Dog Adoption
So, we wanted to fill the hole left when Rerun died with a new dog. We wanted to adopt a dog from a shelter because we feel it's the right thing to do.
We started our search on petfinder.com. Petfinder is a great site that allows you to search for all types of pets on all types of criteria. It does have some shortcomings, primarily that it's way overutilized causing some severe slowness on the site, but also the fact that you are dependant upon organizations of volunteers to update the dogs they have for adoption. It could also be vastly improved if it mimicked eBay's 'my eBay' format and beyond letting you save searches allowed you to "watch" pets.
The single most glaring need for petfinder in my opinion is to have the listing organizations agree to a single application so that you could log into the site, fill out a general application and then member organization could pull it down when you inquired about a pet.
If I had a dollar for every minute I spent filling out what is essentially the same 3-page application, I'd be able to cover the adoption fees.
Okay, so you've found a pet you want to adopt. You inquire. You apply. You meet the dog. Then, the shelter meets you.
I guess the main differentiator between shelters and pet stores is that shelters care who takes home the dogs. A little too much.
We were interested in a beagle mix at the Cicero Animal Control facility. For the uninitiated, Cicero is a near-western suburb of Chicago, and not exactly affluent. We went and met the dog. We applied. We returned to meet with the dog again.
Sidebar: On the end of the second visit, my daughter got startled by a loose cat and slipped on the wet concrete floor. Her nose bled like crazy and Kiki had heard the splat and was freaking out that she may have cracked her skull. I got them all calmed down and could find no signs of pain on my daughter after she calmed down. The next day she was fine. Un-Sidebar.
The next day, I called to clarify next steps since we'd left in such a hurry. I was told by the guy who answered the phone that we were denied. When I asked why, he said he couldn't tell me because "[I] might just lie to the next place [I] try to get a dog from".
I was shocked.
Before I continue, I need to point out that unless you're going to Chicago Animal Care and Control and paying $69, adopting from a shelter or rescue is not that much cheaper. The average adoption fee for any dog in this area is $200. Some costs go MUCH higher, but few are below $150. By contrast, my parents paid $350 for their AKC registered purebred yellow lab. What you do get from a shelter is an animal that's likely fully vetted, fixed, and microchipped. Often the organizations have a good idea of the animal's personality as they take a lot of time getting to know them. If I had to liken anything it'd be thrift shopping: Sure, you could go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill and search for hours and maybe find a diamond in the rough, or you could go to a vintage clothing store where someone's already done the sifting for you and pay their price.
We continued the search and were turned away from several shelters because we have young kids. Most of the shelters had typed the animals for children older than a certain age. The disconnect here is that shelters are very concerned with who the dogs go to because they can afford to be (Can Cicero, though? Or was the beagle just put down? I'll never know.). But they have to plan for the lowest common denominator of idiot who will neglect an animal or put an untrained dog in a room with their hellion kid unsupervised. Still, I don't think we give off that vibe, but still we were turned away based on dogs not being typed for kids younger than a certain age.
I then decided to lead with the story of Rerun and how we had to constantly watch him with Miette because he was old and cranky and in pain all the time. Shit, he'd bitten me 3 times in the face, each requiring stitches, you may recall.
The dichotomy is this: I could walk into any puppy store, fed by puppy mills, buy 3 dogs, eat 2 of them, then tie the other one in the yard until it starved to death and no one would be any the wiser. Of course, I'd never do that, but there were many places who wouldn't give us the benefit of the doubt. For a place like the Cicero pound, this still baffles me. If the pet's in a foster home and not slated for euthanization, that's something else.
I understand adoption organizations mandating spaying or neutering for adoption, but many also said adopters MUST have fenced yards, pre-pay for obedience classes obedience classes, and other stuff like that. That I don't get. That you can assume having things like that would make a good dog owner.
We did connect with a lot of great organizations. Magnificent Mutts springs to mind. As does Habitat for Hounds who performed their own multi-state search for us when the pet we were looking at was adopted by a previously interested family.
We finally found a dog through Coalition to End Animal Suffering. His name is Buster Brown and he looks shockingly like Rerun. He's a 12-pound mix of Chihuahua and Jack Russell (in my opinion). He may be the sweetest dog in the world. I am eternally grateful to CEAS for helping us find him. The only downside is he's heartworm positive, so now we're dealing with that.
Pictures will have to be forthcoming. Buster runs every time you point a camera at him.
We started our search on petfinder.com. Petfinder is a great site that allows you to search for all types of pets on all types of criteria. It does have some shortcomings, primarily that it's way overutilized causing some severe slowness on the site, but also the fact that you are dependant upon organizations of volunteers to update the dogs they have for adoption. It could also be vastly improved if it mimicked eBay's 'my eBay' format and beyond letting you save searches allowed you to "watch" pets.
The single most glaring need for petfinder in my opinion is to have the listing organizations agree to a single application so that you could log into the site, fill out a general application and then member organization could pull it down when you inquired about a pet.
If I had a dollar for every minute I spent filling out what is essentially the same 3-page application, I'd be able to cover the adoption fees.
Okay, so you've found a pet you want to adopt. You inquire. You apply. You meet the dog. Then, the shelter meets you.
I guess the main differentiator between shelters and pet stores is that shelters care who takes home the dogs. A little too much.
We were interested in a beagle mix at the Cicero Animal Control facility. For the uninitiated, Cicero is a near-western suburb of Chicago, and not exactly affluent. We went and met the dog. We applied. We returned to meet with the dog again.
Sidebar: On the end of the second visit, my daughter got startled by a loose cat and slipped on the wet concrete floor. Her nose bled like crazy and Kiki had heard the splat and was freaking out that she may have cracked her skull. I got them all calmed down and could find no signs of pain on my daughter after she calmed down. The next day she was fine. Un-Sidebar.
The next day, I called to clarify next steps since we'd left in such a hurry. I was told by the guy who answered the phone that we were denied. When I asked why, he said he couldn't tell me because "[I] might just lie to the next place [I] try to get a dog from".
I was shocked.
Before I continue, I need to point out that unless you're going to Chicago Animal Care and Control and paying $69, adopting from a shelter or rescue is not that much cheaper. The average adoption fee for any dog in this area is $200. Some costs go MUCH higher, but few are below $150. By contrast, my parents paid $350 for their AKC registered purebred yellow lab. What you do get from a shelter is an animal that's likely fully vetted, fixed, and microchipped. Often the organizations have a good idea of the animal's personality as they take a lot of time getting to know them. If I had to liken anything it'd be thrift shopping: Sure, you could go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill and search for hours and maybe find a diamond in the rough, or you could go to a vintage clothing store where someone's already done the sifting for you and pay their price.
We continued the search and were turned away from several shelters because we have young kids. Most of the shelters had typed the animals for children older than a certain age. The disconnect here is that shelters are very concerned with who the dogs go to because they can afford to be (Can Cicero, though? Or was the beagle just put down? I'll never know.). But they have to plan for the lowest common denominator of idiot who will neglect an animal or put an untrained dog in a room with their hellion kid unsupervised. Still, I don't think we give off that vibe, but still we were turned away based on dogs not being typed for kids younger than a certain age.
I then decided to lead with the story of Rerun and how we had to constantly watch him with Miette because he was old and cranky and in pain all the time. Shit, he'd bitten me 3 times in the face, each requiring stitches, you may recall.
The dichotomy is this: I could walk into any puppy store, fed by puppy mills, buy 3 dogs, eat 2 of them, then tie the other one in the yard until it starved to death and no one would be any the wiser. Of course, I'd never do that, but there were many places who wouldn't give us the benefit of the doubt. For a place like the Cicero pound, this still baffles me. If the pet's in a foster home and not slated for euthanization, that's something else.
I understand adoption organizations mandating spaying or neutering for adoption, but many also said adopters MUST have fenced yards, pre-pay for obedience classes obedience classes, and other stuff like that. That I don't get. That you can assume having things like that would make a good dog owner.
We did connect with a lot of great organizations. Magnificent Mutts springs to mind. As does Habitat for Hounds who performed their own multi-state search for us when the pet we were looking at was adopted by a previously interested family.
We finally found a dog through Coalition to End Animal Suffering. His name is Buster Brown and he looks shockingly like Rerun. He's a 12-pound mix of Chihuahua and Jack Russell (in my opinion). He may be the sweetest dog in the world. I am eternally grateful to CEAS for helping us find him. The only downside is he's heartworm positive, so now we're dealing with that.
Pictures will have to be forthcoming. Buster runs every time you point a camera at him.
posted by Zach at 1:48 PM
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