Rosijet, what are you looking for?
well, it should not be. However a lot of people see the free adds or the cheap pups, an they don’t understand what’s involved in breeding a good dog.
But certainly, before I deal with a crazy rescue I grab a free one of CL…
and no…my free cats cost a lot more than the fixed kitty from the shelter.
(but I really wanted to get all of the kitties there last time I went to petsmart…) :no:
We have a 14+ year old Newfie mix (Cubby) and a 2 year old Border Collie (Jackson). We know Cubby is likely approaching the end of his life and would like to integrate a friend for Jackson before that happens. Cubby is in excellent health for his age so I don’t think we need to be in a huge hurry.
Hubby really, really wants a Golden Retriever or a mix that is an obvious GR mix. I’m a little more flexible but since I picked out the last dog (Jackson), I’m happy to let him have more say this time.
Jackson is playful and energetic but not hyper. A dog (prefer male but not picky) that has some energy and gets along with other dogs (and cats) would be perfect. No puppies please but 1/1.5 to 5-6 years old would be great.
Sooooo… maybe I’ll find my dog through COTH like so many others! 
Had a wonderful experience with my “pound puppy” who at age 13 is sleeping beside my chair right now. Hard to believe it was 13 years ago…
Different city, different shelter… have a “what were they THINKING?” story. A friend and her sister decided their elderly mother needed a dog to keep her company - a bright and friendly little thing, because their cats are pretty aloof and the mother is home alone most days. They all went to the local shelter and found a little yorkie mix and brought her home. Yes, they had a fenced yard, and yes, my friend and her sister said they’d had dogs before. But nobody seemed to notice that this doggie was horribly shy, with both people and other dogs, and skittish, and barky, and not house trained… It was a total disaster, and for a lot of reasons that the shelter should have picked up on right from the start.
Happy ending: my friend finally admitted they’d made a huge mistake and took her in, and she has happily discovered she is a dog and not a cat, is more-or-less housebroken, and loves the dog park. Though she’ll probably never have normal doggy social skills, she is in fact bright and loving with people now.
I’ve had a mixed bag of success with rescues and I think it completely depends on the personalities involved in the organization. A friend of mine had a true horror story with a lab rescue.
Her two young girls were traumatized by the promised placement being reneged at literally the 11th hour - they were in the car going to pick him up when the rescue called and said they didn’t think the girls showed enough enthusiasm during the test visit. :mad:
This family had had a succession of labs that died of old age. Fenced yard, stay at home mom, indoor dog. They ended up buying from a breeder and got a great dog.
I got my “rescue” off of craigslist. Cutest dog ever - really - housetrained, basic manners and sweeter than sweet ice tea. I paid less than would have to a rescue. I wish the guy who had to give her up due to job loss could see how happy she is. He clearly loved her.:sadsmile:
Add me to the list of people who have had bad experiences with rescues. A few years ago, my little dog was nearing the end of his life and I started looking for a dog to adopt. I couldn’t even get a response despite the fact that I owned my own home, had a fenced in hard, and had 2 dogs, one who was 16 years old that I’d had since 8 weeks old, and another from the Humane society who at the time was 11 (he’s 15 now:) I ended up going to a good breeder and getting the dog of my choice rather than continuing the futility of dealing with crazy rescues. My vet gave excellent references and obviously my pets lived very long and happy lives with me. It was beyond ridiculous.
For my next dog, I will either deal with the SPCA, Humane Society, or possibly a responsible breeder. I do not have the time or energy to “prove myself” as a responsible dog owner when all they have to do is look at my animal ownership history and talk to my vet. :mad:
[QUOTE=Coyoteco;5789884]
One just has to remember that it’s about the animals, and not about the people that. .[/QUOTE]
I volunteer as an adoption counselor at a no-kill humane society in Georgia. I have to remind myself of this every week…I’m there as an advocate for the dogs for which I’m trying to find a home. We do have some policies in place over which many people disagree (i.e. must have a fenced yard, etc.). However, we’ve found that there are many, many potential adopters who do not have a fenced yard that can still be responsible enough to ensure that the dog will be exercised regularly and kept safe. I’m one of those people…3 dogs, no fenced yard.
As a counselor, I can get a pretty good ‘read’ on people when they come in to adopt. For some, they are first time pet owners, and simply don’t know any better (you mean I can’t just open the back door and let the dog out on 20 acres right when I get home? She/He won’t just stick around?). However, with others, for whatever reason, I question their intent. One gentleman came in with his daughter and wanted to get her a puppy. We had one puppy left at the facility at the time…they didn’t even want to meet the dog. Just wanted a puppy. I found it odd that they didn’t want to interact with the pup first. Didn’t even care about seeing the puppy, knowing it’s personality. It just felt wrong. I didn’t do the adoption for fear that once the ‘puppy’ wasn’t a puppy, nobody would care about it and it would become another dog abandoned elsewhere. Maybe I was wrong, but I have to consider the future of each dog I adopt.
In addition, we’ve had some adoptions go horribly wrong. A couple who actually were volunteers at our shelter came and walked dogs week after week. They eventually fell in love with and adopted two. They knew they were moving to Kansas, they packed up with two dogs in tow, and moved. Fast forward to this week…we get a call from animal control in another state. They just took in a dog from a woman who said she’d found it in her yard. The microchip came back to us. Turns out the woman who’d ‘found’ the dog, was the woman who adopted it from us with her husband. WHERE was the other dog? Animal Control asked her to come back in to fill out some paperwork and questioned her about the other dog. Turns out, there had been a divorce. Husband took the other dog and moved to California where his mother was living. The dog he took was a pit bull mix. There were laws in his mother’s community that were anti-breed. Dog is now dead. Dog #2 is now being transported back to our shelter because she will be euthanized if she stays at animal control in the state where she is currently housed.
It’s heartbreaking sometimes when you do an adoption and then things turn disastrous. I understand your frustrations regarding the application process and how some groups are, perhaps, a bit too strict. But keep in mind that when you rescue a dog, when you rehome it, you want to be sure it will live out a long and happy life.
I fully see both sides of the story. I completely understand rescues being protective of their subjects!
However, the shelters that have a high kill rate are doing the necessary deed of euthanizing the dogs that aren’t placed. What a depressing situation!
Adopting dogs out that would otherwise be killed is a blessing and a curse. I feel that a short life in less than perfect scenarios is better than immediate death. A chance at a happy life is better than no life at all. Good basic care then euthanasia when the times comes is better than no life!
My pets don’t get the upper eschelon level of care. Good quality, basic diagnostics are not spared. However, ultrasound, chemotherapy, radiation, transfusions, and mri’s will not be done on my animals.
My views are very different than most. I accept that. I think that more animals can be helped if the standards are lowered a bit, but that is my view. A good life running on a farm or long walks in the city is a pretty good life. I prefer to help more animals. Just my thoughts…enough rambling.
I understand both sides…I really do! With the crazy people on both sides of the fence everyone has to be careful!
[QUOTE=NeedsAdvil;5790119]
I do not have the time or energy to “prove myself” as a responsible dog owner when all they have to do is look at my animal ownership history and talk to my vet. :mad:[/QUOTE]
This is the thing. This is all a “rescue” should need to know. Dogs and cats both can thrive in any number of living situations if they are well-loved. If I provide the above information, that is all I expect to need to provide. My vet of 20 years told me that when she died she wanted to come back as one of my pets. That kind of recommendation should be MORE than enough information for any rescue – not all this nonsense about the yard can’t be either fenced or unfenced, you have to have someone at home 24/7, it has to have plenty of space to run around but not outside or on a farm, you have to feed the animal pure gold and buy it a Tempurpedic, etc etc etc etc etc to infinity.
I like adopting from kill shelters, cuts out the middleman. I wish more rescues chose “adoptable” dogs from kill shelters instead of ones with serious issues – most rescue dogs I ran across had shyness or aggression issues, health issues, etc. Seems like they would be better off saving good, friendly, healthy dogs.
I quite like the kill shelter I deal with. I know they are supposed to put them down after a certain number of days but they keep the “adoptable” ones as long as they can and try to find them families, and put down the feral ones on schedule. I think that is extremely sensible.
Count me in as a person who also got very frustrated with Rescues. I try to help Rescues as much as I can in helping spread the word to help them place their dogs, but to be honest some of them are just way too much hassle to deal with, especially when there is only 1 dog you are interested in and it may not be there by the time the paperwork/evaluation situation has been completed.
I used to donate to a breed Rescue that was in Ohio. I sent them about $100/month for about 2 years. I live close to Ohio, but I am in SW Pennsylvania near the Ohio border. When one of my old dogs died, I tried to adopt one of the dogs from the Rescue where I was a steady donor. I was turned down, because I “lived out of state”. I was only about 1-1/2 hours from the Rescue, they had over 50 dogs in their care some of which had been there for well over 1 year, but I didn’t qualify because I was on the wrong side of the state line. It wasn’t a problem to accept money from someone on the other side of the state line, but it was a major problem to send a dog across the state line. I found a different Rescue to help.
Then at a later time I was in a position to adopt and was approved by about 10 Rescues, but for one reason or another, all of the “deals” fell through. I spent about one year trying to adopt an adult dog, and every time I found something that I thought would fit in my household, the Rescue made an excuse as to why the dog was no longer available. I’ve heard it all! After one year of running around and coming up empty trying to rescue, I ended up buying a puppy from a very good breeder. The transaction with the breeder went very smoothly, and we are still in touch to this day.
I know there are some good Rescues; I have a friend nearby that is constantly pulling dogs and placing them in good homes. Prior to my bad experience, I had adopted some rescues and my experience was good. Those were the days when there were less Rescues though, and the paperwork and “evaluation” process wasn’t nearly as extensive as it is today. I have seen Rescues that ask for a $30 fee before they will even evaluate your paperwork as a potential adopter. That’s overboard to me. Sadly, not all Rescues have the animals’ best interest at heart.
I’m getting in a little late on this topic but I have been browsing for a replacement dog on petfinder. I was surprised to see the prices have gone up drastically since we last adopted a dog 5 years ago. I saw several adoption fees $400 and up for a dog. I dont think you can have high adoption fees and a variety of nitpicky requirements. People are going to go directly to breeders and not adopt. I think they (boutique rescues) are shooting themselves in the foot with the way they operate lately.
I do not understand the thing about leaving dogs outside in a fenced yard. THEY ARE DOGS!! What is better, staying inside in a crate or in a tiny house (in my case) or outside in a safe secure yard with a swimming pool, water, trees and all the dirt they can move? And shelter of course! Inside they will either sleep all day or perhaps get exercise tearing up your house! Outside they can play or dig or sleep all day but at least you will come home to an intact house!
=)
Plus how would you like to have to hold it for an average of 10-11 hours a day? (8 hour day plus lunch plus drive time 30 min. each way) And that is conservative! I have little dogs now. they have TINY bladders. They only stay inside (well when I was working!) when the weather is very bad. I even (SHOCK) leave the oldest one outside most nights because she is incontinent and she can go out and pee whenever she has to. And she can sleep in a nice soft bed in the carport. Of course she stays in if the weather is bad.
Anyway I found a nice free pug on freecycle Sunday. Healthy, 7 years old, spayed (spaded! =) and as free as a dog can be, because like horses, there are no such things as free dogs. I took her to the vet today to get shots and HW/flea stuff and it was $150 which is way more reasonable than $350 for an old pug with health issues! Pugs of course are not the only ones with crazy prices, just the ones I was looking at!
And the one I was looking at (not at Pug only rescue) still never wrote back.
I live in the South where it’s been over 100 degrees in the shade most days this summer. Since my dogs live with me inside with air conditioning most of the day, I think it would be unfair of me to put them outside for the day in extreme temperatures regardless of whether they have shelter and water.
In addition, I have two friends whose dogs are inside dogs most of the day, but who go outside during the day for the same reasons you explained. One has a fence climber (and yes, it’s a 6’ wooden fence) who keeps getting out on a busy road. She’s already broken her leg once in the fence climbing. So, she’s coming home to an intact house, but a dog who very easily (obviously, since she’s already gotten hurt once) could be dead or injured. My other friend’s dog is a digger (just as you described). But he prefers to dig under the fence and go gallivanting about. Again, I’d rather come home and know my dog will be there. I’d rather not risk it.
Finally, you’d be amazed at the number of people who come into the shelter where I volunteer who want a new outside dog because theirs had been stolen from their fenced in backyard. My biggest fear are that those dogs are being used as bait in dog fighting circles.
So, while I understand your point that dogs are dogs and that they’d probably love to chill outside for a bit during the day, their being alive at the end of the day is more important to me. I just hear too many horror stories.
I got put through the ringer from a guinea pig rescue. Yeah- I said “guinea pig”. After a bunch of phone calls and a stack of paperwork, I got denied. Did I mention that I had 30 years of guinea pig ownership and the last one I had spent over $500 on medical (including a surgery)? Things have a way of working out though. As luck would have it for us, the local Petco had a box of adult guinea pigs dumped there. They had adopted out all but two when I arrived and were desperately looking to get them placed immediately. I took those two boys home and they couldn’t be happier at my house with my kids.
Although I never got a solid reason why I was denied, I think it had something to do with my Great Dane… who has the prey drive of a stuffed animal. He had been with guinea pigs since he was a puppy. Embarassingly enough- he is afraid of them. :lol:
I don’t get it
Some rescues are a little over the top yet others have
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Allowed an adoption of a Pit Bull to a girl who was previously charged with allowing 14 dogs to starve in her home & was pretty much homeless.
I googled her and it took 10 seconds to find out her past with animals. Danielle Assante NJ. HOW COULD ANYONE EVER ALLOW HER TO ADOPT??? -
Allow a renter to bring a puppy into a home without confirming with the landlord (me) that it was OK. The tenant had to show the lease which stated Dogs ok with Pet Deposit. Of course I never got the pet deposit or a call from the shelter to confirm it was ok to have a dog. These disgusting pigs left the dog on my front covered porch 24 hours a day. Poop and Pee included.
I’ve adopted from two and both were outstanding. Woodford County Humane Society in Kentucky and Tri-State Collie Rescue in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky (well, that makes it a quad, not tri, doesn’t it?)
Both were awesome to deal with. Both checked my references. Tri-State was a bit more thorough, but I adopted a dog, not a cat as I did from Woodford Humane. In both cases, the adoption fee was very reasonable.
I volunteer with a breed specific rescue (german shorthair pointers). While we do screen everyone, we try so hard to pull these dogs from shelters as most of them do poorly in a shelter and no way would anyone in their right mind adopt a shorthair from a shelter.
I pulled a male who was 1.5 years from a local shelter who I literally thought was insane. Completely ignored me, coming out of his skin (most shorthairs love people). Well, within 2 hours of coming home with me and getting rid of some energy, he was happily following my other 2 shorthairs, riding the golfcart and it was super easy to adopt him out. I have now fostered 4 in the last year, varying amounts of energy, all bright dogs who were in kill shelters.
While the rescue says you must have a fenced yard, we make exceptions for older, less energetic dogs. We often don’t know if they are kid friendly or cat friendly, but try hard to find out for you. I adopted my last one to a man in a wheel chair, but I knew right away the two were a perfect match.
We do offer a sliding scale of fees, young dogs are 300 but older dogs are 150. So many of ours are heartworm positive. I will say they make great running partners and farm dogs, and there are lots of shorthairs in the Carolinas and Georgia available. SE GSP Rescue.
It is tought to foster them (my kids get really attached) but I love knowing I did what I could to find another dog a great home.
If you’re not picky breed wise, I got the dog of my lifetime from here…
http://dannyandronsrescue.com/#
He is THE best dog, with and incredible personality and I would be totally lost without him. Couldn’t ask for a better dog, and I know a lot of people have had the same experience with these guys. The best part? You get to pick up your new partner at a horse show near you!
I picked Emmett up at Keswick. They had dogs that aren’t on their website, so if you’re looking for something, email 'em!
My experiences are less than stellar.
One organization, I offered to pay for a horse who had sarcoids that were so bad they knew if they came back, they would euthanize. I offered to pay for cisplatin beads to be implanted at New England Equine. I had very good luck when they were implanted on my mare, who I had also rescued. A lot of money, but in her case, it was that or the blue juice. It seemed this horse has the same situation, euth if it comes back. I wanted to offer an alternative…and willing to pay for it. No response from the resuce.
next, I have offered 2010 1st cut hay(very good quality from dodge grain in salem) to a rescue who has a hay bank…no response. I guess they have enough hay?!
Contaced another rescue looking to adopt some small livestock as pets. No response. I guess people are looking to adopt the small livestock so why bother responding to me!?
I am thinking they all are so overworked, they can’t even respond or I need to be pushier.
I have not adopted a dog or cat from the pound. From some of the stories I have heard, I don’t think I would want to.
Finally, after 8 weeks, the dog I wanted to adopt from my breed rescue has been announced as having been adopted. I hope her new family knows how lucky they are that the rescue was ethical enough to keep her for them, knowing they had another willing adopter waiting.
