Adventure

I found Honey on PetFinder 6 years ago, 8 months after my coon hound and my Lab of 14 years had died. I saw Honey's photo and went to the RI North Kingstown dog shelter 45 minutes away to adopt her. I was lucky because I was the first one to call, but five people called while I was there. I met the dog catcher, a blonde lady who was very short but built to handle the dogs and people that came in. She had a lot of spark and said she knew my vet, even admitting she had a crush on him! I paid a nominal fee and signed a paper promising to spay Honey. I immediately had her checked out and spayed by my vet who was amazed that she had been abandoned. He looked for a chip and there was none. That was 6 years ago.

Looking at hundreds of dogs on PetFinder this past week I've seen many that I liked that are represented by New England rescue organizations. They all seem to be located in Utah, North Carolina, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Tennessee! People are prepared to ship hunting dogs from the South and shelters are charging extremely high prices for these used stray dogs that people don't even get to meet in advance because they are so far away. Many even ask for $100 non-refundable deposits "to show you are serious." They write clever, heart-rending stories about the dogs. Meanwhile all of the local and urban shelters have mostly pit bulls mixes and they call them Dalmatians and Labs and pointers, anything but pit bulls! All of this greed and ignorance has been escalating into widespread used-dog adoption businesses. The Internet has helped to escalate these scenarios.

When I saw Ozzie represented as a Lab/pointer mix, as he seemed to be in the photo, I filled out an application and spoke to the seller. After seeing so many dogs that were really far away NYC seemed local to me. I made an appointment to drive down the following afternoon. We drove 4 hours and when we got out of the car they brought out Ozzie--He was up to my waist. A Great Dane! No more than a teaspoon of Lab or Pointer in him! You can't deny a Great Dane! It was laughable. I no longer trusted these guys. And after being deceived I was in no mood to give them my business. We stuck around long enough to pee and wash our hands. I did see their dogs and I saw a retired couple buy a very sick bloated sad Weimeraner. The owner and his sidekick were like used-car salesmen obviously just trying to make a buck while taking advantage of people's desire and ignorance. So we turned around and drove home with lots to talk about and ate our tuna fish sandwiches and apples we had packed for supper.

I am going to recover and talk to my friend the veterinarian because he sometimes hears of great dogs that families have to give up due to divorce or moving etc. I'll keep searching on PetFinder but stick with the truly local shelters.