Giving Away a dog...read this first....

[Red Devil]

Giving away your dog? Pls. read this first: (Countrywide)

Date: 2009-07-04, 12:03PM EDT



Shelter calls

Hello: You have reached 123-4567, Tender Hearts Rescue. Due to the
high volume of calls we have been receiving, please listen closely to
the following options and choose the one that best describes you or
your situation:

Press 1 if you have a 10-year-old dog and your 15-year-old son has
suddenly become allergic and you need to find the dog a new home
right away.

Press 2 if you are moving today and need to immediately place your
150 pound, 8-year-old dog.

Press 3 if you have three dogs, had a baby and want to get rid of
your dogs because you are the only person in the world to have a
baby and dogs at the same time.

Press 4 if you just got a brand new puppy and your old dog is having
problems adjusting so you want to get rid of the old one right away.

Press 5 if your little puppy has grown up and is no longer small and
cute and you want to trade it in for a new model.

Press 6 if you want an unpaid volunteer to come to your home TODAY
and pick up the dog you no longer want.

Press 7 if you have been feeding and caring for a "stray" for the
last three years, are moving and suddenly determine it's not your dog.

Press 8 if your dog is sick and needs a vet but you need the money
for your vacation.

Press 9 if you are elderly and want to adopt a cute puppy who is not
active and is going to outlive you.

Press 10 if your relative has died and you don't want to care for
their elderly dog because it doesn't fit your lifestyle.

Press 14 if you are calling at 6 a.m. to make sure you wake me up
before I have to go to work so you can drop a dog off on your way
to work.

Press 15 to leave us an anonymous garbled message, letting us know
you have left a dog in our yard in the middle of January, which is
in fact, better than just leaving the dog with no message.

Press 16 if you are going to get angry because we are not going to
take your dog that you have had for fifteen years, because it is
not our responsibility.

Press 17 if you are going to threaten to take your ten year old dog
to be euthanized because I won't take it.

Press 18 if you're going to get angry because the volunteers had the
audacity to go on vacation and leave the dogs in care of a trusted
volunteer who is not authorized to take your personal pet.

Press 19 if you want one of our PERFECTLY trained, housebroken, kid
and cat friendly purebred dogs that we have an abundance of.

Press 20 if you want us to take your dog that has a slight
aggression problem, i.e. has only bitten a few people and killed your
neighbor's cats.

Press 21 if you have already called once and been told we don't take
personal surrenders but thought you would get a different person this
time with a different answer.

Press 22 if you want us to use space that would go to a stray to
board your personal dog while you are on vacation, free of charge,
of course.

Press 23 if it is Christmas Eve or Easter morning and you want me to
deliver an eight week old puppy to your house by 6:30 am before
your kids wake up.

Press 24 if you have bought your children a duckling, chick or baby
bunny for Easter and it is now Christmas and no longer cute.

Press 25 if you want us to take your female dog who has already had
ten litters, but we can't spay her because she is pregnant again and
it is against your religion.

 

[rook45]

Got to love how ignorant some pet owners are.

 

[Red Devil]

and sadly these are common occurence...

 

[bermuda]

want to read another that will just make you cry? i cry almost every time i read this. i've worked at shelters, and it's true, people just think that a shelter, even a no-kill shelter, is a magical place where you can drop your animal off and the next day it will find it's new perfect home. i worked a no-kill shelter once where a large german shepherd mix had to stay in a 7 x 16 pen for over 3 years before he found his perfect home.

" You decided that you wanted to move to an apartment that didn't allow pets. I don't know what lured you. Maybe it was a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Maybe it was a great view. Maybe you liked the woodwork. At any rate, it was more important to you than she was. So you took her down to the shelter, still wearing her cute little pink leopard collar with a bow, and you cheerfully wrote on the card that she was very healthy for her age and friendly and just likes to sleep in the sun! I guess you knew her pretty well - you put her birthday down on the card, too, making me believe you've probably had her for her entire life.

Then you left, secure in your rationalization that somehow, in the midst of kitten season, your seventeen year old cat would find a home. The shelter took a picture of her scared face and big eyes and put it on the web.

For two weeks, I looked at that picture. I hoped someone else would see her fear and feel compelled to help her, but the public wasn't seeing her. She was back in isolation, getting vitamin B shots and subcutaneous fluids. The tech wrote "depressed" on her card. I'm not surprised. I'd be depressed too if I went from "sleeping in the sun" to a metal cage with a thin layer of newspaper.

Finally today, I couldn't stand it anymore. I felt too guilty thinking about her sitting in that cage at her age. So I went down and I got her, and now she's curled up on a fleece baby blanket in a cat tree in my bathroom. When I go in there, she rubs her head on my hand.

Today, I cleaned up your mess. I felt worse for your cat than you did. And all over the city, other rescuers did the same. They rescued your abandoned cats and dogs and bunnies and exotics. And we all wondered the same thing as we did it: How could you create this situation? How is it that you feel no remorse? How is it that you were you able to walk away from an animal you shared your home with for a year, ten years, fifteen years, knowing that they might die because of your actions?

I'll never meet you to ask you those questions. I just hope I meet the person who will be good enough to give your baby that sunny spot to sleep for the rest of her life (however long that is). She deserves it, and it's a crying shame you didn't have the decency to give it to her."

 

[Red Devil]

want to read another that will just make you cry? i cry almost every time i read this. i've worked at shelters, and it's true, people just think that a shelter, even a no-kill shelter, is a magical place where you can drop your animal off and the next day it will find it's new perfect home. i worked a no-kill shelter once where a large german shepherd mix had to stay in a 7 x 16 pen for over 3 years before he found his perfect home.

" You decided that you wanted to move to an apartment that didn't allow pets. I don't know what lured you. Maybe it was a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Maybe it was a great view. Maybe you liked the woodwork. At any rate, it was more important to you than she was. So you took her down to the shelter, still wearing her cute little pink leopard collar with a bow, and you cheerfully wrote on the card that she was very healthy for her age and friendly and just likes to sleep in the sun! I guess you knew her pretty well - you put her birthday down on the card, too, making me believe you've probably had her for her entire life.

Then you left, secure in your rationalization that somehow, in the midst of kitten season, your seventeen year old cat would find a home. The shelter took a picture of her scared face and big eyes and put it on the web.

For two weeks, I looked at that picture. I hoped someone else would see her fear and feel compelled to help her, but the public wasn't seeing her. She was back in isolation, getting vitamin B shots and subcutaneous fluids. The tech wrote "depressed" on her card. I'm not surprised. I'd be depressed too if I went from "sleeping in the sun" to a metal cage with a thin layer of newspaper.

Finally today, I couldn't stand it anymore. I felt too guilty thinking about her sitting in that cage at her age. So I went down and I got her, and now she's curled up on a fleece baby blanket in a cat tree in my bathroom. When I go in there, she rubs her head on my hand.

Today, I cleaned up your mess. I felt worse for your cat than you did. And all over the city, other rescuers did the same. They rescued your abandoned cats and dogs and bunnies and exotics. And we all wondered the same thing as we did it: How could you create this situation? How is it that you feel no remorse? How is it that you were you able to walk away from an animal you shared your home with for a year, ten years, fifteen years, knowing that they might die because of your actions?

I'll never meet you to ask you those questions. I just hope I meet the person who will be good enough to give your baby that sunny spot to sleep for the rest of her life (however long that is). She deserves it, and it's a crying shame you didn't have the decency to give it to her."

i just cannot imagine doing that to a pet under any circumstances.. they trust you with their whole being.... your their life.. wonder how people can be so thoughtless and turn their back...

 

[bermuda]

i know, it's ridiculous. there's another one i'm trying to find that is just heartbreaking. it goes on to say stuff like "you think your dog will be adopted because he's special and he does this little thing when he's happy it's just so cute! except i have an entire shelter full of "special" dogs already". please please please, there are so many options for people when you think that you just can't keep an animal anymore. bring it up on a forum like this, there will be plenty of reasonable suggestions/alternatives, i PROMISE, you just have to make the effort. is that too much to ask, for the animal that loves you unconditionally, and TRUSTS you with all of her heart, that you will care for her as best you can?

 

[Citrinellus]

When i read the title, i thought you were finding a home for the dog your sister rescued. I'm so depressed after reading this. My bestfriend's older brother used to work in a shelter and occasionally he would tell us stories about some of the animals there. I hate it how people take advantage of shelters, and just drop off animals that they don't want. Then the animals that truely need a home have more trouble finding homes.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Oh, Bermuda, that was priceless :-(( Gawd, how sad.
I worked in Rescue for 25 yrs, I"ve got 14 dogs (12 are Rescues!) & 4 shelter cats. That doesn't count the livestock. It makes me SICK to the point of throwing up to see people discard their pets like they never mattered. These dogs I've got that had been Rescues are here to stay, they're old now but as youngsters they were the 'problem children' or the ones too petrified to know how to be real pets to a family. This subject has made me feel ill for all of my adult life.

 

[krzr3000]

Screw legislation banning exotics...puppy mills, pet stores selling puppies, and backyard breeders should be banned.

 

[Red Devil]

Oh, Bermuda, that was priceless :-(( Gawd, how sad.
I worked in Rescue for 25 yrs, I"ve got 14 dogs (12 are Rescues!) & 4 shelter cats. That doesn't count the livestock. It makes me SICK to the point of throwing up to see people discard their pets like they never mattered. These dogs I've got that had been Rescues are here to stay, they're old now but as youngsters they were the 'problem children' or the ones too petrified to know how to be real pets to a family. This subject has made me feel ill for all of my adult life.

you are a special person... if only there were more of you... what livestock do you have.... i hope you reap big rewards for your big heart someday.