Our Current adoptables

 Most people go into pet “ownership” or guardianship as we prefer to call it, with good intentions. They visualize the family pet they had growing up, or they feel a cuddly puppy will ease their loneliness, or teach their children responsibility. The reality is usually different. We ask adopters, “Have you had a dog/cat before?” They often answer “Yes, I had them ‘growing up’.”

Reality check # 1: The family pet of their childhood was cared for by the adults in the household. It is not the same when “you” the adult, have to stand out in the rain first thing in the morning with a puppy that hasn’t grasped the concept of the grass as its toilet. It’s now “you” cleaning up the inevitable “pet messes,” paying for expensive veterinary care, squeezing more work into an already busy schedule. When it gets to be too much….a rescue is called or the pet is dropped off at a shelter.

Reality check # 2: Cuddly puppies need humans that are home, a lot, to train them. Many people think a puppy can sit in a cage for 8-10 hours and be there for the cuddling at the end of the day when they get home from work. Instead, they come home to a frantic puppy, covered in its own mess. The puppy has no concept of how or why it became imprisoned in solitary confinement after being surrounded by the warmth and comfort of its mother and littermates. No other creature besides a human being would impose this cruel sentence. Sadder, a puppy is instinctively a pack animal, most agreeable and secure when surrounded by other living creatures….Call Rescue or off to the shelter, usually after the pup is past the cute and cuddly stage. It is now a young adult, untrained, unsocialized, unadoptable, and finding itself in a big jam if dumped at a shelter.

Reality check # 3: Kids aren’t responsible for pets. They aren’t responsible for themselves! Don’t get a pet unless you want it. Guess what? It will be yours when…the kids are late to school and don’t have time, when the novelty wears off and the promises of “I’ll take care of it” forgotten when the kid has a million other things that are more important to do. Because kids are …kids. Call Rescue and complain that your kids didn’t uphold their end of the deal. It's their fault. Or easier yet, just dump it at the nearest shelter.

Teach your kids a lesson they will never forget; Living things are neither dispensable nor disposable.

Reality check #4:

The 74 year olds that are in perfect health and don't want to adopt a dog older than 2. Ten years from now, when you are not in such perfect health and can no longer take your dog out for walks or playtime, or carry it (since it has also aged and now has trouble walking), this dog gets dumped at the shelter or rehomed if it is lucky. After spending almost its entire life in one place, with people it loved and cared about, it is now being abandoned. It is often these dogs that have the most trouble adjusting to a new home. If you won't be able to take care of it for the rest of its life, don't get it! 

As a rescue, we get these calls, week in and out. My kids don’t take care. I didn’t realize how much work. I didn’t realize the puppy would get big. My new boyfriend is allergic. I’m moving, can’t take.  I'm too old.  Not housebroken.  Not friendly. Not the perfect pet I envisioned. All these problems are of course the fault of the pet. It’s easier to blame the pet than admit you screwed up, you failed. When these things happen these pets become the responsibility of the “rescue”. Or they are P.T.S., a rescue term for “put to sleep.” Why? There aren’t enough rescues to save all the discarded pets. Most “pets” dropped off in county shelters are P.T.S. Not because there are “heartless” employees there that hate animals. Because there aren’t homes for them. Because you left it there. Because there are people in the dark ages that think it’s okay to let their pets reproduce when millions are P.T.S. in every shelter in every county in this country. Before you let your pet have that “litter”, please spend an afternoon in the euthanasia (P.T.S.) room at your local shelter.We try to prevent the above situations by carefully screening prospective homes for our pets. Often people have blinders on. They believe it will all work out just because they want the pet they saw on the internet.  The cute one in the picture that doesn’t bark, chew, or pee on the carpet. They cannot understand that the cute picture has nothing to do with the reality of that pet in their home. Or, they get angry with the volunteer that has patiently spent time explaining why that pet is unsuitable for that person’s lifestyle. Or why we can’t adopt a pet into their home because they refuse to fix the animals they have.

Please consider….do I have the time, patience, resources, and love to bring this living creature into my life?