you know I melted right then and there. I've never had a lap cat. Well, it took me a little over two hours to get out the door with him. He was special needs, returned to the shelter 3 times previous and had quite the checkered past. So after his horror tales I still adopted him. He and I were a perfect match! None of the old behaviors ever became evident and he lived out his senior years in comfort.
I eventually volunteered as a foster home for this rescue and it has been a rewarding experience. Last year there wasn't a month I did not have kittens under 12 weeks in my care. It has truly been fun. Lots of good stories of my own personal experience.
This little shelter adopted out nearly 1,000 animals last year! And they often take in the overflow from other shelters or dog fighting/puppy mill busts in the state. The fosters rehab and adopt out as quickly as they can. But, they are also careful with the animals that have issues.
Is it true that urban animal rescue is dominated by lesbians?
A friend purchased a cockatiel for her grandson. The bird sellers required three visits with the bird at their store, an in-home visit, a signed contract, and a verbal agreement to use an organic bird feed sold only in their store. They won’t let the family keep the bird in their daughter’s bedroom and set very strict rules about the care of this bird, who, by the way, has a gimpy wing. As my friend said, she can buy a cockatiel on Craigslist for under twenty bucks and none of the hassle.
When we had 2-3 litters of Basenji puppies several years ago, we were very careful about where they were placed, but none of *this* insanity!
It sure sounds like it.
Man, this is so spot on!
I am so sick of the holier-than-thou “pet” people in “rescue” who think no-one is worthy. Meanwhile, they make anyone feel guilty for not “rescuing” an animal rather than going to breeders.
I object to the name - if you didn’t literally save the animal’s life, it’s not a “rescue”.
*I* (actually, my aunt and mother) rescued a tiny 3-week-old kitten from a bizarro kid who abused animals - he had stolen her, it turned out, but since he pathologically lied we didn’t know until many months later what had happened. So after Mom and Aunt literally rescued her from the boy (”stole” her out of his hands after I had tried to comfort the baby he abused), I and my German Shepherd raised her.
And we didn’t need permission. (The actual “breeder”/owner was glad she ended up in a good home when he found out about it.)
Oh gosh, I saw this article via hot air. I’ve got comments up there actually.
It was kind of weird, when I was commenting the comments were coming in fast and furious, even though the article was a few days old. I wondered if all the people commenting had come there from hot air! Even though they didn’t all seem to be conservative.
Some people really do go too far with this stuff, the border collie on a leash and the hamsters (or gerbils? I forget) only for adults, or not for kids, whatever, toooo much!