adopting a shelter dog(or cat)
 

this is a promotional piece the humane society(HSUS) put out a while back to help explain the onslaught of questions that adopters face in shelters.no one is immune. everyone gets interviewed at shelters




So you want to adopt a pet.
Congratulations! We can’t tell you how much we
appreciate you giving one of our beloved critters a
second chance.
Here’s the thing: We’re going to ask you a lot of
questions. You may feel like you’re getting the third
degree. We’ll probably ask things like: Does your
house have a fenced yard? Do you have school-age
children? Who’s going to be your pet’s primary
caregiver? Do you have a veterinarian? Why do
fools fall in love?
OK, we’ll probably skip that last one. But we may ask
others. We may even want to come check out your
house. (We promise not to mess with your stuff.)
Don’t take it personally!
It’s not about you. We’re sure you’re great—after
all, you’re here!
We take good care of our animals, and we want
to make sure they’ll go to good homes. So when
we ask you questions, please don’t hold it against
us! You’re probably going to give your new pet the
best home ever—but not everyone is as awesome
as you are.
Really. See all the animals here? They didn’t appear
out of nowhere. Some of them were neglected.
Some of them were abused. But most of them just
didn’t quite fit in their old homes—at least not well
enough to ensure they’d stay there forever.
We want to make sure Spot and Patches and Tiger
and Muffin find homes that last forever this time.
So if we ask you a lot of questions, try to remember:
We’re asking because we care, about the pet
and about you. We’re trying to make matches that
last a lifetime.
So if we ask you some personal stuff, just think of
the furry tail and the big eyes of the animal you’ve
fallen for, and be patient with us!
It’s totally worth the trouble.
What’s With All the Questions?

I'm glad they take the time to ask questions. Not everyone who goes to adopt a pet is there for the right reasons.

The No-Kill cat shelter I used to volunteer at screened people very well before letting a cat be adopted. Some people got offended...but that just told us that they weren't the ones for our cats. ;)

A
.
One of the names in there was my dog's name - Patches. I re-named him Rudy.

When I adopted him, I think I bugged the poor woman crazy. I answered the 3 page adoption form then emailed her all kinds of other stuff. We were on the phone at least 5 times before we met.

I sent her pix of my house, my fenced in yard, the kind of dog beds my other dog had, (I'd get a new one for Rudy) and even the basket of toys and old xmas pix of dogs opening presents.

I have a pool, so I asked if he could swim. She had no idea - I told her I could leash him till we knew how he'd do around the water.

After he came home, I updated her 24 hrs later, then a couple days after that. I still send a pic and a letter once in a while - and it's been 4 yrs!

A few months after he came home with me, his story was published in the Happy Tails part of their newsletter.

All my dogs are adoptees. What's a few questions? Maybe if breeders were that cautious, there wouldn't be so many pets in shelters.

I encourage rescue and shelter pets. However I pbject to both HSUS and PETA on grounds that have nothing to do he their publicity. Especially the blurb put out by HSUS above. Nether organisation to my mind and to the minds of thousands of others are ethical enough to be allo9wed to be close to animals. I'm not going to detail what both organisations do you can look that up for yourself. Starting an argument or detailing g out how each one operates would only upset users here. Besides it';s already a metter of public record although both groups try to hide it.


Regards shelter animals. Highly recommended. There are rescue groups for specific breeds often with basically trained dogs and cats looking for a good loving home. If you've never had a dog I wouild try to look for a mature animal that is well behaved and friendly. Be careful not all shelters, especially those that are county run, have the best interest of the animals in mind. Like anything else it's a buyer beware situation.

To put the HSUS and Peta in the same sentence and context makes no sense at all to me. Maybe to you. Humane Society has saved more animlas than any other on the planet. And that's the first point, to keep them alive.

I will keep my very low opinion of Peta to myself, but just so you know, it is quite a far throw from what I think of HSUS.


MY DOGS are alive because of the good work HSUS does every day.

Not relevent to this thread. :)

My neighbor kept his dog tired to a tree 24/7. Every time it rained or got cold I worried so much. He did have a little dog house, but you could see his ribs. Somebody called animal control. I told them I would keep the dog until they got a proper cage. A week later a 100 foot tree fell where the dog would have been. He would have been killed for sure. So I took that as a sign. Now I have to worry that my female who's 3 years would get along with him. So far so good. The dog has gained weight and I found he's only about 11 months old. Chopper is his name and I love him, as soon as I build my post up I'll show a picture.

????

What was that? I hate reading stuff like that. *edit*

Don't you think that that's a little drastic? I think it's a good thing one home for life. A lot of people take care of them until they're not puppies or kittens anymore, then they don't want them, and they end up back in the shelter, or tied to a tree or left in the backyard with no love, sometimes, no food or water.

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Don't do that....*grin. I meant on rereading this thread, my post had nothing to do with HSUS or Peta.

If memory serves me, and it often doesn't, my post was about a three legged dog named Sully. :hug:

I know of the good things that HSUS has done. They've been crucial to the rescue of thousands of mill dogs. They were very much involved in one of the largest puppy mill busts in the country (700+dogs and assorted other animals). The woman who had that puppy mill was last week sentenced to 10 years in prison. Deservedly so.
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They were also recently involved in a large puppy mill raid in Washington State. They've been highly involved with puppy mill busts most especially in the last 2 years. Without them, those busts would not have happened. People who run the thousands of puppy mills across the United States are scourges.

PITA has its place. My most prominent memory of them is when they tried to stop the clubbing of white baby seals as I sat and cried watching it unfold on the television. Yes, they have their place.

And...bless the tireless efforts of the no-kill shelters across our country!

I'm glad too. All 6 of our (my sister and I) dogs and cats are from shelters, mostly HSUS. I was most happy to answer those pages and pages of questions, and to ask nearly as many of my own!